My Favorite Nook in Toronto: Wychwood Park

Rightly designated an Ontario Heritage Conservation District, Wychwood Park is a whimsical residential enclave just North of the Annex. What might be mistaken for a woodsy park area surrounding Wychwood Barns is actually my dream neighborhood - perfectly situated in an urban inner-city area, but hidden from the City's notorious congestion, and with the quintissential qualities (at least architecturally) of the British countryside.

Aside from the exterior design, which I obviously admire...

... I also melted when I saw this wolf-like 'watch' dog sleeping on his owners' front yard (he has been there every time I have visited)

And I think barn doors are the perfect accent to a rural-inspired urban home - even if they can't house a full-size car.

And I am a sucker for tire swings because I used to have one in my old backyard growing up. What made this one especially special was that it was in their FRONT- (and not back-), yard. Everything in the area is so street-oriented, which really fosters a sense of community, even for a passerby.

Urban Design in Yorkville

Yorkville may be a Yuppie's hang out, but its residential design is certainly inspired by an older, more mature and timeless style.

One of the most desirable places to live in downtown-Toronto, Hazelton Avenue's row housing and semi-detached houses are the perfect balance between quaint, old-fashioned charm and lavish, modern luxury. New landscaping and fine finishes on windows and doors accent rustic old brick and wooden sills well. The arguably understated luxury of the exterior design is quite deceiving - I'm sure the interior's extravagance more than compensates for that void outside.

And my favorite feature is obviously the bay windows.

Only a few steps away from Hazelton is a small urban parkette on the South side of Cumberland, where people can congregate and sit on a wide variety of surfaces - a massive rock, several benches along the water installation, or on the concrete sitting areas surrounding each individual tree.



While I am usually quite critical of these types of urban parks, I think this one did a satisfactory job in terms of its design (which is quite beautiful and sensorial), location (it gets sun for a significant portion of the day and happens to be at the epicenter of a commercial and business district, which assures its use) and provision of seating (civic space doesn't get used if there is no where to sit!). Part of the park's natural popularity, however, has less to do with its design and more to do with the fact that it is the best place to people watch in Yorkville!

The meandering path surrounded by tall vegetation is lovely to walk through, and sort of reminiscent of High Line Park's design in New York's Meat Packing District.

Also, the water installation, though only seasonal, is both aesthetically pleasing and helps to mask the noise from traffic.

When Social Housing Sticks Out Like a Sore Thumb

Why is it that social housing has the uncanny capacity to be so easily recognizable as social housing?

It may seem like an odd question to posit, but really why should social housing look like social housing? Isn’t the enterprise to integrate social housing (and I mean physically) into the urban fabric entirely lost by failing to design it in a way that matches – not disturbs – the urban façade? And by that virtue, isn’t the whole effort to integrate low-income populations into society completely lost by having them be so effortlessly identifiable as low-income populations?

It doesn’t have to be this way… design may have the power to distinguish social housing as social housing, but it also has the power to better integrate it (and its dwellers) into the city. Even if cost is the concern, I am not completely convinced that social housing has to look as bad and cheap as it does.

For example, why does this particular building in the Annex inner-city neighborhood of Toronto have to be enclosed by an unsightly black fence? Setting aside the obvious aesthetic problems such a fence causes (to both the passerby and surrounding residents), it does nothing to integrate the building and its dwellers into the neighborhood – in fact; it only further isolates them from their neighbors. I am even more boggled and upset by the fact that the property has a large, beautiful park as its front lawn, but refuses to allow any outside residents from enjoying it.

If the fences were removed, and the public was given access to the park, not only would the entire neighborhood be more comfortable with the idea of having social housing next door, but the social housing residents would actually be given the opportunity to meet their neighbors! It seems absolutely ludicrous that a park owned and operated by the City is only accessible to private residents whose homes are subsidized by OUR tax dollars! I am not asking the City to sell the space and build expensive condos – I just want everyone to share the space, which is not such a revolutionary idea!

Agriculture's Renaissance... in the CITY

We are very cyclical people it seems, always returning back to our roots.

Passé fashion trends become chic. Old cars become valuable collectibles. Previously owned items become priceless antiques. Derelict neighborhoods become nuclei of important development.

But nowhere is this human nature better demonstrated than in our patterns of settlement. First, we lived in the countryside where agricultural land was utilized as a source of shelter, nutrition, and income. Next, we decided to build cities, eventually leading to the rise of an urban lifestyle, which was soon after superseded by the suburban revolution. Now, with a re-influx of people into the city, its capacity to sustain such a growing population is nearing its threshold. Cities are beginning to expand exponentially into previously rural land.

