There are a lot of chefs in the kitchen for the Canadian premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play, a triptych set in three time periods that tells the stories of amateur actors (played by real actors) involved in staging performances of the story of Christ. Three different Toronto independent theatre companies, all with reputations for innovative staging and creation in their past work, each tackle one of the three acts. Ordinarily, such a complicated arrangement would be to a show’s detriment, but not in this case. While you need to be prepared for a marathon of theatre (the show runs four hours, incluing two intermissions), you’re certainly going to get your money’s worth.

“A cross between Woodstock and the Algonquin Round Table,” is what Michael Redhill called it. Dorothy Parker grinding out an electric cover of “The Star Spangled Banner”? Well, not quite. Rather, Redhill, the literary curator for Luminato 2013, was describing A Literary Picnic, the annual festival’s celebration of storytelling, creativity, and the written word.

After a three-year hiatus, city council has ordered staff to resume work on looking at the long-term future of the Gardiner Express—specifically, the portion of it that runs east from Jarvis Street to the Don River. The gallery above gives a look at the various alternatives being considered, ranging from a restoration of the current roadway to its complete removal. Below, some history, and an analysis of what comes next.

The Gardiner’s History

From the Toronto Metropolitan Area Master Plan (1943): the thick dark lines show a proposed network of urban superhighways; the dark regions indicate existing or proposed industrial areas.

Toronto’s political history of the mid-20th century is all about highways, and the Gardiner Expressway is a central part of that story. Early designs for a full network of superhighways within the city focused as much on access to industrial lands as on the still-small core office area.

Once the Gardiner was built, with an elevated roadway that began to cut across the harbour, Torontonians got a better sense of what these urban highways might look like. Ever since, the very idea that we should have such roads has been championed by some and hated by others.

After the Gardiner was complete, many people turned their attention to the proposed Spadina Expressway, and the damage it would bring to the old central part of Toronto. A concerted opposition effort led to the decision to cancel the Spadina project in 1971, and focus more heavily on transit. In making that choice Queen’s Park saved Toronto from becoming a city buried under a web of ramps and flyovers.

The Current Problem

The Gardiner, and its eastern companion the Don Valley Parkway, are already in place, and give a taste of what might have been if the network was complete. But 50 years later, the Gardiner is in sorry shape. Patchwork repairs no longer will do, and a major rebuild of the structure is essential to keeping it safe for traffic into future decades.

Although at one point there were proposals to dismantle the entire Gardiner and replace it with a mixture of surface road and tunneled highway, this scheme is no longer on the table for the central and western sections of the expressway (from Jarvis westward). On May 7, 2013, Toronto council approved a $500 million reconstruction project [PDF] to rebuild the Gardiner starting in the west and working toward the core. This project will continue through to 2019 ending at Rees Street (east of Spadina).

East of downtown, the situation is quite different. Several years ago plans to rebuild the eastern portion of the expressway, work that was originally slated for 2013-17, were put on hold to allow for a robust examination of the road and its long-term future. City council called for an environmental assessment (EA) of possible alternatives for this section, including taking the roadway down. Public consultation began in March 2009, council approved the first stage of that EA (establishing its terms of reference) in August, and the Ministry of Environment signed off on the process on November 30.

Four broad options were included in the terms of reference for the Gardiner assessment:

• Maintain the existing expressway.
• Improve the existing expressway by making the space around it more inviting and actively used.
• Replace the expressway with a new structure.
• Remove the expressway and build a new road at grade.

The EA began with a design competition to examine possible treatments of both the expressway and the lands around it. Six firms were invited to produce plans of what might be done with the Jarvis-to-Don segment and their work finished in mid-2010.

Then there was an election.

With Rob Ford on the warpath against David Miller-era transportation plans, the prospect of actually dismantling a chunk of the Gardiner seemed less likely. City of Toronto and Waterfront Toronto staff decided to shelve the EA—a decision that came back to haunt them a few month ago, when Toronto council regained the political will to act independently of the mayor, and instructed staff to restart the assessment process.

