Errata in manuscript. Multiple page numbering issues. Duplicate numbers: 171, 189; omitted: 211

This thesis examines the problems of building on Toronto’s main streets. These arterial mixed-use corridors that define much of the public face of the city are the subject of ongoing residential intensification efforts through the Official Plan policies of the City of Toronto. The form that this new development takes can either reinforce and improve existing streetscapes and housing stock, or it might –as is already happening– replace the long-established vital urban patterns of main streets with very different, less versatile, and less diverse building forms with a diminished standard of both urban and interior living space. Part I considers main streets at the urban scale, while Part II is a discussion of housing quality and architectural aims that informs a series of proposed prototypical building designs to be located on a site on Queen Street West as an example of site conditions found on main streets in a variety of locations throughout the city. To understand the urban implications of main street building, this study looks at the specific historical factors that have shaped Toronto’s main streets, and looks at why they continue to have value and have become a focus for intensification today. It revisits key episodes in Toronto’s redevelopment planning over the last four decades, particularly the St. Lawrence Neighborhood Plan, the Ataratiri Plan, and the Housing on Toronto’s Main Streets Initiative. The precedent historical research points to the need for small increments of development on main streets in order to maintain the economic, social, and visual diversity that have made them such a vital and dynamic component of the city in the past. This scale of development calls for new building types to respond to the very particular site conditions of main streets. Modern building types that are typically used in these situations are ill suited to respond to these conditions, provide a limited range of unit types, and are leading to compromises of urban and interior spatial quality when applied to these sites. The architectural discussion centers on the observation that traditional main street lot patterns, despite inherent rigidity and rationality, have nonetheless proven to be a functionally flexible urban structure that has accommodated and encouraged a remarkable diversity of uses, architectural forms, and individual interpretations over time. Comparable complexity and diversity of spatial qualities can be found in a variety of architectural design approaches, including those of Adolf Loos’ ‘Raumplan’, Rudolf Schindler’s ‘Space Architecture’, or Herman Hertzberger’s concept of ‘Polyvalent Form’. The spaces created by these architects are an architectural analogue of the dynamic, richly varied urban characteristics of Toronto’s existing main streets. Both create the opportunities for individual expression and continually varied spatial experience that better reflects the complexity of both urban and domestic life. These precedents of architectural form -imbued with qualities of multiplicity, heterogeneity and reinterpretability- propose a counterpoint to the standard of functionally rigid, spatially limited and typologically predictable buildings and living spaces currently available. The proposed building designs are intended to widen the options for dwelling within the city, while offering an update and intensification of main streets that reinforces rather than replaces desirable existing urban patterns.

This thesis examines the problems of building on Toronto’s main streets. These arterial mixed-use corridors that define much of the public face of the city are the subject of ongoing residential intensification efforts through the Official Plan policies of the City of Toronto. The form that this new development takes can either reinforce and improve existing streetscapes and housing stock, or it might –as is already happening– replace the long-established vital urban patterns of main streets with very different, less versatile, and less diverse building forms with a diminished standard of both urban and interior living space. Part I considers main streets at the urban scale, while Part II is a discussion of housing quality and architectural aims that informs a series of proposed prototypical building designs to be located on a site on Queen Street West as an example of site conditions found on main streets in a variety of locations throughout the city. To understand the urban implications of main street building, this study looks at the specific historical factors that have shaped Toronto’s main streets, and looks at why they continue to have value and have become a focus for intensification today. It revisits key episodes in Toronto’s redevelopment planning over the last four decades, particularly the St. Lawrence Neighborhood Plan, the Ataratiri Plan, and the Housing on Toronto’s Main Streets Initiative. The precedent historical research points to the need for small increments of development on main streets in order to maintain the economic, social, and visual diversity that have made them such a vital and dynamic component of the city in the past. This scale of development calls for new building types to respond to the very particular site conditions of main streets. Modern building types that are typically used in these situations are ill suited to respond to these conditions, provide a limited range of unit types, and are leading to compromises of urban and interior spatial quality when applied to these sites. The architectural discussion centers on the observation that traditional main street lot patterns, despite inherent rigidity and rationality, have nonetheless proven to be a functionally flexible urban structure that has accommodated and encouraged a remarkable diversity of uses, architectural forms, and individual interpretations over time. Comparable complexity and diversity of spatial qualities can be found in a variety of architectural design approaches, including those of Adolf Loos’ ‘Raumplan’, Rudolf Schindler’s ‘Space Architecture’, or Herman Hertzberger’s concept of ‘Polyvalent Form’. The spaces created by these architects are an architectural analogue of the dynamic, richly varied urban characteristics of Toronto’s existing main streets. Both create the opportunities for individual expression and continually varied spatial experience that better reflects the complexity of both urban and domestic life. These precedents of architectural form -imbued with qualities of multiplicity, heterogeneity and reinterpretability- propose a counterpoint to the standard of functionally rigid, spatially limited and typologically predictable buildings and living spaces currently available. The proposed building designs are intended to widen the options for dwelling within the city, while offering an update and intensification of main streets that reinforces rather than replaces desirable existing urban patterns.

