Great Canadian Shameful Parking Lot Thread

[ssiguy]

Those maps showing parking are just too cool...where do you get them?

[J.OT13]

As someone mentioned before, the good thing with parking lots is having blank canvases to build a visionary, large scale developments.

I'm actually a little down about the fact that Ottawa has few parking lots downtown and that most of the expanses of empty/semi empty land around downtown (Le Breton Flats, Bayview, Hurdman, Tunney's, Booth Complex, Rockliff Base) is owned by visionless governmental bodies. Luckily, a private developer has been able to purchase most of the former industrial lands on the river where we can expect something a little more up to capital standards.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by OTSkyline

Finally something that Ottawa "excells" in... Yes the surface lots around Canadian Tire Centre are bad but our downtown is nothing like that... There is a lot of density and very little empty lots or surface parking.



I think this picture is a couple of years old too... And the couple of ones we currently have are getting filled with developments. I can only think of 2 at the top of my head right now.

Well, this picture was taken around 2004, based on the construction of the CBC building on Queen (2 blocks from Parliament Hill, centre).

I can think of about 14 new developments since this picture was taken. No wait, 15.

[Beedok]

Ottawa's CBD is so clear cut.

[Innsertnamehere]

Quick Toronto map, with all lots that have development plans excluded:

[SignalHillHiker]

Wow, that's really not bad when you consider the scale of the area pictured. And basically nothing in the core.

[Ramako]

Yeah the boom took out most of the big lots. Soon we'll be left with having to intensity the existing built form.

[Innsertnamehere]

The east end obviously still has some issues, but yes. A lot of the east end is gas stations and 1-2 floor industrial buildings which aren't much better than parking lots though.

[SignalHillHiker]

Any obvious reason why development seems to have grown back from the lake rather than along its shore?

[Innsertnamehere]

Well the city is sort of shaped like an upside down T, with the large urban areas stretching along the lake south of queen, but the main reason development has mainly focused north south is because that is where the subway lines are. if/once the DRL gets build I think you will see development have a more east / west focus. (which it already does, most of the parking lots eliminated in this boom have been in the east and west ends as well as along the lake)

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Any obvious reason why development seems to have grown back from the lake rather than along its shore?

I suspect a lot has to do with the way the subway is oriented.

[SignalHillHiker]

Wow, another great case for putting in substantial public transit wherever you want development to go. Love that.

[Innsertnamehere]

well the subway line is 60 years old, and was built to replace an overcrowded streetcar line rather than direct development north south. When the subway was constructed the tallest building in the city was commerce court north at 32 floors. Its less planners actively trying to direct development and more of it just following where the transit line was built.


Just think of it this way: There is a reason that highrises line almost the entirety of yonge street.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Quick Toronto map, with all lots that have development plans excluded:

http://i.imgur.com/1nS6qS8.jpg

The whole eastern waterfront has development plans, even if specific lots don't have specific projects attached to them yet.

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Any obvious reason why development seems to have grown back from the lake rather than along its shore?

The waterfront and adjacent areas were all industrial, and everything south of the train tracks is land fill built in the 1920s. Not really desirable places for residential or commercial growth until more recently.

[Innsertnamehere]

I realize that, But when I say "planned development" I mean stuff that we have seen solid proposals for individual buildings.



a more updated map with lots of missing lots:

[Nouvellecosse]

Considering how massive this recent boom has been, I find it incredible there are as many left as there are.

Would be interesting to see an equivalent illustration for say, 2000 or 2005.

[SkahHigh]

Does anyone have a Montreal map?

[Ramako]

When I see all those red splotches just to the northeast of Toronto's CBD I start salivating at the possibilities. Given the proximity to Ryerson, the Eaton Centre, the financial district and the Yonge subway, that neighbourhood has the potential to get some nice height. The area east of Yonge-Dundas square is particularly primed for a boom. We're already seeing it with Core, Pace and Dundas Square Gardens (though I'm not a fan of the design of the latter).

[Ramako]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

Considering how massive this recent boom has been, I find it incredible there are as many left as there are.

Would be interesting to see an equivalent illustration for say, 2000 or 2005.

A timelapse showing each highlighted parking lot disappearing (or appearing) over time would be pretty cool.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

The waterfront and adjacent areas were all industrial, and everything south of the train tracks is land fill built in the 1920s. Not really desirable places for residential or commercial growth until more recently.

Yep. The inverted T shape of development in Toronto actually predated the subway considerably. Hence why it was built on Yonge and Bloor. The downtown waterfront was traditionally industrial and more or less reserved for those purposes historically.

One of the more interesting development patterns is that the city spread pretty far west on Bloor street prewar with a gap between the Kingsway area and Mimico which developed along the lake. That being said, the lakefront was mostly developed as far west as Port Credit by the 1940s.

http://goo.gl/maps/ExYG0

If you go south you hit 1950s neighbourhoods till you get to the lake.