How We Actually Use the Gardiner

The updated plan for revamping the Gardiner, showing the timeline for different sections of work. Image courtesy of the City of Toronto.

On June 13, 2013, the City of Toronto and Waterfront Toronto jointly presented the 2010 design proposals at a large public forum, the kickoff for the revitalized EA. These proposals, together with a few suggestions from interested members of the public, were displayed in considerable detail on large panels. For context, examples were shown of elevated highways in other cities that have been through similar discussions. The issues and the presentations are summarized in the slide deck [PDF] and a full video of the event.

One important factor is that the eastern Gardiner is not functionally the same as its western half. Originally, this road would have carried traffic not just from the Don Valley Parkway, but also the Scarborough Expressway, one of the unbuilt parts of the abandoned highway network. The existing structure is considerably wider than needed for the demand that is actually placed on it. Moreover, the Jarvis-to-Don segment functions mainly as a link from the DVP to the downtown core, and is not complicated by many busy ramps to the local streets. The eastern Gardiner serves a lower demand than the western section, and much of the traffic on that eastern section is bound for the core, not further west.

The challenge is to find a road configuration for the Gardiner and Lake Shore that addresses traffic needs while improving the space around the expressway structure.

The Design Competition

The results of the design competition tend to be heavy on architectural work, showing how a neighbourhood would be constructed around the expressway as opposed to the physical form of the roadway itself. Since the competition was held in 2010, development plans for the area have evolved, and some of the schemes may conflict with the newer proposals for the surrounding areas. The designs should be viewed as starting points for debate, as a source of ideas, not as definitive statements.

The eastern Gardiner suffers from its northern neighbour, the railway corridor, which blocks the evolution of the ground-level space as a passageway. It’s important to bear this in mind, especially for options that call for maintaining the current structure but improving the area around it. For that to make sense people would have to spend a bit of time in the area as a destination, not simply pass through on their way elsewhere. The presence of more attractive areas nearby—namely Queens Quay and the waterfront—pull foot traffic away from, not toward, the Gardiner. This is a challenge for those who would exploit the space under the existing structure.

Some proposals include a transit corridor, but this runs into a number of problems. The Gardiner will not be rebuilt until the mid 2020s, after development on Queens Quay is well advanced and a higher capacity local transit line already serves that street. Anything at the Gardiner corridor faces competition from what will already exist. Moreover, a new highway will end at Jarvis, and a transit line will have to find its way westward through current structures.

There is much to digest in the design proposals, and some of these will not survive cost or functional reviews. Toronto will likely wind up with a hybrid scheme, and every proposal is worth looking at for the elements it can contribute.

The City of Toronto is conducting an online consultation about the future of the Gardiner. You can submit your thoughts until June 30.

The 2013 Toronto Jazz Festival descends on the city this Friday with a huge “free for all” event. That means all of Friday’s programming at every Jazz Festival venue is, yes, completely free of charge. There will be concerts from local favourites Molly Johnson and Mary Margaret O’Hara, plus a show by Smokey Robinson and Martha Reeves, who will be launching the fest from its epicentre, Nathan Phillips Square.

Here’s a rundown of some of the shows worth checking out on Friday—and during the rest of the festival, when you’ll actually have to pay.

Folks who are planning on having a swim in the pool at Scadding Court Community Centre over the next few days may find themselves a little disappointed. Those who want to go fishing, however, will probably be ecstatic.

For the rest of the week, the Community Centre will be holding its annual Gone Fishin’ event, meaning its indoor pool will be an indoor fish pond. The pool has been drained, dechlorinated, and refilled with 2,000 rainbow trout, to be caught by local children and families.

Photo by Tony Lea, from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Earlier this year, after Bell Media quietly put Toronto’s Masonic Temple up for sale, the big question was what might become of the historic, 95-year-old building. Now we know that it won’t be following the rest of Toronto to a condo-y fate (at least, not for the time being): earlier this morning a company called Info-Tech Research Group announced that it has bought the property to use as an office.

