12-29-2017, 12:57 PM
(12-29-2017, 12:14 PM)Viewfromthe42 Wrote: It's a legitimate point of view to have. Few want to think that a couple minutes of cold air is why they put their neighbours out of business to shop at Zellers Sears Eatons Target Wal-Mart and The Bay, but the level of effort we're willing to put out is incredible. It's a bit of the inverse of Pascal's Wager, where we aren't willing to make the tiniest effort, even though this miniscule effort to us means the world/livelihood of so many people we know. It's a sad, sad state, but it's one we're all too happy to put ourselves in.
Well now hang on a second. There is no inherent reason why climate control has to be associated with the car-dependence and monolithic corporate ownership that one thinks of when discussing a mall.
One question that the map should raise is why the only place in the city you can walk for several blocks indoors is at a suburban, car-dependent mall. Putting people down for choosing the mall is not helpful.
Maybe if people would listen more carefully when I suggest that it’s obvious that one should be able to get between the different buildings of a development without going outside, or that part of city planning should involve considering how indoor or partially protected pedestrian connections can be provided at reasonable cost, then we could have both: an engaging, multi-owner, pedestrian-oriented downtown, and the ability to stay out of the weather if one chooses.
Simple example that I consider a clear screw-up because it’s clear who should have made a different decision and what different decision: the buildings down the west side of King between First United and Willis Way. The first floor should have been recessed, leaving a continuous covered arcade parallel to the sidewalk. Glass roofs should have been provided to cover the pedestrian links around to the parking lot near the LCBO, between the two buildings, and around the side on Willis Way. Then one could walk that entire block under cover, or, if preferred, out on the sidewalk.
Add a sliding wall system and the arcade could be climate controlled in winter while still open to the air in summer.
And the recent construction on Willis Way could have been incorporated into the same system. It is entirely practical to have a situation where the only need to be rained on is to cross the street, and even there I don’t see why we couldn’t have attractive roof structures to shed the rain to the sides.
Full climate control is harder to achieve, essentially requiring a bridge or tunnel level, either of which gets into more complicated issues of control and responsibility for the various corridor areas, and more expense for the construction. But with the number of large towers we are putting up lately, there are areas of the city where this definitely should be considered. Anywhere that two large towers (I don’t know, maybe more than about 10-15 stories or so) sit next to each other, they should be linked. With sufficiently large buildings, the additional cost of the links is obviously trivial by comparison.