Planning for the future of avenues is not news in the City of Toronto, a city of long straight streets. With a main planning goal of reurbanization, city planners have been looking at the redevelopment potential of the giant grid of the city’s mainstreets since Barton Myers and George Baird worked on Dundas Sherbourne Infill Housing in the mid-1970s, published in Design Quarterly’s “Vacant Lottery” in 1980.
But how can intensification work for seniors? The grey tsunami is fast-approaching. Those planning Toronto’s avenues might do well to consider the needs of the elderly in their Avenue Study.
A recent graduate of the MES program considered just that in her Avenue Study. Drawing on current guidelines for designing for seniors, Kendra Fitzrandolph produced an excellent study on the potential for an area along Yonge Street to be redesigned with seniors in mind.