This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com
Toronto-area architects and urban design professionals are being honoured for projects that are pushing the envelope with innovative new concepts. As contemporary urban design continues to evolve, architects and planners across Canada are moving beyond merely striving for a strong visual impact by putting functionality and sustainability front and centre.
The National Urban Design Awards (NUDA), presented each year by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC), the Canadian Institute of Planners and the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, recognize projects that have “contributed to the quality of life in our Canadian cities and their sustainability,” according to the RAIC’s website.
“Good designs contribute at multiple levels,” says Calgary architect and NUDA jury member Marc Boutin. “They can be esthetically pleasing, they can bring joy and poetry to someone’s everyday life, but also they have performative aspects. They might be ecologically sound, so they address stormwater management or the appropriate use of building materials, or they help reforest an area and create a canopy that provides better quality air and removes pollutants.”
The awards recognize both completed projects and those still in the concept stage, as “ideation and execution both present unique challenges,” Boutin says.
Five GTA initiatives are among the 2022 NUDA winners, including transforming the site of a coal-burning power plant into a new waterfront community, connecting a university campus to its neighbouring greenspace, and revitalizing one of Toronto’s newest downtown landmarks.
Perched on the edge of the Highland Creek ravine, the U of T Scarborough campus was for decades disconnected from the verdant valley 26 metres below. Today, a 400-metre-long sweeping trail, accented with bridges and lookout points, incorporating the Indigenous history of the site, provides a striking, accessible link for students and the community.
Designer Mark Schollen says the idea was to deliver “the experience of descending from the treetops, through the tree canopy and down to the watercourse below.”
The trail incorporates mobility vehicle charging stations along the way, and LED strips built into handrails creates a “ribbon of light down into the valley at night,” he says, while not disturbing nocturnal wildlife.
“The lookout areas have become places where students congregate to work and to hold teleconferences because we have WI-FI there. It’s really become more of a place to enjoy than just a thoroughfare.”
When the first residents begin arriving in 2026, the former site of a coal-burning power plant will have been transformed into a vibrant, multiple-use lakeshore community in southeast Mississauga. Lakeview Village will use water from a neighbouring treatment plant to heat and cool its residential and commercial buildings, and concrete and rubble from the old power plant foundations is being used to build the new 64-acre Jim Tovey Lakeview Conservation Area.
The long-buried Serson Creek is being restored to its natural course, while 3.5 kilometres of the Trans-Canada Waterfront Trail will be created along the lakeshore.
“When you contrast (the vision for Lakeview Village) against what used to be here, and smog days and the coal-burning environment of the past, it’s truly a rebirth of a new community and a new connection to the waterfront,” says Brian Sutherland of Argo Development Corp., one of the lead partners.
Why are we designing brick-and-mortar solutions for a population that is mobile? That question was at the core of this student-led concept, which focused on bringing support directly to Toronto’s homeless and precariously housed people where they’re at their most vulnerable.
“Rather than building more housing or more shelters, we want to provide a mobile network,” said Michelle Li, who developed the concept with fellow U of T students Laura Ye and Edward Widjaja. “Ultimately, it comes down to using vehicles and pop-up temporary infrastructure to help people where they are in the city, whether they’re in a park, on the streets or in the ravines.”
In their plan, a school bus could be converted into a “sleeping bus” or a “shower bus.” A transit bus could become a health clinic on wheels. A shipping container could be repurposed as a heated temporary shelter. These mobile elements can be deployed to deliver services in tandem with more traditional facilities.
Now in its second year, this repurposed corner of the Jane-Finch Mall parking lot is a thriving community hub, splashed with colourful artwork, a public garden, street furniture and a canopied performance stage.
“It’s long been historically used for a gathering point for the community, but it was ultimately just a parking lot,” says Ernestine Aying of the Jane/Finch Community and Family Centre. “Many people expressed a desire to enhance it in a way that it could support these community activities.”
Corner Commons, which operates from June through the end of September, presents visual and performing arts exhibitions by local artists, discussion forums and other programming in partnership with community organizations.
CADILLAC FAIRVIEW TORONTO EATON CENTRE BRIDGE
Urban Fragments – Award of Merit
A focal point in the ongoing revitalization of the Eaton Centre, the “new” bridge links the south end of the mall to the Hudson Bay building across Queen Street via an elegant, twisting arc of glass and bronze panels. The structure became an Instagram hotspot right from its opening in 2017.
“The concept was to take it from the orthogonal grid of the Eaton Centre – it’s a square on the north side – to fit into one of the semi-circular window openings of the Bay store,” said Vaidila Banelis, senior partner at Zeidler Architecture.
“Our approach was to do a kind of ‘soft blend’ and a twisting motion to make those two geometries work in a really elegant way, with a slight arc to the bridge to clear the streetcar (wires) as well as to connect the disparate levels,” Banelis says, noting that the span joins the two buildings at different elevations above street level.
A computerized lighting array lines the bottom of the bridge and can create spectacular displays. The component pieces were built in Germany and fully assembled on the adjacent James Street, with the entire structure moved and raised into place as one piece.
Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free)
Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com