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TOM ARBAN
STEVEN EVANS
PAN/PARAPAN AMERICAN GAMES
05
CANADIAN ARCHITECT
JUNE 2015
9 NEWS
Winners of the 2015 OAA Awards announced; call for entries to the 2015 AIBC Architectural Awards.
30 PRACTICE
Barrier-free design is meaningless if a building’s exterior entrance areas pose significant challenges to wheelchair users, according to Loraine Fowlow.
31 BOOKS
Three more publications are reviewed to help kick off summer reading season.
33 CALENDAR
14 NATHAN PHILLIPS SQUARE corrosive political atmosphere is just one factor that has compromised the wellA intentioned revitalization of Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto. TEXT John Bentley Mays
20 WELLAND INTERNATIONAL FLATWATER CENTRE
Lost Spaces Found exhibition in Calgary; Urban Ecologies conference in Toronto.
34 LOOKING BACK
Joey Giaimo describes the St. Lawrence neighbourhood as one of Toronto’s greatest successes, based on an enduring master plan that emerged in the 1970s.
An old shipping canal in Ontario’s Niagara Region morphs into a competition and training facility for rowers. TEXT Chloe Town
24 CANARY DISTRICT
PAUL CROSBY
A complex process is revealed in an interview with the leaders of the four architect teams responsible for Toronto’s newest master-planned neighbourhood. Serving as home base for the athletes competing in the 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games, the precinct will evolve into a vital mixed-use neighbourhood called the Canary District.
COVER Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto. Photograph by Steven Evans.
V.60 N.06 THE NATIONAL REVIEW OF DESIGN AND PRACTICE/THE JOURNAL OF RECORD OF ARCHITECTURE CANADA | RAIC
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VIEWPOINT LEFT Following the Games, the Pan/ Parapan Am Aquatics Centre and Field House will serve as an athletics facility for the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus and its surrounding community.
EDITOR ELSA LAM, MRAIC ASSOCIATE EDITOR LESLIE JEN, MRAIC EDITORIAL ADVISOR IAN CHODIKOFF, OAA, FRAIC
SHAI GIL
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS ANNMARIE ADAMS, MRAIC DOUGLAS MACLEOD, NCARB, MRAIC REGIONAL CORRESPONDENTS HALIFAX CHRISTINE MACY, OAA REGINA BERNARD FLAMAN, SAA MONTREAL DAVID THEODORE CALGARY GRAHAM LIVESEY, MRAIC WINNIPEG LISA LANDRUM, MAA, AIA, MRAIC VANCOUVER ADELE WEDER
PREPARING FOR THE GAMES The Pan American and Parapan American Games are coming to Toronto this summer. Some 10,000 athletes, coaches and team officials will descend on the region—twice the number of athletes than Vancouver hosted for the Winter Olympics five years ago. The Games have kickstarted the development of the Canary District on Toronto’s waterfront (see page 24). Several major new athletic facilities have also been constructed for the Games. The largest is the Aquatics Centre and Field House on the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus, completed by NORR Architects. Like several other venues, including the Athletes’ Village, the project was completed under a design-build-finance model, administered by Infrastructure Ontario. B+H Architects was the lead consultant on the Planning, Design and Compliance (PDC) team for the project. In planning the project, B+H and their clients took the approach of offering a flexible illustrative scheme, rather than a rigid exemplary design. “In the end there was room for architectural exploration, and design became an important part of the winning strategy,” says architectural design principal David Clusiau of NORR. The final building includes a dramatic drop-off canopy that will be completed after the Games, when a temporary spectator seating area is removed. B+H was also the PDC consultant for three stadiums—the Milton Velodrome, the Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton and the York Athletic Stadium—and were architects of record for the Markham Athletics Centre, the Etobicoke Olympium Aquatics Facility, and the Whitby Abilities Centre. B+H’s heavy involvement drew on their experience participating in Toronto’s 2008 Olympic bid. They brought in particular expertise in elite-level sports planning, including the logistics of providing for additional seating, security, broadcast infrastructure, and other event needs. Logistically, says B+H principal Mark Berest, it was a “large management exercise” which at
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its height included 28 subconsultants and some 30 B+H staff. Through the process, they developed skill with a building type and with planning for a complex event with a lasting built legacy. “We got to experience what this kind of event means—not only for the event itself, but for all the municipalities and stakeholders who are a part of it,” says Berest. How did the AFP process affect the resulting work? Certainly, the use of this model spurred many new facilities to on-budget, on-time completion—an essential in this case. The venues also incorporate tight technical standards: from large moves such as housing an internationally certified cycling track, to minute adjustments such as controlling water flow to give swimmers the edge needed to potentially break world records. “We reached a very high level of performance that we may not have gotten with another process,” says Berest. This comes, however, at an enormous cost in architects’ resources. “This process puts a great burden on all the consultants,” says Berest. “There are four designs that are developed for each venue in a very short time.” Adds B+H CEO Bill Nankivell, “As it exists now, I think the AFP process asks for too much detail in terms of the project submitted with a bid—in some cases, they’re asking for partially completed construction documents.” While technically outstanding, the resulting venues are also unlikely to be showered withMember de- of sign awards. “The nature of any P3 is dictated to a large degree by the scoring matrix,” says Clusiau. “In Ontario, design is part of that scoring; however, the percentage could be larger, particularly if the objective is to produce great architecture.” The Pan Am Games have been a large-scale testing ground for the AFP process. As the Games begin, it’s a chance for procurement authorities to assess Infrastructure Ontario’s accomplishments, and to set higher goals.
Inc.
