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As it reaches its 60-year anniversary, Nathan Phillips Square is still waiting for a much-needed transformation.Evan Buhler/The Canadian Press
There is a void at Toronto’s core. Its City Hall still looks like the future, and the adjacent Nathan Phillips Square should be humming. Instead the five-hectare open space, which turned 60 in September, has slumped into slow decay.
It’s not that no one’s noticed. The square has been designed and redesigned. What’s missing is execution and vision. City Hall hires designers, commissions plans, then abandons them.
Despite everything, Nathan Phillips Square is still a stage for 1.8 million Torontonians each year, hosting farmers’ markets where kale meets kombucha, and community festivals such as Taste of Vietnam.
At other times it is quieter. One recent morning, visitors drifted across the concrete and took photos of the Henry Moore sculpture there. To the south, white-haired tourists snapped selfies in front of the reflecting pool’s billowing fountains.
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The ramp that connects the square to a second-floor roof garden was closed.Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail
Some things worked. Others didn’t. The grand ramp that spirals up to City Hall’s second-floor roof garden was closed. Water fountains that once danced across the open square stood dry. To the south, the square met Queen Street with a long expanse of dirt covered in mulch – less an agora than a giant dog run.
The square today needs a few things. Portable chairs and tables for people to linger. Shade. Greenery. A real restaurant. The “slip lane” that speeds cars past its corner needs to be removed.
But most of all it needs vision. Toronto refuses to prioritize its most symbolic places, and it refuses to protect the designs of what it has built. Nathan Phillips Square is the most visible casualty.
When the Finn, Viljo Revell, imagined a city hall and civic plaza, he was responding to Toronto’s ambitious global design competition, which made a bold bet on public space. The city’s 1957 vision statement for the competition imagined that citizens would “sit on chairs and benches, stroll between flower beds or listen to music.”
That was tricky in 1950s North America, which struggled with the impacts of cars and suburbanization. Historic European squares were crowded places of commerce; this was meant to be largely ceremonial, yet also inviting.
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The ribbon-cutting ceremony for Toronto’s new City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square in September, 1965.City of Toronto Archives
It’s easy to blame the ensuing problems on architects’ hubris – but wrong. As is often the case with big building projects, the city never finished the landscape and didn’t make it hospitable. No “chairs and benches” here; instead the square acquired a jumble of monuments.
That should have been tidied up by a 2007 design competition during former mayor David Miller’s era. The winning design, led by brilliant locals PLANT Architect, would have cleared much of the clutter; added a stage (by architects Shore Tilbe Irwin) that doubled as a hangout space; renovated the elevated walkway that surrounds the square; and extended paving down to Queen Street.
This work went over budget, largely because of repairs to the massive parking garage under the square. Once again, the plan was half-built. Mr. Miller’s successor, Rob Ford, made it a political football. And then John Tory pandered and cheaped out.
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Water damage in a stairwell of the parking garage under Nathan Phillips Square. A project to improve the square after a 2007 design competition went over budget, largely because of repairs to the garage.Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail
A sign with the city’s name on it appeared in the centre of the square, filling some of the space that had just been opened up. A public roof garden was established and then closed. The Spirit Garden was built in the southwest corner, making one welcome departure from the plans.
But mostly history repeated itself. Last year, a discussion at council erupted about what was missing: seating, shade, greenery. Mayor Olivia Chow mused that the square needed to be “fixed.”
For Chris Pommer, an architect and partner at PLANT, this is déjà vu. “All of these issues were part of our work 15 years ago,” he said. The design team, including Adrian Blackwell, created square benches to be brought out between events; these are now stranded in the southwest corner. “It would be good to see our plan completed,” Mr. Pommer said, “so everyone can see how it works.”
Governance is a big problem. Under Mr. Miller, the city established a citizens’ board to watch over NPS. One member was Scott Mullin, a career foreign service officer. “Naturally I asked to speak to the manager of the square,” he told me recently. “I might as well have asked to speak to the man in the moon.” No one was in charge.
The committee’s recommendation: The city “establish one clear, central authority that is empowered to manage all aspects” of NPS.
That was 2009. For 16 years, nothing changed.
Then in July, the city quietly brought the square’s facilities management into its corporate real estate division. One team, for the first time, is responsible for the benches and the plants. Progress!
But those managers have no control over the programming of the square or its construction projects. And for now, much of the 2007 design has never been built.
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Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail
That could change with a new renovation, finally under way. (PLANT are serving as consultants.) The work will replace some of the parking garage waterproofing, clean up the ramp, and improve the square’s south and east edges.
There is a catch: The project will pause next year for the FIFA World Cup. For Mr. Pommer, it’s déjà vu again. Eleven years ago, the square’s renovation was “paused” for the Pan Am Games, then stopped. “It is an eerie echo,” he says. “We will do what we can to ensure the project continues.”
It must. But real change demands an authority who can act across bureaucratic boundaries.
The square and City Hall are linked, and they should be lively. So bring people in. Make it someone’s responsibility to make sure the square always supplies a seat, shade, and a coffee. The restaurant is now closed; replace it with a dining destination that will draw visitors every day. Keep the library from closing. And hire a producer to fill the square with performances and events – this year. These changes could be quick, cheap, and utterly transformative. Toronto’s civic heart is neither lost nor broken. It’s simply waiting for a pulse.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Nathan Phillips Square renovation will pause next year for the Pan Am Games. The project will pause for the FIFA World Cup.
