Transcript « Planning, Development and Management of Underground Space in Canada» Mr. Jacques Besner, urban planner City of Montreal.

« Planning, Development and Management of
Underground Space in Canada»
Mr. Jacques Besner, urban planner
City of Montreal
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Table of contents
Introduction
The Toronto walkways
The Montreal pedestrian network
Three basic conditions to go ahead with the underground
Projects and people
Design criteria
Favorable land development policy
Incentive development tools
The beneficiaries of the underground city
Recommendations to develop the urban underground space
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INTRODUCTION
Why underground pedestrian networks in
Canada Montreal and Toronto? :
because of our climate and
our underground transportation systems
Underground space :
as valuable as the streets and the parks
The underground ‘invisible’ space is
part of our future,
a legacy for the next generations
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We can no longer plan the city
without also planning the underground space
Make the pedestrian, the shopper, the student and the elderly
the focus of our planning preoccupation
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Montreal and Toronto :
skyscrapers and shopping centers interconnected
beneath the streets by pedestrian corridors
Toronto
Montreal
Option of living in the city completely indoors,
without spending even thirty seconds outside
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THE TORONTO WALKWAYS
27 km of walkways, under the street level,
also over the streets, as bridges
50 buildings connected through PATH,
the name of the Toronto walkways network
20 parking garages, 5 subway stations, a railway terminal,
2 major department stores, 6 hotels, plus many tourist
and entertainment attractions
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1,200 shops and services inside PATH
employ about 5,000 people
100,000 daily commuters, thousands of tourists and residents
Eaton Centre:
Toronto’s main shopping destination
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Subway opening: 1954
Mid-sixties: mid-block overhead walkways
1969: plan to build also pedestrian tunnels
beneath the streets,
linking towers with subway
Cost of the first tunnels shared between the City and the
connected property owners
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Early 1980's: 3 kilometers in length, but as a series of
independent shopping centers
Toronto had to make that space more useable
and understandable, with a coherent directional signage
Most people were interested
but no one felt responsible
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1986: the City fund a feasibility study on a directional signage
Toronto’s underground city : "PATH"
Simplified map of the system designed to identify entrances and
what building lay ahead in each direction
PATH installed in 1992
Total cost: about $2 million,
half paid by the City
and the other half
by the private property owners
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THE MONTREAL’S INDOOR
PEDESTRIAN NETWORK
Almost entirely underground
Pedestrian network of 32 kilometers, linking
10 subway stations,
2 railway stations,
2 regional buses terminals and
more than 62 buildings, indoor public places and commercial galleria,
representing more than 4.0 millions m2 of floor spaces
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80 % of all the CBD office spaces (2.9 million m2)
35 % of downtown shops (1 840 commercial units), amongst
them:
9 hotels (4 265 rooms), 19 cinemas, 10 theatre and concert
halls, 1 museum,…
1 060 dwellings (in 4 different buildings)
14 university and college pavilions
14 500 indoor public parking spaces (into 31 garages)
accessible through 155 entrances on street level
and 500,000 pedestrians a day
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Indoor pedestrian network, known internationally as the
Underground city
1962 : opening of Place Ville-Marie,
Subway opening in 1966
Fueled by a public-private partnership
Only the private sector is paying
for the public utilities
Let’s take a look now at three basic conditions or criteria explaining the
development of this indoor city
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THREE BASIC CONDITIONS
1) climatic justification:
Winter: 4 to 5 months
–30 degrees C
Summer: hot temperature
+ 25 to + 35 degrees C
and 100 % humidity
Indoor city widens over 12 months the commercial and
socio-cultural activities of its CBD, otherwise only
possible during the warm season
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2) convenient urban fabric,
CBD compact, squeezed between
the St-Lawrence River and by the Mount Royal
15 square kilometers / rectangular shape
East west orientation of the main arteries and
2 of the subway lines in the center
Parallel subway lines distant of 750 meters
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3) subway
Montreal indoor pedestrian network connected
to 10 of the 65 stations of its subway
Stations accessible from the street,
through the lobby of the nearby buildings
From the subway stations,
spread the 32 kilometers
of the network
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PROJECTS AND PEOPLES
Indoor city began in 1962
with Place Ville-Marie
Ieoh Ming Pei
Basic conditions, plus:
Opportunity to plan at a large-scale, to have visionary people
make decisions at the right time.
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Innovation : multifunctional and multi-level with an
underground commercial galleria and complete segregation of
pedestrians and cars.
