Everyone knows that Nathan Phillips Square needs a facelift, but it wasn't until we walked out into the dismal civic space following last night's design presentations that it became woefully evident. Armed with new knowledge of what might someday exist around City Hall, the dark, sloppy square now looks more dated and decrepit. Luckily, we've got a new redesign on the slate for next year.

Read-on for Torontoist's extensive take on the four finalists, and why the redesign is so important.

Designed by Finnish Architect Viljo Revell and finished after his death in 1965, Nathan Phillips Square is an iconic Toronto destination, featuring the famed skating rink, a chunk of the Berlin Wall, a Peace Garden, and the site of many festivals and events. The square hasn't really lived up to its potential over the years, with the City closing its much-maligned raised colonnade and awkwardly dumping concert stages here and there.

The square also isn't exactly how Revell originally imagined it. Like most ambitious public projects, it got chipped-away until compromises were reached—probably the most significant ones being not to extend the colonnade around the entire property, reducing the size of the skating pond, and to nix a reflecting pool surrounding the rotunda on the now-closed podium level.

Much of the criticism of Nathan Phillips Square involves the notorious colonnade. It's an ugly, brutal structure that blocks the view of Revell's curved towers from the street, and the fact that pedestrians are no longer allowed on it adds to the frustration. Since the property was designated for its architectural significance under the Ontario Heritage Act in 1991, don't get your hopes up for tearing it down; it's not going anywhere.

The square also features a squat, drab block housing the skate rentals and public washrooms, and the Peace Garden—which was installed with water from Nagasaki and fire from Hiroshima—seems plunked-down in some random available space. There were no provisions in the original design for restaurant or patio facilities.

Hence, a competition to redesign the square arose with a public call for entries last October. Submissions for Stage 1 brought 48 candidates, which were pared-down by a jury review to four finalists only six weeks ago. Last night, the four firms publicly presented their designs for the $40 million project to an enthusiastic, standing-room-only Council chamber. The winning design will be announced on March 8.

DESIGN A: PLANT ARCHITECT AND SHORE TILBE IRWIN

The firm dubbed their design "Agora Theatre," alluding to the architecture of classical Athens where the agora is a public and social gathering space, whereas the theatre is a home for political debate and decision-making.

Plant/STI had a very strong focus on environmental aspects of the design, attempting to create an urban forest and significant tree canopy. It is the "greenest" out of the four designs, with promises to salvage existing materials to be recycled into new tiles and building a complex system for sustaining the site's biomass. Rainwater and waste heat are to be recovered, and low-level lighting is intended so that the night sky can be preserved as much as possible.

Like each of the other designs, there is a focus on easing entry into the square, yet providing clearly demarcated entrances. The main entrance pavilion, which houses a tourist centre and attached restaurant, is a glass box with highly-visible rental bicycles, echoing the importance of alternative transportation. The Peace Garden would be relocated to the west strip and feature a new reflecting pool.

One of the most interesting elements is the public garden green roof on the podium level (surrounding the base of the dome). With a nod to Revell's unrealized reflecting pool, there would be a polished black granite disc surrounding the rotunda in the centre of the garden which would feature a "lightstick garden," providing subtle visual effects at night.

The walkways would be wood-decked, which is a fantastic touch, though seemingly expensive to maintain, though there is little else planned for the ugly colonnade save for one small section of transparent glass. The PATH exit would be reconfigured so that pedestrians would exit facing City Hall. Plant also wants to re-open the old observation deck at the top of the east tower (it's ridiculous that this was closed in the first place).

See more photos of this design here.

DESIGN B: ZIEDLER PARTNERSHIP ARCHITECTS

Ziedler's proposal was by far the most ostentatious—maybe even gaudy—designs, and we're torn over its audacity. One one hand, it's a little too Vegas for boring ol' Hogtown, but perhaps we need a little flashiness and whimsy.

The presentation theme was an artist's canvas, with objects and illuminated materials signifying drops of paint. The square would be populated with a system of 2.4 metre-square illuminated planters, which would be configured in different patterns based on the four seasons. The Ziedler team calls this a "movable garden" and notes that the blocks of colour and light could also be reconfigured by other designers as art installations.

The plan calls for cross-shaped LED patterns laid between some of the tiles at grade which would illuminate the seams, almost like a giant MacBook Pro keyboard. Maintaining a system like this seems like a logistical nightmare, and the ill-conceived fibre optic light effects at Dundas Square didn't last too long as an example. A projector would me mounted on the roof of each tower that would "paint" patterns in unlimited combinations onto the public square. This is where it starts looking like a theme park. We thought it looked rather hideous at full illumination, but we're convinced that tourists would love it.

What really excited attendees was the western green belt, which was a multi-coloured undulating green roof. From the ground-level renderings, it looked as if a rolling countryside was cut into strips and installed in ribbons alongside City Hall. Underneath the rippling roofs would be the utility areas: a restaurant, skate rentals, washrooms and a truck staging area tucked away. There is a beautiful swooping entrance at the southwest corner, which allows access to the restaurant, gardens and colonnade. The plan also calls for the relocation of the tour buses and food trucks that park along Queen Street.

