Emergence, confluence, surface
Dundas Square is an urban savanna, poised as an exchange between the frenetic jungle of city life and the gravity and richness of urban civility. Dundas Square needs to be a space that is a pause in the excited activity of the Yonge and Dundas intersection, and a place that propels and sustains a highly animated public life.
This new public room is sited provocatively at the confluence of several significant urban anomalies- the grid shift at Yonge and Dundas, the meridian-like north-south rush of Yonge Street, the submerged speed of the subway, and even the earliest established intersection of a new city with Taddle Creek. Dundas Square must perform as an integrated space that acknowledges these larger energies working at its centre.
The square is surrounded by highly distinctive but disparate built form - the historic and urbane city buildings on "Dundas Square" at the south edge ofthe site, the new Metropolis theatre complex to the north, the enduring landmark Eaton Centre to the west, and the more dis¬persed but equally significant connections to the Ryerson Polytechnic University and the communities east of Yonge.
In the face of this immediate context, this new public space must be recognized foremost as an autonomous entity. The new "body" of Dundas Square must be capable of entraining a new urban milieu that will transform Yonge and Dundas from an intersection of unrelated and competing pulses, into a space of completeness and complexity, channelling those energies into a dynamic whole.
(From competitor's text)
The scheme relies on a few elements to create a truly public space, distinct from the hyperactive commercial architecture that surrounds it. The simple swelling of the plaza successfully modulates the ground plane without restricting views or creating "backwaters". The simplicity and openness of the surface is a strength.
The partie is elegant and the elements of the public architecture - the armature (portico), allée and plinth are well located to promote multiple uses and the cast-west passage of pedestrians. Appropriately, the square has four fronts. It handles the Dundas Square facade particularly well. The armature will serve to pick up the over-flow of people from Metropolis and the north side of Dundas Street, while not cutting off access or view of the facade. It demonstrates an admirable consciousness of the extended urban field, extending the grid and the light poles to the west side of Yonge and the cast side of Victoria.
The winning scheme offers the greatest promise for Dundas Square and the future of the surrounding district. Using the competition design as a springboard, the detailed design process promises a setting of clarity, accessibility and delight. It will be a place apart, not in any way owned by the commercial investors that will pour energy into its edges, but rather a smart, flexible public square, a common ground for the ever-changing life of the district.
It will be fully accessible at all edges -- more so than any of the other schemes. It has a few, but not too many, unique architectural features that set the square apart but do not compete unnecessarily with the surrounding buildings. It has a clarity of utilization, offering the potential to develop a sequence of arrival that will make it irresistible for subway riders, packers, and others; to pass through the square, and be oriented to this evolving city district. And yet, it is a space with room for serendipity, surprise, and the rich unpredictability of urban life nowhere more apparent than at the corner of Yonge and Dundas in Toronto.
At the next stages in design of Dundas Square, there are a number of issues to be addressed. Among the most important are moving quickly to more light hearted sketches and a working model that can better demonstrate the potentials of the approach.
An analysis of the use of the square is needed, by time of day, time of year, season and so forth, and testing its ongoing ability to meet the objectives for the district.
More work is required to clarify the paths of travel between and among all modes -- with the critical objective of assuring an attractive, safe, generous, well-lit and well-signed pedestrian network which encourages expanded use of the square and of the transit system as a preferred access route. Direction of pedestrian flow through the square and to the parking and subway must be resolved along with the appropriate sizing and orientation of subway and parking access. Consideration of crowds and lines anticipated at the ticket office should also be taken.
(From competition documentation)
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