ugly light standards

[nstuch]

ok, ignoring the style of the lamps (which are really a matter of taste) what major city in an industrialized country, when replacing poles along streets in the downtown of the city, uses a roughly hewn piece if wood!? is there anywhere else this would be done? i've heard someone on this board call Toronto a first world shantytown, or something to that effect, and this is why

 

[allabootmatt]

Couldn't agree more. History or not, Toronto's above-ground hydro lines and poles drive me absolutely nuts, as many on this board may have noticed. Their removal is the single greatest thing that could be done to make the city look better.

 

[ganjavih]

Retaining the shantytown feel of a few key older neighbourhoods just for shits and giggles isn't going to make or break us. We have much bigger fish to fry.

 

[indense]

i can't stand when there are two or even three different poles within feet of each other. looks pathetic.

 

[mark simpson]

BTW, The hydro wires have been buried along Queen Street E; same with Little Italy and others

Both the Junction and Gay Village look better without the wires than those communties that still have them

 

[silentworth]

the light standards pictured look so incredibly awkward, that I actually find them absurdly appealing. Their wrongness is their only redeeming attribute.

s i l e n t w o r t h

 

[TdotTrickyRicky]

I realize that because we contemplate design and some of you are designer's yourselves there is strong criticism of these types of lighting schemes. Let's look at it from the other perspective. People like faux historic. Detail, whimsy and nostalgia are far more interesting to people then proportionality or clean modern lines. These things are boring to people without a catalogue of design references and background in art history. The people making the decisions are just regular Joe's who are championing their neighbourhoods using their own time and money partly because the city itself is cash strapped and useless. Infact if you feel really passionate about the street furniture in your area contact the BIA directly, the people who make these decisions get the job because they're the one's who bother showing up. Also keep in mind that BIA's want to make their area distinct as a marketing tool but are too conservative to spearhead radical design so they look at what others have dones and try to accomplish something similar. Also, funds are limited and street poles and lighting are very expensive (I can't remember off hand but 50,000-100,000 doesn't get you very many poles) meaning most areas are limited to a catalogue of off the shelf suppliers.

 

[adma]

Though ironically, it's less a matter of advocating "radical design" (Will Alsop advising BIAs?!? Give me a break;-)) than something more, well, "conservative". Y'know, realizing the inherent properties of what you have, and learning to leave well enough alone when necessary.

Ultimately, "faux historic" in this yokel sense is more destructive than conservative--y'know, buying into "pretty" hanging lamps, or overadulterating (through bad stucco refacings etc) that which needn't bear adulteration--and it's putting good money after bad. (Indeed, "expensive" is a key word here.) It doesn't mean ye-olde populism ought to be verboten; but hey, BIAs, if you got to do it with lighting schemes, go whole hog as in the Junction. And if it's beyond your means, then, don't. Just defer the lighting biz, and use other means to juice up your BIA profile in the meantime. And "olde lamps on new standards"? Keep this in mind: it isn't so much that they're ugly mongrels, as they're of little or no visual consequence whatsoever. There comes a point where we're so bombarded by "faux historic" of any form what when you've seen one, you've seen them all. It isn't like it's 1980 anymore--it's no longer fresh...

Y'know what people like Shawn Micallef say about modernism? "Not bad; just misunderstood"? Maybe that sensibility regarding *all* of the past (yes, even pre-modern; y'know, like counteracting the urge to replacing real Edwardian with faux-Edwardian-from-Home-Depot) needs to trickle down to BIA-land...

 

[mark simpson]

"And "olde lamps on new standards"? Keep this in mind: it isn't so much that they're ugly mongrels, as they're of little or no visual consequence whatsoever."

Disagree with that one

 

[samplain]

the light standards pictured look so incredibly awkward, that I actually find them absurdly appealing. Their wrongness is their only redeeming attribute.

haha...they are so awkward and dont make sense.

Just when you thought Toronto couldnt be less cohesive and add more clutter.

 

[mgl2]

On Carlton at Parliament, new light standards were installed last year. They don't look like any of the ones shown here and they're okay, but yes, faux historic. They were attached to the old metal and concrete poles and looked out of place. This year, new wooden poles, thicker and taller, have been erected, and the light standards are being moved to the new poles and the old poles are slowly being removed. You'd have thought they would have replaced the poles and the light standards at the same time. I'd chalk this up to make work but it was probably more of a "left hand / right hand" issue.

At least they're pulling down the old poles so we don't have 3 poles clustered together. They aren't finished yet but it's been going on for a couple of months.

 

[mark simpson]

If they are using wood then expect the whole procedure to happen again within the next 5 years

 

[mgl2]

If they are using wood then expect the whole procedure to happen again within the next 5 years

I don't know anything about electrical poles, but I just googled the subject and found this on a steel company's web site:

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As noted by utility executive George Maning, the lifespan of a steel pole is 60 to 80 years. That's two times that of the average wood pole

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[mark simpson]

I remember reading a few years ago that hydro was phasing out wooden poles except for temporary use

 

[allabootmatt]

Great. If true that puts us only...(checks calculator)...102 years behind Manhattan, which got rid of wooden poles, temporary or not, in 1904.

Oh, yeah, that's the same year all the electrical wires on the island were buried.

Wires seem a little less a preservation-worthy historical relic when you consider that there were places that had already done away with them a century ago.