Errata in manuscript. Multiple page numbering issues. Duplicate numbers: 171, 189; omitted: 211 / The central area of a city is commonly referred to as the heart of the city, since it supplies life-giving energy to the cells and tissues of the city. The circulatory system formed by veins and arteries moves the life-stream--people, goods,messages, and ideas, from the heart to all parts of the organization, and back a in. Although the vitality of the urban core influences the circulatory system, the sound functioning of the heart,cells and tissues of the city depends largely on the health of the circulatory system. The lungs of the city are refreshing and recreating elements such as open spaces, landscape, and embellishments. Then circulatory system and the refreshing and recreating elements are integrated for the sound functioning of the city. [...]

published_or_final_version / Urban Design / Master / Master of Urban Design

“I want my street to be like an extension to my driveway, where the kids can play safely and where the traffic does not bother us,” said one resident. Another said that she “likes traffic... We live in a city.” This gives an idea of the broad range of opinions and views that exist on traffic. Traffic in local streets in a concern for residential amenity. There is always conflict between the residential amenity and traffic access functions of local streets. There is much debate on what a true local road is. The concept of environmental capacity was developed to identify a suitable maximum traffic volume on local streets, without overly adversely affecting residents. It was first introduced by Buchanan and Appleyard in separate research in the 1960s. Both men settled on thresholds of 2,000-3,000 vehicles per day. Chesterman, in 2009, carried out a study in Christchurch, surveying residents on four local streets with varying traffic volumes. He found residents living on busier streets felt that their streets were busier, noisier and less safe. There was also an increasing trend for these residents to have their houses turned away from the street and they tended to have less personal involvement with their neighbours. He found that perhaps a more suitable environmental capacity estimate was between 1,500 and 2,000 vehicles per day. This study looked at further Christchurch streets, this time with street treatments, such as street calming and tree plantings, aiming to find an environmental capacity for these streets as well as seeing whether the street treatments affected the perceived environmental capacity. As well as reinforcing most of the conclusions found by Chesterman, a higher environmental capacity of around 2,000 vehicles per day was found for the surveyed streets. This suggests that indeed, street treatments such as those used in the surveyed streets can increase the environmental capacity, which has implications for local councils who want to maintain road traffic carrying capabilities without having unsatisfied residents.

