Residual Islands of Pluraity: A Case of Toronto 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 Rogers Centre 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 Ontario - 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 8 nd larg r labor market: t, 111at Toronto has come to rival Montre 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, 11 fig.2. Foreign Islan4 of and t mopolitan to be properly Canadian:' Toronto in Southern Ontario nlike Miami or Van ouver, who e multicultur m . 12 and CityPlace in Toronto. 1 mor h mogenou in compo ition, Torol)16's 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 Fort York 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 Gardiner Expressway (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.