[Northern Light]

Harvest has had film over the unit for a few months:View attachment 646654

I missed that for some reason.

Thanks.

The film aligns with the clip and messaging above.

 

[xmyth_]

Is that different from the place that displays charred cauliflower in a window?

 

[nightstreak]

No grocery stores.

The west moat would make a decent produce market. The glass ceiling with natural light would be a pleasant space to pick up some fresh groceries on the way home.

Metrolinx, Not a recent photo

Or are they planning to introduce other retail here? It's been closed ever since they completed renovating it. They won't even use it as an area to pass through from York and Front, it's just locked.

 

[kotsy]

The west moat would make a decent produce market. The glass ceiling with natural light would be a pleasant space to pick up some fresh groceries on the way home.

Metrolinx, Not a recent photo

Or are they planning to introduce other retail here? It's been closed ever since they completed renovating it. They won't even use it as an area to pass through from York and Front, it's just locked.

It's been used over the past two winter seasons for roller-skating, thanks to TD Bank.

 

[DSCToronto]

The west moat would make a decent produce market. The glass ceiling with natural light would be a pleasant space to pick up some fresh groceries on the way home.

Metrolinx, Not a recent photo

Or are they planning to introduce other retail here? It's been closed ever since they completed renovating it. They won't even use it as an area to pass through from York and Front, it's just locked.

I think that some of the work being done with the installation of the concrete blocks on Front involves waterproofing = the 'alcoves' behind the Bondfield tarp in photo had very leaking roofs. They may now be able to lease them out.

 

[WB62]

The goal was (I assume still is) to have retail in there. I really can’t see this moat or the carriageway being a route people take to go anywhere in the station.

Whatever opens in this space needs to be its own attraction that can draw in people, I don’t think a business that relies on foot traffic would be able to stay afloat here

 

[ndawgg]

Just saw Union’s smaller, more spaced apart cousins at the Berlin Airport.

 

[goodcitywhenfinished]

Just saw Union’s smaller, more spaced apart cousins at the Berlin Airport.

View attachment 646783

The setback base on these make them 10x more elegant than the ones we have.

 

[ward10]

All that time spent searching for something that would blend in, and yet this example shows that in fact standing out - with a certain honesty about the object's purpose - goes a long way to making it more elegant

 

[xmyth_]

Sad to have to be reminded yet again by the tragedy in Vancouver as to why these traffic blocks are necessary. What a terrible thing for those families and the community to have to go through.

 

[DSCToronto]

Sad to have to be reminded yet again by the tragedy in Vancouver as to why these traffic blocks are necessary. What a terrible thing for those families and the community to have to go through.

You can't have huge concrete blocks everywhere and I am not sure that if we need them that in front of Union is the first place I would select to put them. In Vancouver, the problem was on a street that had been temporarily closed for a street party and the barriers were being removed.

 

[WB62]

Now that the jersey barriers are gone the blocks are starting to grow on me, it’s definitely an improvement:

Still hoping these are painted into some fun colours. This would never happen but I would love if each one was painted by a different artist, just like the mural in Liberty Village:

Not too happy to see half of the already constrained hallway between the west wing and the skywalk get taken up by a TD ad:

 

[UrbanAffair]

I went to Union yesterday. The concrete blocks are embarrassing. This is what they have in Zurich, where I go each year to see family. We have a lot to learn from Swiss infrastructure. This would have worked. Removable to allow access, provide maximal force absorption. These also don’t sit too deep in the ground, and are far cheaper than raising and lowering electronic bollards. How is our transportation department still decades behind?


Sorry, just frustrating seeing our slow movement in Toronto on transportation. There is a streetcar track on Danforth that has been there forever and is obviously unused, and each year they patch the area with asphalt, it wears away, and cars bottom out on the streetcar track again. It just seems insane how we organize our funds for transport improvements and it feels like a major reform is needed. Sorry to rant.

 

[nightstreak]

I went to Union yesterday. The concrete blocks are embarrassing. This is what they have in Zurich, where I go each year to see family. We have a lot to learn from Swiss infrastructure. This would have worked. Removable to allow access, provide maximal force absorption. These also don’t sit too deep in the ground, and are far cheaper than raising and lowering electronic bollards. How is our transportation department still decades behind?


Sorry, just frustrating seeing our slow movement in Toronto on transportation. There is a streetcar track on Danforth that has been there forever and is obviously unused, and each year they patch the area with asphalt, it wears away, and cars bottom out on the streetcar track again. It just seems insane how we organize our funds for transport improvements and it feels like a major reform is needed. Sorry to rant.
View attachment 646880

Bollards apparently won't work on the Union Station forecourt because the sidewalk is very shallow with the subway station directly underneath.

But there's no reason they had to just plunk down these blocks seemingly without any public space expertise. There's zero reason to place them this close together other than having left it to the contractor to make that decision which allowed them to sell more of them and rack up the budget. There is no such thing as a one metre wide car that is a threat to public safety. A 2 metre gap would've prevented any car or truck from making it into the plaza while allowing an unobstructed pedestrian flow.

The fix: They should swap out every other block for a planter instead. It'll at least break up the visual clutter. Replace a row of them with bike share stations. There was one there for years and it worked just fine to prevent car incursions. Add seating to the blocks that remain.

This is from the same manufacturer that provides the blocks:

 

[DSCToronto]

Bollards apparently won't work on the Union Station forecourt because the sidewalk is very shallow with the subway station directly underneath.

But there's no reason they had to just plunk down these blocks seemingly without any public space expertise. There's zero reason to place them this close together other than having left it to the contractor to make that decision which allowed them to sell more of them and rack up the budget. There is no such thing as a one metre wide car that is a threat to public safety. A 2 metre gap would've prevented any car or truck from making it into the plaza while allowing an unobstructed pedestrian flow.

The fix: They should swap out every other block for a planter instead. It'll at least break up the visual clutter. Replace a row of them with bike share stations. There was one there for years and it worked just fine to prevent car incursions. Add seating to the blocks that remain.

This is from the same manufacturer that provides the blocks:

View attachment 646882View attachment 646883View attachment 646884

I think there is almost universal agreement here that the 'hostile vehicle mitigation' system at Union has been VERY poorly handled and that the City took far too long to replace the 'temporary' Jerseys and bought the worst offerings from their UK supplier. I doubt there are many here who would not have hoped that they could do better, if in fact we actually need anything more than small bollards to prevent illegal parking! Maybe time to move on?