Looking West

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( ) ( ) multi level shopping arcade - a major new route in the city

( ) CGI showing the urban scale of The Well, expanding the city’s downtown district /HPA

LOOKING WEST

THE WELL, TORONTO

Toronto is confidently planning its future. Adrian Price summarises our approach to placemaking one of the city’s mega-projects

BDP has gone west! Toronto is booming. It is a city following a vision for sustainable growth, from commerce to infrastructure. The Well is our first commercial project in Canada, won in design competition. This mega mixed use project raises the bar in design thinking about human scale in dense urban environments. Rather than a traditional mall, we created an urban streetscape sheltered from the extreme elements by an elegant glazed roof canopy; a new

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destination for shopping, living and leisure adjacent to King Street, one of the first thoroughfares in the city and the premier entertainment quarter of Toronto.

Our role involved forming a coherent plan for the urban realm expansion of the city’s downtown, integrating the existing urban blocks and forming important city connections.

The design establishes a clear series of routes and spaces to guide intuitive wayfinding with the wider city and across the three levels of the site, all united by a sunken city arcade. This dramatic multi-level route is crisscrossed by industrial-style metal bridges inspired by the warehouses and granaries of Shad Thames in London. Taking inspiration from the surrounding context of 19th century brick and beam warehouses, we selected a rich earthen palette to bring warmth to the buildings and spaces.

The result is a vibrant and exciting new place in the city.

A simple selection of materials unites the public areas and was designed in collaboration with Montreal based Claude Cormier, renowned for his intricate tattoo paving. The changes in level throughout the site required three wide urban staircases dropping 7.5m. This feature has been exploited by the design of seating steps which encourages street theatre and urban entertainment.

The lighting design is subtle and intimate, in line with lower light levels in Toronto. An elaborate weave of fibre-optics traverses the glazed roof canopy with a wide range of colours which changes incrementally throughout the day and also season by season.

The interior design started with the simple goal of bringing a European style food market to a Canadian

shopping centre. The resulting design poutine, which adopts the latest innovations from London’s burgeoning food scene, is rich, energy laden and tasty. The Well transcends the tried and tested standard food court. It is a place to meet and to eat, to see and be seen, a new place in the city that transforms as the sun sets. A unique concept for shopping and dining in Canada: Living Well.