| a Canadian disease, wait till they see the epidemic in India,
Brown and partner Kim Storey prepared a proposal for the Dundas-Carlaw
district several years ago that suggested a series of such buildings,
L-shaped and U-shaped, arranged to form courtyards. The idea is that
they would pick up where the old industrial warehouses in the area left
off. These earlier structures, which turned out to be remarkably
flexible, have many uses beyond those originally imagined. The new ones
would be even more so.
"This is not an exercise in nostalgia," Brown insists. "Those old
buildings weren't built well. We need to reconceptualize the warehouse,
build simple, elegant structures, not pedigreed buildings. The important
thing is to get the scale right."
It's too late for the Queen Street Triangle, but what about former
industrial areas in the east end and the waterfront? Though the
potential is enormous, it would require real estate agents, developers,
planners and politicians to think differently.
That's asking a lot of communities known for their conservatism and lack
of creativity.
It would also demand that officialdom cede a certain amount of control
to individual residents. But if the trend of the last 10 or 15 years has
been from single-use zoning to mixed-use, this approach simply continues
in that direction. It would internalize within a building the same
forces that have already transformed whole neighbourhoods. Until now,
creative areas have popped up accidentally, in some cases, illegally.
Rather than continuing to fight the phenomenon, then allowing developers
to destroy it, the city could easily foster it.
All that's needed is a little creativity.
cont'd....
http://www.thestar.com/article/180689