Este trabalho consiste em uma leitura da formação e da expansão da cidade de São Paulo. Aborda diferentes tipos de vias públicas, originados de um processo de formação planejada, sob a ótica do projeto como instrumento qualificador e renovador da cidade, no período entre 1898 e 1945. Em seu desenvolvimento, o trabalho considera não só o conhecimento técnico empregado na construção das vias, ligado aos processos de circulação, mas também sua integração com outras questões urbanas prioritárias, como saneamento, transformação estética e forma de expansão territorial. Estrutura-se na coleta, organização e interpretação de dados, pautados sobre os planos urbanos existentes no período e fundamentados em critérios técnicos, legais e normativos, assim como na análise de destacados projetos urbanos, executados durante os anos de afirmação da cidade. A pesquisa identifica ainda dois tipos distintos de vias públicas projetadas na cidade e os exemplifica por meio do conhecimento técnico acumulado por seus autores e por meio do modelo de construção da Avenida Nove de Julho, como integrante do Sistema Y e eixo de expansão à região sudoeste da cidade. A perspectiva aqui exposta é a da formação de um repertório de ações e critérios de projeto quando do tratamento do espaço público, apoiada na observação da produção das gerações precedentes. Pretende com isto avaliar as condições de formação da estrutura viária paulistana a fim de estabelecer uma contribuição para as vias a serem recuperadas ou mesmo projetadas, identificando suas características qualitativas. O conhecimento sobre a forma do espaço e a reconstrução de sua história constitui, portanto, uma das maneiras de orientar a atual ação de projeto sobre a cidade contemporânea. / This work intends to look at the formation and expansion of São Paulo city. It addresses different types of streets and avenues, originated from a process of planed formation, with focus on project as an instrumente that brings quality and innovation to the city, in the period from 1898 to 1945. In its development, the work considers not only the technical knowledge employed on the public ways - linked to the process of circulation - but also its integration with other prioritary urban issues such as sanitation, aesthetic transformations and options of territorial expansion. It is structured in data collection, organization and interpretation, based on the existing urban plans from that period and on technical, legal and regulatory criteria as well as on the analysis of important urban projects, executed during the years of the citys consolidation. The research also identifies two different types of public ways projected in the city, and exemplifies them by means of the authors accumulated knowledge and by the model of construction of the Nove de Julho Avenue, as an integrant of the Y system and axis of expansion to the southwest of the city. The perspective herein exposed is of the formation of a series of actions and project criteria for the treatment of the public space based on the observation of the production of the previous generations. The intention is to evaluate the conditions of way structure formation in São Paulo in order to establish a contribution to new public ways that will be projected or recovered, identifying its qualitative characteristics. The knowledge about the shape of the space and the reconstruction of its history is, therefore, one way of orienting the current projects of the contemporary city.

