The strange tale of the ROM South development, a 40-odd storey condominium proposed for the site of the defunct McLaughlin Planetarium, is probably already over. A heated public meeting last week to discuss the proposal (see The Varsity, “A Towering ‘No,'” November 3, 2005) was decisive in its condemnation of the plan, and it seems increasingly likely that the project is doomed.
ROM South was an irredeemably foolish venture from the get-go: it was to be a residential building surrounded by institutional buildings; it was to radically dwarf every building around it, with a listless, slab-like design; the condos it contained were to start at $3 million, capped off by a $50 million penthouse-overblown pricing even in condo-mad Toronto; and there were few options for installing underground parking and street access for the millionaire residents’ luxury chariots.
This particular plan was folly, undeniably. But could another plan work?
Neighbourhood residents’ associations were aggressive and vocal in their attacks on the ROM South development, and in this case they were right to be. But then again, they are vocally opposed to nearly every new building development in the area.
In the case of a proposed condo development at the northeast corner of Bedford and Bloor, the residents’ associations talked some sense into the city planners and the developer and achieved some important concessions, like lopping off a few storeys from the tallest building and improving the building’s planned street frontage. In that case, the system worked, and the building may yet go ahead.
But the hyperbole displayed at last week’s public meeting over ROM South was bizarre. Many people seem to have decided to punish the ROM for building The Crystal at the north end of the building, a renovation that everyone loves to hate.
Having failed to stop construction of the Libeskind crystal, the ROM’s neighbours seem determined to prove that they’re still in charge, dammit, and they’ll kick in ROM CEO William Thorsell’s little sand castle because the arrogant little prick has it coming. That’s undoubtedly an emotionally gratifying position, but it makes for lousy development policy.
Facts: the ROM needs money; the McLaughlin Planetarium, no matter how sentimentally charged it is for some people, is an ugly derelict building on a very prime piece of real estate; downtown intensification and mixed-use building schemes are the only responsible option for a city already crippled by sprawl; and there are no other residential-zoned buildings in the area that would be overshadowed by a more modestly sized tower at the south end of the ROM.
ROM South was unworthy, but that doesn’t mean the ROM should give up on the idea. A more sympathetic project could work, and it should be encouraged. The ROM lost this round, and the neighbourhood won; but if we don’t work together to responsibly intensify this sprawling city of ours, everybody loses.