The beginning:
Project linked to the Central Station
with two pedestrian tunnels
under a major boulevard
Open in 1962: 465,000 m2
of interconnected floor spaces
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EXPROPRIATION & DESIGN OF THE STATIONS
1962: Choice of the new subway
lines location
2 parallels lines located under secondary and undeveloped
streets, with less expensive land to buy or to expropriate
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Expropriation
City can use the land it owns to extend its underground
subway without formalities
City cannot encroach on private property,
on the surface or underground
Expropriation law allows the City
to dig a tunnel for the subway
under any private property
at a depth of more than 10 meters
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City becomes owner of the tunnel as well as of a thickness of 5
meters surrounding the interior concrete wall of the tunnel, all
this without formality or indemnity to the landowner
City becomes holder of a legal servitude established in favor of
the volume of the tunnel and restricting the stress applied to the
upper surface of the volume to 250 kilopascals
City has to advise the private owner
of the date work will begin
Recourse for the private owner : bring a lawsuit against the City,
if he can prove that his building have been damaged as a result
of the metro work
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If the planned station and tunnel not deeper than 10 m., City
acquire the property right of this lot by an agreement with its
owner or by expropriating him
Expropriating: long process that may end two or three years after
the City has expropriated
City can begin work, having not to wait for a decision of the court
City become owner of the expropriated property three months
after the notice of expropriation
A provisional indemnity equal to 70% of the initial offer made to
the expropriated party must be paid
Court usually renders its decision and City pays the final
indemnity, with interest
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Design of the stations
City bought more land than necessary both side of
the planned subway lines
Stations built in an open trench
then covered (cut-and-cover)
Stations feature wide mezzanines,
at the second or third basement levels of the nearby buildings 23
Access to stations through
the buildings lobbies
Architectural variety
Stations’ architecture to different consultants
Variety of volumes and
atmospheres improving
the underground image
Corridors’ minimal dimensions: 3 meters height and 5 meters
width and more if with commercial shops along
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Stations are public places
Obligation to avoid treating the subway stations
like an interior
Resistant materials as outside
Visual experience
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Generous indoor volumes
Plenty of natural light
1% of the station construction budget to artworks
Montreal subway is one of the most interesting
underground art galleries in the world
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FAVORABLE LAND DEVELOPMENT POLICY
In 1964, the City put excess expropriated land located on both
sides of the subway lines up for sale.
Also: Sale by public tender
of air rights
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Subway opened in 1966, just in time
for the Expo ’67
1969: Ten buildings already connected
to the subway stations
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Olympic Games planned for 1976
East downtown: the 1st Plan d’ensemble - a step to interconnecting the 2 subway lines by a continuous series of
buildings with their indoor pedestrian corridors
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11 kilometers in 1984
Network has grown to 21 km in 1989
New phenomenon: linkage of new buildings
to already linked existing buildings
Need, in the CBD,
for new commercial
investments
to compete with suburban
shopping centers
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Early 90s three major office tower projects connected to a
subway station, using this plus-value in the marketing of their
renting spaces
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2001 – 2005 : Latest addition to the pedestrian network :
International District (QIM)
Concentration of international activities
and a high-standard concept
QIM : involvement of the
district property owners,
organised in an association
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QIM: Voluntary contribution of $8 million made through a
local improvement tax
for the improvement of the
public domain,
and to the extension of the
pedestrian network
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Underground City is a realization of the private sector
Developers continue to build their projects with new pedestrian
links to the network
Montreal possesses a unique urban infrastructure
Montreal’s underground network :
a model of public-private partnership
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INCENTIVE TOOLS
Win-Win development
approach
Simple municipal
planning tools:
- land banking and the long term leases
- occupation of the public domain under streets
- closing and the granting of unused laneways
- non-calculation of the basements in the FAR of a project
development agreement
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Long term leases:
Granting by public tenders, with long-term leases of 63 years,
of the excess land expropriated for the subway stations
Aerial rights to the best project
above or beside the Metro stations
Advantageous to both the City
and developers
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Conditions stipulated in the leases:
- minimum and maximum height of the building
- minimum FAR (floor area ratio)
- direct access to the Metro station
- with an entrance from the street
- a bus bay near this entrance
- a public right of way, into the building, from the station to
the street to obtain a protected access to the subway
- number of indoor parking spaces in the basement reduced
because of the link to the Metro
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Coordination amongst its own Departments involving:
the planners, the engineers and the architects of the City,
the Metro operator,
the public utilities operators
the departments of the police, the firefighters and the law
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Occupation of the public domain:
Permission to occupy the public land with a tunnel, beneath
street level, in return of an annual rent
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Public domain of a municipality is inalienable, non-transferable
and unsizeable
How private owners have been able
to build pedestrian passageways
under public property belonging
to a municipality?
