Hamilton takes progressive approach to creating places for people, not cars
Canada’s Steel City revamping parks and showcasing arts and heritage
HAMILTON, ONT. A decade ago, renowned Danish architect
Jan Gehl inspired community leaders from around the world with his book Places for People. Timelier than ever, the book’s underlying principle is we need to build cities for people instead of for cars, and by doing so, create a more vibrant, more livable urban landscape.
Ironically, it has taken a pandemic to convince even the most car-centric cities to redistribute space previously dominated by cars in favour of people, creating slow streets for pedestrians and cyclists and allowing restaurants and other retail operations to expand out onto the streets.
One of the cities leading the charge to “take back the town” for the people is Hamilton. The city approved more than 100 new patios in just over a month, has quadrupled capital investment in its bike lane network and is reimagining public space to create unique outdoor places to relax and hang out while still practising safe social distancing.
Emblematic of Hamilton’s people-first approach to urban renewal is the John Rebecca Park, a former 170-spot car park that is now a mix of green space, benches, tables and walkways, as well as an ice rink in the winter.
Another project pending is to transform the rooftop of the downtown York Boulevard parking garage into an outdoor entertainment venue that will be used to showcase local musicians for an audience of up to 200.
Jason Thorne, general manager of the City of Hamilton’s economic development department, says whether its allocating more space for pedestrians, creating new parks or making better use of existing infrastructure, the driving force behind these initiatives comes down to the shared vision of “creating an outstanding public realm” for visitors and residents alike.
And he says the ultimate success of these projects comes from the city, community leaders, local groups, and artistic and business communities all working together.
“We see the city’s role as an enabler for these projects,” Thorne observes.
A prime example of this public/ private partnership in action is the growing number of art installations that have sprung up throughout Hamilton, including painted traffic signal boxes, wall murals and new public sculptures. The formula used to fasttrack many of these initiatives is one where the city contributes 50 per cent of the cost, with private funding covering the rest.
Similarly, Hamilton has an incentive program to encourage owners of historic buildings to restore the facades of these properties as part of efforts to help beautify the downtown and attract more business tenants.
Thorne says Hamilton’s mindset is to treat virtually any surface, be it building facades, street light switch boxes, even sidewalks, as a potential canvass.
Just last month, the city announced a new program designed to accelerate the transformation of crosswalks throughout the city into works of art.
“They’ll make the crosswalks more visible while showcasing public art. They’ll also serve as a gateway into different neighbourhoods and help to create a sense of place,” the announcement stated.
To encourage more people to explore Hamilton’s art scene and abundance of nature, the popular Mountain Climber program enables bikers to take a bus up and down the Niagara Escarpment (which bisects the city) for free. The city has also allocated $4 million to create a cycle track that will run up the escarpment as well. And thanks to a donation from the McNally Charitable Foundation, funding is in place to keep the SoBike (or social biking) bike-share program running, which has 26,000 riders and counting.
Previously labelled by some as a “rust belt” city with a downtown core in disrepair, now, thanks to a multi-faceted approach to reviving the city’s fortunes, Hamilton has become a proverbial poster child for urban renewal. So much so that last year it hosted the prestigious CanU conference, attracting prominent architects, planners and a range of other professionals from across the country with the shared passion of building great communities.
As Thorne recalls, “instead of putting everyone into a conference centre, we moved them around to showcase various venues and to give them a sense of the exciting things happening here. We also intentionally incorporated a lot of the arts into the event by kicking off sessions with local musicians, dancers and poets. Because you really can’t talk about city building and urbanism in Hamilton without talking about the arts and culture or without seeing different parts of the city.”
Parts that, in Thorne’s own words, have become “palettes” not only for public art and place-making, but for civic pride.