ANALYSIS I ANALYSE
VISUALITY AND THE EMERGENCE OF CITY PLANNING IN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY TORONTO AND MONTREAL
SARAH BASSNETT is an Assistant Professor· of >SARAH BASSNETT 1 A1·t History in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Western Ontario. She is cu1·rently working on a book-length study of photography and the urbanization of Toronto in the early twentieth century. COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING
In 1907, when the Civic Improvement Committee of the Province of Quebec Association of Architects (PQAA) intro duced their plan for improvements to Montreal, they explained why it was needed: despite its "splendid natural location," Montreal had many of the faults of an older city. The general plan of the old city was rectangular and the streets and blocks were laid out in a grid pattern; however, the city had grown, and the architects claimed that the origi nal layout had become inadequate and inefficient. As a result, it had become impossible to properly manage the city. 2 Rather than suggesting drastic, sweep ing measures aimed at rearranging the city, the PQAA's plan offered a method for modifying and improving the exist ing city. The proposed changes centred on opening up main avenues to create "vistas," constructing diagonal roadways, and connecting existing parks with thor oughfares to form a system of continu ous avenues with "a lovely picture at each end." 3 Describing the central part of the city as "too congested," the PQAA's Civic Improvement Committee proposed cut ting diagonal streets from the downtown to the east and west areas of the city to provide direct communication between the central business district and outlying areas.• To support their proposal, they argued that the benefits of diagonal roads had already been demonstrated in cities such as Washington, DC, Vienna, and Paris. 5 The PQAA's plan outlined a strategy for turning a congested city with "gloomy and unattractive" views into a "well-designed city." 6 By implementing FIG. 1. PLAN OF THE CITY OF MONTREAL WITH IMPROVEMENTS RECOMMENDED BY THE PQAA, 1909.1 RICKSON OUTHET FOR THE PQMS CIVIC IMPROVEMENT COMMITTEE, VILLE DE MONTREAL, GESTION DE DOCUMENTS ET ARCH IVES.
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problems without considering the effect
i"LETCH£~'5 Fltttl on the city as a whole-, comprehensive 110NTII£AL IMI'P(NI;M£,NTJ JU:rot'l."'lENU£() 8'1' OlE PQQ.'INC:f CJf O...:I!:IJf.(! A$SOCV.fi'J"i l)f planning involved developing an ideal for MtCHITI!CTS 'i...... Y'-~~-1J2.-~ a city that took into account its future ~CA.Ucr rr:n growth.12 " Piecemeal" changes could be undertaken by municipal Works Depart ments and would include, for example, widening a road. Comprehensive plan ning, on the other hand, required a practitioner w ith specialized knowledge and exceptional aesthetic sensitivity. As Montreal architect J. Rawson Gard ner explained, comprehensive planning meant having a "well defined plan or ideal to work up to." 13 In order to grow and prosper, and to become cosmopoli tan, these cities had to be transformed from the congested, overgrown, and IMPROVEMENT COMMITIEE, JOHN BLAND CANADIAN ARC HI TECTURE COLLECTION, MCGILL UNIVERSITY, MONTR~A l. inefficient places they had become into sites of beauty and pleasure, and that the new plan, the architects argued, Civic Guild City Plan Committee, architect was only possible, they argued, through Montreal could become more distinctive, W. Ford Howland, explained: "It is quite systematic planning undertaken by sk illed more efficient, more modern, and more apparent to anyone that the rapid growth architects.14 beautiful. The campaign to modernize the of Toronto will soon make the improve city and attempts to improve the urban ment of her streets and the development Architects in cities all over North Amer environment and civic life coalesced in the of her beautiful places most imperative ica were arguing for comprehensive newly emerging field of city planning. for the proper expansion of civic life and planning, and planning became a way character, as has been found necessary to address the pressures caused by the Similarly, the plan of improvements by many other cities of this continent." 10 transformation of colonial settlements for Toronto, developed by the Ontario Taking up ideas that had been applied in into metropolitan centres. North Ameri Association of Architects (OAA) and the other urban centres, the OAA and Civic can plan makers felt that a comprehensive Toronto Civic Guild of Art at about the Guild sought to apply city planning initia approach to planning was the best way same time as the Montreal plan, sought t ives to problems they perceived in their to avoid the horrors of crime, disease, to transform the city from " a collection own cities. By incorporating elements and moral depravity associated with the of overgrown villages" into a place where such as diagonal streets and a system slums of major European cities. Planning the city's potential for greatness could be of continuous parkways to create a park was viewed as a way of improving the fulfilled .7 Like the plan for Montreal, the system, they further aimed to integrate aesthetic qualities of the urban environ Toronto plan concentrated on creating the qualities of an urban environment ment, but it also provided a mechanism broad, diagonal thoroughfares, build that were becoming valued internation for implementing practical solutions to ing parkways to create a system of city ally. They were certain that the proposed address problems such as traffic conges parks, and beautifying the area around improvements would transform Toronto tion and overcrowding.15 Through com the harbour. They claimed that the " nar into a modern city." prehensive planning, architects argued, it row cramped streets" and the " thickly would be possible to enhance the urban populated districts" needed attention.• The PQAA, the OAA, and the Civic Guild environment rather than merely fix indi These problems could be addressed by the argued that specifically what was needed vidual problems.'6 Because comprehensive proposed diagonal streets, which "would were comprehensive plans for Toronto planning was seen as a means of improv form great arteries of traffic and busi and Montreal. In contrast to "piecemeal" ing the overall condition of the city, it ness through the city." 9 A member of the development-which meant fixing minor would open up the possibility for civic
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FIG. 3. PRINCE ARTHU R DRIVE. IMPROVEMENTS RECO MM ENDED BY THE PQAA, 1908. I RICKSON OUTH ET FOR THE PQAfiS CIVIC IMPROVEMENTCOMMITTEE, JOHN BLAN D CANADIAN ARCHITECTURE COLLECTION, MCGILl UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL. beautification and the enhancement of strong .19 In both cities, poverty, poor advocates, architects, and members of the civic life. Through their attempts to imple health conditions, and immigration had business community, espoused the idea ment comprehensive planning, architects also been identified as problems. The that disease and decay were endemic in in Toronto and Montreal participated in hope was that, by improving the over cities. In an article discussing an American what Anthony Sutcliffe has defined as an all condition of a city, the development city planning conference, one commen international planning movement." schemes would resolve civic problems of tator emphasized the negative outcomes all kinds. that result from poor living conditions: With the rapid growth of both Toronto " The most pitiful victim of modern city and Montreal, architects were concerned Social historians, sociologists, and urban life is not the slum child who dies, but the with a range of related issues. In Toronto, historians have shown that, around the slum child who lives. Every time a baby which was second to Montreal in size, turn of the century, city planners and dies the nation loses a prospective citi Winnipeg was seen as a rival with the social reformers believed there was a zen; but in every slum child who lives, the potential to draw away wealth.18 Archi direct correspondence between poor nation has a probable consumptive and a tects concluded that by improving the health, cramped living conditions, and possible criminal."22 The imminent threat condition of the city and by fostering deficient moral values.20 Dolores Hayden, of physical and moral decay, criminality, civic pride, Toronto's appeal would grow for example, has shown that the social and a deficient citizenry spurred on civic and investment would not be lured away. settlement movement sought to improve improvement advocates and supported Although Montreal was the largest city in the physical and moral condition of the the argument in favour of city planning. the country and was securely established poor by creating municipal services, such as a financial and industrial centre, civic as soup kitchens and public baths and For those involved in civic improvement spirit was weak. Corruption scandals had laundries, which would, in turn, raise in Toronto and Montreal, improving social 2 caused anxiety about the proper man living standards. ' In Canada, the Cana conditions meant changing the physical agement and development of the city, dian Municipal Journal, which addressed conditions and spatial organization of and the drive for municipal reform was a readership of civic improvement the city itself. In order to implement the
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CIVIC IMPROVEMENT COMM ITIE E, JOHN BLAND CANADIAN ARCHITECTURE COLLECTI ON. MCG ILL UN IVERSITY, MONTREA L.