In the Charter of the City:
private owners may build pedestrian passageways under
public property, for the greater benefit of the citizens and
only by renting the required space under certain conditions
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Special by-law allowing the Public Works Department to
prepare a contract with the developer
Content:
description of the permanent or temporary occupation of the
public domain, above as well as under sidewalks, streets,
lanes, parks and rivers
conditions and the amount of the rent
list of technical and financial obligations to the developer,
such as removing and relocating the water pipes, sewage
system and gas pipes and the repairing of streets and
sidewalks
measures to ensure the protection of the public, as the
quality of the materials used, the installation of firebreak41
doors, the roll-up gate, the waterproof membranes
Authorization not transferable without the express agreement
of the City
In force for 75 years
Rent established accordingly to the market value of the lands
located in the same area
Applicant assume the entire responsibility for any damages that
could result from the tunnel he intends to dig
City requires a public right of way in the building to access the
subway station during operation hours , from 6 AM to 1 AM
Right-of-way at each level of the proposed building indicated in
the drawings and annexed to the contract
Time limit to begin the works
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Any future linkage to the surrounding buildings indicated in the
construction drawings, and knock-out panel in the foundation
walls provided by the applicant
Applicant cannot refuse or ask any indemnity from a
neighboring owner wishing to be linked
Applicant assumes the cost of maintenance for the whole
duration of the agreement
Applicant will benefit from the pedestrian flux coming from
and to the subway stations: potential consumers and profits
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Granting of laneways
Selling of unused laneways for a re-allotment required for large
real estate complexes
Adjacent owners of such a lane
have to agree to its closing
City transfers the lane from the public
to the private domain
After, a sale to the developer can be
done by the City
Developer has an obligation to build a tunnel and give a public
right of way into its building
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Floor area bonus
Until 1990, City never calculated the floor area under the
ground level in the FAR of a new project
A floor area bonus for developers
Since 1990, Master plan demands that the commercial floor
areas under the street level be included in the FAR calculations
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Development agreement (Plan d’ensemble)
The most powerful tool : development agreement
Softening of the zoning rules, regarding the allowed density and
the number of required indoor public parking spaces
In return of urban and
architectural improvements
to their projects, and a direct
linkage to a Metro station
or to an already connected building
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Negotiations take form of a By-law adopted
by the City Council
Public consultation required
before its adoption
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POLICIES AND GUIDELINES
Stakeholders:
by maintaining an open dialogue and setting a partnership
between the City and the Metro operator, but also between the
City and the developers;
by setting the rules clearly;
by giving (non monetary) incentives to private developers in
compensation to their financial involvement;
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Planning process:
by putting the users, namely the downtown employees, the
students, the elderly, the women, the handicapped persons and
the tourist in the center of our preoccupation;
by keeping a good balance between the three functions of the
network, namely the commercial, the transportation and the
social ones;
by careful planning, taking care of the future;
by monitoring its activities and by identifying any potential
problems;
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Network design:
by renting the public space, beneath streets, to the developers;
by imposing public access servitude on private property in
order to insure the full openness of the network;
by linking the two subway lines together with buildings
providing a continuous corridor;
by linking two subway stations
of a same line with pedestrian
corridors, if one is overcrowded
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by linking the pedestrian network not only to the subway
stations, train stations, major commercial and office buildings,
but also to public buildings such as the universities pavilions
and libraries.
by connecting the street with the pedestrian network; the street
and the network having to act together in symbiosis and not in
competition;
by insuring that the network is open
at the same hours of the subway;
by demanding free access to the network
(except for the subway);
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Subway stations design:
by constructing an underground subway;
by involving all the municipal departments around the same
objectives;
by involving together the engineers, the architects, the planners
and the artists in the planning team;
by locating the subway stations near the surface, not lower than
the third basement of the surrounding buildings;
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by adding mezzanine to the subway stations, enabling direct
connection from the mezzanine to the surrounding buildings;
by insuring a distinctive architecture to each subway station by
giving their design contracts to different architect offices;
by reserving 1 % of the station's construction
budget for art works;
by using durable materials
inside as outside;
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Building’s core design:
by designing carefully the core of the connected buildings;
by designing there generous indoor
volumes, with public places,
street furniture, fountains and greeneries;
by providing natural light inside buildings
with skylights and atriums;
by going not deeper than the third basement
for commercial facilities;
by keeping high standards to the indoor environment;
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Corridors and tunnels design:
by setting minimal dimensions for the pedestrian tunnels and
indoor spaces, especially for the ones located near the major
pedestrian generators, as the train stations;
by providing escalators
when changing level;
by avoiding labyrinth or
dead-end corridors, closed doors
and up-and-down circuits;
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by putting the opening side of doors located into the corridors
on the right direction or on both ones
by adding a signage system to help pedestrians
to find their way;
by adding as much commercial units
as possible alongside tunnels and
corridors, in order to provide animation and a sense of security;
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IMPACT OF THE UNDERGROUND CITY
for downtown users
for the operator of the Metro
for the owner of a building linked to this network
helps to reduce car-pedestrian conflicts at major intersections
decreases demand for parking, reduces air pollution
central core retains its vitality
a leading tourist attraction
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Some problems in the past years:
Dis-orientation into the underground city; a new unified signage
system under the name of RESO (the French translation of
“network”) was installed
narrowness of some oldest corridors giving access to the main
train stations
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Thank you
Jacques Besner, urban planner
[email protected]
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