Toronto Toronto City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | Perkins&Will

I plan on being there.
This square needs all the help it can get. I know that there are purists out there who want the original concept to remain, but I am all for something completely different. I want to be amazed. I want to have confidence in Toronto's ability to evolve and change for the better.
New City Hall was bold and new in it's day. I want something bold and new for the redesign.
 
Article

City Hall cuts back on $6.2M reno TheStar.com - News - City Hall cuts back on $6.2M reno
Staff scales down upgrade plan to $2.9M, but keeps media studio, more room for mayor's staff. It goes to committee Friday
February 20, 2007
Jim Byers
CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

They've dropped one of the proposed committee rooms. And they're suggesting councillors not lose their views of Nathan Phillips Square.

But they're still talking about more space for the mayor's office and proposing a fancy media studio for councillors to strut their stuff.

City of Toronto staff was greeted with a barrage of criticism recently when it was revealed they had plans for a $6.2 million renovation at City Hall.

Plans called for upgrading two existing committee rooms, building a studio for press conferences and moving five council members from favoured offices overlooking the square to less desirable digs at the back of the building.

The latter move was proposed so that Mayor David Miller could bring all his staff under one roof and not have them split into separate offices on the second floor, as is now the case.

Miller denounced the plan as too expensive, while councillors moaned about having to move to accommodate the mayor.

Chief Corporate Officer Bruce Bowes said staff sat down with Miller and top bureaucrats and drafted the new plan, to cost between $2.5 and $2.9 million and to go to council's budget committee for consideration on Friday.

Instead of getting rid of two existing committee rooms and making them into larger, state-of-the-art rooms like the two main rooms at City Hall, staff suggested improving one and leaving the other as is.

The new committee room will be built so that it can be split into two smaller rooms, Bowes said, while the media centre/studio also will be designed to be turned into a committee room.

Improving both of the smaller committee rooms on the second floor would've required moving some of the mayor's staff, and the plans called for them to be shifted into space overlooking Nathan Phillips Square – space now used by five councillors.

Some were angry at the idea of leaving their space to make room for the mayor, most notably Councillor David Shiner (Ward 24, Willowdale), a sparring partner of Miller.

The new plan calls for the mayor's new staff to be housed in what is now an entryway into council member's offices, a corridor that splits the mayor's office staff in two.

The councillors will get a new entrance elsewhere on the second floor, and the mayor will be able to house his staff in one convenient spot.

Miller has said he wants to hire new workers to handle environmental issues and economic development matters.

Two new administrative staff also are being proposed, which would bring his staff of 19to 23.

Miller said he needs the increase because he has new powers and responsibilities under the City of Toronto Act brought in by the province.

A spokesperson for Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan said has seven workers on staff but pointed out Vancouver has only 600,000 residents; about one-quarter of Toronto's population. An official in the office of Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay said there are nine policy workers in his office, plus an unknown number of support staff.

Miller yesterday said he's happy staff brought the price tag down so far and feels the proposed, new setup is a reasonable one. But council still has the last word on the renovations, and some members remain unhappy.

"I don't think we need a media studio," said Councillor Brian Ashton (Ward 36, Scarborough Southwest).

"Council members can hold a press conference anywhere they like."

Bowes told the Star that the city's four second-floor committee rooms are booked 100 per cent of the time and that the city has to turn away groups that want to use the rooms.

But Shiner said that rooms that have been booked often don't get used.

A Star survey of the four rooms on four recent days at City Hall – days when council's major committees have been in session – revealed the rooms were often empty.

In 16 combined checks, there were meetings taking place on only 10 occasions in the four-day survey period; a 62.5 per cent occupancy rate.
 
doesn't the city own the massive parking lot between centre/chestnut? or is it the block facing elizabeth between city hall and one city hall?
 
Post photos! Or scans! Or articulate summaries! Please!

I'm excited to hear about the proposals and very dissapointed that I won't be able to attend City Hall while this is on.
 
The anticipation is killing me! I wish I could have gone.
Hopefully Louroz and other members attending can post some ideas, pictures would be awesome.
Regardless, I'll go there in the morning to check it out for myself!
 
Report from Spacing Wire:

spacing.ca/wire/?p=1549

Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization Designs (Part 1?)

I just got back from viewing the four proposed designs for revitalizing Nathan Phillips Square. I only saw the designs and models — I didn’t go see the oral presentations by each team — so what I will write here is purely a gut reaction. I am calling this “Part 1″ because other Spacing Wire contributors are going to look at the designs, and they may have very different reactions, and may want to post their own analysis rather than just making comments on this one. I think that this is an important enough subject — the redesign of Toronto’s civic square — that it’s worthy of multiple posts.

