Friday 8 September 2006
Street furniture
(Expanded from a comment I left on the Spacing Wire - it helped crystallize some thoughts I’d been meaning to write about here.)
The City of Toronto has been working on a Coordinated Street Furniture Program for a few months now. They write:
Over the past decade, a number of new street furniture elements have been added onto Toronto’s streetscape. Some items such as the Post and Ring Bike Stand, have been individual successes. However all of these pieces, including transit shelters, waste/recycling bins, benches and phone booths have been designed as separate elements. Publication vending boxes have also grown in number and vie for space and prominence with other street furniture on the public sidewalk.
A coordinated street furniture program will harmonize the design and placement of these street amenities in an aesthetically appealing, functional and accessible manner.
While this may mean a better unified streetscape - a “signature look” for our newspaper boxes and lampposts and whatnot - I’m not big on the thought of the whole city having the same look from end to end.
Having standards for our street furniture, that’s hardly a bad thing. But standardizing it is a different matter. I’d much rather see pieces designed by local artists, like the Style In Progress utility box project, or Intersection Repair in Portland.
I’d love to see a provision in the program to let neighbourhoods decide on their own furniture… or even a bit of money toward helping people (artists, neighbourhood associations, anyone!) to create/improve street furniture. What if there was someone you could go to for advice on bench standards, or on how to make sure your awesome-looking bike loops are theft-proof?
Hmm. A new how-to column for Spacing?
In my fevered imagination I’m seeing a cross between Make magazine and Christopher Alexander’s A Pattern Language… perhaps I should look around for a blog to contribute to, or start one.
Anyway, that got us excited all over again about the idea of building. Sean’s started talking about building a small set of offices that could serve as an “incubator” for green businesses. Sean suggested a music studio too. I’m picturing a network of people to hang out with, a room for coffee and hanging out, perhaps a little quiet space for people to do yoga or nap… I still have reservations about moving out of town, but all these ideas have me a bit more optimistic about the prospect.