Residual Islands of Pluraity: A Case of Neeraj Bhatia

The proliferation of massive infrastructures that emerged in North American cities during the 1960s, although rooted in the notion of connection, created a plethora of trapped land. These residual zones that are bounded by infrastructure have unique qualities inherent in their anatomy that make them ideal for an urban project of pluralism. More commonly, however, urban designers are inclined to "normalize" these zones to mimic the existing urban fabric. This tendency to infill and normalize these islands, attempts to reconcile the embarrassment of Modernism's brutalist conclusion. These islands, by the mere fact that they are left over, occupy an ambiguous territory within the city. The ambiguity infused in these islands is difficult to intentionally design, but of critical value to Pluralism. Instead of normalizing these pockets of land, this paper proposes to exploit the qualities of the re idual. Ironically, the liberal goals embedded in Modernism are more effectively realized in these residual islands. As cities become increasingly globalized and multicultural, the residual offers the potential to bridge the gap between a imilation and complete distinction. In doing so, the promise of these residual islands is in their ability to be the shared platform for what is left of the City.

The Common Platform in the Pluralist City fig. 1. Image of City Place Current debate on in1migration policy often still focus at Bathurst Ave. looking on the number of immigrants a country can absorb East towards CN Tower, without threatening the nation's overall identity. For I years, immigration was predicated on the notion of the assimilating melting pot, creating a forced common bond between constituencie . From sociologist Hannah Arendt to her contemporaries such as Richard Sennett, 1 this common bond not only creates the public sphere, it reaffirms a sense of reality, reduces isolation and promotes trust. Arendt posits that the public sphere, while rooted in the common bond, also requires distinction, or plurality. For Arendt, human plurality is dialectic in nature:

Human plurality, the basic condition ofboth action and speech, has the twofold character of equality and distinction. If men were not equal, they could neither understand each other and 40

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00702 by guest on 25 September 2021 those who came before them nor plan for Ambiguity as a Multicultural Sponge the future and foresee the needs of those It is beneficial to begin by examining cities wherein who will come after them. If men were not multiculturalism has been more prevalent. Not distinct, each human being distinguished only does this allow one to identify characteristics from any other who is, was, or will every be, conducive to Multiculturalism, it also reveals where they would need neither speech nor action to this common bond is of utmost value. With regards make themselves understood. 2 to the number of foreign-born residents, Toronto and Vancouver top the list, only to be superceded Arendt's characterization of this complex and by Miami.5 Intriguingly, Toronto, Vancouver and seemingly contradictory public sphere is perhaps Miami sit in geographically separated zones; Miami best summarized through her analogy of a group of as an appendage to the United States embracing the people sitting around a table. For Arendt, the table is Caribbean, Vancouver behind the wall of the Rocky the common world - it simultaneously connects and Mountains adjacent to the Pacific, and Toronto in bonds those sitting around it while preventing them Southern - a peninsula that effectively digs from falling over each other and assimilating belief into the United States. systems. The disappearance of the table would leave strangers in a space that lacked a common bond - this The repercussions of Toronto's geographic location would be the fall of the public realm. 3 The problem have linked it more directly to the United States with modern society for Arendt, and increasingly than other Canadian cities. For instance, the Queen witnessed in the Globalized city, is due to the fact Elizabeth Way, built in 1939, was one of the first that "the world between them has lost its power to major highways in the country and was used to gather them together, to relate and separate them:'4 connect Toronto to Buffalo and its associated industry 'Ibis was, after all, the motivation of the assimilating and tourism. The expressway between Toronto and melting pot. Instead of plurality, however, the melting Montreal, however, was not built for another twenty pot sought homogeneity to tame the "chaos" of the years. As far back as the 1920s, massive investments emerging diversity. More recently, a "salad bowl" from American companies were being poured into model has been pursued that is based on the dialectic notion of the "heterogeneous whole:' The question with multicultural pluralism is, 'what is the common bond' or 'salad dressing? In other words, where does the multicultural city come together to celebrate its collective concern for the same object while exhibiting its distinct characteristics?

