Christopher Hume –
It’s a long way from the Pompidou Centre in Paris to Toronto’s brand-new St. Lawrence Market North building at Jarvis and Front Streets, but the two are directly connected.
Both were created by firms partnered by Richard Rogers, the late great Italian/English architect who changed the course of contemporary design culture. The two structures share a high-tech sensibility and are characterized by a manifestly humanistic commitment to flexibility, natural light, open spaces and civic engagement.
Though long delayed and beset with budget overruns, this magnificent addition to our cityscape was worth the wait. Indeed, it has been years since a piece of architecture as elegant and exciting as this has appeared in Toronto, a town numbed by the endless torrent of steel-and-glass towers that has made almost every corner of the city look the same.
Designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour Partners and Toronto’s Adamson Associates, the new market facility sits across the road from the ‘original’ St. Lawrence Market. The five-storey, mixed-use building – market at grade, provincial courthouses above – revels in the basic facts of its existence.
Though not as aggressively high-tech as the Pompidou, the exterior is a showcase of utilitarian features ranging from emergency orange vertical louvers, rows of concrete columns, moveable glass walls on the west and east facades, and a pair of wonderfully decorative marine air vents, a la Pompidou. Other than the orange screens, the most dramatic part of the structure is a pair of semi-circular roofs that extend north/south, dividing the space in two and facilitating what the architects call a “glass spine that runs the length of the building.”
Indeed, every aspect of the building is designed to maximize not just transparency but also connectivity. In good weather, the east and west walls can be raised to bring the outdoors in and transform the interior into an extension of the city.
The implications for Market Lane Square to the west are especially compelling. The long-neglected parcel has been an eyesore for so long that almost any change would be welcome. Sadly, given the snail’s pace at which Official Toronto moves, it could be another decade before anything happens here. Blasé Torontonians might not notice, but what will visitors make of a city that raises expectations of urban beautification but dashes them on the shoals of civic parsimony and ineptitude?
Perhaps a philanthropist will come forward to sponsor a remake of Market Lane, as Judy and Wilmot Matthews did with their $25-million donation to the Bentway under the Gardiner Expressway at Fort York.
In any case, Market North sets a new standard for a neighbourhood that has had to rest on its laurels for decades. The new building even has an entrance to historic St. Lawrence Hall directly north. In other words, Market North, whose front door on Front St. lines up with the main entrance of old St. Lawrence Market and thence to St. Lawrence Hall, unifies all three into a single entity.
This sort of urban thinking is rare even in such a storied part of Toronto. The last such example, which dates from the early 1980s, is the view corridor next to Market Square condo that looks north to St. James Cathedral on King Street. It is an exquisite detail that helps knit the neighbourhood into a coherent whole.
On a recent Saturday morning, overflowing with people and produce, Market North seemed fully up to its task. Shoppers poured in and out the main doors and vendors did a brisk business. Secondary entrances on both east and west facades helped alleviate the crush, but the mood was exuberant.
It’s fair to assume the situation will improve when the sides are opened and things can spill out onto the surrounding spaces. Clearly, Torontonians love the Farmers Market and are thrilled it’s back.
Though there’s no café or snack bar, an empty room on the southwest corner seems perfectly suited to such a purpose. The stairwell to the mezzanine was blocked off, but it has spaces ideally suited for a gallery, restaurant or something similar.
Market North’s best days are still ahead, but already it can be declared a resounding success. It is one of few buildings that manage to both honour the city’s history and take it boldly into the future. Unlike the 1960s box it replaces, it will reflect well on the times, however turbulent and troubled, that produced it.