SO, we have started to bring the country to the city, which marks a sort of return to (at least some aspects of) the country lifestyle we began with.

Urban agriculture is on the rise, shepherding (pun intended!) an agricultural resurgence not in the country, but in the city. Using the minimal space available in the city, urban agriculture has found innovative ways (e.g. Symbiotics, companion planting, vertical gardens, etc.) to produce small amounts of food for personal and community consumption. In so doing, it has brought back significant, and beneficial, aspects of country life to the urban condition - e.g. better nutrition from greater vegetable/fruit consumption; a more active lifestyle attributed to working the land; and greater self-sufficiency, enabling improved social and financial security.

Here are a few pictures of Foodshare's urban garden that I work at. We have been growing a wide variety of plants, vegetables and fruits, including celery, carrots, corn, potatoes, herbs, peppers, cabbage, beans, etc.



Beet root


Rainbow Swiss Chard


Tomatoes


Pumpkin/squash (not really sure what it is!)



PURPLE String Beans (much better than their yellow and green counterparts!)

Is it just nostalgia... that we like to maintain some sort of a connection to our history? Or, have the last few decades of change wronged everything that we got right the first time around?

Inventive Uses of Space

When people are not given the necessary infrastructure to meet their needs, they resolve to find alternative ways to satisfy those needs. For the most part, these new uses of space are surprisingly inventive.

But sometimes unsightly...

This is a picture of a public housing project in Alexandria, Egypt. What originated as a large, plain building comprised of tiny studio apartments for families was later adapted by residents to suit their growing needs. As shown above, residents literally expanded their spaces beyond the building's walls by destroying exterior walls and building small balconies with whatever locally available materials they could get their hands on.

And sometimes brilliant...

New York came up with a creative, vertical response to its growing parking demands. By parking cars atop one another, space is best conserved more efficiently and cheaply than constructing parking garages, which require heavy input costs related to excavating and construction.

And sometimes even comical...

This is a picture of cars parked on a tennis court adjacent to a series of residential high-rise buildings in Montreal's Cote-St-Luc neighborhood. This photo sort of sums up how indolent the urban dweller and lifestyle has grown - taking over unused places of healthy activity like tennis courts and using them to park our cars, which only encourage sedentary living. So typical!

Most importantly, I think that these cases demonstrate how truly resilient urban dwellers can be!

A Pioneering Park: High Line Park in New York's Meatpacking District

Originally constructed in the 1930s to lift dangerous freight trains off Manhattan's streets, the High Line has been re- vitalized, -designed, and -discovered as a trendy, innovative park in New York City's rejuvenated Meatpacking District. Section 1 of the High Line is now open as a public park, owned and operated by the City of New York but maintained by Friends of the High Line conservancy.

Upon the completion of the project, the High Line will be a mile-and-a-half-long elevated park, spanning across the West Side neighborhoods of the Meatpacking District, West Chelsea and Clinton/Hell's Kitchen. The innovative, and certainly unique, park design perfectly integrates meandering concrete pathways with understated, whimsical flora.

Access points from street level will be constructed every two to three blocks, many of which will have elevators (all entrances will include stairs, as shown below).


In the midst of a truly 'concrete jungle', High Line Park reconciles this seemingly paradoxical aesthetic of steel railways yards and a public green space. Beyond its utility as a great public space, High Line Park should be considered an icon of innovative urban design. High Line Park not only provides great recreational public space for New Yorkers, but also provides other cities with a model for rejuvenating urban pockets of decay, preserving historic sites, finding inventive ways to make better use of space and integrating green space.

Mid-late 1900's: an unused railway yard



June 2010: a pioneering public green space

McGill Ghetto Favorites

An enchanting shared front garden. The wrought iron fence is the perfect height and design. It is inviting, but still serves its purpose in delineating private space from public space.


If I could be any type of window, I would probably be a bay window. They are a great source of natural light and give the illusion of a larger room without making use of much more space.


But I would also want to have gargoyle/lion ornamental mascarons surrounding me for protection. Very 'Beaux-Arts'!


I LOVE door knockers. I am uncomfortable with using doorbells. Something about them is condescendingly demanding. Knocking seems much more appropriate... so long as it is not a solid hard-wood door, which necessitates serious knuckle damage. In those cases, I much prefer door knockers. The limestone-like facade around the door is beautiful, and the contrast with old red brick is charming.


Beware of snow falling off of the top of buildings on campus, seriously! Bet you haven't seen this type of signage anywhere else.


Definitely not my personal favorite, but decrepit alleyways are certainly a defining feature of the McGill Ghetto.