As for the colonnade, this is the only plan that calls for re-cladding the walkway with glass railings, complimented by a subtle underlit scheme. It also expands the skating pond westward to fill the width, more in-line with Revell's original design.

See more photos of this design here.

DESIGN C: BAIRD SAMPSON NEUERT ARCHITECTS

Baird's presentation, like Plant's, also focused on the use of materials that would echo nature, referring to City Hall's unique carrera marble plank design. The Baird Sampson Neuert team called for rainwater collection for redistribution as well as wind and solar energy generation. The podium level would act as a filtering bog for natural water collection and reuse, which would be distributed in part by a misting system (what they called the "Revell Rain Garden").

The designers clearly stressed an importance of minimalism (quite a departure following Ziedler's pitch) and careful strategic design planning. Key to the design is the creation of a new forecourt at Queen Street in front of the setback colonnade. A prominent Visitor Orientation Centre would be located at the southeast corner, where most visitors would be arriving from. This approach is significant as a first impression, but also because the Queen-Bay intersection is such a swerving mess.

Two major new pavilions would straddle a westward extension of the reflecting pool, and the ramp shooting-up from grade to the podium would be extended west, stabbing over to Chestnut street and dividing the western gardens in two.

The street-level gardens are in two strips, separated by theme. The eastern swath is to be a symbolic culture space, with plants and sculptures in themes related to world peace. The west strip is more of a natural garden, including trees both indigenous and imported. The relocated Peace Garden is also here, featuring a children's playground and a Ginkgo tree—one of the only types to survive the nuclear blasts the Peace Garden commemorates. The tree pokes through a large round hole in the roof above.

Another interesting element of the design is the extension of the PATH system right to Council chambers, with a series of underground pedestrian and support areas.

See more photos of this design here.

DESIGN D: ROGERS MARVEL ARCHITECTS

We assume that all of the designers found issue with the colonnade, but nobody seemed more miffed about it than the Rogers Marvel designers. Alluding to Viljo Revell's original sketches that didn't include the raised walkway, they pined for "flow" between the towers and out to the street. With an arrow scrawled on a slide pointing right into the centre of the public space, they stated, "This is not the square."

Feeling framed-in by the colonnade, the Rogers Marvel plan removes the turf on the south end of the property, extending the plaza right down to the street while keeping the existing trees where they are. As in each of the other plans, green space is shifted to a strip along the west so it no longer feels like an afterthought to fill leftover space. The south west end features a gorgeous green swoop forming a green roof over the utility areas and appearing like a forested hill from grade.

Unlike the other submissions, the Peace Garden stays put north of the reflecting pool. The designers refer to their two major demarcated entry points as "crystal beacons," which feature textured glass that mirror some of the patterns in Revell's floors and exterior cladding.

A modification that received enthusiasm from the audience present was the redefinition of the eastern Bay Street entrance, which is a bizarre mess of stairs, flagpoles and solid walls that have to be navigated to enter from the east side. Here, the renderings show a dismantling of part of the colonnade and the removal of the staircase, most significantly revealing the beautiful arc of the ramp up to the rotunda and the odd tip of the podium, which resembles the prow of a battleship and is currently hidden from that angle. A glass-walled staircase would also allow access to the upper colonnade.

Night lighting is said to remain darker, subtler and more mysterious, with dramatic accents rather than flat, even illumination. Lighting is to be focused on the perimeter and on curved surfaces.

The Rogers Marvel team got some laughs and nods when they lamented any banishing of the chip trucks that park along Queen, noting the importance of food in social interaction.

See more photos of this design here.

Obviously, this is one of those rare occasions when City Hall gets to make some change for the better when it comes to our public spaces. The six-member Competition Jury seems to have appropriate foresight, consisting of four noted architects, former mayor and urban expert David Crombie, and author Michael Ondaatje.

It's tough to make judgments based on renderings, presentations or three-dimensional models since they each seem extremely lacking in the qualities of the others. We weren't particularly moved by Plant's model until we heard the proposal, whereas Ziedler's presentation scared us off a little bit with its plan for psychedelic lighting and seasonal patterns.

Though each plan had interesting and desirable elements, we left feeling the most affection for Plant's proposal, despite the grand (read: expensive) designs it had for its focus on eco-building, which the City should be insisting on anyway. Rogers Marvel's was the most aesthetically elegant, while Ziedler had tourist appeal despite its Honda-modder vibe. Our least favourite was the Baird Sampson Neuer submission, which seems to make the square smaller and busier than it is now, though we applaud the thought that went into the Peace Garden renovation and the intent to be more eco-friendly.

Now if only we were able to get rid of that colonnade.

The public exhibition of models and renderings will remain on display at City Hall until Monday, February 26, from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Construction photos from the Toronto Archives; all other photographs by Marc Lostracco.