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00702 by guest on 25 September 2021 r nto.6 The e continued into the 1950s and 60s 10 th f, rm of branch plants. In 1954, Toronto had f, reign-owned branch plant , including Ford nd American Motor . More than two-thirds o mpanie in the ew York City region sou in and around Toronto.7 Toronto was prefer ntr al becau e of its centralized location, I nd larg r labor market:8

111at Toronto has come to rival Montret, as a metropolis is attributable to its ea communications with New York, as wel as to its situation at the convergence of corridors leaning southwest, west, no east through a hinterland attractiv ttl ment and to its early role asp enter. 9

Wh r a Miami and Vancouver 1 ol t dz n , Tor nto i geographically separa by nab tra t p litical divi ion, allowing the city imultan u ly be c nnected to a larger regional netw rk. R iding in an ambivalent zone - isolated fr m it wn country and linked to a larger regional stru ture f tran port line - contributed to Toronto's gr wth and early identity cri i . Toronto journalist, R b rt Fulfi rd d ribe the pre-1960 Toronto ity, wh denied that it had an identity worth exh1b1ting:•10 ln the 1970 Toronto was said to be "too Bnti h t be American, too American to be British, and t mopolitan to be properly Canadian:' 11 fig.2. Foreign Islan4 of nlike Miami or Van ouver, who e multicultur m Toronto in Southern Ontario . 1 mor h mogenou in compo ition, 12 Torol)16's and CityPlace in Toronto. These islands are sites of 1 ati n readily ab orbed a mosaic of immigrants - tarni hing th notion of a unified iden · ambiguity of outhern Ontario' geograph1 and the re ulting location of Toronto have giv 1 a unique po ition, or lack of po ition. Without a herent and overpowering identity and situated in a "neither zone", outhern Toronto was able to u e fully attract and ho t a large number of 42

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00702 by guest on 25 September 2021 immigrants without assimilation. In Toronto, the was to be built parallel to the already existing railway immigrant becomes the norm. Presently, Toronto is tracks. This system of grouping the infrastructures made up of 44% foreign-born residents, 43% visible was working seamlessly until the expressway minorities, and a variety of religious groups 13 construction encroached on the historic making it the most diverse of pluralistic cities and Military Base and Cemetery. Built in 1793, Fort York accordingly, calling into question the nature of its defended Upper Canada from the newly independent common bond. Where do these divergent groups United States. Although out of operation since 1932, gather to monumentalize their 'distinct-equality' and preservationists and historians forced Gardiner to reaffirm trust and reality in the public realm? reroute his expressway around the Fort. Due to the already existing urban fabric, the expressway was not Residual Islands and the Promise of Pluralism in able to reunite with the railway tracks for nearly two the City kilometers. Ironically named CityPlace, this pocket At the scale of the city, we can apply the notion of ofland is a 'non-place' - trapped between these strings 'ambiguous zones' to isolate areas that lack a coherent of infrastructure in the central downtown core of identity and sit at convergence or distribution points. Toronto. In Toronto, one such foreign island is CityPlace (formerly the Railway Lands) bounded by the CN For years, CityPlace was a major distribution island Railway and the elevated (fig. 1). for Toronto, holding and transferring cargo and train cars for transport across North America. As City Place emerged in the final years of Modernism, railway transport reduced in scale and relocated to during the construction of the Gardiner Expressway the city's periphery, the railways lands stood both in 1960. Named after Toronto's very own Robert empty and trapped in the center of the city. City Place Moses figure, Frederick Gardiner, the expressway is emblematic of criticism waged against large scaled infrastructure - complete separation of communities and morphology. In the case of City Place, local street fig.3. Morphological Separation caused by the grids, park systems and built form are interrupted infrastructures that enclose City Place. From Left to Right: Major Infrastructures, Local Streets, Park by the island's bouniling infrastructures. Many Systems, and Built Form. of these systems cannot find a way around these

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00702 by guest on 25 September 2021 infra lru lure and imply end at their intersection communities and morphologies on their variou (fig. 3). In addition l the morphological divides edges. pr du d by the major infra tructure , are dem graphi egregation . The pattern i uch Residual islands like City Place have a peculiar that a ealthier and more anadian (in terms of quality in that while they sit separated, they are itizen hip) population line the outhern edge simultaneously the site of converging flows and their al ng the waterfront. A ub tantially lower income associated user groups. The site is bounded by local bra ket line the Ea t and e t edge of the site, while and commuter populations who use the adjacent i 1ble min ritie are in higher concentration on the airport, ferry, highway, buses and trains. Thi bring uthea t, uthwe t and orthern edges of the site a diverse population together in close proximity (fig. 4). \: hat re ult in ityPlace i a re idual island along the edges of City Place. The intriguing dialectic b unded b infra tructure that enforce distinct quality of City Place both through separation, cau ing

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00702 by guest on 25 September 2021 ------fig.4. Demographic separation in CityPlace is reminiscent of the "other side of the tracks" phenomena. The distinct communities on the various edges of the islands have their own internal demographic consistency. Darker tones represent higher amounts. From left to right: Canadian citizenship, non-canadian citizenship, citizenship pattern, annual income. Second row: not visual minority, visual minority, visual minority pattern. Plotting these against major infrastructures reveals strong separations occurring along infrastructural lines.