O Bairro Cambuí surge com o início do povoamento da cidade de Campinas, no século XVIII, pelas incursões dos bandeirantes pelo interior do Brasil, através de uma estrada rústica que passava pelo local, denominada caminho dos Goiazes; um dos descampados, campinhos ou campinas do qual a cidade originou-se corresponde às proximidades da atual Praça XV de Novembro. O nome do bairro se deve à presença abundante, na época, da espécie denominada cambuí, Myrciaria tenella (DC.) O.Berg., em sua área, que a população, originalmente, chamava de cambuizal. O bairro constituiu-se, inicialmente, em morada e habitação para prostitutas e negros escravos, fugidos e libertos, tendo relação direta com essa importante etnia; posteriormente, passou a ser residência da nova elite cafeeira em ascensão. O ajardinamento público, a arborização viária do bairro, e da cidade de Campinas foram realizados para, juntamente à outras melhorias urbanas, transformar suas péssimas condições sanitárias, resgatando a auto-estima do campineiro e a sua qualidade de vida, após várias epidemias, que dizimaram e expulsaram parcela significativa de sua população. O acúmulo de capital oriundo da cultura do café permitiu a criação do grande patrimônio arbóreo, tanto do bairro, atualmente, com 47.000 moradores, quanto de Campinas, referendando-a. Realizou-se o censo da arborização viária do bairro, totalizando 2.087 árvores vivas, distribuídas em 117 espécies, 94 gêneros e 42 famílias identificadas, 21 indivíduos arbóreos e 12 palmeiras não identificadas, além, de 74 mortas. Existem 25,2 árvores a cada Km de calçada evidenciando uma carência, de 74,8 árvores/Km, nos seus 82.880m de passeio, resultando num total de 6.199 indivíduos, segundo a Lei 11.571. A espécie predominante foi a sibipiruna, Caesalpinia pluviosa DC., com 261 indivíduos (12,51%). As nativas representaram 1.117 exemplares (53,5%), distribuídas em 46 espécies; as exóticas, 937 (44,9%). As 10 primeiras espécies concentram (54,2%), 1.131 árvores, destacando-se a presença de 5 nativas e 5 exóticas (2 delas arbustivas); a primeira colocada desta categoria, a pata de vaca, Bauhinia variegata L., com 129 indivíduos (6,18%). Os principais problemas foram: afloramentos de raiz (24,39%), árvores desequilibradas por poda (22,62%), pragas (6,09%) e doença (1,39%). As substituições recomendadas por risco, sub-aproveitamento do local de plantio (pela utilização de arbustos), senescência das árvores e morte totalizam 497 indivíduos (23,81%). A falta de fiscalização, planejamento, acompanhamento e manejo técnicos, práticas adequadas por parte das concessionárias de serviços públicos aéreos e subterrâneos, a especulação imobiliária, prestadores de serviços, comércio, a própria população, o tráfego intenso e a poluição de veículos, tornam crítico o estado atual dessa arborização, ameaçando a história do bairro. Este bem comum deve ser o foco de políticas públicas que garantam a sua efetiva proteção. Como um dos benefícios à municipalidade, destaca-se, a área ocupada pela copa das árvores (13,92ha), superior à de várias áreas verdes centrais municipais. / The Cambuí neighborhood first appears with the start of the colonization in the city of Campinas in the century XVIII, by the bandeirantes incursions crossing the interior of Brazil, utilizing a rustic road which was located in the region denominated Goiazes way. One of the open descampados, campinhos , or campinas which the city originated from is near the XV de novembro square. It was named after the common presence, at that time, of the species denominated cambuí, Myrciaria tenella (DC.) O.Berg., in its area which the population called cambuizal and subsequently, Cambuí. The neighborhood was, initially, residence of prostitutes and black slaves, escaped and free, having a close relation with this important ethnic group; later on it became residence of the coffees new elite. The public gardening, the street arborization in the neighborhood and in the city of Campinas were realized, with other urban improvements, to transform its bad sanitary conditions and to recover the self esteem of Campinas citizen and his quality of life, after many epidemies, that decimated and banned significant portion of its population. The accumulation of capital produced in the coffee culture, allowed the creation of the big patrimony of the neighborhood, currently with 47.000 inhabitants, and as of Campinas and which transformed the city, making it a reference. The cense of the neighborhoods street arborization was carried out, totalizing 2.087 of live trees, distributed in 117 species, 94 genus and 42 families identified, furthermore, 74 dead. There are 25,2 trees on each Km of sidewalk, resulting in a less of 6.199 individuals, according the law 11.571. The predominant species was the sibipiruna, Caesalpinia pluviosa DC., with 261 individuals (12,52%). The natives represented 1.117 exemplaries (53,5%), distributed in 46 species; the exotics 937 (44,9%). The 10 first species concentrated (54,2%), 1.131 trees, highlighting the presence of 5 natives an 5 exotic (2 of it shrubs); the first classified on this category, the pata de vaca, Bauhinia variegata L., with 123 individuals (5,9%). Its main problems were: raising of roots (24,39%), lost balanced trees by prune (22,62%) plagues (6,09%) and disease (1,39%). It was indicated 497 individuals (23,81%) to be substituted and 1.470 potential places to immediate planting. The lack of control, planning, technical handle, adequate practices of the concessionaries of aerial and underground public services, real state speculation, commerce, own population, intense traffic and pollution of vehicles, make the current state this arborization critical, menacing the history of the neighborhood. This common area must be the focus of public politics to guarantee its effective protection. As one of the benefits to the municipalities, it stands out the fact that the area occupied by trees tops (13,92ha) is higher than many municipally central green areas.

