In Toronto, public housing is getting a massive do-over. Well, at least in part. Witness the Regent Park revitalization: Within the last year, vertically dense, glass and concrete structures with the look and basic amenities of the better condos that line the Gardiner Expressway rose up near Dundas and Parliament.
The buildings reflect light, unlike their Hobbit-hollow-on-the-road-to-Mordor predecessors. The streets now actually resemble city streets, boulevards even. There are mixed heights together with widened perspectives. The buildings appear better spaced and the space between buildings no longer looks like an afterthought. The glazing and cladding reference the sky and the lake. A new aquatic community centre is being built to replace the old, odd one that is attached to a smokestack. This is a great thing for Regent Park. It actually looks like a part of Toronto.
There will be integrated stores and banks and underground parking. Mixed use and mixed income are the catchphrases.
But despite the Regent revitalization being in-step with the design-times, there is a creeping sense of deja vu. Is it possible that this might not be the “fix” for that the troubled neighborhood that everyone envisions? Someone dreamt up the previous incarnation with some set of “ideals” in mind. Is the concept of affordable housing in Toronto as now as the new buildings? Will the new buildings transform the old community?
This is not a question that can be answered now or even soon. Despite the good looks and good neighborhood planning and great ideas about mixed income cohabitation, this is an experiment in social housing, and the concepts are really hypotheses about what makes good public housing. How do we define the good in this case? What outcomes are most desirable? Only the next 20 years will tell whether the new Regent Park is more successful than the old.
In the meantime, there is an excellent website that reminds us that the road to social housing hell is paved with good design-driven intentions and that the devil is in the details. Top down design did not bring the bottom up. Not in these cases.
Peruse these (in)famous public housing projects and judge the odds on Regent Park for yourself. I think they are better than even.
http://www.oobject.com/category/15-housing-projects-from-hell