distinct communities, and convergence, allowing for common table, bringing the diverse city together in common interaction, can be read through a lens of an ambiguous territory formed without hegemony, Arendt's definition of Pluralism (fig. 5). City Place allowing for interaction without assimilation. The occupies a distinct territory within the city - because residual, because it is claimed by no one, gains its its construction was inadvertent, its purpose was strength as the glue that holds the public sphere and continually ambiguous, enabling the island to absorb its associated democracy intact. multiple readings and constituencies. Sitting as a 'no man's land' in the middle of the city, the residual Beyond the unclaimed and dialectic quality of quality of City Place makes it home to none and all. City Place, there are other characteristics inherent in This allows CityPlace to effectively absorb a public these infrastructural islands that make them ideal for project of plurality- a grouping of public institutions a public project of plurality. More recently, CityPlace for shared use in the city. This would act as the has come to collect massive public and cultural

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00702 by guest on 25 September 2021 major public Aesthetic theorists, for example, often pr, r m in T: ronto. In mo t citie , have recourse to the notions of 'completeness' m re to large to fit into the regular urban 14 and 'openness' in connection with bn nd are therefore pu hed to the periphery. a given work ofart. These two expressions In Toronto' a e, ityPlace offer an i land for refer to a standard situation of which we th e over iz d cultural and sporting complexes are all aware in our reception of u h the Tower, kyDome, and Air Canada a work of art: we see it as the end product of ntre, which have the added benefit of direct links an author's effort to t public tran port n de to ab orb and distribute arrange a sequence of communicative effects I r rowd . ther haracteri tic of these foreign in such a way that each individual addressee 1 I nd are their entral I cation due to their first can refashion the original composition produdion as railway yard . Thi first production devised by the author... In this sense the I o imam that many of the e i lands are government author presents a finished product with the \ •nt:d nd ould ea ily be fitted with public intention that this particular composition I roJ t!'t. J·urthermore, the infra tructural isolation should be appreciated and received in the h lluwcd many to remain undeveloped. Lastly, same form as he devised it.15 • u • tht:s island are created by infrastructural J aration, they have lear edge that are widely In contrast to the closed work, Eco speaks of t \ ·r t:d, and arc therefore recognizable entities at the 'Open Work' as a piece of art that ha been th Ull· of the uty. 1 he e qualitie of impartiality, strategically and intentionally designed by the ma •en c and separation, accommodation of large author to have a degree of 'openness: allowing each J ro •r m, locat,on, publi owner hip, emptiness, and individual subject to project the final mis ing piec I 1hil11y make residual i lands like ityPlace ideal to complete the work. Eco further defines a uh- r •rouping of publi pr ject that create a shared type of Open Work as 'works in movement: which pl tform for exchange in the ity (fig. 6). are characterized by being partially unplanned or physically incomplete.16 The work in movement > J romi of n pen Work allows for the possibility of numerous per onal Ihc 'op •n' or' I ed' n ti n of art i largely experiences and interventions, but still maintain th hara tcrizcd by the relati n hip between the subject "world intended by the author".17 Thus, there i an (th ,·1 wer), the bje t (the de igned artifact) and underlying order to the work, but also an openn uthor (th rti t). mbert Eco defined the 'closed that arises by leaving specific parts unplanned. on t:pti n: a a pie e fart wherein the ubject was to and interpret the obje t in a ingle manner_ When thinking about the dialectic quality of that \ -hi h wa de igned by the author. Eco posits pluralism, the notion of the Open Work provide a th t th I ed w rk leave little or no room for template to allow difference to exist - each indi\1dual mterpretat1 n between the 11 author' intent and final adding the final pieces to provide completene - ,th \. rk; th w rk ha a ompletene s to it that limits a common goal - that which is defined by the author, individual mterpretati n. Eco tates: the city, its laws, infrastructures and common belief'.

46 ------Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00702 by guest on 25 September 2021 Just as negative space in painting is inadvertently and undefined interior objective offers an openness, created with the application of the positive, City Place taking on multiple readings that provide depth to was constructed without an explicit intent. In the pluralist city. Ultimately, the residual offers the painting, negative space shares clear edges with the pretense for an Open Work. positive, but its content remains undefined. Aesthetic theorists tell us that the negative space is what Modernism has bestowed residual islands like provides depth to an image. Similarly in CityPlace, CityPlace on nearly all North American cities, each the tension betwetn its legible infras harboring the latent project of pluralism (Fig. 6). ._,

--._ ------7--I ----- fig.S. CityPlace as a metaphor I I for Plurality. Convergence of flows (top) and simultaneous Separation of morphology (below).

