Toronto Street Furniture Competition

March 29, 2007 - Another month, another new competition for the City of Toronto. This time it's for a 20-year contract to replace Toronto's street furniture, including benches, bus shelters, garbage cans, and message boards. In return, the consortium will get advertising rights on these structures (though the whole advertising aspect of it has caused some heated debates on whether ads should be allowed to take over our public space...). One of the new structures to be incorporated as part of this design are public washrooms - something that is new to Toronto's urban landscape.

Public toilets are not new to cities - most European cities have these facilities on their streets. They are usually the automated, self-cleaning kind. They usually cost a buck or two - and have doors that automatically open after 10 or so minutes (to prevent people from having sex in these facilities I guess?).

I'm not sure why Toronto is looking to install these facilities. They are quite bulky and usually take up a lot of space. I can't really see them placing the toilets along main corridors (particularly where access to washrooms are quite abundant), but I guess it would make more sense to put them in parks or along trails. These facilities are also easy targets for vandals - who will no doubt have a field day with them.

There are 3 consortia that are bidding for the city's Street Furniture contract - the contract that will essentially cost the City nothing. In return, the City will have to allow the winning company to advertise on these essential public amenities. has been quite controversial (as the media have cried for the City to reject all three bidders) - just how far do we go in selling out our public space?

More pictures and information about the competition, click here. Winners are to be announced sometime in April.