Random Access

Before Architect Michael Kirkland talked Wednesday night about how the Mississauga Civic Centre was dreamed up, some City Hall staff led a tour of the site to explain how the front deck and yard of the 20-year-old building are going to be re-energized.
The “Building for Two Seasons” has some operational problems, as is well known by anyone who has ever baked on the square during a summer function or shivered so hard they couldn’t do up their skate laces while they got ready to take a whirl around the ice rink in winter.
The City’s Placemaking project and the advent of the long-overdue My Mississauga summer entertainment program have brought some of the long-festering operational issues to the fore.
The perenially-ignored outdoor amphitheatre, which was envisioned as a place where the words of Shakespeare could rattle the nearby walls of power, has turned out to be a heat sink which would likely turn The Tempest into The Drought in a few hours.
Randy Jamieson of the City’s community services department, who said the amphitheatre has never functioned properly, explained that there is a proposal for a roof which would provide shade and cover from the rain. Hoorah.
The wisteria-covered colonnades on both sides of the square could get a makeover, with installation of garage-style doors that would provide protection from the elements, allow heat, extend the season and provide for markets, outdoor art sales or maybe even a café.
A small stage will be added in the lovely formal gardens on the west side of the square. I’m willing to guess 95 per cent of Mississauga's population does not even know that oasis exists.
The City is going into the outdoor chapel business there. Jamieson suggested the stage that is being installed for small weddings could also be the site of things such as poetry readings — perhaps a weekly open stage where the grandeur of the surrounding architecture which has inspired photographers and skateboarders for years — could do the same for local wordsmiths.
The visual barrier between the Civic Square and the library square to the south is to be minimized by lowering a wall along City Centre Dr. The squares will be better connected by lowering curbs, removing the median, lowering some air duct outlets that now create a barrier and taking out several of the too-small planters where trees are dying.
It is to be hoped that the portion of City Centre, between Duke of York and Living Arts Dr. will now be closed a lot more often, creating a pedestrian enclave which will draw people to the core to hear mini-concerts or visit the outdoor library and lunch-with-the-author series that are envisioned.
The circle of lawn at the centre of the library square, where the Musk Oxen graze, is to have its round mound beheaded. The bump causes a lot of problems because trucks can’t get on it for event set-up. During the annual Rotary RibFest, the barbecue sauce keeps landing in your lap because the picnic tables are on an angle.
There are lots of great ideas here, but there is also one great big caveat, of which Jamieson warned. Because the squares are both built atop underground parking garages, any reconstruction work may have technical restrictions, plus a big price tag.
A specific plan is being developed by Project for Public Places, the NewYork consultant who led the Placemaking project. Three million dollars is set aside for construction in 2009.
During the tour, Jamieson mentioned that the piece of property on the eastern edge of the library square, which was always intended to be the third leg to complete the triangle of City Hall and the Central Library, could also be put to temporary use. The last thing on there besides the pigeons was probably one of The Potato Eaters. “There are ideas of things such as an indoor or outdoor market that would draw people out of the buildings and give them things to do,” said the community planner.
Later Wednesday evening Kirkland spoke about the value of the national architectural competition that created City Hall – and noted that one of its greatest assets was that it provided an inspired benchmark for surrounding buildings and developers. Afterwards, Mayor Hazel McCallion recalled that the property was originally intended to be Mississauga’s museum.
Not a bad idea then and not a bad idea now.
While we’re reflecting on the virtues of having a brave and grand vision in the early 1980s, why not consider trying it again?
How about a national architectural competition for a new art gallery/museum on Duke of York Blvd. that could not only produce another landmark building in the civic enclave but help create the grand promenade on Burnhamthorpe Rd. that everyone hopes to see?