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Analysis of Existing Street Conditions

SITE PHOTO INVENTORY AND ANALYSIS

These images show the current state of Simcoe Street and Michael Sweet Avenue. Simcoe Street generally has 3 types of conditions:

1. The gateway pedestrian and service vehicle area at Queen Street has newer, large format brick paving. A similar paving wraps around the corner to Michael Sweet Avenue.

2. The mid-section pedestrian road and flanking sidewalks terminate with concrete planter and metal fence barricades. The paving treatment is ageing, with patched asphalt. The sidewalks are raised concrete. The greenspace from edge of sidewalk to property lines is generally in poor condition with balding turf areas, and some street trees have recently been destroyed and removed. Tree species remaining are mostly Silver Maple and Little Leaf Lindens.

3. The north segment of Simcoe is open to two-way traffic to gain access/egress to a parking garage. Sidewalks, as for the landscape condition, are in a poor state.

Michael Sweet Avenue is an under exploited anomaly in the city. It is relatively quiet and receives low traffic flow, despite its downtown core location. The northern street edge faces a large podium condo wall that is planted with a long narrow row of Pyramidal English Oak. The southern street wall presents a prime location for the Relic Park installations with an approximately 4-metre strip of turf running the length of the avenue and the parkade.

NEW PEDESTRIAN ZONE

This visualization of the new pedestrian zone on Simcoe Street (part of Phase 1) expresses the storyline developed for Relic Park – a dynamic and interactive interpretation of the urban environment that brings together history, culture, art and nature. Feature installations of carved stones will be integrated into a new green corridor running from Campbell House Museum at the intersection of Queen and University to Dundas and McCaul.

The architectural stone fragments were originally salvaged by Rosa and Spencer Clark from demolished
buildings in the 1950s and 70s. Being surplus to the many monuments that the Clarks had constructed at The Guild Inn, in Scarborough, they have been preserved for half a century.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Relic Feature Sketches and landscape design for Relic Park in this Prospectus are conceived and illustrated by Bryan Jones, Landscape Architect, OALA, CSLA, LEED AP.

THE GRANGE NEIGHBOURHOOD

The Grange neighbourhood is a vibrant, downtown community bounded by College Street to the north, Queen Street to the south, and University Avenue and Spadina Avenue to the east and west. These major perimeter streets are lined with restaurants and busy stores. The area is also home to the Art Gallery of Ontario, OCAD University (Canada’s largest and oldest educational institution for art and design), a University of Toronto student residence and the University Health Network. The existing public realm along Simcoe, St. Patrick and McCaul streets features long north-south vehicular and pedestrian flow, with few opportunities for east-west connectors. Currently, the neighbourhood is experiencing a surge of condo development with limited green space to serve this growing community.

A NEIGHBOURHOOD RICH WITH LAYERED HISTORY

Located on the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee, the Huron-Wendat, the Métis and other Indigenous nations, the area was widely used as an encampment and hunting area. The neighbourhood began in the early 1800’s as an upper class estate known as the Grange, bounded on the east by what is
now called University Avenue, leading to the University of Toronto lands. As the city grew, the neighbourhood quickly became home to communities of new immigrants living in rows of modest workers’ houses. In the 21st century, the Grange community is transforming again. It is experiencing the rapid growth of condo buildings and thousands of new residents who need culturally rich and healthy green environments. Relic Park will help to meet the needs of this fast growing community.

THE ARTS

The Grange neighbourhood also contains one of Canada’s greatest fine art collections outside of the National Gallery in Ottawa. The Grange estate became the city’s fine art epicentre when the Art Museum of Toronto was established there in 1900, becoming the Art Gallery of Toronto in 1919, and Art Gallery of Ontario in 1966. The AGO is a leading example of an international gallery bringing people together to create community through art. Adjacent to the AGO and Grange Park, OCAD University (formerly the Ontario College of Art and Design) is a bold landmark for the neighbourhood and the centre of student life and related art businesses. Both institutions are artistic innovators through architectural expression that challenges conventions of design while fostering a haven for the creative arts.

The arts are further enhanced within the Grange neighbourhood by a cross pollination with members of the Fashion District. Many businesses and studios are integrated into the fabric of the community, notably Malabar Limited providing costume rentals to the public and Toronto’s theatre scene.

Campbell House Museum, in the southeast corner of the Grange neighbourhood, acts as the perfect stage to bring together the arts and heritage through its creative approach to programming. The museum is where the idea of Relic Park took shape. Campbell House is well positioned to connect Relic Park with the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, the downtown core, and the Queen Street corridor.