Info-Tech is an information technology research and consulting firm with more than 300 employees. Currently, its head office is in London, Ontario, and it has a satellite office in Toronto. The plan is for the company to continue using the London office and move its Toronto operations into the temple.

CTV bought the building in 1998 for $2.4 million (it fell into Bell’s hands during a later corporate takeover). Joel McLean, Info-Tech’s president and CEO, says his company paid more than five times that much: $12.5 million. “I think it’s a fair price for the property in today’s market,” he said.

According to McLean, Info-Tech has no immediate plans to develop the site. “You buy it to accent and show off all the great history and heritage,” he said. “Not to turn it into condos.” But he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of some kind of expansion at some point in the future.

Though the company will be renovating the interior of the temple, the outside should stay more or less as-is. “We’re going to open up a few of the windows that got blocked in by MTV and CTV,” said McLean. “Other than that, fundamentally we’ll keep all the heritage elements.” The building is heritage designated, so there are legal obstacles to altering its appearance.

Info-Tech plans to keep the building’s concert hall intact, so it can be used for a once-annual black-tie charity concert. For the rest of the year, it’ll be used as office space for consultants and analysts.

Located near the intersection of Yonge Street and Davenport Road, the Masonic Temple was built in 1918. It was used by actual Freemasons for many decades before mounting debt forced its owners to lease it out as a concert venue, and then later sell it to a developer, who then sold it to CTV. The temple was most recently used as offices for MTV Canada, and as a performance space.

Info-Tech is hoping to move in within three or four months.

Aspiring entrepreneurs attend a panel on “the mobile revolution” at Project RHINO.

On Wednesday night, near King and Bathurst streets, 80 people gathered a few floors above The Banknote pub in the offices of Project RHINO. They were there for a talk on “the mobile revolution.” A panel of four startup founders discussed mobile devices, social media, and the ripples they send through the business world.

This type of businesslike camaraderie is typical at Project RHINO, a coworking space that launched in August 2011 that has since become regarded as one of the best in the city. Founded by Queen’s University buddies Jeffrey Howard and Neil Martin, it was made by startups, for startups. It currently occupies 2900 square feet, and the plan is to expand it to 5000 square feet within the next month.

“We just want to match demand,” says Howard. “Neil and I are entrepreneurs. If someone comes to us and says they have an idea and we were full and could not accommodate any more people, I would feel really bad.”

“Coworking” is a catch-all term for any sort of arrangement where a number of small-business owners or freelancers pitch in on the rent for a large, shared office space. Toronto has a handful of coworking spaces, some of them specific to one profession, others deliberately eclectic. Project RHINO caters to young entrepreneurs.

The idea came to Martin and Howard while they were working out of a living room in Toronto, toiling away on their own startup. One day they spotted an old “office space for rent” ad on the side of a building through the living-room window. It looked weathered and too good to be true, but they decided to check it out anyway.

“Toronto does have a lot of shared office spaces. We couldn’t find anything we liked, though,” says Howard. “Things were either too expensive or too restrictive.”

“We had no intention of starting a coworking space business,” says Martin. “We had our own startup that we were focused on, and we just fell in love with the space: the exposed brick, the skylights, and the whole top floor of this King West building. We just got into our heads that we’re going to work here. We didn’t know what it was going take. We didn’t have any money. Let’s just sign the lease and figure it out.”

They started out with just one other startup, Asterisk Media, whose founders they knew from their university days. Today, Project RHINO has 16 companies ranging in size from one to five employees, and working in various fields from IT support to fashion design. Getting more tenants on board was necessary to pay rent, and the space grew organically though word of mouth. At $250 a month, Project RHINO is one of the cheapest coworking spaces in the city.

Another defining feature of Project RHINO is a small room with couches, which functions as an art gallery. Right now the works of Jen Mann are on the walls, but RHINO has been receiving calls from local artists looking for space to show art, much to their surprise.

“We want to keep it fresh,” says Howard. “We want to give exposure to people. Essentially it becomes like a gallery or showroom in downtown Toronto. It benefits us and it benefits them.”

