Nathan Phillips’ Facelift

One of the hundreds of massive building projects going on all over Toronto involves one of my least favourite of Toronto’s many architectural nightmares (the worst of which is the hideous exapanse of concrete marring the length of the Bay on Bloor): Nathan Phillips Square. I like the curvy city hall towers and I’m gratified they have been immortalised in a Star Trek episode featuring weird space architecture and stuff, but the square itself is a barren field of pavement whose sole point of interest is the skating rink featuring the most grating cover bands ever on weekend evenings.

The worst offense is the raised public promenade that is closed to the public and cuts the square off from both Bay and Queen. It’s not going anywhere in the makeover, however; some spectacularly idiotic do-gooders have named the now-closed collonade an untouchable (and unblow-up-able) piece of heritage architecture. Aren’t these decisions supposed to benefit the public instead of antagonise it?

But back to the facelift. The four final the design bids have been announced and they’re all quite interesting in their attempts to reclaim the reviled promenade for the public. Of course what remains unknowable is whether it reopens once the winning design is built, no matter how pretty they make it. Since it’s not going anywhere, I’m intrigued by Zeidler Partnership’s raised tree-lined promenade leading to the bizarre wavy gardens. Equally interesting is Rogers Marvel Architects’ upper path to a swoopy swath of urban countryside.

Rogers Marvel Architects

More pix after the jump

Baird Sampson Neuerts Architects

Plant Architect Inc.

Rogers Marvel Architects

Zeidler Partnerships

Zeidler Partnerships

For more a more detailed look at the project check out the Toronto Star and Torontoist.

Construction starts sometime next year.

(All images lifted from the Toronto Star)