THE GRANGE GREEN PLAN

In July 2018, the Grange Green Plan was proposed by the Grange Community Association and adopted by City Council as an action plan to enhance and enlarge the green space in the neighbourhood. This plan will contribute to the City’s environmental and climate change agenda, improving both human and ecosystem health within the Grange community and city-wide systems while enhancing private greening efforts. This greener neighbourhood will provide an enhanced public realm that maximizes the effectiveness of the streets and laneways as the area continues to densify. The transformed cityscape will, over time, improve stormwater retention, reduce heat island impacts, abate air and noise pollution, and expand habitat and corridors for animals and plant pollinators. This plan is consistent with the Park and Public Realm strategy in TOcore.

Project Framework

INTRODUCTION OF RELIC PARK

Relic Park refers to a new linear public realm from Campbell House Museum to the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Relic Park will create a green corridor through the Grange neighbourhood. This linear park will transform the edges of streets into gathering places for Toronto residents and visitors. There will be a vibrant pedestrian zone running along an underused section of Simcoe Street, across the effectively invisible Michael Sweet Avenue, and up busy St. Patrick Street. Artistically carved and dressed stone fragments from demolished historic buildings preserved at Guild Park and Gardens by Rosa and Spencer Clark will define the route and be integrated into the park’s landscape design. Relic Park will recall the city’s past and encourage people to ponder the city’s evolving urban form. In this revitalized pedestrian zone, lively community activities will be facilitated by Campbell House
Museum and the Grange Community Association.

Relic Park re-imagines a series of urban streets as a linear park dedicated to Toronto’s architectural past. Carved and dressed stones salvaged long ago from demolished architectural landmarks and surplus to the collection will be brought from Scarborough’s Guild Park and Gardens . The architectural relics will be celebrated in a fresh and innovative progression of green parkettes and focal points, bringing together history, culture, art and nature.

Relic Park will form an important pedestrian corridor between the AGO and the Four Seasons Centre for opera and ballet, linking these cultural landmarks through the evolving, but still predominantly residential, Grange neighbourhood.

GOALS & OBJECTIVES

• Showcase the architectural carvings and stone panels in a fresh and creative interpretive format.
• Improve the quality of the public realm through a Master Planned progression of nodes and parkettes.
• Improve the quality of the public realm experience through the creation of a variety of flexible spaces
that can be programmed to serve the greater community.
• Emphasize a pedestrian-oriented environment that provides sufficient walkways, cycle routes and
enhanced landscape features.
• Encourage adjacent private properties to coordinate with the park design to maximize the
park’s benefits.
• Develop a sense of stewardship and stewardship skills in the local community and increase the
community’s and visitors’ appreciation of heritage.
• Expand the reach of the audience for the Guild stone collection by raising awareness of Guild
Park and Gardens and making strong connections between Scarborough and downtown.

CONNECTING SCARBOROUGH AND DOWNTOWN

Since amalgamation in 1998, the City has striven to make connections between the suburbs and downtown and to forge one strong, but diverse city. An important goal of Relic Park is to raise awareness of the display of architectural stone carvings in the magnificent natural setting at Guild Park and Gardens, through signage and programming. The public’s experience of downtown Relic Park is expected to increase visitors to Guild Park and Gardens. It will also further the Clarks’ original purpose to preserve and make accessible fragments of Toronto’s architectural past.

CITY OF TORONTO QUALITY CRITERIA

Relic Park will meet all ten quality criteria for the public realm cited in Downtown Parks and Public Realm Plan

HUMAN SCALE & CONNECTING TO NATURE

Human scale is important in the public realm as our city grows taller and the opportunity to interact with nature becomes more elusive. Bringing back elements of nature, encouraging native plant communities, and providing opportunities for fauna to move through the city are achievable strategies that enrich our urban lives.

Our digital world increasingly detaches us from a “grounded” lifestyle. Relic Park presents an opportunity to unlock a way of living that was once commonplace, but will be fresh and new to many residents. The simple act of going outside and enjoying the moment is a subconscious human need, and the linear park can respond by offering a variety of passive yet stimulating experiences.

Relic Park will be akin to the typical European square where people are moving about within the space, yet there is a sense of calm. Pockets and rows of trees provide human scale and a sense of enclosure to sit and peer into the active zones while providing sanctuary to read, sun-bathe or meet friends. Vehicular traffic is restricted in the pedestrian zone, immediately reducing the frantic energy of a regular street. Bicycles flow through the space at a human speed while earthworks, buildings and plants buffer the ambient sounds of the city.