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FIG . 5. ATWATE RAV E. BOU LE VARD, MONTREAL. IMPROVEMENTS RECOMM ENDED BY THE PQAA, 1908. I RIC KSON OUT HET FOR THE PQAA:S CIVIC IMPROV EMENT COMMITIEE, JO HN BLA ND CANADIA N ARCHITECTUR E CO LLECTION, MCGill UN IVERS ITY. MONTR£1\ L.
desired changes and further the move and civic improvement advocates in both convey a vision for their respective cities. ment for better cities, architects and cities forged new relationships with their These renderings and plans were impor civic improvement advocates pressed municipal governments. tant, not only in attempts to create the municipal officials to support their plan desired urban environment, but also in ning initiatives. In both cities, that crucial In their efforts to reshape the urban envi the emergence of a planning movement reform period saw the emergence of new ronment and to build new cooperative in Canada . As Canadian architects claimed municipal institutions and agencies. The relationships with city officials, architects and adapted ideas from planning initia Public Health Department, in particular, involved in civic improvement initiatives tives in countries such as Britain, France, took on an increasingly important role in in early twentieth-century Toronto and and the United States and applied them major cities in the early twentieth cen Montreal relied on a range of visual to the cities in which they lived, they turyY Attempting to address a set of ever materials, including architectural render worked out their ideas and conveyed more complex urban problems, architects ings, technical drawings, and plans, to them to potential supporters through
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IRITVlE.~ lf!RONT ~~- MONTJRIE:AL-oa IMPIW\It:l'IENTS RECOMMENDED 5I' TH!: PR.OV'lN(LOf QUUlf.C AlJOCIATION Of ARCHIT[.CTJ
FI G. 6. RI VER FRONT, MONTRE AL. IMPROVEMENTS RE COMM ENDED BYTHE PQAA, 1908. 1R ICKSON OUTH ET FOR THE PQAA'I CIVIC IMPROVEMENT COMMITTEE, JOHN BLAND CANADIAN ARCHITECTURE COLLECTION, MCGILL UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL visual means. This article aims to show renderings were one of the professional showed newly developed public parks that these visual materials became one and technical means through which archi and a series of tree-lined boulevards of the principal methods architects used tects attempted to constitute the city as a and parkways, diagonal thoroughfares in persuading civic officials and the public potentially utopic field of possibilities. connecting the central business district that their city planning initiatives would with the outer areas of the city, and a help to resolve complex urban problems. CIVIC IMPROVEMENT IN civic centre.26 In order to show how the The visual discourse of the plans and ren MONTREAL improvements would both fit into and derings, in particular, sought to convince transform the city, Outhet plotted all of viewers of the value of aesthetic solutions In Montreal, the PQAA's Civic Improve the recommended improvements onto to civic improvement. At the same time, ment Committee established their vision a plan of the City of Montreal (fig. 1) . the aesthetic quality of the renderings for the city through a series of six archi Topographic features, such as Mount emphasized the importance of visuality tectural plans, which were drafted by Royal and the St . Lawrence River, were in the experience of the modern city. landscape architect Rickson A. Outhet indicated on the plan in order to show Although the architects' efforts to cre in 1908-1909.24 It was only after much how the built-up city corresponded to the ate their desired cities for the most part consideration and debate over a tenta geography of the region. The names of failed, they were somewhat successful tive scheme, sketched out in 1906, that constituencies specified different politi with an alternate but related ambition. the series of detailed drawings were pre cal districts, and the street grid and park The visually rendered improvement plans pared .25 The PQAA was concerned with areas showed the infrastructure and spa functioned both as a sign of professional improving traffic circulation, beautifying tial organization of the city. By integrat expertise and as an instrument ofthe aes the city, and providing new leisure spaces ing topographical, political, and spatial theticized discourse of early twentieth and recreation facilities for city dwell features into one plan, Outhet produced century city planning. In this way, the ers, and the plans drawn up by Outhet an overall picture of the proposals for the
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city. Existing urban parks were shaded in would be able to determine the best of the countryside constructed in the city, dark grey, with a table in the bottom arrangement for their own cities. The pleasure grounds were carefully land right corner that calculated their total plan of improvements was thus both an scaped to heighten the urban dweller's area. Government lands were indicated authoritative claim for particular interven experience of nature. In direct contrast to with crosshatching, and proposed parks tions in Montreal and an assertion of the the urban environment in which they were and boulevards were plotted in light and importance of city planning in general. created, pleasure grounds were thought dark tones respectively. With its combi to provide physical and psychic relief from nation of existing and planned features, In addition to the city plan showing the the unhealthy and unnatural conditions the PQAA's plan represented an ideal PQAA's recommended improvements, of urban life.29 The eminent town planner and showed how the proposals would there were five other plans, prepared as Thomas Adams confirmed the importance improve the city. detailed architectural draw ings focusing of parks when he explained: "parks are a on improvements to Mount Royal Park better investment than hospitals and asy The plan of the City of Montreal show and to the roadways that would connect lums, and if we do not spend money on ing the PQAA's proposed improvements the city's main parks and squares. While the one we shall be compelled to spend endorsed the very idea of city planning. In the city plan showed the new roads and it on the other." 30 By providing public an article about their plans for Montreal, embellishments in relation to the existing parks, many people believed that urban the architects of the PQAA presented their city, and the plans were drawn to scale, problems could be prevented and a better initiative as "a warning and an example to the five architectural drawings showed citizenry would result. Visitors to pleasure every place, however small, which is going the proposed changes to the city, with grounds would experience the beauty and to grow," because, they explained, cities existing features included only when they serenity of natural harmony through their that did not follow a plan were bound to were to remain the same. In this way, the encounter with a pastoral landscape. The encounter costly and inconvenient prob proposals were somewhat disconnected benefits of a carefully laid out park were lems once they grewY In Montreal, the from the existing infrastructure, and the made clear by Frederick Todd, a mem diagonal roadways radiating from Victo extent of the changes was less readily ber of the PQAA's Civic Improvement ria Square (shown as heavy black lines in accessible to the viewer. In contrast to Committee, who explained: fig. 1) clearly cut across the existing infra the city plan, which presented all of the structure of the city. These roads were information simultaneously in a single People whose lives are lived among t he bustle identified as among the most expensive representation and showed how specific and strife of a large city require some place of the improvements. However, they were proposals fit into the city as a whole, where they ca n rest after the days' exer t ion ; also described as urgent modifications, the series of five drawings provided a mothers w ith little ones, whose life in t he modelled on the success of diagonal bou more detailed, sequential account of the narrow tenements is ill-suited to fit them for levards in cities such as Paris. In Montreal's proposed improvements. Because each life's battle; t o all these what a boon ar e the case, the proposed diagonal roads would of the five drawings focused on parks publi c parks, wher e the ai r is at least m ore run almost entirely through the poorest and connecting roads, it is clear that the pure than in t he street, and the children districts, and therefore, although costly, PQAA believed it was most important to ca n romp on the grass or roam through the they would not be prohibitively expensive improve these aspects of the city. woods I .. I The con stant familiar observa to the city. With the