Counteracting Future Decline Written and Illustrated by Ema Graci Advisor: Roger Connah A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2015 Ema Graci i FIGURE 1: Sfite Axonometrficfifi ABSTRACT A complex array of factors has facilitated a recent influx of housing in Toronto, specifically, in the form of mid to upscale condominiums. Many of these high-density residential developments appear to have affected the human scale and the integrative sense of community. Concord CityPlace, situated on Toronto’s Railway Lands will serve as a site for analysis in this thesis. The question asked is whether speculation about CityPlace is correct that the development will ultimately deteriorate into slums. How might this happen? By drawing attention to the current conditions of decline at CityPlace, this thesis sets out to provide solutions, particularly in regards to site isolation and pedestrian accessibility and the use of outdoor urban spaces within and directly around the site. How can such urban and architectural interventions help to counteract future decline? By attracting CityPlace residents and others to the site, this proposal aims to increase accessibility, and diverse social interactions. This thesis will argue for a solution through urban design and architectural interventions, situated along three site borders. We will borrow and adapt ideas from Jane Jacobs’ critical viewpoint of the modern city, and more specifically, her theory of border vacuums.1 A debate with Jan Gehl’s concept of spaces for moving and places for staying2 and Richard Sennett’s notion of the open system3 will then serve to enhance and give spatial form to Jacob’s outlined themes. i FIGURE 2: Concord CityPlace - Physical Model ii CONTENTS 01 05 INTRODUCTION PART 1: PART 3: EVOLUTION OF SITUATING TALL BUILDINGS CITYPLACE IN TORONTO 3.1 History of the Site 06 1.1 First Generation 3.2 Future Slums to Towers in the Park 3.3 Spaces for Moving 09 1.2 Evolving Standards 3.4 Places for Staying 13 1.3 Condominium Boom 3.5 The Open City 17 30 PART 2: PART 3: ESTABLISHING A SITUATING SPECULATIVE APPROACH CITYPLACE 18 2.1 The Curse of Border Vacuums 31 3.1 History of the Site 23 2.2 Human Scale, Spaces for 33 3.2 Case Study: A Lesson Moving, and Places for Staying Learned from St. James Town 27 2.3 The Open City 37 3.3 Future Slums? 42 85 PART 4: PART 5: URBAN ACTIONS POSTSCRIPT AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 43 4.1: Urban Design Plan 45 4.2 The Intervention 86 5.1 Postscript 61 4.3 North Border Vacuum: 89 5.2 Acknowledgements The Railway Tracks 76 4.4 South Border Vacuum: Under the Overpass 80 4.5 Access to the Counterforce 90 PART 6: LIST OF FIGURES, ENDNOTES, AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 91 6.1 List of Figures 97 6.2 Endnotes 103 6.3 Bibliography iii QUEEN ST W RICHMOND ST W ADELAIDE ST W KING ST W FRONT ST W Toronto Publfic Lfibrary Toronto Communfity Housfing Montage Parade Luna Neo N Tower The Gallery Spectra Quartz West One GARDINER EXPRESSWAY Canoe Landfing Park BATHURST ST LAKE SHORQE UPFEBaEoLVNrnSD owQrWUaaArY dmWa SPADINA AVE SIMCOE ST 0 20 40 60 100m FIGURE 3: Map of Concord Cfityplace - Bufildfings and Streets on Sfite fiv INTRODUCTION In the early 1960s, urban activist and writer Jane Jacobs introduced new ideas for city planning in The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Jacobs criticized modern urban planning practices and offered a framework for evaluating the liveliness of cities, particularly through the discussion of various aspects and components of the city - sidewalks, streets, and neighbourhoods, to name a few.4 According to Jacobs, cities must be complex, diverse, and even chaotic, and avoid the rational separation of programs.5 Over the past 20 years, numerous condominium complexes have been constructed throughout Toronto. Because these towers were designed according to established modern planning principles, some of Jacobs’ theories remain applicable over half a century later. Using her approach as a theoretical basis, we can analyze the nature of newly developed urban living conditions, and types of communities that these high-rises have engendered. Various academic and media sources, including University of Toronto building science professor Ted Kesik, and the Toronto Star,6 have speculated that many Toronto condominiums constructed within the past 20 years are victims to future decline. Some reasons include a predominance of