McGill University, located at the foot of Mont Royal in the heart of Montreal, is not just Canada's Harvard, but is also an integral and defining part of the City of Montreal. The myriad of students McGill attracts to the City, coupled with its charming old architecture and beautiful landscaping certainly spice up Montreal's downtown area. In many ways, the McGill campus is emblematic of the city itself.
As part of McGill campus's green initiative, tomorrow, May 28, 2010, McTavish Street will close to all vehicular traffic, making it a completely pedestrianized street.
While I certainly agree that pedestrianizing McTavish is a much-need and great advent, I am not so convinced that it will really contribute to making McGill into what Principal and Vice-Chancellor Heather Munroe-Blum calls "a green oasis in the heart of the city". With that said, I must applaud McGill for its efforts towards becoming a more green campus, and finally realizing that McTavish has long been a death-trap for students risking their lives to cross between their main library and the bookstore - the parallel parking along McTavish perfectly prevented oncoming traffic from seeing any students crossing the street. So, while I am not so sure that a pedestrianized McTavish will do enough to make that part of campus into a what Munroe-Blum sees as a place to "mingle, study, relax and reflect", I am sure that this is a step in the right direction. At the very least, the closure of McTavish to vehicular traffic can assure students greater safety.
Beyond its potential safety, social and environmental benefits, I hope to find that the pedestrianization of McTavish becomes a catalyst for even greater and greener changes to the McGill campus in the future. Below, I have constructed a pretty broad (at least for me) To-Do List for McGill's campus to become a model green university campus. For those of you who know me, or have read my profile, that I have decided to organize my critique into a To-Do List should come as no surprise.
MCGILL CAMPUS TO-DO LIST:
1) Pedestrianize the ENTIRE campus, and not just McTavish - get rid of ALL the parking on campus; place boulders to cut off traffic; replace regular pavement that invites automobile use with more pedestrian-friendly materials like brick; level sidewalks to make wide boulevards to enable efficient pedestrian flow
2) Create more green spaces that are easily accessible and have ample seating space to assure their use - remove the fences that currently surround green spaces; add more vegetation where possible, especially outside of Burnside Hall where there is a large square of unused concrete
3) Burn down Burnside Hall - not only is it an eyesore, but it also impedes views of downtown Montreal from parts of campus, casts dark shadows, and creates an empty, unsightly concrete square beside it
4) Construct a path that better connects McLennan/Redpath Library to the East side of campus (i.e. Burniside, Adams, Maas Chemistry) - it is time-consuming to walk around the entire field to get to the East side of campus, perhaps it would be more efficient to have stairs from the McLennan library entrance that led to the field (without cutting through it)
5) Design usable bike paths - remove vehicular access to campus, but build a bike network that is well-integrated with other pedestrian traffic to assure slow speeds and safe interaction between the two
6) Buildings that require architectural attention - Burnside Hall, Chemistry Maas, McLennan Library. All of these buildings are unsightly with their dreary gray concrete, and make the pedestrian experience uninteresting. At the very least, their lower portions that are seen by a passer-by should be modified to make the pedestrian experience more sensorial.
7) In general, McGill's campus could benefit from small additions to make the pedestrian experience more sensorial - e.g. water fountains (they not only mask traffic and other noises from the CBD, but are also aesthetically pleasing and offer great seating and meeting places), 'street' furniture, 'street' art (something a little bit more special than a sculpture of Sir James McGill), pedestrian-level lighting, pedestrian-oriented and varied materials
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