As ruas e o papel que elas representam para a cidade e para a vivência urbana são abordados nesse trabalho através de seus aspectos materiais e imateriais: suas características ísicas, sua concretude e as relações, os usos e os conteúdos que abrigam. Tal distinção importa para entender a relação dialética que se instala; a morfologia ísica resulta da coniguração social, ao mesmo tempo que essa é conformada pelo ambiente ísico. A partir dessa constatação, pretende-se estudar diferentes e representativos peris de ruas na história da cidade e do urbanismo. A modernidade assistiu a intensas transformações do espaço urbano com o advento das grandes cidades, bem como da experiência urbana proporcionada em tais ambientes, criando uma inédita cena urbana que tinha na rua sua principal representante. O caos que essas cidades apresentavam, fontes simultaneamente de prazer e angústia, de excitação e desorientação, foi estreitado de seus sentidos nos ordenados espaços planejados pelo racionalismo moderno e pelo urbanismo funcionalista. O mal estar sentido por uma vida urbana que não conseguia se desenvolver em sua plenitude em tais espaços resultou em um movimento de crítica e resistência que tomou corpo na década de 1960 reivindicando o retorno, a volta da conexão entre a vida cotidiana e o espaço urbano, e que tem na rua o palco e o motor de suas ações, destacando o seu potencial de transformação da paisagem e da experiência urbana. / The streets and the role they represent for the city and the urban life will be approached through its material and immaterial aspects: its physical characteristics, its concreteness and the relations, uses and contents that they shelter. Such distinction matters to understand the dialectical relationship that sets in; the physical morphology results from the social coniguration, at the same time that it is conformed by the physical environment. From this conirmation, we intend to study different and representative street proiles in the citys history and urbanism. Modernity witnessed intense transformations of urban space with the advent of large cities, as well as the urban experience provided in such environments, creating an unprecedented urban scene that had on the street its main representative. The chaos that these cities presented, sources simultaneously of pleasure and anguish, of excitement and disorientation, was narrowed of their senses in the orderly spaces planned by modern rationalism and functionalist urbanism. The malaise felt by an urban life that could not develop in its fullness in such spaces resulted in a movement of criticism and resistance that took shape in the 1960s demanding the return of the connection between daily life and urban space, and that has in the street the stage and the motor of its actions, highlighting its potential of landscape transformation of the landscape and the urban experience.

As ruas e o papel que elas representam para a cidade e para a vivência urbana são abordados nesse trabalho através de seus aspectos materiais e imateriais: suas características ísicas, sua concretude e as relações, os usos e os conteúdos que abrigam. Tal distinção importa para entender a relação dialética que se instala; a morfologia ísica resulta da coniguração social, ao mesmo tempo que essa é conformada pelo ambiente ísico. A partir dessa constatação, pretende-se estudar diferentes e representativos peris de ruas na história da cidade e do urbanismo. A modernidade assistiu a intensas transformações do espaço urbano com o advento das grandes cidades, bem como da experiência urbana proporcionada em tais ambientes, criando uma inédita cena urbana que tinha na rua sua principal representante. O caos que essas cidades apresentavam, fontes simultaneamente de prazer e angústia, de excitação e desorientação, foi estreitado de seus sentidos nos ordenados espaços planejados pelo racionalismo moderno e pelo urbanismo funcionalista. O mal estar sentido por uma vida urbana que não conseguia se desenvolver em sua plenitude em tais espaços resultou em um movimento de crítica e resistência que tomou corpo na década de 1960 reivindicando o retorno, a volta da conexão entre a vida cotidiana e o espaço urbano, e que tem na rua o palco e o motor de suas ações, destacando o seu potencial de transformação da paisagem e da experiência urbana. / The streets and the role they represent for the city and the urban life will be approached through its material and immaterial aspects: its physical characteristics, its concreteness and the relations, uses and contents that they shelter. Such distinction matters to understand the dialectical relationship that sets in; the physical morphology results from the social coniguration, at the same time that it is conformed by the physical environment. From this conirmation, we intend to study different and representative street proiles in the citys history and urbanism. Modernity witnessed intense transformations of urban space with the advent of large cities, as well as the urban experience provided in such environments, creating an unprecedented urban scene that had on the street its main representative. The chaos that these cities presented, sources simultaneously of pleasure and anguish, of excitement and disorientation, was narrowed of their senses in the orderly spaces planned by modern rationalism and functionalist urbanism. The malaise felt by an urban life that could not develop in its fullness in such spaces resulted in a movement of criticism and resistance that took shape in the 1960s demanding the return of the connection between daily life and urban space, and that has in the street the stage and the motor of its actions, highlighting its potential of landscape transformation of the landscape and the urban experience.