In Project RHINO’s boardroom, Howard and Martin will soon paint one wall with Idea Paint. It’s a special type of paint that, when applied, turns a wall into a whiteboard. It’s more cost effective than getting a white board of equivalent size. And it’s cool.

Project RHINO is also a place where startup founders can unwind and have fun. This is made easier by a keg fridge with Conductor’s Craft Ale on tap, and a foosball table. Neil Martin is currently the office champion.

“I think one of the most important things you can do when your building a community is to have events that bring your community together,” says Martin. “Otherwise you’re just like every other startup space.”

CORRECTION: June 17, 2013, 10:40 AM This post originally listed Steam Whistle as the beer on tap, it has been changed to Conductor’s Craft Ale. Also, Neil Martin is the foosball champ, not Jeffrey Howard.

Once a week, Vandalist features some of the most interesting street art and graffiti from around Toronto. Find something great? Email vandalist@torontoist.com.

Animal shelters are important, but they’re also usually at capacity. Thankfully for Toronto’s ownerless pets, the Toronto Humane Society now has a little extra green space for them to enjoy.

Today, Evergreen and Purina—the former an environmental charity and the latter a pet-food maker—launched a new rooftop haven for cats at the Toronto Humane Society’s building on River Street. The space, previously an open stretch of concrete with no shade, now features native plants, rest areas, and edibles designed to be safe for pets. As part of the fourth year of its Paws for the Planet initiative, Purina donated $50,000 to Evergreen in order to provide green spaces at five different animal shelters across Canada, this being one.

“Evergreen worked with the Humane Society to see what they wanted for their facilities,” said Ashley Emmett, a manager at Purina, “and the plan was developed from there.”

The new space at the Toronto Humane Society includes container vegetable gardens, which will grow food for shelter animals like rabbits and guinea pigs; catnip and cat grasses for the resident felines; and native trees and shrubs, which will provide shaded areas on the balcony for both the animals and the shelter volunteers.

“One of the main issues here was providing some shade and some shelter for the volunteers to use the space—to bring animals up here, to use the space for other purposes, or just to make the space available,” said Evergreen project manager JR Leo, who did the design.

The courtyard-like area features 14-foot-tall walls, which provide a unique opportunity for the volunteers to give cats some safe outdoor time. “It’s a space where they’ll be able to take the cats outside, where they normally wouldn’t be able to be,” Emmett said. “That’s what’s fantastic about this space in particular.”

“What this is is a culmination of all the Evergreen principles into a rooftop patio,” Leo said. It’s a space that incorporates native plants, improves the local economy—includes a food program—and optimizes an urban space by greening it.

If you’re jealous of the animals’ new digs, you can enter Purina’s contest to win $5,000 for your own backyard makeover. As a bonus, each entry means another $5 for Evergreen’s stewardship and restoration program, up to $50,000.

Photos by Terri Coles/Torontoist.

The 2010 design (above) and the 2013 design (below). Images courtesy of the City.

In 2010, the City unveiled a plan for replacing St. Lawrence Market’s bare, boxlike north building, a 1968 structure with none of the charm of its older and better-known companion across Front Street.

The 2010 proposal called for St. Lawrence North, used for Saturday farmers’ markets and other special events, to be demolished and replaced with a structure designed by Adamson Associates and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners LLP. The resulting six-storey edifice would have been highlighted by a glass atrium with a view of neighbouring St. Lawrence Hall, a separate green roof suspended over its main roof, and a system of adjustable external wooden louvres.

It wasn’t necessarily a great design, but it was definitely at least a solid “very good.” (Anyone familiar with the City of Toronto’s spending habits can already tell where this story is going.)

Often, in Toronto, even “very good” is a little extravagant. Here’s what the design looks like three years later, after the City had the architect alter the original plan to—and these are the City’s exact words—”meet the minimum functional requirements.”

Image courtesy of the City.

