Yonge-Dundas Square: You've Come a Long Way, Baby

The light pollution pouring off that intersection at night is absolutely astounding. The hazy glow of severely overdone advertising is visible from quite a distance down every direction of street and the ads sized larger than the stores sporting them start way in advance of Yonge and Dundas now. B-l-e-a-h.

Every time I come out of Dundas station into the square, my eyes hurt from all the glaring billboards. It takes a few seconds to adjust!

I think the square is cool, for like, outdoor events and whatnot. And I guess it's supposed to be like Times Square... meh. If you like big city stuff, I can see how it's a spectacle to behold.

If you don't like consumerism, it's still a spectacle, but not one you'll appreciate!

I've always found it incredible that people complained to no end about Dundas Square itself, when it is by far the least offensive space/architecture within several city blocks (I like the much maligned square btw). I agree the Toronto Life Square building is most definitely horrendous.

IMO the real disaster of that part of the city is on Yonge Street heading south towards Queen. I think the whitewashing of the area was a huge debacle and missed opportunity.

who cares as long as the dundas square is bringing more revenue to the city! so do we want this area to be left as park so we all have to pay more property tax? give me a break.. toronto is supposed to be one of the major urban centres in north america.. it is all about commericalism.. the more advertising, the better.. as the revenue goes back to supporting the infrastruture.. if u guys hate it so much, then why don't you move to barrier or some small towns!

It's the ugliest interesction in the city. An unfortunate mix of overwhelmingly invasive advertising, and flat, uninteresting concrete. Clearly the result of too much money and not enough vision. Ultimately, our city sold that intersection to corporate interests.

It's obviously better than not having a congregating area in the downtown core, but should that really be the bar we set for ourselves? That we are just "better than nothing"?

Please. Dundas square is a huge letdown. a corporate venue. quit patting ourselves on the back . take a look at metropolis: I CANNOT IMAGINE AN UGLIER BUILDING

most cities in the world would make this into a truly public space with a sweet connection to the subway. But toronto has whored itself out to a building that could be in mississauga, not beside a "cultural" square and on top of the TTC.

Much of the past criticism has been because of the square's management (overzealous security guards, etc) rather than the square itself.

Have you not seen that candy bar ad? It's fucking awesome!

This is really my favourite intersection in all of Toronto. I love everything about it from the crowds of people to the bright lights to the ultra convenience of having so much shopping nearby. I'm really looking forward to TLS finishing up and having an AMC and Johnny Rockets is going to be awesome.

as if Times Square is pretty or tasteful.. in the 80's Times Square was nothing but an area where hookers, drug dealers and porn addicts hanged out.. it was disgusting... but so what? tourists went there and spent money.. now that area is even uglier.. but who cares, 'cause that's what a metroplitan SUPPOSED to look like, ugly buildings, plus lots of advertising, lots of people and lots of traffic! What? you want to build pretty senior homes around yonge and dundas with Art Deco building?? Ugly Cities + people + shops = Cash.... and that's what put toronto on the map, not your kiddy Monopoly game

Andrew - Nice piece. I was not so positive about the square. I said if I were in "charge" I would NOT have done it. But it is here. What I said surprised me is that in this rather imposed and ugly corner of the city, people - particularly New Canadians - were really using it. I suggested that this may reflect that many people from foreign, and especially Asian, cities resonate with the kind of bright lights, big buildings Times Square or Tokyo kind of urbanism. See Sanh T's comments above. I also said I am very, very concerned about the movement of this up Yonge street, the replacement of mom and pop shops - and Toronto style messy urbanism - with homogeneity, blandness and generica.

why is it so typical and predictable that torontonians oppose any kind of changes? even Hong Kong in the 70's is more urban than Toronto now and probably 10 yrs from now..

RF, thanks for taking the time to respond. After being so used to reading negative reviews for the square, it seems I may have interpreted your lack of negativity as an endorsement. Or maybe it was the slant that Peter Scowen took in his article that made it seem like you were more of a fan of the square than you really are.

I did notice though that you reviewed the square when a special event was taking place there. I wonder, would your reaction have been different if you went to the square on a cold Tuesday morning in January when no event was taking place and few visitors were present? My own impression is that the square is great during events, but on its own it is crass and 'soulless'. That I see as a key distinctive between our Square and Times Square in NY. In NY, the square itself is the attraction, in Toronto the attraction is whatever event is taking place there.

Please, put some greenery and more interesting lighting on this depressing slab. Can't Toronto architects ever come up with anything better than functional and boring? Can't we send a few of them to New York or Paris or London to see how things are done and to implement the ideas here? I mean it's unbearable to walk through this city and see buildings and open spaces that are either hideously ugly or unbearably dull and lifeless.

Why on earth do we not have higher standards? It wouldn't be so difficult to borrow a few ideas from other cities and implement them here. Our lousey home-grown architects and city planners should have been flunked in school, instead they are allowed to destroy our city.

I don't know why you guys are hating so much at yonge-dundas square. I mean it hasn't done anything to hurt anybody so does it bother you guys so much about this square?. I love this part of the city, it makes it more like our sister NY square.Not to say that we're trying to copy them but we're just catching up with our counter part.If you guys don't like it, why don't you guys just move to another city or something and stop complaining about ours