owner-investors, inadequate haphazard planning, and poor quality materials and construction methods.7 Concord CityPlace, situated on Toronto’s Railway Lands, has been frequently discussed as a victim of these characteristics, and destined for decline. The construction of CityPlace began in 1997 and has since become the city’s largest residential development project. Once completed, the site will house over 7,500 residential units within approximately 18 hectares of land. Concord Adex Developments, a division of Concord Pacific Developments, was the motivating force behind the site’s redevelopment.8 According to Kesik in Growing Up: Are Toronto’s new condos built to last? “When you’re looking at 1 those glass towers there, you’re basically looking at the slums of the future.”9 In addition to the damaging conditions previously outlined, CityPlace suffers from site isolation, pedestrian density, and a lack of consistent outside visitors to the site, which means that the site is particularly vulnerable to decline. Jacobs asserts that, “Dull, inert cities, it is true, do contain the seeds of their own destruction and little else. But lively, diverse, intense cities contain the seeds of their own regeneration, with energy enough to carry over for problems and needs outside themselves.”10 By lessening the sense of geographic isolation and therefore increasing activity and diversity within the site, could we not increase the liveliness and longevity of the CityPlace community? “Different as railroad tracks, waterfronts, campuses, expressways, large parking areas and large parks are from each other in most ways, they also have much in common with each other-so far as their tendency to exist amid moribund or declining surroundings is concerned.”11 The focus of this study is CityPlace west of Spadina Avenue in Toronto, since it is bounded on three sides by isolating forces (Fort York, railway tracks, and the Gardiner Expressway). Defined by Jacobs as border vacuums, these are strong and often destructive urban forces that break cities up into different parts.12 According to Jacobs, neighbourhoods bounded by border vacuums are more vulnerable to inactivity and decline.13 Can we adapt Jacobs’ notion of border vacuums to improve the dialogue that exists between CityPlace and the city? How can we ultimately spatialize Jacobs’ theories in regards to the site and any urban and architectural interventions we propose? FIGURE 4: North Border Vacuum - Railway Lines FIGURE 5: South Border Vacuum - Gardiner Expressway 2 RAILWAY LINES GARDINER EXPRESSWAY 0 20 40 60 100m FIGURE 6: Map of Concord CfityPlace - Border Vacuums, Rafilway Lfines and Gardfiner Expressway 3 First, let us look to the work of architect and urban consultant, Jan Gehl, since it is a contemporary extension of Jacobs’ core urban theories. In Cities for People, Gehl explains that cities should be lively, sustainable, safe, and healthy.14 Both Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space and Cities for People propose guiding principles for the spatial design of urban public spaces with a particular importance placed on the human scale.15 In regards to architecture, we can also look to Richard Sennett’s theories as another starting point. Sennett is a social theorist and sociologist who specializes in analyzing the built urban form and associated social and cultural experiences.16 In his essay, The Open City, Sennett builds on Jacobs’ assertion that diversity and density are important components of good communities.17 However, Sennett diverges from Jacobs when he states, “Sympathetic as I have always been to her, here we part company; to me, the spatial forms density takes are what matter in stimulating people of the physical matters more in shaping the open city. Urban design, as design, does not figure much in her version of the open city; the art of design matters in mine.”18 We can therefore look to The Open City for guidance when considering the architectural forms of this project. If we follow and implement Jacobs’ ideas including mixed uses, a range of building ages and types, and a density of people, can we also consider Jan Gehl and Richard Sennett as extensions of her urban, social theories, in order to investigate the issues of CityPlace, and offset future decline? Let us begin with a brief glimpse at Toronto’s history and the evolution of tall buildings, particularly as a basis for understanding their relation to the human scale. 4