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Lloyd D. Jackson Square, also known as Jackson Square, is an indoor shopping mall, and commercial complex located in the downtown core of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, which is named after Lloyd Douglas Jackson, who served as mayor of the city from 1950 to 1962. The civic square is located in the centre of the city, bounded by several major arterial roads: King Street (south), Bay Street (west), York Boulevard (north) and James Street (east), with the appointed address being 2 King Street West. The mall was officially opened in 1970. ==Development Plans== Toward the end of the Second World War, a new consciousness arose amongst the public and policy makers of the Western World. After ten years of crippling economic depression and another five at war, the public demanded something new from their disintegrating urban environments. Hamilton, Ontario was no exception. After witnessing its once inferior rival Toronto grow in size and importance in the early twentieth century, the city petitioned for funds to complete a modernist makeover of its downtown core under the newly amended National Housing Act (1954).〔Rockwell, Margaret. “The Facelift and the Wrecking Ball: Urban Renewal and Hamilton’s King Street West, 1957- 1971.” Urban History Review 37, no. 2 (2009): 53-61〕 The revised legislation provided for cost sharing amongst the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and the federal and municipal government, in preparation for urban renewal studies. It also included provisions for implementing the results of these studies, including clearing property and upgrading public services.〔Lowden, J. D., 1970. Urban Renewal in Canada - A Postmortem. Master of Arts thesis in Community and Regional Planning. University of British Columbia, 1970〕 With a majority of Hamilton’s employment based in the industrial sector, the city’s modernist planners wished to divide the municipality into practical zones that would serve specific functions, and to connect the zones with efficient transportation corridors that could move goods quickly and without disruption. Local politicians and business owners favoured such plans and began to view their mostly Victorian urban landscape as disjointed, crowded, and unfit for the navigation of the vehicles that were beginning to crowd the streets.〔Mascotto-Carbone, Lucas, and Julia Mortimer. "The Stomps of Progress: Hamilton's Civic Square and the Rise of an Urban Heritage Renewal Movement." OAA Perspectives 22.4 (2014): 21-26. Web. 〕 Starting in 1957, the Hamilton Downtown Association began to pressure the federal government to fund an urban renewal study. When the study was completed a year later in 1958, federal planner Mark David was unable to recommend redevelopment in the downtown core because the federal cost-sharing program that was a part of the National Housing Act only allotted funds for the improvement of housing conditions amongst Canada’s urban slums. Despite this setback, funds were granted following the completion of the study for the relocation of cottages on the Lake Ontario beach and the clearance of derelict housing in the city’s residential North End neighbourhood. Hamilton businessmen, still set on renewing the commercial core,continued to lobby for amendments that would allow downtown redevelopment. Finally in 1964, the housing act was altered to include civic improvement and Hamilton was the first city to apply for funding. In April 1965, city planner Murray Jones unveiled his plans for a new downtown civic square. Under his plan, axial pools would form the centre of the complex with a planetarium in the middle. There would be a sculpture court, a large remodelled suburban-style Eaton’s department store, an auditorium, a hotel with a garden courtyard, and a library adjacent to the art gallery, with King Street West running one way through the middle. Amongst parcels of open green space, new smaller streets would cut across the public vistas. Roughly 17 hectares (43 acres) of familiar downtown space would be eliminated, and many open spaces would be incorporated into the new square, under the assumption that the old slum-like core required plenty of fresh air circulation – ironically, a public health theory born during the height of the cholera epidemic in Victorian London. Although many Hamiltonians held fond memories of the buildings that were to be torn down, the garden-like Civic Square plan that was published in The Hamilton Spectator grabbed the public’s attention and fuelled their enthusiasm for change. In addition, the Greater Hamilton Shopping Centre (now known as The Centre on Barton), which had opened ten years earlier east of the city on the old Jockey Club race track, and which had been successful since its opening, had made the core’s downtown buildings look antiquated.〔Rockwell, op. cit.〕 Despite the wide approval of the original garden-like scheme, by July 1968 the plan had been scrapped in favour of a scheme by Montreal developers Yale Properties that would provide more revenue. As the municipal government hashed out the overall construction cost to build the original plan, controversy stirred amongst officials of CMHC who were under pressure by the federal minister to stop providing money.〔Lowden, op. cit.