enhanced property t io n of surroundin gs cannot help but have values resulting from the diagonal thor Parks were considered such an essential some influence, especially upon the youn ger oughfares, it was assumed the expendi feature of improvement schemes because members of t he community, and if these sur ture for the improvements would quickly the ordered experience of nature they r oundings ar e untidy and careless, they must be recovered .28 The architects warned, could provide was thought to offer relief influen ce to a certain extent one's after life, however, t hat other cities might not be from the perceived ills of modern urban while t he same is true if one's surroundi ngs so fortunate. They argued that if cities life. The nineteenth-century public parks are neat, bea utiful and artistic.31 planned for growth, there would be no movement, which was particularly influ need for expensive interventions in the ential in England and the United States, Neatness, beauty, and ar tistic surround future. By adapting their knowledge sought to improve the conditions of urban ings were the characteristics that obvi of the problems and solutions in other life by incorporating natural scenery into ated crime, disease, and immorality. cities, the architects argued that planners urban environments. Conceived as pieces Following Todd's notion of the purifying
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effects of parks, the architectural draw would lead up the mountain, where visi residents alike, the architects followed a ings for Montreal's parks and parkways tors could enjoy peace and quiet amidst key principle of Civic Art: they planned outline a vision for a city where leisure the natural scenery. Playing fields for new streets with houses that would face and recreation in a natural setting were lacrosse, football, and baseball, along onto the open space of the park. From essential features of modern urban life. with other recreational facilities such as the park, visitors would see the fronts of a playground and wading ponds, were new middle-class homes rather than the The belief that beauty and a good envi planned for Fletcher's Field. The Civic cluttered backyards of rundown homes. ronment were essential mechanisms of Improvement Committee explained that Private developers were similarly involved reform was discussed, not only among it was "extremely desirable that the City in regulating the area. From the turn-of architects, reformers, and civic improve should supply adequate playgrounds for the-century, developers used contracts ment advocates, but also by members of the citizens."34 Playgrounds kept children specifying allowable building types and the press. An excerpt from an article in off the dirty streets and away from the construction standards to exclude all but the Montreal Daily News describes the moral corruption of back alleys. As Galen the affluent from the area around Mount positive power commonly attributed to Cranz has shown, along with the princi Royal. Multiuse buildings were prohibited, a beautiful environment: ples of beauty and order, organized rec as were new homes of cheap construc reation was explicitly taken up as a way tion.37 Although the PQAA's plan for the The clean street is an aid to virtue. The of teaching the principles of good citizen park itself followed Olmstead's reform playground renders the corner policeman ship, which included self-reliance, initia ist vision and was ostensibly for citizens superfluous. Remove the slum, and you do tive, leadership, and a sense of ethics.35 of all classes, the surrounding residential not need to pay for a jail. Broaden your park Between the playing fields and the houses area was an exclusive domain reserved for spaces, and you give clean and happy m in ds along Esplanade Avenue, the architects the wealthy. to young and old. Offer the noble monument, designed an area they described as simi and you will have high thinking. For, though lar to Luxembourg Garden in Paris. That Outhet's precisely rendered drawing of the streets may be paved, and the water strip of land included tennis courts and a Fletcher's Field emphasized the aesthetic and other questions settled, a city can only croquet lawn, along with decorative gar value of the proposals for improving the be truly redeemed by the appeal to what is dens and fountains. Skilfully combining area. The aerial perspective of the draw noble and true and beautiful.32 recreation areas with pleasure grounds, ing made evident the decorative qual the PQAA planned Fletcher's Field as a ity of the tree-lined boulevards and the Parks, in particular, were central to such park with the finest conditions for people beautifying effect of the carefully laid notion of reform through aesthetics and, of all classes and ages. out recreation fields and plots of land perhaps more directly than any other for housing. The newly planned area of intervention, they were intended to pre The beautification of the area around housing was depicted in the drawing as vent social deviance and to ameliorate the Fletcher's Field was almost as important unshaded blocks, which distinguished it problems of modern urban life. to the overall vision of development as from the existing residential construction, the plans for the park itself. Concerned shown as shaded blocks (see top left sec The PQAA's vision for improved park ame that the "unseemly display" of clothes t ion of fig. 2). By focusing on aesthetic nities in Montreal focused on Fletcher's lines and garbage b ins in the back effect, the drawing itself concealed any Field (now pare Jeanne-Mance), a cen yards of the houses along Pine Avenue evidence of the exclusive development trally located park on the northeast side would spoil the view from the park, the practices that intervention required . of Mount Royal (fig. 2) . The well-known architects proposed a scheme for street Instead, the new houses quietly seduced American landscape architect Frederick extensions so that roadways encircl the viewer by appearing to fit seamlessly Law Olmstead designed Mount Royal ing the park would create a boundary into the existing urban environment. Park in the late 1870s, and the PQAA's between parkland and the nearby resi These new rectangular, triangular, and proposed modifications to the park were dences .36 New, well-designed, detached trapezoid lots and the delicately curved described as having considered Olmstead's or semi-detached houses could then be streets erased the ramshackle houses and original intentions. 33 The improvement built to block the unsightly homes along replaced them with the architects' dream: plans included a new winding road for Pine Avenue. Attempting to ensure the an orderly, aesthetically pleasing space . pleasure vehicles and pedestrians that best view for park visitors and local The captivating drawing obfuscated
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what was at stake in the aestheticizing be punctuated with circular "piazzas," in The other drawings in the series also relied discourse of city planning. What Outhet's which the architects hoped to place foun on a juxtaposition of technical and per drawing did not show was that the archi tains or monuments (see the perspective suasive features to delineate additional tects of the PQAA aimed to create an vista in fig. 2). The circular juncture at spaces of retreat and pleasant, orderly environment that would, in itself, take University Avenue, Park Avenue, and routes to connect them. These routes on the social work of urban reform. a new boulevard was, according to the took the form of a succession of boule- architects, ideal for " a handsome foun- vards that were designed to run through Outhet's drawing was a hybrid form that tain on the lines of the one at the Piazza the city, connecting the major parks. One combined cartographic and topographi di Termini at Rome, or else a monument of the new boulevards was intended to cal codes to produce an idealized urban to one of the Fathers of Confederation."38 link Mount Royal, a large park on the space. The rationality of cartography was By appealing to the senses, the proposed hilly, elevated ground in the centre of referenced by the compass direction and features were intended to provide a the city, and Lafontaine Park, located scaled measurement indicating the ratio respite from the chaotic conditions of in a residential area in the east end of between inches to feet found in the top modern urban life. the city. Outhet's drawing showed the right-hand corner of the drawing. The boulevard running from Fletcher's Field recessional perspective view of Park A second drawing in the series used simi along Duluth Street to Lafontaine Park. It Avenue Boulevard, inset into the plan lar visual strategies to show proposed continued beyond the park where it con for Fletcher's Field, invited the viewer to improvements for another area