PRESENT DAY
Figure 2 - Heritage Square
and TD Canada Trust Tower, as well as quite a few historical buildings that have now been restored. The specific site of Calatrava’s design is an important intersection to many pedestrian accessible spaces. It is a 14m-wide space surrounded by the podiums of office buildings that house shops. It leads to a 33m by 33m square surrounded by older restored buildings, one of which houses the current Hockey Hall of Fame2. The site also has access to a public pocket park on Front Street which is often used by the employees working in the towers during lunch breaks. This site was picked for such a project as it had important connections to many different aspects within the surrounding neighborhood, and was a place that many people passed through on a daily basis. As well, it was the perfect location to implement public art, especially because at the time the site was chosen, it was underdeveloped and not used to its full potential in a booming business neighborhood. The location of the site is right atop one of Toronto’s most famous urban design moves, the PATH, an intricate maze of underground pathways which connect to many of the buildings in the city3. This underground corridor is used by thousands of people every day, to get to work, to go shopping and just to enjoy a stroll. The site in Brookfield Place has the opportunity to incorporating an entrance down to the PATH, which gives the employees working within the block, as well the public, a place to easily access it. Therefore, with this high traffic of pedestrians through the site, it will become a very busy and important place for people on a daily basis, and
must in turn accommodate everyone’s needs. Due to the fact that the majority of the people who will be present within the block will be attending work within the towers, the design must incorporate the social needs and wants of the corporate professionals. Different kinds of shops and restaurants exist within the gallery, and are geared towards supplying the demographics of the specific area. Such commercial enterprises include luxurious suit stores, and high-end restaurants, such as Pace Men’s Collection and Marche. Heritage square is surrounded by eleven historical building fronts that have been restored in order to maintain some of the area’s heritage, as these were some of the few buildings which remained after the 1904 fire. The thirty-three by thirty-three metre square serves as the “heart of the block”, creating an old city atmosphere, with restaurant patios and the bustling nature of corporate business passing through at a constant rate throughout the weekdays 4. This space is intended to be used on a daily basis throughout the day, as at night the doors are closed and access to the area is shut off. The gallery portion, however, is open to the public all day long5. Official plan The project was commissioned in order to accommodate the new “Percent for Public Art” program, geared towards improvements of downtown Toronto, which had become a centre for strictly commercial endeavours. This program was implemented by the Publics Art Commission, which was started by the City of Toronto Council 6. This movement stipulated that 433