Market Square

[eizenstriet]

I'd have no idea how to track it down, but I recall reading an urban planning article about Market Square and its history...

EDIT:  I found the article and it is excellent!   http://numerocinqmagazine.com/2011/11/22...-storring/

Indeed that article was excellent. Thanks for the link. For me, it was an object lesson in the endless application of the zero-sum game - that to progress dramatically, we must obliterate what came before. The editor of the publication summarizes better than I just did (with the exception of a small geographical slip about Blackberry):


"This is the story of one city, but it’s every city. Struggling with the urban sprawl, de-industrialization, automobile culture, malls, and suburbs, cities all over North America have been fighting for decades against flight from the centre – often finding themselves astonished victims of the Law of Unintended Results. Nathan Storring does an amazing job in this essay of exemplifying the general trend with a particular case, in this instance, the redevelopment, destruction and rebirth of the downtown core in Kitchener, Ontario (yes, yes, the home of the Blackberry). He writes: “To me Kitchener’s history is the quintessential parable about the cost that these midsize cities paid to take part in Modernity because we tore down our bloody City Hall. We didn’t have a physical City Hall for 20 years, just a floor in a nondescript, inaccessible office building! It was the ultimate sacrifice in the name of ‘rationality’ – a complete disavowal of any historic or emotional connection to the city.” The beauty of this piece is Storring’s attention to the details – civic debate, architects, planners, theorists, trends, fads. An era comes clear. After reading this, you’ll walk around your town and see it in a different way."