Since that earlier work, BSA has focussed on improv- ing the quality of Toronto’s environment. In the St George Street Revitalization, a joint venture with van Nostrand diCastri Architects, BSA redesigned a busy urban street through the heart of the University of Toronto. BSA started by identifying ‘strings’ that linked and bound a progression from street, through grass verge, trees, walls and lawns to the original houses. Collectively the strings created a public understanding for the street. By the late 1990’s, the formal power of these strings was lost on a street where the original houses had been transformed or demolished to accommodate of a growing uni- versity. The subsequent widening of the street to accommodate four lanes of traffic further eroded the original spatial grammar. The redesign of St George Street was based on a new set of grammatical rules that reflected both the street’s new building scale and a new relationship between the buildings and students. The landscape had to change from being a demarcation of private property to an invitation to participate in public space. To do this, the vehicular street was narrowed and three new rows of trees were planted in gener- ous new grass verges and boulevards. The sides of the street were treated differently to respond to the varying forecourts and connections to the original campus to the east and the post-sixties campus to the west. BSA’s level of interest is broad. In a recent project at Trinity Bellwoods Park, BSA’s extremely pragmatic evaluation of pedestrian and cyclist activity was used to create an entwined parallel path system with different types of surfaces – asphalt for cyclists and limestone screening for pedestrians. These paths provide different experiences for the two user groups in terms of speed, sound and texture. Perhaps BSA’s most well-known project is the recently completed Dundas Square at the intersection of Yonge and Dundas - the heart of downtown To- ronto. The park occupies a one acre roof above a 270 car underground parking garage. BSA deliberately avoided creating a traditional, which could never have survived in this location. Instead the park is a hard-surfaced space with a careful disposition of sig- nificant events including fountains, areas for chairs and tables, performance space for special events and a shade structure.
In all their work, BSA has consistently investigated the underlying spatial grammar to understand what once was and seek ways to create a newer and more relevant grammar. Their research is underpinned by a fervent belief that parks and public spaces can do better for the city. While most ecological aware people understand the environmental dangers of a monoculture forest, the same awareness is rarely deployed in the creation of urban spaces. BSA insist that urban parks need a broader vocabulary of design ideas and materials coupled with a deeper investigation of the forces that create our urban environments. The end result is a careful weave of pragmatism and real place-making. c
Paul Whelan is a graduate of University of Waterloo School of Architecture and currently lives in Toronto where he is responsible for a small assort- ment of buildings and interiors.
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