[miketoronto]

I was at an architectural bookstore, and I saw this book written by some guy at the U of T. Anyway I did not buy it, but I skimmed it quick. And the book had an interesting idea. Basically the author thinks Toronto has sprawled, even in our inner city which is dominated by single and semi-detached housing.

His view is that if Toronto grew in a sustainable manner, from the start, and instead of building houses, built to the density of I believe it was the Upper East Side of Manhattan, then we could have fit the entire GTA population within the old City of Toronto limits.

Your ideas about this. You ever think about how little land our metropolitan population could have fit on with better building?
To think the entire GTA could have lived within 15min of downtown :)

I am not saying I believe in building Toronto like Manhattan. I happen to like Toronto's built form. But anyway interesting idea.

[Tony]

Interesting idea? You speak as if "density" is a brilliant idea that nobody has thought of before.

[miketoronto]

Interesting idea? You speak as if "density" is a brilliant idea that nobody has thought of before.

No. It is just interesting that someone wishes the entire Toronto area was built to the density of Manhattan. That would never happen. And could have its own problems.

[niwell]

Are you talking about "Toronto Sprawls" by Lawrence Solomon? Because if so you are kind of butchering the point of his book. That comparison was more of a what if, and he actually touts the density of the former City of Toronto, which at one point it it's history was the third (IIRC) densest municipality on the continent. Solomon's primary critique comes with the formation of the Metro government which equalized services across vast swaths of land and ostensibly furthering sprawl. If the pre-1950s model was continued a much more compact Toronto would have been realized.

Or you could be talking about "Unplanned Suburbs: Toronto's American Tragedy" by Richard Harris, which refers to the unplanned swaths of worker built shacks outside of city limits and lacking basic services. The density comparisons are made in there a couple times as well.

[vid]

Swathes of unplanned workers shacks happened in almost every city that filled its corporate boundary. Even Thunder Bay had them--their existence was a driving force behind our amalgamation.

[HAMRetrofit]

Toronto could easily reach the density of upper east side Manhatten. If planning guidelines like parking and policies preventing conversion of single detached houses into apartment units were lifted we could reach a whole new level of density. It is not actually building form that holds back density it is land use planning and policy.

[Rathgrith]

With this reasoning Toronto could turn in Coruscant someday. That would be super.

[worldwide]

Interesting idea? You speak as if "density" is a brilliant idea that nobody has thought of before.

tony let me introduce you to mike. tony, mike. mike, tony

[MonkeyRonin]

His view is that if Toronto grew in a sustainable manner, from the start, and instead of building houses, built to the density of I believe it was the Upper East Side of Manhattan, then we could have fit the entire GTA population within the old City of Toronto limits.

Why yes, but I don't think too many metropolitan regions build a city of 6 million at a continuous 45,000 person/sqkm density. :)

Remember that the UES is primarily residential - a complete city also needs commercial, industrial, and park space. We can't translate a neighbourhood's built form to encompass an entire city, especially what is essential a high-density suburb.

Also: At that density, we would need 133 sqkm. The GTA still wouldn't fit in the 97 sqkm of the old city.

[Gerrard]

too bad they didn't build to this density. It would have raise the city's temp by at least 4 degrees c.

[vid]

too bad they didn't build to this density. It would have raise the city's temp by at least 4 degrees c.

Yes, imagine Toronto, in the summer, hotter. You could take on Windsor to steal the humidex record! :rolleyes:

[NorthYorker]

Wow quite a coincidence (sorta), i'm reading this book right now. I find it mostly interesting, as each chapter focuses on a time period, but also seperated issues of politics/planning etc. Ill wait until I'm done to fully registar my opinion though.