adjacent nected with Sherbrooke Street at the site imagine the three-dimensionality of the to Mount Royal Park. Identified as Prince of a new public bath (fig. 4). The PQAA's space, and the shading and modeling on Arthur Drive (now Avenue Docteur Civic Improvement Committee proposed the trees exceeded cartographic codes, Penfield), the drawing portrayed the that the boulevard might be a memorial turning even the plan itself into a kind of continuation of the tree-lined roadway to confederation, again suggesting stat vista. The multiple views provided in the leading around the park and the deco ues to the fathers of confederation for drawing attempted to convey to viewers rative features that would embellish the the major intersections. Like the new Park how the improved area would feel. Look approach (fig. 3) . Here again, the model Avenue, that boulevard was to have sepa ing down on Montreal from the all-see ing on the trees was used to make the rate, tree-lined roadways dividing plea ing perspective of the God's eye view, the natural features of the landscape stand sure drivers, tramcars, and heavy traffic. city was shown as a place of light, space, out from the urban environment sur Although the drawing was identified as and beauty. The combination of rational rounding the park. The trees along Prince a rendering of the boulevard, Lafontaine measurement and perspective rendering Arthur Drive punctuate the aerial view of Park appeared to be its central feature. worked to produce a persuasive drawing the streetscape and lead the eye through The park design showed a large parade that would have seemed at once carefully the drawing. In doing so, the drawing ground, a lagoon, and a series of winding thought out and visionary. produced the same kind of experience of pathways, which were characteristic of movement for the eye that the pleasure the pleasure ground layout. It was these Outhet's Fletcher's Field drawing drive was meant to produce for the body. winding pathways and the experience employed this hybrid visual discourse The important role of visuality in the of the natural landscape of the pleasure to lay out space that would be at once modern city was particularly evident in grounds that they provided, which were functional and beautiful. It depicted a this drawing. Outhet marked two points thought to be inherently purifying. The broad three-lane boulevard that would on the winding route through the park as aerial perspective of the drawing high divide the pleasure grounds of Mount places where the visitor could expect to lighted the decorative features of the park Royal Park from the recreational area of view a pleasing vista. By indicating loca and the orderly layout of the city streets. Fletcher's Field. The proposed boulevard tions from which city dwellers could look Although the three-dimensionality of the would have three separate roadways to at their city, the drawing validated visual space appeared less pronounced than in divide regular traffic, the street railway, experience as a primary mode of engag the drawing for Fletcher's Field, the undu and pleasure driving. Four rows of trees, ing with the city. The emphasis on look lating lines of the pathways in Lafontaine one between each lane of traffic, were ing, conveyed in this drawing, reinforced Park stood out against the linearity of the proposed as a way to give Park Avenue a the PQAA's visually-oriented approach to hatched city blocks. The visual reprieve new grandeur, and the long vista would city planning. that the curvilinear areas of the drawing
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provided to the viewer paralleled the rest The PQAA's series of drawings for improve and future beautification and general lay ful and refreshing effects that the parks ments t o Montreal conveyed the impor out of the city."41 The OAA produced a were intended to offer city dwellers. tance of visuality in the improved city blueprint in 1905 (fig. 7), but the munici and adapted ideas from the international pal government refused to provide finan Even though the boulevards were planning movement to the local condi cial support for developing it into a city designed to beautify the city, the tions. Drawing on planning initiatives in plan. At that point, the OAA and the Civic architects were also concerned with other cities, particularly Paris, the plans Guild agreed to collaborate in order to providing pleasant routes through the emphasized improving traffic circulation produce a plan themselves. While the city and greater access to the city's lei by widening roads and carving out diago Civic Guild raised funds from their well sure spaces. To that end, a further pro nal thoroughfares. At the same time, the off supporters in the business commu posal sought to turn Atwater Avenue architectural drawings articulated a plan nity, a committee of architects, including into another tree-lined boulevard that for reordering the city's spaces of leisure, William Langton, Edmund Burke, and would extend from Sherbrooke Street, and the aesthetic properties of the draw S.G. Curry from the OAA, and members of just a short distance from Fletcher' s ings reinforced the idea that the modern the Toronto Architectural Eighteen Club Field, to the Lachine Canal, ending at city should be beautiful. Drawn up for and the Civic Guild, revised the OAA's the point where Victoria Bridge crosses members of the City Council, the render blueprint to produce a new document, the St . Lawrence River (fig. 5) . Outhet's ings employed visual techniques, such as the Plan of Improvements to the City of drawing for this proposal included three-dimensionality, to enable viewers Toronto.42 The Civic Guild's ability to raise recessional perspective views of two to imagine immersing their own bodies five thousand dollars by subscription to boulevards, Atwater and Tailrace, which in these idealized spaces. 39 By combin support their civic improvement initia gave an indication of the kind of vistas ing aesthetic strategies with the rational tive, which included creating the plan the improvements would provide. The discourse of cartography, each drawing and producing an accompanying report, PQAA also proposed a parkway along provided multiple views of the proposed is both an indication of the wealth and the St. Lawrence River to p rovide a improvements. While the PQAA described influence of its members and a sign of beautiful riverside view, and a plot of their recommendations in terms of the the widespread support among promi land being used as a dumping ground way the appearance and spatial orga nent Torontonians for civic improvement 4 in the east end was slated for conver nization of the city would change and and city planning. 3 sion to parkland (fig. 6). In the drawing how citizens would use the new spaces for the riverfront, the viewer's atten and facilities, the drawings attempted to The OAA's plan proposed a series of tion was drawn to the beautification of persuade civic officials that the proposals changes to three aspects of the city: a the area looking onto the river through would function effectively as a means of new layout for the waterfront, a series the contrast between the curves and social reform. 40 By emphasizing a visual of parks and parkways, and new diagonal rounded forms used to portray the experience of the city, Outhet's drawings streets that would cut across the existing parks and boulevards and the straight affirmed that an important aspect of the gridiron street Jayout.44 These key fea lines used to depict the built-up areas of improved urban environment would be tures of the plan have been discussed by the city. Because the streets adjacent to its pleasing visual appearance. urban historians as evidence of the Cana the proposed river front development dian involvement in the City Beautiful had been merely sketched in, the focus CIVIC IMPROVEMENT FOR movement; yet, although City Beautiful of the drawing was on the riverfront. TORONTO ideas were discussed and even embraced This vicinity, designed for the pleasure by some, criticism of City Beautiful and and rejuvenation of the city's inhabit At the same time the PQAA was working Beaux-Arts planning from the period ants, is the section of the drawing that on plans for improvements to Montreal, shows that it was not, by any means, is the most decorative and agreeable architects in Toronto were busy with a plan unanimously popular among Toronto to look at. In both proposals for new for their city. The idea for a city plan had architects.45 An article in the country's routes to the city's leisure areas, the been discussed at a meeting of architects leading architectural journal, Canadian visual techniques used in the drawings in 1901 and, in 1903, the Toronto chap Architect and Builder, clearly refuted that emphasized the desired effect of the ter of the OAA set themselves the task notion. Discussing architect J.P. Hynes's proposal depicted in the drawings. of " procur[ing] a plan for the present paper on civic improvements, the author
