New Toronto Waterfront Plans Revealed

The excitement and controversy continues in the City of Toronto regarding the new waterfront plans proposed by TPLC and the Ford administration at the Executive Committee earlier this week.  (See the following link for copies of plans http://bit.ly/ps0zgl ).  The battle continues amongst the 3 newspapers in Toronto.  The Toronto Star remains adamantly opposed to any change from the vision of the Port Lands created by Waterfront Toronto and its administration by that entity.  The Globe and Mail seems to be in the middle with an open mind to listen to both Waterfront Toronto and the Ford administration.  The National Post appears to be firmly in favour of giving TPLC and the Ford administration the opportunity to create a new vision in the waterfront at an accelerated pace.   In Joe O'Connor's editorial in today's National Post, entitled "Doug Ford is a genius.  Maybe", Joe attributes much of Doug Ford's vision to the successful waterfront redevelopment in Chicago ( http://natpo.st/nb0UTJ ).  Some of my readers may recall my earlier blog of January 14, 2011 ( http://bit.ly/qdyAB6 ) where I too extolled the virtues of not only the waterfront development in Chicago, but the architectural excellence and design of the new buildings as well as the older buildings in downtown Chicago.  Pointing out the successes of other cities with waterfronts and getting ideas from those successes should not be criticized but welcomed.   The architect engaged by TPLC to come up with the new preliminary designs, Erik Kuhn, is well respected, world renowned and his preliminary plans are just that, preliminary.  They are a basis for an open review and discussion, but provide a refreshing new viewpoint that would result in less valuable city land (almost 90 acres) being taken up by the current flood protection plan proposed by Waterfront Toronto.   Sometimes to break out of inertia, it is necessary to take bold and creative steps.  The initiatives by TPLC and the Ford administration are just that.