Good design isn’t about how much you add to a space; it’s about what you choose to leave out.
Little Italy BIA Streetscape Master Plan
That line opens our Little Italy BIA Streetscape Master Plan. It guided most of the decisions we made on College Street.
We often come back to Steve Jobs and the first iPhone. It came out without a keyboard when most smartphones had one. Leaving it out made the phone simpler and better. Streets work the same way. Adding things is easy. Knowing what to leave out is the hard part.
Walk College from Shaw to Bathurst and count what’s between you and the curb. Hydro poles, guy wires, streetcar poles, streetlights, BIA lights, traffic signals, parking meters, electrical cabinets and hydrants. At the intersections they bunch up with bins and transit stops. Almost every street tree has an old electrical box for the Winter Festival lights that nobody uses anymore.
It isn’t only utilities. Heritage markers and dedication signs are easy to add, and each one makes sense on its own. Put enough of them on one block and they become more clutter.
The plan starts by removing things. Anything new should replace something that’s already there.
- Fewer, longer benches instead of scattered ones
- Bike rings grouped in a few spots, not spread along every block
- BIA light posts removed where they double up with other poles
- Catenary lighting hung from existing poles
- Utilities moved underground when the road is rebuilt
The bigger moves, like relocating poles and cables, will happen when the City or a utility is already working in the street. The plan gives the BIA what it needs to be ready when that happens. Some things don’t need to wait. The broken furniture and the unused electrical boxes on the street trees can come out any time.
Less on the sidewalk means more room to walk, and more room for the patios and storefronts that make Little Italy what it is.
Client: Little Italy BIA