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noted that it was received with some annual convention in January 1906, he we have caught it from our generation ; and opposition because it advocated a grand, explained that it w as essential to invest in Toronto in taking up this plan and carrying it ornamental entrance to the city, like those the f uture development of To ronto, and out w il l be merely fo ll owing a movement and planned for Cleveland and Buffalo. The he claimed that the proposals were not following it a good way behind . That I think is idea was criticized as merely a "Beaux extravagant in comparison to the kind of the general argument for our plan; we must Arts project, " and what was required improvements that were being executed not be left too far behind. 4 7 was described as city planning rather elsewhere on the continent. Langton put than merely beautification.46 Because it bluntly: Toronto was at risk of falling The significance of the OAA's plan was the support for City Beautiful planning behind other cities in North America. He therefore, in part, its ability to demon- was far from unanimous, and because the declared: strate that Toronto was involved in the proposals for To ronto were comparable international planning movement. to civic improvement initiatives in cities When the idea of planning the future devel- throughout the United States, as well as opm ent of Toronto fi rst came into our One of the ways the Toronto architects those planned for Montreal, it is more minds. some of us thought that we had got aligned their proposals with similar city accurate to interpret the OAA's propos hold of an original idea, but when , having planning initiatives in other cities was als as evidence of the Toronto architects' become interested in the matter, our atten- through the production of visual mate- eagerness to participate in the emerging tion was awake to al lusions (in professional rials, such as plans and renderings. Pub- field of city planning. and other journals) to similar efforts else- lished in the OAA's Proceedings, as well as where, we found that everybody else on the in Canadian Architect and Builder (which When William Langton proudly presented Co ntinent of America seemed possessed by Langton edited), the OAA's blueprint was the plan to members of the OAA at their the same idea. Plan making is in the air; accompanied by a bird's eye view of the
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FIG. 8. BIRO 'S EYE VIEW OF THE PROPO SED WATER FRONT TO THE CITY OF TORONTO, 1905 .1 OAA, CANADIANARCHITECTANDBUILDER, VOL19, NO.2, FE BRUARY 1906, PLATES lA AND B. waterfront (fig. 8) 4 8 Looking down and environment with a park by the water. 49 many of whom were already committed across the waterfront area from an ele By referring to a perspective rendering to to the idea of city planning. To that audi vated viewpoint, the rendering depicted present the proposal for a beautiful and ence, the unveiling of a plan of improve long, wide boulevards stretching off into orderly waterfront, Langton followed a ments for Toronto was an encouraging the distance. Rows of trees were shown precedent established in American city sign of progress. However, it was neces decoratively lining the parkway that ran planning around the turn of the century, sary to address a wider audience and to along the lakefront, a small park area when bird's-eye views became increas show City Council and the public that the jutted out into the harbour, and a sail ingly common for competition drawings improvements were a viable project for boat cruised nearby. The bird's eye view and client presentation drawingsso Drawn the city and not merely the pipe dreams offered viewers an enticing vision of the pictorially and obliquely from an elevated of utopian architects. To that end, the entrance to the city. Projecting a lantern position, perspective renderings were OAA handed off their blueprints to the slide of the waterfront drawing for his favoured for their ability to portray the Civic Guild, who set to work on a revised audience at the OAA convention, Langton general features and overall sensibility version of the plan. Much of the work for explained that the beauty of the space of a design in a persuasive manner. The civic improvement then began to take was its scale and simplicity. "Broad and OAA's rendering conveyed their proposal place outside the province's professional ample," the improvements would avoid for Toronto's waterfront at the same time architectural association, yet the push the "vulgarity of swaggering preten that it compared the scheme with other, for city planning was directed by archi tiousness" that other cities were risking similar initiatives in American cities. tects who sought to change conditions with their plans for elaborate gateways in their own cities. A Plan Committee, around their harbours. The OAA's aim The OAA's plan and perspective rendering headed by Langton, continued develop was to restore the natural character of the were seen by architects and engineers, ing the plan, while a Publicity Committee
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,.- f•illt,_ ~~Jl JUil(f ~W,t»ll -- n:11t.l}"•-·~~ ·IOI.oll. TORONTO OU!LO OF OIVIO ART =~""'*'~ Pl.,.\J( Of! IMVWOYIWI:tHTS ., 'Mil GJTY OF T ORONTO 1909
PROPOSED !>ARKS
f.__'"....., t hplu ~-llp.;j EXISTING PARKS l•*"' ~c-at ·~IM.t:Mf • •Iii• h~\: IIJ_..., tlll 11 ktvt.t.Jam ...... ~ ···-'""· ... :~~f'·;'i"""""' ,,__ ...... • ii-ouhWft r .... • U•~Nlllh"'""' ... -t tkt'm.f~Ci,..'H ·~n:kt't, ~: .. (\tltfti)ttt.l'•rl ._.. , 1 lklf"111 ..... hrl ... • J4..,Wl ...... ,..~ ... ..,. '--" ' *~!lit* .... tt_Q ,, Aku.M"' l'vt !Mil If ,f4....,.'1oi4!1UA ... lil...tt.l~ II4IU "., ...." • ._..,.,.. •.,. ita-$.,...
FIG. 9. PLAN OF IMPROVEMENTS TO THE CITY OFTO RONTO, ACCOMPANY ING THE REPORT ON A COM PR EH ENSIVE PLAN FOR SYSTEMATI C IM PROVEMEN TS IN TORONTO, 1909.1 TORO NTO GUlLO oF CIVIC ART. CITY OF TORONTO ARCHIVES, FONDS 1015, BOX 146634, FILE 3
set out to promote it and gain support for and squares, w hich w ere formed by the w as minor compared to his w ork on a new its implementation. A Citizens Committee proposed diagonal roadw ays.53 addition for an expansive museum and his of one hundred members also attempted redesign of an important, symbolic area to use their influence to get City Council By 1907, w hen Webb w as retained by of London; how ever, w ith each of these and the provincial government to intro the Ci vic Guild, his decade-long project projects, the architect w as hired to create duce legislation that w ould establish a (1899-1909) for a new building for the environments in w hich citizens would be commission to carry out the improvement Victoria and Albert Museum (formerly enriched by the beauty and harmony of
plan. 51 Concerned to see that the vision the South Kensington Museum) was the space. w as developed in an expert w ay and that nearing completion and his plan for the plan itself w as properly prepared, the the Queen Victoria Memorial and rede Webb must have seemed like an excellent ad visory board of the Ci vic Guild consid sign of the mall in front of Buckingham choice to assist the Toronto architects, ered hiring an architect and a draughts Palace (1901 -1911) w as underway. Although because both the Victoria and Albert man. With some financial support from Langton did not explicitly state his reason Museum and the Victoria Memorial w ere City Council and more funds from their for suggesting Webb, the museum build important commissions that displayed private sponsors, Langton proposed ing, the redesign of the mall, and earlier Webb's skill for redesigning existing that the Civic Guild employ the English w ork for the Birmingham La w Courts w ith architectural and urban spaces . In the architect, Sir Aston Webb, to develop partner Ingress Bell had earned Webb a 1891 competition for a new building for the plan into a form suitable for public prominent reputation, of which Langton the Victoria and Albert Museum, adminis distribution.52 In particular, Webb would w as evidently aw are. Webb's contribution tered by the Office of Works and assessed finalize the d etails for junction streets to the plan for improvements to Toronto by Alfred Waterhouse, then president of