What once was a unique, ambitious design has devolved into what amounts to two enormous Quonset huts on stilts. The roof and facade have been simplified, the louvres—which were originally supposed to provide shade—are no longer made of wood, and they’re no longer adjustable. The building’s height has been reduced to five floors, and—although it’s been difficult to get details, because the architect’s office hasn’t returned calls and emails—it looks as though the interior ornamentation has been greatly reduced.

These new renderings are especially disappointing in view of the fact that the new St. Lawrence Market North will have a lot of civic importance. The bottom floors will still be a marketplace, but the top ones will be municipal courts.

A report that goes before the City’s government management committee on Monday says that the original design was plagued with cost issues virtually from the get-go. The original construction budget was $58.1 million, and Adamson Associates is now saying that even the new, stripped-down design will cost about $91.5 million to build.

To be fair, the original proposal was always in for some changes. The jury of experts that selected the Adamson Associates design from among five competing proposals in 2010 had qualms about the louvre system (“will be complicated to maintain and clean,” they wrote in their report), the roof structure (“overly complicated”), the height (“somewhat monumental”), and the materials (“should be reconsidered to be a little less polished in the urban fabric”).

Some of the essence of what was good about the original design—in particular, the atrium—is still there in the latest version.

But there remains a sense that the City is cheaping out on what could otherwise be a landmark. And this wouldn’t be the first time. Toronto’s history is full of architectural and infrastructural triumphs that never found enough funding to make it off the drawing board—so many, in fact, that they fill two books.

St. Lawrence Market North, in its current incarnation. Image from Google Street View.

Our political leaders are always ready to discuss allegedly tourist-friendly megaprojects, like casinos and convention centres, but it’s ultimately neighbourhood-level improvements, accruing over the course of decades and centuries, that turn a city into the envy of the world. Every crappy building we put up today is another crappy building future Torontonians will have to tear down once they grow tired of watching its concrete disintegrate.

If you don’t believe great architecture is a smart investment, consider this: if the original St. Lawrence Market North had been built, 45 years ago, as thoughtfully as its 19th-century twin, we’d be having a much less costly discussion right now. We’d be talking about preservation.

Public Works looks at public space, urban design, and city-building innovations from around the world, and considers what Toronto might learn from them.

Image courtesy Snohetta.

The decision to construct an extensive subway system must have been a relief to many in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a city of five million people where the testosterone-fuelled traffic (women are not legally permitted to drive) resembles a NASCAR race. It’s ill-suited to cyclists, pedestrians, or efficient surface transit.

Image courtesy Snohetta.

Norwegian firm Snohetta was recently selected as the designer for the downtown Qasr Al Hokm station, which will be one of the main hubs of the new system. In a nod to the city’s desert climate—hot, arid, and slightly more hospitable than the surface of the moon—the design takes its cue from a traditional oasis.

The above-ground portion of the station resembles a stainless steel bowl, which provides shade while allowing light into the interior through a circular opening. Two main entrances are connected by palm trees and irrigation channels, oriented in the direction of the Muslim holy city of Mecca.

Below, the main concourse includes shops and seating areas around a central garden, along with escalators to the lower platforms. This area is lit not just by natural light from above but by interior and exterior reflection off the surface of the bowl.

The project is expected to be completed by 2016.

Whether Toronto will build more subways (that is, after the Spadina-line extension to Vaughan Metropolitan Centre is finished) is uncertain. If we do, we won’t have Saudi petro-cash to pour into them. Still, a little bit of green might be worth considering.

Hat tip to Inhabitat.

WHERE: Outside Kensington Community School, near College and Bathurst Streets

WHEN: Wednesday, June 12

WHAT: A giant fence facing a busy stretch of College Street is nothing if not an invitation to graffiti writers looking for high-profile places to scrawl their names. Street artists Sean Martindale and Pascal Paquette had other ideas. At the request of the fence’s owner, Kensington Community School, and with the help of a City grant, the pair began work on this colourful mural before winter; they hope to finish it this week. It says, in giant letters: “Time is On Our Side / Yes It Is,” a nod to the song “Time is on My Side,” written by Jerry Ragovoy and later notably performed by the Rolling Stones.