There were four designs by different architectural teams, labelled A-D, spread out around the rotunda of city hall. I started with A, and as I worked my way through B and C, I started to feel a sense of despair. They all seemed rather dull, making the square if anything worse than it is now. All of them perpetuated the isolation of the west side of the square, leaving it separated from the main square one way or another. All of them got rid of the Peace Garden (one moved it), but did not find any way to replace its function of softening the main body of the square. Each was only livened up with rather precious architectural flourishes that didn’t really relate to what the Square is or does (light features, flat fountains like Dundas Square, odd undulating green roofs). None of them found a convincing way to re-integrate the colonnade into the public realm, so leaving it almost as isolated as it is today. “Câ€, by Baird Sampson Neuert Architects, was particularly problematic, isolating the square even more from Queen Street with chunky new structures and an additional water feature where the skate rental building is, so that you need to cross a kind of drawbridge to get to city hall. To me, that’s not really the message a civic square should convey. Overall, I didn’t feel any of the first three designs would make the square significantly better than it is today, and in some ways it would be worse — I didn’t feel they’d be worth the effort.

So I was hugely relieved, and then excited, when I saw design “D†by Rogers Marvel Architects. My first reaction was that it was beautiful — making the square a place where I would really want to be. As I looked at it more closely, I realized that this design also thought about and addressed all of the issues that made a redesign desirable, while still appreciating — indeed enhancing — its best features.

Basically, rather than perpetuating the boxy line of features on the west side of the square, the proposal creates an undulating green park along the entire west side. This opens up the square to the west, and brilliantly makes Henry Moore’s Archer central to the square, rather than a bit off to the side as it is today. It also balances the Peace Garden on the east side, so that rather than being an accretion to the square, the Peace Garden is transformed into something that belongs there and relates to the rest of the square. Further, the new park integrates the rather isolated north-west passage of the square into the overall shape. The Square becomes bigger, but also nicely defined.

As well as undulating horizontally, the western park undulates upwards, so that it meets the colonnade/raised walkway (which is cut back on the west side so that it stops roughly at the level of the fountain/skating rink). This means that the raised walkway becomes part of the overall design, a place you can get to naturally without having to climb stairs. It also means there is a space at ground level, lined with a curtain of curving glass, underneath the park and integrated into it, where there is an interior public space for the skate rentals, a cafe, and practical spaces to support performances. In other words, many different problems are solved by one solution, which to me is a sign of really good design. The undulating park reflects the curves of City Hall itself, while balancing the boxiness of the colonnade. On the east side, the colonnade is cut off before it reaches the level the building itself, ending with a new set of stairs, which opens up the east side of the square as well while making the colonnade more accessible. So the square becomes larger, softened and yet defined at the edges, usable in a wider variety of ways, and more open and better integrated with its surroundings.

There is one last thing I particularly like — the enclosed space under the park will become an interior public space for the winter, warm and yet open, which is something I have always thought Toronto needs. The design also really focuses on making the square feel Canadian, with the use of native species of trees. In this, it echoes the emphasis of the successful design for the Waterfront.

There are some issues, of course (the south-west entrance to the square needs to be more open), but it’s rare for me to be actually enthused about a design, and it’s exciting to think that Nathan Phillips could become a truly great square. The Rogers Marvel design faces some serious challenges, however. It violates some basic general opinions among architects (that the Peace Garden should go, that the colonnade should not be messed with), which may count against it. We will see.

Note - the designs will be on display in the City Hall rotunda until Monday, February 26. Check them out!
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Interesting to note that it seems the one firm that isn't local felt the least (according to this report) compelled to put forth a scheme that falls in-line with hertiage preservationists.

AoD
 
I'm going to check it out tomorrow after work, and again on Thursday to re-examine. I've been trying not to read too much into the critiques too much until I see them with a (hopefully) fresh perspective.
 
Thanks for the link Clifford. This is very exciting and so badly needed.
 
Good of you to post that Clifford. I think I'll visit the actual presentation before passing judgement though.
 
Plant and Zeilder are the winners from what I can judge based on the renderings alone.
I wish the two would merge their best elements.

Regardless, I'm VERY surprised to see that every entrant maintained the walkways that seemed doomed to disappear with this revitalization of the square.
 
Squaring the future of Nathan Phillips

Finalists in the competition to remake Toronto's iconic square take a green, respectful – maybe too respectful – approach
Feb 21, 2007 04:30 AM
Christopher Hume
Urban Issues writer

Regardless of who wins the $40-million competition to redesign Nathan Phillips Square, the city's most important civic space will be much the same, though completely different.

The four finalist teams made their first public presentations last night, and though each offers something unique, all have shown a remarkable degree of respect for the original square.

Designed by the late Finnish architect, Viljo Revell, in the late 1950s and early `60s, Toronto City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square are his masterpiece. Despite the indignities visited upon the complex since it opened in 1965, it remains one of the finest pieces of architecture in these parts. Indeed, it has become a Toronto icon; the building that more than any other defines the modern city.