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the Royal Institute of British Architects by the boulevards of Paris . 56 To Langton, its dedication to city planning, the Civic (RIBA), the eight entries were evaluated who longed for grand vistas and majestic Guild Plan Committee saw the publica on a set of principles that included ele spaces, Webb's design offered a model tion and widespread distribution of the ments such as dignity, rhythm, general for the successful redevelopment of a plan as a centra l part of its campaign for symmetry and balance, and artistic treat city centre. civic improvement. The Plan Committee ment of details. 54 Waterhouse also consid produced a small version of the plan for ered light, wall space, spatial provisions, Although Webb himself never vis ited publication, which showed the principal cost, and congruency of the new build Toronto, his draughtsman, A .W. Bentham, streets and proposed improvements, as ing with existing ones. Most important, worked w ith the Guild for three months wel l as a large, fully detailed, co lour ver however, was the "excellence of the plan." during the summer of 1907. The Guild sion, wh ich it hoped would be hung in Here, the preferred traits were "simplic was particularly concerned about solv City Hall and sent out for city planning ity, symmetry of plan, and directness of ing the difficult challenge presented by exhibitions. 59 Under the careful man communication[ ... ] position and arrange the junctions of the proposed diagonal agement of the Committee, the smaller ment of staircases, both for beauty and roadways. Combining "safety, conve version of the plan was also issued to convenience." 55 Waterhouse gave Webb's nience, and beauty with proper econ newspapers, along w ith a letter from entry full marks for the plan. Webb's plan omy" was described as "a very difficult William Langton, in which he impressed defined a cohesive space that flowed from problem." 57 However, the combination of upon the reader the practical nature of one section of the museum to another. beauty and convenience had also been the plan, the intention to carry out the He demonstrated his ability to resolve a the focus of Webb's plan for the Victoria improvements gradually, and, ultimately, complex problem-presented by the need and Albert Museum. Working with the its benefits for the people of the city60 He to coordinate a vast new building with a drawings prepared by the Guild, as well explained that the scheme would be ben rambling, older structure-that was not as with photographs and a description of eficial both for business and pleasure, and unlike the problem of developing a plan the difficulties and aims of the project, although the interventions were directed for improvements to an existing city. Webb prepared a new set of drawings. at the city itself, the effects would be felt Langton was thrilled by the results. He by its citizens. In their bid to improve the While the process of designing a new explained: "it is gratifying to see from it cond ition of the city and to inspire civic building for the Victoria and Albert [the drawing] that the employment of Sir pride, the architects had to convince the Museum was similar to the process of Aston Webb for this work is justified. Our public and the municipal government to city planning in that it involved integrat own drawing looks amateurish beside his support their city planning initiatives. ing the old with the new, redesigning and the improvements are not in the way Visual materials, such as the Civic Guild's the mall in front of Buckingham Palace of elaborateness but in the way of that Plan of Improvements, at once conveyed was similar to planning for improvements simplicity, which is the particular mark of the architects' proposals and affirmed to Toronto, as both projects aimed to good design."58 Webb's contribution to that they possessed the professional reshape urban spaces. In the commis the civic improvement initiative was thus expertise to carry them out. sion for the Victoria Memorial, Webb in helping to draw up a plan that was suit was charged w ith transforming an area able for publicity. The Civic Guild's Plan of Improvements of central London into a memorial to the used visua l strategies that supported the recently deceased monarch wh ile, at the Produced for city councillors, prominent architects' dual objective. It consisted of same time, carrying out a program of businessmen, and civic-minded citizens, key streets and existing parks and land civic improvements. Londoners had often and distributed with the Civic Guild's marks plotted onto a plan of the city. The described their city as lack ing the qualities Report on a Comprehensive Plan for street grid, wh ich extended north from appropriate for an imperial capital, and Systematic Improvements in Toronto, Lake Ontario and east and west to the Webb's design for the mall was seen as the Plan of Improvements to the City of outer edges of the city, corresponded an opportunity to incorporate improve Toronto (fig. 9) should be read as one with the grid laid out on the City Engi ments that would give the city grandeur component of a diverse attempt to influ neer's Plan of the City of Toronto from and spaciousness. Webb's design opened ence the development of the city and to 1902 (fig. 10). The shaded background up the main thoroughfare of the mall and convince the public that city planning in the central part of the improvement formed beautiful vistas, like those created would improve civic life. Steadfast in plan indicated the annexed area of the
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city proper, w hile the surrounding sec growing city. By using the language of between a real space in the w orld and tion showed the suburbs beyond the city. objectivity, borrowed from the field of the representation of it. These areas were consistent with the 1902 cartography, the architects attempted to plan, in which the electoral wards of the foreclose any argument about the kinds Thus, the Guild's proposal for improve city defined the city proper. In addition of changes that should be implemented. ments to Toronto used discourses of to show ing features of the existing urban objectivity and persuasion to visualize a landscape, the Civic Guild's plan included The Guild's Plan of Improvements utilized new kind of urban space and ne w and proposed parks, playgrounds, and park a set of conventions that w ere established more pleasurable w ays of experiencing it. w ays. The streets, the topography, and the in seventeenth-century Europe w ith the In the improved city, the architects imag areas shown on the plan were the same as introduction of scientific map production. ined that the natural and constructed those found on the surveyor's city plan, Historian of cartography J.B . Harley has features of the urban landscape would and the suggested improvements to the explained the purpose of modern cartog complement one another. The roadways city were depicted with the same visual raphy as aiming to "produce a 'correct' would serve as conduits to and from means as the existing features of the city. relational model of the terrain.""' Cartog parks, and the parks would break up the Although the improvement plan used the raphy relies on scientific standards and uniformity and oppressiveness of street city engineer's technical drawing for its technical processes to validate the accu after street of buildings. Whereas the structure, the proposals were rendered rac y of maps and to establish its product city surveyor's plan of the existing city w ith a simplicity and an aesthetic quality as an analogue of a pre-existing, objec emphasized the repetitive, restrictive that attempted to appeal to the view er's tive reality. Draw n to scale from surveys, quality of the street grid, the improve desire for an orderly and beautiful urban and emphasizing roads and landmarks, ments, plotted onto the Civic Guild's plan, environment. scientific maps w ere employed to settle offered a solution to the monotony and property disputes and to define political congestion. The bold diagonal lines that The Civic Guild's Plan of Improvements boundaries, as well as to provide visitors cut across the grid offered the promise attempted to present an authoritative with guides for navigating cities. Describ of new routes for traveling from one end strategy for developing Toronto, but ing these maps as affecting a form of of the city to another. The radial arter the design was also persuasive. The Civic "space discipline," Harley argued that ies promoted circulation and fluidity Guild had approached Webb for his supe they have frequently been used to support and presented the possibility of further rior draughting skills, w ith the hope that struggles for political and economic domi expansion . Parks, w hich I have argued he w ould produce an aesthetically pleas nation"' City plans, w hich are produced w ere considered essential to the overall ing plan for a beautiful city. The graphic by follow ing the precise measurements health and aesthetic effect of the city, clarity and simplicity of Webb's plan w as and exa cting principles of cartography, appeared as green rectangles scattered appealing to Langton precisely because also rest on the assumption that a rep across the plan, providing a revitalizing it signified the clarity and simplicity of resentation can be an accurate