Just northwest of the intersection of Lansdowne Avenue and Dupont Street here in Toronto, there is something known as the Davenport Diamond. It refers to the intersection of two rail lines. Going north-south is the Barrie GO corridor (regional rail service). And going east-west is a set of Canadian Pacific Railway tracks. The problem with this Diamond is that it is one of the busiest train intersections in North America and these two corridors meet at grade. So it is a problem for service levels on this corridor.
To address this bottleneck, Metrolinx has been working on a project called the Davenport Diamond Guideway and Greenway. First and foremost, what it will do is elevate the Barrie GO corridor between Bloor Street in the south and Davenport Road in the north, allowing trains to pass over the CP tracks (rail over rail), as well as over streets like Wallace Avenue (rail over road). Metrolinx expects to have this guideway complete by spring 2023 and it will be a good thing for rail service levels across this region. Construction activity is already happening.
But the other thing this guideway does is open up the ground (literally) for a new greenway. Metrolinx is calling this the public realm component of the project, and it expects to procure this work separately, as well as complete it only after the guideway is operational. The ETA for this is 2024. However, a design was completed for the greenway back in 2018. It was completed by gh3 -- one of my favorite architecture firms in the city. And it is my understanding that this original design will be the foundation for the public realm design. Or at least, I hope it will.
If you haven't yet seen gh3's design, you can check it out over here.
Image: gh3
Just northwest of the intersection of Lansdowne Avenue and Dupont Street here in Toronto, there is something known as the Davenport Diamond. It refers to the intersection of two rail lines. Going north-south is the Barrie GO corridor (regional rail service). And going east-west is a set of Canadian Pacific Railway tracks. The problem with this Diamond is that it is one of the busiest train intersections in North America and these two corridors meet at grade. So it is a problem for service levels on this corridor.
To address this bottleneck, Metrolinx has been working on a project called the Davenport Diamond Guideway and Greenway. First and foremost, what it will do is elevate the Barrie GO corridor between Bloor Street in the south and Davenport Road in the north, allowing trains to pass over the CP tracks (rail over rail), as well as over streets like Wallace Avenue (rail over road). Metrolinx expects to have this guideway complete by spring 2023 and it will be a good thing for rail service levels across this region. Construction activity is already happening.
But the other thing this guideway does is open up the ground (literally) for a new greenway. Metrolinx is calling this the public realm component of the project, and it expects to procure this work separately, as well as complete it only after the guideway is operational. The ETA for this is 2024. However, a design was completed for the greenway back in 2018. It was completed by gh3 -- one of my favorite architecture firms in the city. And it is my understanding that this original design will be the foundation for the public realm design. Or at least, I hope it will.
If you haven't yet seen gh3's design, you can check it out over here.
Image: gh3
One of the debates that is happening in cities all around the world right now is about whether or not it makes sense to redistribute public space in order to help with current social distancing measures. We are all being told to stay at home as much as possible, but as we venture out for food and/or sanity walks, many have started noticing that a lot of our sidewalks are in fact too small if you're trying to stay 2m away from other humans. So with vehicular traffic way down, the question becomes: Should we start borrowing some of that space for pedestrians?
Here in Toronto the official position is no. Closing down streets and lanes to car traffic is usually referred to as creating an "open street." And the intent of these open streets is typically to bring people together for public life, which, of course, is the exact opposite of what we're trying to do right now. What this implies, however, is that there's a belief that additional space for pedestrians would induce demand, similar to what is believed to happen when you add additional lanes on a highway.
Lewis Mumford probably had it best when he allegedly said, "Adding highway lanes to deal with traffic congestion is like loosening your belt to cure obesity." So on the one hand, if you believe that more lanes doesn't solve traffic congestion, you might also be inclined to believe that more and bigger sidewalks isn't going to dampen the anxiety we currently feel when other humans get anywhere near us. The additional space would simply get filled with more bodies.
But maybe you could argue that this is a little bit of a different situation. We're in a global pandemic for God's sake and most of us have the better sense to stay home unless it's absolutely necessary. Perhaps in this case, demand would not increase and the greater supply would simply better serve the demand that is already there. Perhaps. I don't have a strong stance on this, but I'm fairly certain that technology could help with this decision.
What do you think?
Photo by Jason Blackeye on Unsplash
One of the defining characteristics of Portuguese cities is the stone paving that is used in many or most pedestrian spaces. In European Portuguese, it is called calçada portuguesa. Above is a photo -- that I didn't take -- of Rossio Square is Lisbon.
This craft was also exported to Portugal's former colonies, including Rio de Janeiro, Macau, and Luanda. Supposedly, the Portuguese used to load up their boats with limestone in order to weigh them down and make them stable before they set sail. And that's, at least partially, the reason why this tradition ended up traveling.
They're dangerously slick when wet -- particularly in a hilly city like Lisbon -- but they sure are beautiful. Here's a short video talking about the tradition in Macau. It's an interesting example because the Chinese ended up adding their own touches.
Click here if you can't see it below.
https://youtu.be/eiK6SQzra3k
Photo by Alex Paganelli on Unsplash
One of the debates that is happening in cities all around the world right now is about whether or not it makes sense to redistribute public space in order to help with current social distancing measures. We are all being told to stay at home as much as possible, but as we venture out for food and/or sanity walks, many have started noticing that a lot of our sidewalks are in fact too small if you're trying to stay 2m away from other humans. So with vehicular traffic way down, the question becomes: Should we start borrowing some of that space for pedestrians?
Here in Toronto the official position is no. Closing down streets and lanes to car traffic is usually referred to as creating an "open street." And the intent of these open streets is typically to bring people together for public life, which, of course, is the exact opposite of what we're trying to do right now. What this implies, however, is that there's a belief that additional space for pedestrians would induce demand, similar to what is believed to happen when you add additional lanes on a highway.
Lewis Mumford probably had it best when he allegedly said, "Adding highway lanes to deal with traffic congestion is like loosening your belt to cure obesity." So on the one hand, if you believe that more lanes doesn't solve traffic congestion, you might also be inclined to believe that more and bigger sidewalks isn't going to dampen the anxiety we currently feel when other humans get anywhere near us. The additional space would simply get filled with more bodies.
But maybe you could argue that this is a little bit of a different situation. We're in a global pandemic for God's sake and most of us have the better sense to stay home unless it's absolutely necessary. Perhaps in this case, demand would not increase and the greater supply would simply better serve the demand that is already there. Perhaps. I don't have a strong stance on this, but I'm fairly certain that technology could help with this decision.
What do you think?
Photo by Jason Blackeye on Unsplash
One of the defining characteristics of Portuguese cities is the stone paving that is used in many or most pedestrian spaces. In European Portuguese, it is called calçada portuguesa. Above is a photo -- that I didn't take -- of Rossio Square is Lisbon.
This craft was also exported to Portugal's former colonies, including Rio de Janeiro, Macau, and Luanda. Supposedly, the Portuguese used to load up their boats with limestone in order to weigh them down and make them stable before they set sail. And that's, at least partially, the reason why this tradition ended up traveling.
They're dangerously slick when wet -- particularly in a hilly city like Lisbon -- but they sure are beautiful. Here's a short video talking about the tradition in Macau. It's an interesting example because the Chinese ended up adding their own touches.
Click here if you can't see it below.
https://youtu.be/eiK6SQzra3k
Photo by Alex Paganelli on Unsplash
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