That hasn't stopped the square from falling victim to budget cutbacks and short-sighted uses.

When the competition was launched last year, there was consensus that something had to be done. This is the place, after all, where Torontonians mark special occasions – New Year's Eve, winter festivities, Christmas, Grey Cup and Stanley Cup parades (as if).

The four proposals, in order of personal preference, are:


# Plant Architects (Toronto): This elegant and subtle scheme envisions the raised podium as a lawn and sculpture garden. On the east side of the square, where the ramp leads up to the podium, there would be a small outdoor eatery – Café Revell – and a new tree canopy along the neglected Bay St. edge. Much energy has been focused on the "Queen St. Forecourt," which would consist of a dense planting of trees along Queen as well as new seating and lighting. A permanent stage with change rooms, etc., a half-level below street, would be added as would a new restaurant west of a "skating support pavilion," both on an axis with the skating rink. These new structures would be connected by the raised walkway on the west side of the square.




# Baird Sampson Neuert (Toronto): Perhaps the most overtly environmental of the submissions, it proposes the podium become a green roof where rainwater is collected and filtered. The raised walkway would be transformed into a "watergarden promenade that serves as an aqueduct for irrigating linear planters and for conducting water to cisterns at the east and west sides of the square." Photovoltaics and wind turbines would also feature prominently. Again, the west edge would be turned into a large green area, with trees, a pool and the new Peace Garden. The team also suggests a large, transparent "meeting place pavilion" for the west side of the square.




# Rogers Marvel (New York): The big gesture in this proposal is a raised woodland/meadow that would extend almost from Queen to the north end of city hall. Planted with trees and flowers, it would form the roof of a glass-enclosed public room, complete with fireplace, that overlooks the existing skating rink/reflecting pool as well as a new, smaller pond to the west. The podium around the circular council chamber would also become a meadow and the Peace Garden moved west.




# Zeidler Partnership (Toronto): The loudest of the quartet, the highlight of this scheme is a raised garden that undulates as it moves along the west side of the square by Osgoode Hall. It culminates at Queen as the roof of a two-storey glass-enclosed restaurant. The entrance on Queen would be brought to life with a "moveable garden," a grid, of large, 2.4-metre-by-2.4-metre, concrete planters. The walls of the raised walkway that runs along Queen would be replaced with glass to allow a greater sense of connection and better views in and out. The proposal also suggests a new glass entrance at Queen and Bay. And that obtrusive ventilation shaft that now extends along Queen would be replaced by a series of vertical funnels that would be as sculptural as they are utilitarian.



It's clear the teams have been extremely reluctant to mess with the square. They have treated it with kid gloves, but perhaps the gloves should have come off. One can't help feel the submissions are overly restrained, maybe for good reason, but strangely incomplete. The most polished of the lot, from the Plant group, emphasizes a sense of access – physical, emotional and aesthetic – that would recast Nathan Phillips Square as a cultural as well as a civic destination.

In any case, the jury has until March 6 to make its decision.

Public input is invited, however, and the four entries, each consisting of six panels and a model, will be on display at City Hall until Feb. 26.

Construction is expected to start next year.

nathan_phillips.JPG
 
I'm not so surprised, and I wouldn't be so sure the walkways are "doomed to disappear"--and (paradoxically, given it involves the most walkway-tampering) I'd substitute Rogers Marvel for Zeidler here...
 
The Globe has decent coverage and Barber has a decent article but sadly, they are not accessible on the web.

And even more sadly, the four designs are not on the city website (and there is no feature for public input). I find it impossible to fully understand the concepts from newspaper articles and thus I am off to City Hall sometime today to get a better understanding of the designs.

On a side note, unless the winning design has a permanent stage incorporated into the site, we will end up with the same clutter/mess that the present square suffers from (cheap looking temporary stages that are constantly being put up and taken down and moved). We need a decent permanent stage sooner than we need aqueducts or glass-enclosed public rooms with fireplaces.
 
I was there last night to check out the designs. I started at D and worked my way towards A, getting less and less excited as I went along. D (Rogers Marvel) was the best in my opinion, getting worse and worse along the way.

I was glad to see that all of the designs incorporated a green roof on the podium of City Hall, however the design by Zeidler Partnership was disappointing in that their concept would see hundreds of square planter boxes fill the square and the roof top. that is pretty much all I can sum up their design as adding to the square. Planter boxes would easily be neglected.

I liked how The Rogers design moved the Winston Churchill statue to the corner of Queen and Bay, and how it better incorporated the elevated walkway into the overall design.

I was disappointed however, that there was no creative re-thinking of that elevated walkway, other than to plant trees and flowers up there.

I guess $40 million doesnt buy much these days.
 
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