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The promi e of foreign i land uch a Toronto in infrastructures but also the surrounding communitie outhern Ontario, or more locally, City Place in to the interior of the islands. The architectural project Toronto i that they lack an overpowering, closed essentially bridges the positive and negative space, tance (fig. 2). Without a single clear reading, the allowing the islands to benefit from the potential of potential of the e re idual infra tructural islands lies gathering occurring in the space of flows. Current in their ability to appeal to a diver e multicultural private condominium construction on CityPlace population. The multiple readings infused in threatens to normalize the island flood it with a ambiguity and the accompanying difficulty to design consistent affluent population. The obstruction of the or formalize ambiguity propel one to exploit these emerging public project eradicates the juxtaposition i land for their plurali tic characteristics. Two scales and ambiguity latent in the residual. It is these of initiative would need to occur for this project to qualities, after all, that invites the audience, the city, effectively be realized. On a planning level, it would to participate in an Open Work. The lurking public require analogou residual zones to be planned as project inherent in the structure of foreign islands public i land , demanding the city to abstain from like CityPlace is fundamental to the public realm in privatizing the land . On an architectural level, the the increasingly globalized and multicultural city. Iran formation located on the periphery of these Without it we are just a grouping of unrelated people i land would need to not only connect their internal in the space that was once known as the city. •

fig.6. The emergence of a public project. Left to Right: CityPlace isolated by Infrastructure, Island is linked to infrastructural flows, Island has clear edges and gains a figural quality, public project in the island is continued with additional public ,------works. The landscape is clarified and made consistent to allow each of the new public projects to read as a distinct intervention.

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Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/thld_a_00702 by guest on 25 September 2021 ------J Endnotes

1. See: Sennett, Richard. The Uses ofDisorder: Personal Identity and City Life. (London, UK: Faber and Faber, 1996). and Sennett, Richard. The Fall of Public Man. (New York, NY: Norton and Company, 1975).

2. Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition. (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1958. 175-176). [emphasis added]

3. Ibid., p.52

4. Ibid., p.53

5. "Top 10 cities by share of foreign-born population, 2001'.' UN Habitat (2004); U.S. Census Bureau (2004b); World Cities Project (2002); Australian Bureau of Statistics (2001); Statistics Canada (2004). Actual numbers are as follows: Miami 59%, Toronto 44%, and Vancouver 37%.

6. Lemon, James. Toronto Since 1918. (Toronto, ON: James Lorimer & Company Publishers, 1985.56).

7. Ibid., p.121.

8. Ibid., p.121.

9. C.F.J. Whebell. Corridors: A 1heory of Urban Systems in ''.Annals of the Association of American Geographers;' Vol. 59, No. 1 (Mar. 1969), pp.1-26.

lQ. Fulford, Robert. Accidental City: 1he Transformation of Toronto. (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996. 1)

11. Ibid., p.18.

12. Vancouver's immigrants primarily consist of Asian groups. Immigrants from China constitute 29.9% of Vancouver's 47.1 % visible minority groups. The sum of all Asian groups makes up 44.8% of the population. Source: 200 l Vancouver Community Profile from 2001 Census at Statistics Canada. http://www12.statcan.ca/english/Profil0l/CP01/Details/Page.cfm?Lang=E&Geol= CSD&Codel=5915022&Geo2=PR&Code2=59&Data=Count&SearchText=vancouver&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=59&Bl=P opulation&Custom= Accessed: March 23, 2008.

Miami has a similar homogeneity to its immigrant population, with most immigrants of Latin descent, particularly from the Caribbean area. 65.8% of Miami's population is Latin or Hispanic. Source: QuickFacts for Miami (city), Florida. United States Census Bureau. Year 2000. http://qwckfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/12/1245000.html. Accessed: March 23, 2008.

13. "Statistics Canada'.' (2001 ). http:/ /wwwl2.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/standard/themes/DataProducts.cfm ?S=2&G= M&C=535&P=35&ALEVEL=3&FREE=0. (Accessed: June 19, 2007).

14. One need look no further than the New York Jets Stadium controversy in 2004. Originally planned on the Western Piers of Manhattan, the Stadium in now under construction in New Jersey.

15. Eco, Umberto. Anna Cancogni (transl). The Open Work. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1989. p.3.

16. Ibid, p.12.

17. Ibid, p.19.

Images: courtesy of the author 49

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