For many state-side city lovers, Toronto and its West Queen West neighborhood are a beacon of urban light across Lake Ontario. Toronto has earned the reputation as a city that has retained investment in its urban core, eschewed (for the most part) grid-destroying Urban Renewal-style projects, and played home to great stories in neighborhood revitalization. Despite the typical urban complications, Toronto has a collection of neighborhoods reflecting the diversity of the entire city, packaged with a small-town feel.

West Queen West is home to Toronto's arts community, and its quasi-bohemian mashing of artists, designers, and creatives have helped to boost a formerly faltering neighborhood. This neighborhood's pioneer artists and designers had set up their studios here toward the end of the last century, trying to bring productivity to a struggling strip. Now, West Queen West is the artistic playground of Toronto.

Geographically speaking, "West Queen West" refers to the Queen Street West corridor in Old Toronto's West End, stretching westward from Bathurst Street to the railroad overpass at Dufferin Street. Like much of the old city, this neighborhood is generally flat and laid out in a grid system extending from colonial lots. Moving westward on Queen Street from Yonge Street, Toronto's central thoroughfare, the streetscape gradually lowers in height, from downtown's gentrified high rises through a dramatic intersection at Spadina Avenue, to carefully restored historic structures to Bathurst.

West Queen West starts there, where gritty buildings in various states of rehab echo the sound of streetcars that run on most major Toronto streets. (Compared to cities of its size, Toronto has a relatively small subway system confined to a few central corridors.) Trinity Bellwoods Park on the northern side of Queen provides an anchor of public space in the heart of the corridor, and is lively even on a frigid March afternoon. West of the park, most commercial spaces are on the northern side of Queen Street, with residential and institutional buildings opposite them.

By day, West Queen West pulsates with creativity. Many of the studios for individual artists have given way to commercial galleries, designers, and more established artists - not to mention cafes, eateries, and nightspots - but the neighborhood’s flavor remains.

The artistic anchor tenant is the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, which is mandated to "exhibit, research, collect, and promote innovative art by Canadian artists whose works engage and reflect the relevant stories of our times." MOCCA is an example of a successful major urban relocation, having come to West Queen West in 2005. The neighborhood is also home to the Toronto Fashion Incubator, which considers itself the first of its kind in the world. The TFI was designed to encourage continued innovation in Toronto's fashion industry, and to support entrepreneurs and small businesses in fashion design. These larger organizations complement the far more numerous smaller galleries, each with its own specialty and flavor visible from their ground-level windows.

The western boundary of West Queen West ends with a bang at two major rehabbed hotels: the Gladstone Hotel and the Drake Hotel. By the 1980s, these former grand railroad hotels had declined to skid row flophouses. Both have undergone artist-inspired rehabs and now collectively command a prolific presence in citywide nightlife. The Gladstone is particularly noted for its artist-designed rooms.

In such an economically active neighborhood, plans for new development are bound to build off and scale up the established success of grit, art, and design. One of these new developments is high-density residential condo Bohemian Embassy. This is only one of several projects attempting to drastically increase the physical scale of the neighborhood, increasing building sizes and densities beyond standards in the community plan. Controversy is heating up among community members regarding these unplanned uses, and some say that this radically different kind of development detracts from the authenticity of the neighborhood's artistic pioneers.

But for now, the essence of West Queen West is still authentic. The surrounding residential neighborhoods still house many locals, there's still room for creative enterprises to arrive, and not all properties have pristinely erased the wear and character that history has made on the neighborhood. Overall, West Queen West is a great example of a revitalizing arts corridor that maintains respect for its history and diversity while allowing new ideas to flourish.

Links

Active 18 Association
TABIA: Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas
TEDCO: City of Toronto Economic Development Corporation
Toronto Community Foundation
Toronto Fashion Incubator

Bathurst Street just north of Queen Street West, where WQW starts

Trinity Bellwoods Park

Spin Gallery

Gladstone Hotel

Future home of Bohemian Embassy residential condo development

Public art in residential neighborhood