The Beach streetscape along Queen East has slipped of late
But landscape architect Rodger Todhunter and the B.I.A. have a plan
By Megan O’Toole - The Globe and Mail
Buildings draped in blue LED lights, blue benches, blue planters and blue garbage containers. Lake-water blue. That’s the vision of a design team that wants to link, in a thematic way, the businesses on Queen Street East to the beachfront area the neighbourhood is named after.
The Beach is a major tourist attraction in the city, but the streetscape along the main Queen strip has deteriorated over the years, and visitors may be taken aback by how dowdy it has become - cracked concrete planters in varying states of deconstruction, clusters of hydro lines and transformers at every turn and a fair amount of business turnover.
The Beach Business Improvement Area is hoping to change that with a major makeover along the strip of Queen between Lockwood Road (west of Woodbine Avenue) and Neville Park Boulevard (one block shy of the R.C. Harris filtration plant). The BIA wants visitors who go to the beach to stay for the shopping by essentially creating an echo of the boardwalk on the sidewalk.
The concept was devised by Todhunter Associates, the company that just this month completed its master plan.
“We want to bring some of the waterfront element, the colour, onto Queen,” said landscape architect and project leader Rodger Todhunter. The colour blue will be the unifying element on a street that has become an aesthetic jumble, Mr. Todhunter explained.
“The area was haphazardly built out” between the late 1800s and the 1930s, he said, noting that a series of governance changes combined with the region’s unique topography resulted in a mishmash of architectural styles. The plan proposes that a new shade of cerulean blue be designated as the Beach’s official colour, and spread along the street - covering utility boxes, benches, planters, trash receptacles and more. This would help to reduce the amount of visual clutter caused by unchangeable elements, such as the masses of hydro lines.
Blue LED strip lighting would be installed along the outlines of key buildings, to stunning effect at night. Some of the buildings proposed are: the fire hall near Woodbine Avenue, the Lion on the Beach pub at Kenilworth Avenue and the four buildings at the corner of Balsam Avenue and Queen - The Fox rep theatre, The Goof restaurant, a coffee shop and Quigley’s restaurant - if the owners of those establishments want to implement it.
Other initiatives include stepping up the BIA’s branding presence by installing new signs and banners and developing “gateway” structures - a combination of lighting and signage - at major intersections that see the most traffic, such as Woodbine and Queen.
There will also be a hefty bloom of green among the waves of blue.
“We want to focus on greening wherever we can,” Mr. Todhunter said. The company recommends sprucing up tree planters with a variety of flowers and smaller plants - an initiative that is already under way - and beautifying the frontages of Kew Gardens Park and Ivan Forrest Gardens to attract more visitors.
“I’m very excited about the plans,” said Barbara DeAngelis, vice-chair of the BIA. Ms. DeAngelis, whose Pippins Tea Company has been in the Beach for three years, admits that the retailing landscape has shifted in recent years. “A business owner that has been in the Beach for 20 years… would tell you it’s not what it used to be,” she said.
Gene Domagala, a local historical expert, has lived in the Beach for more than 40 years and says he has “seen a lot of stores come and go” in the neighbourhood, primarily because it’s difficult for smaller start-ups to survive financially.
“The rent kills everybody,” he said, adding that rents on the prime strip are two or three times higher than in other areas.
The rejuvenation plan, which is expected to breathe new life into the area’s businesses, is broken into phases spanning 10 years, but people will begin to notice significant changes over the next two years, Mr. Todhunter said.
The total costs are estimated at more than $600,000, though he noted that’s only a preliminary figure and could change depending on what details are approved by the BIA board this month. Funding will come from the BIA and the City of Toronto Economic Development Office.
Catriona Mackenzie-Bird, owner of Funkybaby, says, “It’s time to spruce everything up and make it more of a destination spot, and let people know there is more than just the beach and a restaurant down here.”
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