. Research Premises
Weston Rd: A Contested Main Street
“When I moved into this neighbourhood, I learned that the residents of this area refer to this portion of Weston Rd. as the main or main street.”—A resident.
Weston Rd: A Contested Main Street
“When I moved into this neighbourhood, I learned that the residents of this area refer to this portion of Weston Rd. as the main or main street.”—A resident.
The study focused on Weston Road, between Church St. (North) and Denison Ave. (South). It is undoubtedly one of the most dramatic streets in Toronto. Its low-rise commercial strip, which hosts several Afro-Canadian businesses, is surrounded by high-rise apartment towers, built from the 1960s on.
The street has a long history as a colonial trade route industrial area turned into a working-class area with a predominantly African-Canadian population. The area's history is well-visible through the many types of buildings of the visible layers represented by the different buildings along the street. The city has produced some studies that have driven the design of small public spaces. The recent opening of the GO station (2015) and the Avenue plan are anticipating densification.
The area is currently identified as an NIA neighbourhood.
The research project proposed a visual study of a segment of Weston Road and its performance as a just or unjust public space in the context of the fast-happening neighbourhood densification. The research group will collect and visualize socio-cultural, economic, and historical data and how they are connected to the production and reproduction of the primary public space forms.
Findings and observations will be evaluated through justice domains to understand how specific procedural and formal conditions inhibit or foster inclusivity, identification, social interaction, and cultural expression related to pedestrian, transit, and bike-oriented mobility.
The scope of the study was to develop a socio-cultural understanding of Weston Rd. as a contested main street. Interdisciplinary research methods bridging design and non-design ones, like law, sociology and history, that can complement official forms of urban design representation, like the official plan, while being implemented to study public space injustice in other NIA neighbourhoods in Toronto.
The street has a long history as a colonial trade route industrial area turned into a working-class area with a predominantly African-Canadian population. The area's history is well-visible through the many types of buildings of the visible layers represented by the different buildings along the street. The city has produced some studies that have driven the design of small public spaces. The recent opening of the GO station (2015) and the Avenue plan are anticipating densification.
The area is currently identified as an NIA neighbourhood.
The research project proposed a visual study of a segment of Weston Road and its performance as a just or unjust public space in the context of the fast-happening neighbourhood densification. The research group will collect and visualize socio-cultural, economic, and historical data and how they are connected to the production and reproduction of the primary public space forms.
Findings and observations will be evaluated through justice domains to understand how specific procedural and formal conditions inhibit or foster inclusivity, identification, social interaction, and cultural expression related to pedestrian, transit, and bike-oriented mobility.
The scope of the study was to develop a socio-cultural understanding of Weston Rd. as a contested main street. Interdisciplinary research methods bridging design and non-design ones, like law, sociology and history, that can complement official forms of urban design representation, like the official plan, while being implemented to study public space injustice in other NIA neighbourhoods in Toronto.
. Early Observations and Findings
The area is bounded on the west side by the Humber River and on the east side by the railway. The attempt to maintain the continuity of the colonial grid across the railway and the topography created huge blocks. Compared to the residential portion south of Denison Ave., this segment of Weston Rd. is mixed-use.
In the second half of the 1800s, the new buildings connected to the railway activities took advantage of the more oversized and irregular blocks. Initially, the new light industrial buildings occupied the empty spaces in the middle of the blocks, but slowly, they moved along the street. They began to change the existing small-scale, low-rise residential scattered clusters of buildings, creating the characteristic heterogeneous street edge with very few street walls.
The tight pattern stayed stable until the 1960s when apartment buildings began to populate the area.
The area is bounded on the west side by the Humber River and on the east side by the railway. The attempt to maintain the continuity of the colonial grid across the railway and the topography created huge blocks. Compared to the residential portion south of Denison Ave., this segment of Weston Rd. is mixed-use.
In the second half of the 1800s, the new buildings connected to the railway activities took advantage of the more oversized and irregular blocks. Initially, the new light industrial buildings occupied the empty spaces in the middle of the blocks, but slowly, they moved along the street. They began to change the existing small-scale, low-rise residential scattered clusters of buildings, creating the characteristic heterogeneous street edge with very few street walls.
The tight pattern stayed stable until the 1960s when apartment buildings began to populate the area.
. Aerial photo from 1959.
The building edge comprises a tight pattern of small-scale light-industrial and low-rise mixed-use buildings.
Courtesy of Toronto Archives
The building edge comprises a tight pattern of small-scale light-industrial and low-rise mixed-use buildings.
Courtesy of Toronto Archives