depiction vi sual respite from the uniformity of the the proposed improvements. However, of a place in the world. The scale in the built environment. at the same time, because existing fea top right hand corner of the OAA's initial tures of the city had been plotted onto an plan, which specified that one thousand The Civic Guild's Plan of Improvements accurate, scaled city plan, the Guild's plan feet of the real city corresponded to one constituted the city as a site of aesthetic claimed a direct relationship to the exist inch on the plan, signified the scientific pleasure, and one of the primary w ays the ing city. By mapping proposed elements system on w hich the Civic Guild's plan improvements could be experienced w as for future development onto the extant w as based . An indication of scale made by travelling through the city. By 1909, infrastructure, the unbuilt features would the assertion that the representation cor w hen the Ci vic Guild's plan w as produced, have seemed more feasible and thus the responded proportionately to a physical the automobile w as a new form of trans plan would have gained credibility. The space. Aspects of the topography, such portation and pleasure driving w as a colour-coded elements and the numbered as the harbour, Ashridges Ba y, Don Val new leisure activity for the upper and keys indicating existing and proposed ley, and Humber River provided the geo middle classes. Car outings w ere princi parks and playgrounds worked to con graphical setting for the city and, on the pally excursions around the city from park vey the idea that the proposed changes Plan of Improvements, these features to park, and the proposed circumambi to the city were natural additions to the worked to establish a clear relationship ent parkw ay and diagonal roads offered
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lt0;-1 '1' 0
FI G. 10. PLAN OF THE CITY OF TORONTO, 1902 . I CHARLES H. RUST.CITY SURVEYOR. CITY OF TORONTO ARCHIVES MT OOOS4. new routes for city driving. The architects their daily activities and city dwellers With the focus on pleasure and effi were interested in the new possibilities of wanted to be able to drive from down ciency in travel and the visual and kines motion, the new views, and the pleasure town to the outskirts in a short time. The thetic experience of the city as a whole, in looking at and moving through urban proposed diagonal roadways, along with the plan for improvements satisfied the space . As Walter van Nus has noted, archi street widening projects, were aimed at interests of the architects, businessmen, tects involved in city planning were con alleviating traffic congestion. 6 s Although and prominent citizens who financed cerned with visual variety because they congested roadways did not begin with and produced it. Instead of attempting assumed that the city would be experi the automobile, and the transition to a to improve slum housing in the down enced by people travelling through the car-oriented city was a lengthy process town areas, the plan focused on upgrad city or within a park system." With their that took decades to resolve, both the ing aspects of the city that would benefit emphasis on the vista and the drive, the OAA's and the Civic Guild's plans iden the mobile, middle-class inhabitants who architects imagined a profoundly cine tified effective traffic circulation as a had leisure time. Like the PQAA, the Civic matic conception of space. The diagonal necessary feature of the new city. Count Guild had proposed improvements that roads would also contribute to the city's less articles in the Journal of the Town would wipe out slum areas; however, nei character and individual identity by cre Planning Institute of Canada during the ther group addressed the issue of where ating squares and other unique spaces. 64 early 1920s were dedicated to the merits the displaced residents would go. 67 With These small diversions and distinctive of various methods of rounding street the Guild's proposals, the poor, many of spaces were what would constitute the corners, to make it easier for cars, rather w hom lived in downtown slums, would visual variety of the city. than horses, to navigate the city streets. not be better housed, nor would they These ongoing discussions show that have increased access to city services. At The emphasis on pleasure driving was creating an efficient traffic system was most, they might have access to a new, coupled with a concern for the efficient a long, drawn-out process that was only nearby park. The working classes, who flow of traffic. City officials and business in its early stages with the Civic Guild's frequently settled outside the city, relied men had begun to use cars regularly in improvement plan 66 on streetcars to get to and from work.68
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For them, the diagonal roadways might eliminating congestion, they sought to NOTES prove useful, if less pleasurable. With convince civic officials and the public to ------their belief that open spaces, edifying support their proposals. In producing 1. Th e author gratefully acknowledges the financial su pport of the Social Science and monuments, and beautiful vistas would a plan that appeared both technically Humanities Res earch Council of Canada and improve the otherwise diseased and sound and aesthetically appealing, the the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the delinquent working class, the architects architects demonstrated their expertise University of Western Ontario.
may have expected their proposals would and attempted to lay claim to the city. 2. PQAA, 1907, « Improvement Pl an for solve a whole range of urban problems. The predominantly visual and aesthetic Montreal », Canadian Municipal Journal, In any case, the visual renderings of the character of the proposals was a funda val. 3, no. 4, April, p. 154. proposed improvements erased poverty mental part of the effort to persuade the 3. Ibid.
from the city altogether. civic community to support their vision 4. Gardner, J. Ra wson, 1907, « Proposed Diagonal for the city. It was above all the visuality Streets >>, Canadian Municipal Journal, val. 3, The proposals represented visually in the of their proposals that enabled architects no. 4, A pril, p. 155. Civic Guild's Plan of Improvements were to assert that they were the most quali 5. Idem: 156. embellished by the aestheticizing dis fied to design an aesthetically pleasing 6. Maxwell, Ed ward, 1907, « Report of Parks and course of Langton's descriptions of them. urban environment. Parkways>>; and PQAA, 1907: 154. In his explanation of the proposed sys 7. How land, W . Ford, 1907, « Improvements for tem of roads that would connect the park CONCLUSION: VISUALITY AND the City of Toronto >>, Canadian Municipal Journal, va l. 3, no. 3, March, p. 110-111. areas, Langton repeatedly referred to the SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE beautiful and pleasant drives the roads 8. Ibid. would offer. He described Kingston Road In their drive for civic improvement during 9. ldem:110. as providing the opportunity "for a lovely the first decade of the twentieth century, 10. Ibid.
drive along the water." Regarding a pro the PQAA, the OAA, and the Civic Guild 11. Ibid. posed extension of Ulster Street, he said turned to a hybrid visual discourse that 12. Idem: 111. that the road "finds a good course, pleas conveyed rationality at the same time 13. Gardner: 156. antly varied[ ... ] all the way to High Park." that it was aesthetically engaging and In the eastern section of the city, Langton persuasive. The visual strategies used in 14 . How land: 111 ; and «The Beaut ifying of Cities >> , Canadian Architect and Builder, stated: " w e have a beautiful drive all the the renderings validated a visual experi va l. 15, no. 3, March 1902, p. 34. way[ ... ]," which, he explained, "descends ence of the city and claimed that aesthetic 15. See PQAA, 1907 : 154. to the Don [Valley] by a long, picturesque improvements could function as a mecha 16. « The Beautifying of Cities >>. 34. hill-road.''69 His descriptive language, par nism of reform. The architects' propos ticularly his use of aesthetic terms like als for civic improvements demonstrated 16 . Sutcliffe, Anthony, 1981 , Towards the Planned City: Germany, Britain, the United States, and "beautiful" and "picturesque," empha their involvement in a growing interna France, 1780-1914, New Yo rk, St. Martin's sized the visual features of the propos tional planning movement. They were at Press . als and implied that if the Civic Guild's once an attempt to eliminate the evils of 17. Walker, Byron E., 1906, « A Comprehensive scheme was implemented, urban prob urbanism and an attempt to consolidate a Plan for To ronto>>, address delive red to the lems would be replaced by pleasurable base of support for their aesthetic visions. Canadian Club, March 20. Published as« The aesthetic experiences. The architects deployed plans and render Pl an of Im provement in Toronto>>, Canadian Municipal Journal, val. 2, no. 7, Ju ly 1906, ings in an effort to constitute the city as a p. 248-250; reprinted in Pau l Ru therford, ed., The Civic Guild's initiatives were at once field of possibility and to claim it as their Saving the Canadian City, the First Phase 1880- an attempt to influence urban develop rightful domain. 1920: An Anthology of Early Articles on Urban ment and an assertion of their special Reform, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1974, p. 222-225. ized knowledge. The architects believed that city planning was the remedy for 18 Herbert B. Ames, a prominent Montreal busi nessma n, w rote about t he corruption in the undesirable urban conditions, such as 1890s. (Ames, Herbert B., 1894, «The 'Machine' congestion and its attendant problems in Honest Hands >>, Canadian Magazine, val. 3, of disease and immorality and, by pre no. 2, June, p. 101 -109; and Wickett, S. Morley, paring a plan that held the promise of 1907, « City Government in Canada >>, in
