The unveiling of six finalists bidding to visually stimulate the Mississauga skyline with a potentially stunning 52-storey condo tower have brought some futuristic enthusiasm to the auto-addled atmosphere that’s became synonymous with everything nasty, brutish and short about suburbia – a place where most social interaction takes place at Square One mall due to the fact that streets can’t be crossed without risking life and limb. The consultant tapped for the task of giving the city centre a more inviting atmosphere is Fred Kent of the Project For Public Spaces, whose approach to community rehabilitation seems to be universally adored, because it leaves little room for chaos. Kent’s theories on how to effectively concoct a town square setting have only increased in popularity as the cracks start to show in the dorky urban solutions of the 20th century: Cities that once looked to the skywalk as the ideal method of making a downtown core feel more like a shopping mall are now scrambling to figure out how feet an be shifted to real ground. Certainly, focusing on a total rethink of a public space is a more elaborate process than spouting forth sociological theories about how people are bound to abandon a city that fails to support its creative class – Kent has been openly critical of how starchitects like Frank Ghery are so hung up on their egocentric monuments that they end up shoving sidewalks out of the postcard picture. Mississauga may end up defining itself as a place that channels all of its artistic inclination into revamping the overall environment, rather than a few people waiting for flowers to sprout from the concrete. Better to proactively placate residents with the greenish serenity of a tea house, farmer’s market and wedding chapel than waiting for the inevitable day when those settings are rolled out exclusively beneath the registered trademarks of Starbucks, Wal-Mart and Home Depot.
Making a square dance in Mississauga [Toronto Star]
Mississauga saviour
February 1, 2006 · 1 Comment
Categories: nineohfive
1 response so far ↓
nowak // February 2, 2006 at 8:30 pm
I lived near that intersection where that condo is scheduled to go up for over a decade. I spent nearly 20 years of my 25 growing up in Mississauga watching condos go up and developments sprawl across. Living in Toronto now, I don’t miss that city at all.
I like the development — and perhaps the hope that Mississauga’s planners are finally going to “get it” — but I’m not going to hold my breath. While it’s a start, one condo development isn’t going to provide Mississauga with all the fixing it needs. And until that happens and a proper plan for growth is in place for the downtown, that condo (whichever design wins) is going to stick out like a sore thumb.
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