ROM’s vision for street ambitious and complex
Increasing the liveliness of museum’s sidewalks could be as simple as more tables and chairs
In Toronto, where many confuse public space with empty space, the temptation is to fill it. Whether that’s with objects or programs doesn’t matter, just as long as there’s lots to do and money-making opportunities are maximized.
Yonge-Dundas Square is a good example. Since it opened in 2002, the would-be piazza has been crammed so full of stuff that one of its designers, Toronto architect Kim Storey, recently declared it “extraordinarily ugly.” Yonge-Dundas, conceived by the preamalgamation city of Toronto, was designed to stop the downward spiral of an important downtown precinct. It has since become a 3D billboard.
Now, the Royal Ontario Museum wants to do its bit for Toronto’s public realm. Specifically, that means a stretch of Bloor St. running west from Queen’s Park Cres. Given that these two avenues are among the city’s most important, the ROM’s plans matter to everyone.
The museum’s program to revisit its relationship with the larger urban context was launched last year with the reopening of its original Queen’s Park entrance.
The changes were unobtrusive, almost invisible, but the return of one of the city’s grandest entrances clearly thrilled Torontonians.
This second phase is more ambitious; it hopes to extend the museum out into what is now largely underused sidewalk space.
Though it doesn’t quite add up to a full-fledged square, the museum’s Bloor frontage comes close enough make the difference irrelevant.
The ROM’s scheme will enliven this real estate through various means, most obviously a raised performance stage and a series of sharply geometric flower beds surrounded by benches. Greenery will be added where the severely angled walls of Daniel Libeskind’s sweeping 2007 addition meet the ground. There will also be a new emergency exit and room for a food vendor. The idea is to alleviate the greyness of the street with bright colours and engage passersby, at least temporarily. On those occasions when the performance space is in use — don’t forget that the University of Toronto Music Faculty and the Royal Conservatory of Music flank the ROM — the experience will be memorable.
But as anyone who has spent time in Europe knows, animating public space can be accomplished much more easily.
All it takes is a few tables and chairs, an espresso machine, a view and, most important, a steady stream of people.
As the great urbanist William Whyte observed, “What attracts people most, it would appear, is other people.” Few would disagree Bloor is a great place for people-watching. Today, foot traffic drops off a bit west of Queen's Park, but the additions should help change that.
European cities benefit from centuries of great architecture, of course, but that isn't mandatory. The museum — and even Bloor — will do in a pinch. Undoubtedly there are countless (mostly bureaucratic) reasons why the city would refuse the ROM permission to install a small café around a portable kiosk, but it would be enormously popular.
And why not at the corner of Bloor and Queen’s Park, where there’s sunlight and enough room for tables and chairs? Despite the mess, that’s enough to attract people in their hundreds to Yonge-Dundas Square.
In this deeply conservative of cities, many will take delight in their belief that the ROM’s initiative confirms what they said all along: Libeskind’s contribution is ugly. Certainly it has its faults, but the focus on the street is more an indication of the evolving relationship between city and institution. As ROM CEO Josh Basseches explains, “This is part of a larger vision for the museum as a critical gathering place for the city, a place to come and engage. That starts outside.”
By contrast, the Four Seasons Performing Arts Centre at Queen St. and University Ave. uses its part of the public realm to advertise cars, a sign of the economic pressure cultural organizations are under. As Yonge-Dundas reminds us, so is the city.
The ROM hasn't had to face that yet. But what corporation wouldn’t love to see its logo emblazoned across Bloor? As former Toronto mayor Allan Lamport might have said, we’ll jump off that bridge when we get to it.
For many, this initiative confirms what they said all along: that Libeskind’s 2007 addition is ugly