Toronto Nathan Phillips Square + Spirit Garden | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto

DSC - thanks very much for posting that. Much appreciated and very illuminating.

Two issues I didn't see addressed in that document and that I'm wondering about:
- the new street furniture for the square
- the timing of further work on the walkways

Apologies if this has been covered recently, but I didn't see any mention of it...

So, anybody have any info?
 
While progress continues at Nathan Phillips Square, it appears that they're deviating signficantly from the proposed Plant Architects vision of a wide open Queen Street forecourt with small patches of grass and trees.

This large section is being left as is with only a small pathway created:
emSfaL7.jpg


They haven't learned anything from decades of muddy grass that was impossible to maintain because people cut through. At least the raised vents have been lowered to sidewalk level.

Meanwhile, all work seems to concentrated on Queen Street as nobody is working on the Peace Garden. All of the form work has been done and soil loaded into where there will be plants.

From what I can tell, installing the pavers and landscaping appears to be the only outstanding work here.

1INDhRY.jpg


Work on the SE elevator entrance is progressing with blue skin added. There will be no access to the roof nor a bridge over to the walkways as originally planned. The building itself will be quite improved from its old cinderblock appearance which is welcome.

ozSzEd7.jpg
 
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Why would they just all of a sudden change the plans? I do not like the changes. Why go through all the trouble of a competition to design the makeover and then change the plans? So we are keeping that useless patch of grass? Oh that sucks! I hate when this city does things half-assed and waters down everything.
 
A winning bid from a competition is still just a concept plan. The reality of implementation affects almost any projects any place. "Watering down" while not always incorrect is still naive comment to the costs of things.
 
MetroMan said:
While progress continues at Nathan Phillips Square, it appears that they're deviating signficantly from the proposed Plant Architects vision of a wide open Queen Street forecourt with small patches of grass and trees.

This large section is being left as is with only a small pathway created:

They haven't learned anything from decades of muddy grass that was impossible to maintain because people cut through. At least the raised vents have been lowered to sidewalk level.
Click to expand...

Are we sure we aren't moving towards more paving for the rest of the Queen forecourt? Though it does look like they'd have to chop down all the existing trees from the looks of it given the height of the "mound". Too bad - though it is something that would be relatively easy to implement at a later date.

AoD
 
As you can see in the first photo, they built a curb around the grass forming that path in the centre. That's new. I don't see why they'd do that to remove later. It's strange though because on the West side, the plant boxes are surrounded by seating. It's as if they changed plans and just decided to do a cheap curb around the existing grass. It doesn't make any sense.

The existing trees look to be 20 or 30 years old so it would be a shame to cut them down but I don't see how they can install Silva cells. Maybe at this point they wouldn't be needed. Still, keeping such a large patch of grass puts us back at square one where for so long, the square looked like shit because of this muddy front porch. I hope whatever they have planned, improves on that.

On a similar note, the main pedestrian entrance stairs into the garage was supposed to be demolished and rebuilt with the entrance facing towards City Hall. It's not only been kept but it doesn't look like they're going to refurbish it either. They've laid new paving around it.

Our best hope is that they're doing some temporary work to have NPS looking finished and clean for the PanAm Games next year then they'd resume with the remaining items. Of note, work on the walkways (decking, floor cutouts and glass sides) has not even started.
 
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I must say after looking at the staff report, they seem very intent on getting a serious restaurant in the square. I didn't think they'd be so meticulous about it, but several pages revolve around developing this new restaurant. It would be pretty cool to eat dinner on the second level while overlooking queen street.
 
Bike Storage tender posted today, closes on 24th.

Tender Call number: 286-2014
Commodity: Construction Services, Facilities renovations
Description: Bike Storage Facility for Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization Project
Bike Storage Facility for Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization Project, Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen Street West, Toronto
 
No more pictures updates for this project?! that seems taking a lifetime to finish!??? Gosh!!!!!....
 
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