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S. Morley Wickett, ed., Municipal Government C.J. Saxe; Hugh Val lance; Ri ckson A. Outhet; Frederick Law Olmstead and the City Planning in Canada, Toronto, Librarian of the Univer Frederick Todd; and Ed w ard Maxwell.(<< Plan Movement in the United States, Ann Arbor, sity of Toronto.) Both essays are reproduced in of the Improvement of Montreal >>, Canadian Michigan, UMI Research Press. Rutherford's Saving the Canadian City. The City Municipal Journal, vol. 4, no. 7, July 1908, 33. << Plan of Improvement of Montreal. Improve Improvement League of Montreal, founded in p. 285.) ment Scheme for Fletcher's Field >>, Canadian 1909, w as dedicated to the reform of local gov 24. << Montreal Notes >>, Canadian Architect and Municipal Journal, vol. 4, no. 6, June 1908, ernment and other civic improvement activi Builder, vol . 19, no. 7, July 1906, p. 107. See p. 230, 285; and <>, Civic Improvements of the Province of Quebec League of Montreal >> , La revue municipale, in Isa belle Gournay and Fran ce Vanlaethem, Architects' Association >>, Canadian Municipal ed ition speciale d 'urbanisme, vol. 8, no. 9, eds., 1998, Montreal Metropolis, 1880-1930, Journal, vol. 3, no. 4, April 1907, p. 155. Decem ber, p. 30-32. Toronto, Stoddart and Canadian Centre for 34. Cranz, Galen, 1982, << The Reform Park: 1900- 19. For examples of social and urban histories Architecture, p. 137-140. Jeanne M. Wolfe and 1930 >> , The Politics of Park Design: A History relating to social reform, see Jones, Gareth Peter Jacobs have also discussed the PQAA's of Urban Pa rks in America, Cambridge, MIT Stedman, 1971, Outcast London: A Study in schemes in terms of Ed w ard and W.S. Max Press, p. 61-67. the Relationship Between Classes in Victo well 's invol vement in urban reform in <
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42 . Burke, Edmund, 1906, « Ontario Association 51. On f undraising, see: Report of Plan Com 59. «Toronto the Beautiful: A Suggestion for the of Architects Annual Convention>>, Canadian mittee, Toronto Guild of Civic A rt Annual Coming Year», Toronto Sunday World, Janu Architect and Builder, vo l. 19, no. 1, Janu M eeting, March 30, 1906; Advisory Board ary 3, 1909, p. 1 and 10. ary 1906, p. 5; and Advisory Board Minutes, Minutes, October 10, 1906; Executive Meet 60. Harley, J.B. , 2001, « Deconstructing the Map », March 3, 1905, Civic Guild Minutes 1897-1914. ing, September 19 , 1907; and Report of in Paul La xton, ed., w ith an introduction by Toronto Gui ld of Civic Art, Toronto Reference the Plan Committee, November 21, 1907, J.H. Andrews, The New Nature of Maps: Essays Library (hereafter TRL), SR 48, unboxed. Earl y Toront o Guild of Civic Art, TRL, SR 48, box 2. in the History of Cartography, Baltimore, Lon sponsors of t he Civic Guild incl uded Sir Henry don, Joh n Hopkins University Press, p. 154. Pellatt and Byron Edmund W alker. Langton On the arrangement with Sir Aston Webb, see noted that he thought there would not be any co rrespondence between Wi ll iam La ngton 61. Harley, J.B. , 2001 , «Maps, Knowledge, and p roblem rais ing eve n $10,000 for an im prove and Aston Webb, March to De ce mber 1907, Power>>, an d « Power and Legiti mation in t he ment sc heme for the city. (Proceedings of the Toronto Guild of Civic Art. TRL, SR 48, box 1, English Geographical Atlases of the Eighteenth Ontario Association of Architects, Toronto, letters 1907- 1910; Advisory Board Meeting, Century », The New Nature of Maps, p. 62-69 Canadian Architect and Builder Press, 1905, April 7, 1908, Civic Guild Minutes 1897-1914, and 110-147. p. 108-109.) SR 48, unboxed; Executive Committee Meet 62. va n Nu s, 1984: 171. ing, October 1 [1908?], Civic Guild Minutes 43. According to Jam es Lemon, the OAA adapted 1897-1914, To ronto Guild of Ci vic Art, TRL, 63. Langton, William, 1906, « The Plan of Improve a plan drafted a f ew yea rs earlier by a young SR 48, unboxed. ments to Toronto », Proceedings of the Ontario architect, Alfred Chapman. (Lemon, Jam es, 1989, Association of A rchitects, Toronto, Ca nadian '' Plans for Earl y 20'" Century Toronto », Urban 52. General Meeting, February 19 , 1907, Civic Architect and Bu ilder Press, p. 90 -94. History Re view, vo l. 18, no. 1, June, p. 13.) Guild Minutes 1897-1914, TRL , SR 48, unboxed. Another $5000 was raised through subscrip 64. On the proposed widening and extension of 44. On a Canadian City Beautifu l movement see, tion to pay for the architect's services . Teraulay Street (now Ba y Street), for instance, for examp le, va n Nus, Walt er, 1984, « The see« Te rau la y Street Extension», Civic Guild Fa te of City Be autiful Thought in Canada, 53. Physick, John, 1982, The Victoria and Albert Bulletin, vo l. 1, no. 3, August 1911, n.p. 1893 -1930 », in Stelter, Gilbert A. and Alan Museum: The History of its Building, Oxford, F.J . Artibise, ed s., The Ca nadian City: Es says Phaidon, Christ ie's, p. 183-189. 65. For an example, see «Street Corners», Jour in Urban and Social History, Ottawa, Carleton nal of the To wn Planning Institute of Canada, 54. Alfred Waterhouse, Public Re co rds Office, University Press; and Lemon, op. cit. vol. 1, no. 12, November 1922, p. 4. Office of Works, Works 17/23/ 9, 148, quoted 45. See« A Plan for Toronto », Canadian Architect in Physick: 190. On Waterhouse's assessment 66. In particular, it was acknowledged that a and Builder, vol. 18, no. 3, March 1905, p. 33. of Webb's pl an, also see page 191 . sc heme to develop a civic centre would wipe out the slum area known as " The Ward," which 46. Langton, William, 1906, Proceedings of the 55. See Smith, Tori, 1999, «'A Grand Work of Noble was very close to the central business district . Ontario Association of Architects, Toronto, Conception': The Victoria Memorial and Impe The plan for a civic centre was abandoned in Canadian Architect and Builder Press , p. 90. ri al London », in Feli x Driver and David Gilbert, 1913. Minutes of the Executive, May 31, 1911 , eds., Imperial Cities: Landscape, Display and 47. Pro ceedings of the Ontario Association of Toronto Guild of Civic Art, TRL, SR 48, box 2. Identity, Manchester, New York, Manchest er Architects, Toronto, Canadian Architect and Un iversity Pres s, p. 25; and Port, Michael Ha rry, 67. See Harris, Richard, 1996, Unplanned Suburbs: Bui lde r Pre ss, 1906, n.p. [90a]. Canadian Archi 1995, Imperial London: Civil Government Build Toronto's American Tragedy 1900 to 1950, Bal tect and Bu ilder, vo l. 19, no. 2, February 1906, ing in London, 1850 -1915, New Ha ven, Paul timore, John Hopkins Unive rsi t y Pre ss. plates 2 ,a and b. Mellon Center for the Study of Bri tish Art and 68. Langton, « The Plan of Im provement s to 48. Lan gton, Proceedings of the Ontario Associa Yale University Press, p. 22-23. Toronto » : 92-96. tion of Architects, 1906 : 90-91. 56. Report of the Plan Committee, Novem ber 21, 49. Planning historian Jon Peterso n has noted 1907. Toronto Guild of Civic Art, TRL, SR 48, that bird's-eye views became popular in city box 2. planning proposals follow ing the McMillan 57. Idem. Correspondence between Aston Webb Commission's plan for Was hington, DC of and Mr. Bentham, August 19, 1907, Toronto 1902. (Peterson, Jon A., 2003, The Birth of Guild of Civic Art. TRL , SR 48, box 1, letters City Pla nning in the United States, 1840-1917, 1907-19 10. Baltimore, London, John Hopkins University Press, p. 126-127 and 289.) 58. Report of the Plan Committee, November 21, 1907 and Report of the Plan Committee, 50. Advisory Board Minutes, Ja n uary 26, 1906, Dece mber 4, 1908, and Executive Committee Civic Guild Minutes 1897-1914, TRL , SR 48, Minutes, October 17, 1907, Toronto Guild of unboxed . Civic A rt, TRL, SR 48, box 2.
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