Downtown: Re-imagining the Public Realm in the Toronto Financial District

Many of the public spaces of the Toronto Central Business District remain empty and dormant after office hours. While during the Monday to Friday workday, the streets are overcrowded and difficult to navigate, after office hours, they are depopulated and severely underused. In Toronto, about two hundred thousand people filter into the spaces of the Financial District every day. At the end of the business day the vast majority of them leave. With a unique blend of open spaces tucked in between super high towers, the CBD has the potential to offer a collection of public spaces that might not be found elsewhere in the city. Part One will focus on identifying this impoverishment, this lack of consistent social density in the CBD. Part Two will offer possible site-specific solutions to address these issues. By this we can hopefully re-imagine that part of the city with the public realm uppermost.