Guild Park and Gardens

Historical Reference

TELLING THE STORY

The story of Relic Park can be told in many ways that chronicle the passage of time. The stone itself is ancient, formed millions of years ago through geological processes. As a construction material throughout the 19th and first half of the 20th century, stone symbolized permanence, quality and strength; and it was used in the building of the country’s great civic, commercial and financial institutions. The stone tools of newly arrived European immigrants carved the flourishes and details inspired by ancient Greece and iconic forms in nature.

Surrounding each relic from Toronto’s past is a richness of character. Carefully salvaged from the doomed structures, in the 1950’s to 70’s, the carved and dressed stones were selected to be transported for reconstruction at the Guild Park and Gardens site. Over the decades, staff repositioned the stone at various times and in one case drew from the stockpiles to create a new monument – the keystone wall. Some stones remained where they were first placed after relocation to Scarborough or in a compound behind one of the buildings on site. Nature went to work in the years that followed and the native woodland gradually began to claim the carvings as part of the forest tapestry. Massive White Pines and Oak periodically shed branches while ferns, mosses and other woodland flora engulfed the pieces to create a garden of Nature’s own design.

Ironically, this wild garden of relics at Guild Park and Gardens resonated a beauty that informed a strong meaning and rationale for Relic Park in downtown Toronto. The role that Guild Park and Gardens played in the lifeline of the relics is a critical piece of the story.

Without this intervention, Relic Park would never be discussed and the opportunity to interpret Toronto’s rich architectural history in the downtown core would be mute.

GUILD PARK AND GARDENS

Guild Park and Gardens is home to the architectural remnants of some of Toronto’s most significant lost
buildings. Rosa and Spencer Clark, supporters of the Arts and Crafts movement, were disheartened by the destruction of so many stone buildings in the mid-20th century and brought examples to their Scarborough property (popularly known as “The Guild”) for display. Showcased in a beautiful park, these monuments continue to serve as a reminder of the city’s past.

As Toronto’s architectural form transitioned from stones, bricks and mortar to glass and steel, architectural features of interest were saved at the time of demolition. The Clarks built about 42 monuments from fragments of salvaged buildiings; however, there remained a significant number of stones left in piles on the property, mostly around Building 191, the Clarks’ archive and office building. These piles of unused stones have been determined to be surplus to the collection. In Fall 2017, the City launched its plan to redevelop the existing Building 191 into the Clark Centre for the Arts, to house
art studios and art programming. The surplus stones have been temporarily relocated to allow for construction to proceed, and the City is looking for partners to display the stones for public interest and enjoyment, and to intepret the stories of the Clarks, Guild Park and Gardens, and the growth of Toronto.

SURPLUS STONES

In Spring 2018, the City deaccessioned a portion of Guild Park and Gardens’ carved stones to allow for more flexibility in how the stones are utilized. Installing a selection of the surplus stones in Relic Park provides an opportunity to showcase the pieces in an urban setting, close to their original building sites, and to tell a downtown audience the incredible story of the origin of the stones and why they have survived. Relic Park integrates a broad historical spectrum, from the Clarks’ rescue of the architectural pieces and ongoing stewardship of the Guild Stakeholders Groups, to the return of a selection of
pieces to the core of the city.

Relic Park will tell the story of the buildings, the workers who built them, the people who owned them, and the people who worked within the walls. The stone installations will be expressed playfully and in a way that enhances the public realm between the AGO and Campbell House Museum. As the stone pieces were in the process of deaccessioning, groupings of stones were reviewed by the main stakeholders, including the Project Team for Relic Park, who have identified appropriate pieces for installation at Relic Park. This is the first step to envisioning the potential of Relic Park to expand our idea
of a downtown park.

CREATING A DIALOGUE

The landscape approaches at Guild Park and Gardens and at Relic Park open up a conversation between
two city sites. At Guild Park and Gardens, a multihectare, suburban and mostly natural space of gardens
and forest is the site for monuments with strong architectural features. As illustrated at left, these
features bring order and grandeur to the landscape. In contrast, Relic Park is in a dense, urban environment; it aims to create a sense of over-grown stone fragment “relics” within a natural oasis, adding a sense of intimacy and disorder to city-dwellers’ regimented lives. Relic Park will also spark a dialogue about the state of architectural preservation and city-building today versus half-a-century ago. Relic Park honours people like the Clarks and others who have worked tirelessly to preserve our heritage.