〕 By October 1968, CMHC had given out approximately $168 million to various Canadian municipalities to upgrade their built infrastructure, but after multiple complaints from watchdog groups and government officials over the casual administrative process and its inability to control the expenditure of private contractors,federal Urban Affairs Minister Robert Andres was forced to halt activities.〔Ibid.〕 Ultimately CMHC reverted to its pre-1964 role, which was solely to provide capital resources to create or redevelop residential addresses. Hamilton, therefore, lost its ability to apply or even negotiate for further grants and, as greater pressure was placed on the municipality to pick up the tab,〔Ibid.〕 city planners disregarded the gardens and pools of the original plan and looked towards a scheme that would require a minimum amount of funding and produce a maximum amount of revenue for their investment. Yale Properties quickly swooped in and consolidated the originally dispersed commercial and civic components and locked them into two large super-blocks (figures 3 and 4), connected by an indoor mall with no outdoor frontage. High barren walls of brown concrete would line most of the expanded King Street West and all civic components were pushed onto a public square located above the mall and away from the street. The city and developer faced heavy opposition from the citizens who were promised open space, gardens, and long pools of fresh water, but all complaints either went unheeded or were quickly deflected by promises of civic festivals and facilities above the mall complex on the piazza roof or enclosed indoors.〔Rockwell, op. cit.〕 ==Constructing the Square and Manufacturing Discontent== In June of 1968, even before the plans from Yale Properties had been finalized, the city gave King Street business owners six months to vacate the buildings they owned. This came as a shock, since the initial construction start date had been pushed back for years.〔Ibid.〕 Demolition of the businesses on the eastern portion of King Street West bounded by James Street North began in late 1968 and was completed by the early summer of 1969. After a hasty ceremony on the barren site that spotlighted local politicians and reiterated the Yale Properties commitment to the modernization of the city, construction hoarding was erected and pillars of concrete quickly followed. Throughout the construction of the first phase of the civic square, renamed Lloyd D. Jackson Square a year later, unfavourable reviews frequently appeared, some labelling the square “a people’s place.”〔Paikin, T., “People Place? It looks like the dream’s gone sour.” The Hamilton Spectator, 1974.〕 Representatives of local disabled organizations also criticized the developer’s refusal to add in wheelchair ramps. Yet, on August 22, 1972, thousands of people climbed to the complex’s plaza roof and engaged in a massive ceremony that included live music, food and a fireworks show signalling the grand opening of the mall and adjacent Bank of Montreal’s commercial pavilion.〔Wilson, Paul, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/talk/ paul-wilson-jackson-square-turns-40-and-fights-for-afuture- 1.1159938〕 Although Hamiltonians were absolutely enthralled by the wide selection of trendy new stores and restaurants, and by the sheer size of the space, the optimism was swiftly dampened by operational mismanagement. The treatment of the mall’s patrons only worsened when on March 1, 1973, the washrooms were discovered to be a hangout for drug dealers and users. The operations manager Charlie Friedman declared, “There’s no law that washrooms must be provided…If the situation doesn’t improve we may lock them up.”〔“Mall washrooms suspected drug den.” The Hamilton Spectator, 1973.〕 He proceeded to do just that, four days later until, after a week, public outcry forced them open again.〔“To punish the innocent.” The Hamilton Spectator, 1973.〕 Then on October 17, 1973, a woman was jailed for several days after walking her dog inside the mall and becoming belligerent after being forced out.〔“Woman jailed for seven days for walking dog in square.” The Hamilton Spectator, 1973.〕 Capitalizing on the growing public disdain towards the rigid management of the plaza, The Hamilton Spectator, which had always favoured the original plan for the city’s redevelopment, opened fire on the square’s construction with columnist Jim Campbell labelling it a “pigeon place” crowded with too many buildings and bounded by a useless rooftop plaza.〔Campbell, J., “Square called Pigeon Place by Campbell.” The Hamilton Spectator, Feb. 19, 1974.〕 The verbal assault continued in the spring of 1974 with opinion columnist Tami Paikin criticizing the lack of grass and open green space,〔Paikin, op. cit.〕 and an unknown writer calling the already rusting buildings “complete eyesores.”〔“Visual pollution, everyday ugliness.” The Hamilton Spectator, June 8, 1974.〕 Soon the complex’s high walls of barren concrete and its bland stone rooftop plaza began to generate a feeling of disconnection between the citizens and the square. The initial sense of pride in the project soon withered and paved the way for vandalism as the square continued to expand throughout the 1970s. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lloyd D. Jackson Square」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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