Take Toronto’s stretch of Spadina Rd. from Bloor St. north to Davenport Rd. It could be one of the city’s grandest boulevards, compete with a castle at the end, but instead it’s a drab arterial, overbuilt with four lanes for traffic and sidewalks that are, like many in Toronto, all too narrow.
This part of Spadina has been in a kind of urban purgatory since plans were scrapped for the Spadina Expressway in 1971 that would have run in a massive ditch where Spadina is now, requiring the demolition of many homes. Despite this, there’s lots of potential.
RICHARD LAUTENS
The Native Canadian Centre of Toronto on Spadina Rd. Enhancing Spadina could lead to a more prominent First Nations presence here, writes Shawn Micallef.
Culture
Consider the cultural institutions on the street, like Alliance Francaise and the Spadina Theatre at Lowther Rd. As well, just north of Bloor is the Spadina Branch of the Toronto Public Library. Notice the Cree syllabics and “Mahsinahhekahnikahmik” written on the façade, which translates to “the lodge or place of the book.” Next door to the library is the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto in the former Ontario Bible College building. An enhanced Spadina could create a more prominent First Nations presence here.
RICHARD LAUTENS
One of the old tenement buildings across the road from the Alliance Francaise on Spadina Road.
Noble buildings
Spadina is home to some impressive houses and buildings, lined as it is with nearly mansion-sized Victorian and Edwardian homes that have been carved up into multiple apartments. The upside is they provide much needed rental units, but many are in poor condition with squadrons of rubbish bins scattered out front. The Spadina Gardens apartment building at 41-45 Spadina Rd. is one of the most elegant in the city, a rare specimen from 1906, an era when Toronto didn’t build many residential buildings like this.
RICHARD LAUTENS
A building by Uno Prii, left, with its concrete curves, is seen next to a newer building.
Old and new
Spadina, like the rest of the Annex, is blessed with mid-century modern apartment towers designed by Uno Prii, the Estonian architect who came to Toronto and designed space-age towers with swooping, elegant concrete curves. The Prii tower on the northwest corner of Spadina and Lowther has of late seen the addition of infill apartments on what was the underused lawn. It and a few other infill projects along thestreet have created a thicker urban fabric here.
RICHARD LAUTENS
A glass bubble leads commuters down into Dupont subway station.
Dupont station
Instead of the Spadina Expressway, Toronto opted for the Spadina subway and there is no station that embodies the spirit of the city’s robust and rather psychedelic 1970s expansion than does Dupont station. The two exits on the northwest and southeast corners are glass bubbles that lead down into the orange-tiled station with mosaics by James Sutherland called “Spadina Summer Under All Seasons.” Even the interlocking utility gates behind the northwest bubble are artfully designed by sculptor Ron Baird. Dupont station is further proof that on occasion Toronto can do public spaces with style.
RICHARD LAUTENS
The view under the rail bridge on Spadna Road.
Green Line Connection and Toronto Archives
North of the railway underpass Spadina intersects with the east-west hydro corridor that may one day be home to the Green Line, a linear park that is currently being championed by local residents and a “Friends of the Green Line” group. If that park goes ahead, a spruced up Spadina could create quite a nexus here as there’s green space on both sides of Spadina, a setback leftover from the planned expressway that never came. Here too are the Toronto Archives, the brain of Toronto if there ever was one, with its public gallery of rotating exhibitions and research hall.
Read the full post in Toronto Star