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PUBLISHER TOM ARKELL 416-510-6806 ACCOUNT MANAGER FARIA AHMED 416-510-6808 CIRCULATION MANAGER BEATA OLECHNOWICZ 416-442-5600 EXT. 3543 CUSTOMER SERVICE MALKIT CHANA 416-442-5600 EXT. 3539 PRODUCTION CHERYL FISHER ART DIRECTOR LISA ZAMBRI PRESIDENT OF ANNEX-NEWCOM LP ALEX PAPANOU HEAD OFFICE 80 VALLEYBROOK DRIVE, TORONTO, ON M3B 2S9 TELEPHONE 416-510-6845 FACSIMILE 416-510-5140 E-MAIL editors@canadianarchitect.com WEBSITE www.canadianarchitect.com Canadian Architect is published monthly by Annex-Newcom LP. The editors have made every reasonable effort to provide accurate and authoritative information, but they assume no liability for the accuracy or completeness of the text, or its fitness for any particular purpose. Subscription Rates Canada: $54.95 plus applicable taxes for one year; $87.95 plus applicable taxes for two years (HST – #81538 0985 RT0001). Price per single copy: $6.95. Students (prepaid with student ID, includes taxes): $34.97 for one year. USA: $105.95 US for one year. All other foreign: $125.95 US per year. Single copy US and foreign: $10.00 US. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Circulation Dept., Canadian Architect, 80 Valleybrook Drive, Toronto, ON Canada M3B 2S9. Postmaster: please forward forms 29B and 67B to 80 Valleybrook Drive, Toronto, ON Canada M3B 2S9. Printed in Canada. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced either in part or in full without the consent of the copyright owner. From time to time we make our subscription list available to select companies and organizations whose product or service may interest you. If you do not wish your contact information to be made available, please contact us via one of the following methods: Telephone 1-800-668-2374 Facsimile 416-442-2191 E-mail vmoore@annexnewcom.ca Mail Privacy Officer, 80 Valleybrook Drive, Toronto, ON Canada M3B 2S9 MEMBER OF THE CANADIAN BUSINESS PRESS MEMBER OF THE ALLIANCE FOR AUDITED MEDIA PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT #40069240 ISSN 1923-3353 (ONLINE) ISSN 0008-2872 (PRINT)
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09
AWARDS
The Ontario Association of Architects recently announced the winners of its annual awards program. The Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Design Excellence in Architecture was given to the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts in Kingston by N45 Architecture Inc. in association with Snøhetta Architecture Design Planning PC, and the Lake Cottage in Bolsover by UUfie Inc. took the Michael V. and Wanda Plachta Award. The People’s Choice Award went to the Ismaili Centre in Toronto by Moriyama & Teshima Architects in association with Charles Correa Associates, and the Sustainable Design Excellence Award recognized the Vale Living with Lakes Centre in Sudbury by J.L. Richards & Associates Limited Consulting Engineers & Architects in association with Perkins+Will Canada Inc. Design Excellence Awards went to: Echo House in Toronto by Paul Raff Studio Incorporated Architect, Fraser Mustard Early Learning Academy in Toronto by Kohn Shnier Architects, Goldring Centre for High-Performance Sport in Toronto by Patkau Architects Inc. and MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects Ltd., Grotto Sauna in Georgian Bay by PARTISANS Architects, Isabel Bader Centre for Performing Arts in Kingston by N45 Architecture Inc. in association with Snøhetta Architecture Design Planning PC, Ismaili Centre in Toronto by Moriyama & Teshima Architects in association with Charles Correa Associates, Lake Cottage in Bolsover by UUfie Inc., Mariinsky II in St. Petersburg by Diamond and Schmitt Architects Incorporated, Surrey Civic Centre in Surrey by Moriyama & Teshima Architects in joint venture with Kasian Architecture Ontario Incorporated, and Vale Living with Lakes Centre in Sudbury by J.L. Richards & Associates Limited Consulting Engineers & Architects in association with Perkins+Will Canada Inc. Design Excellence Honourable Mentions recognized: 14 Division in Toronto by Stantec Architecture Ltd., Annex Residence in Toronto by Audax Architecture Inc., Deer Clan Longhouse in Crawford Lake by Brook McIlroy Inc., Fort York Branch Library in Toronto by KPMB Architects, Fort York National Historic Site Visitors’ Centre in Toronto by Patkau Architects Inc. and Kearns Mancini Architects Inc., Gold Corp Innovation Suite—Lassonde Mining Building in Toronto by Baird Sampson Neuert Architects Inc., Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery in Sarnia by Kongats Architects, Maison Glissade in the Town of the Blue
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BEN RAHN/A-FRAME INC.
Winners of 2015 OAA Awards announced.
CANADIAN ARCHITECT 06/15
NEWS
ABOVE The Echo House in Toronto’s Bridle Path neighbourhood by Paul Raff Studio Incorporated Architect recently won an OAA Award of Excellence. An existing home was transformed through newly established connections to the landscape and subtle material detailing.
Mountains by Atelier Kastelic Buffey Inc., Pit Stop Transit Facility in Oakville by Bortolotto Design Architect Inc., and Port Hope House in Port Hope by Teeple Architects Inc. In the Concepts category, Prismatica by RAW design inc. and The Hole Idea—Now in Technicolour by Weiss Architecture & Urbanism Limited claimed awards, while Denegri Bessai Studio’s Dancing Cubbies took an Honourable Mention. The Landmark Designation was given to Belleville City Hall by William R. White Architect Limited, while PARTISANS Architects won Best Emerging Practice. Recognizing members of the OAA for extraordinary service to other members, the G. Randy Roberts Service Award was won by Istvan Lendvay. Honouring members for career-long contributions to architectural design excellence, the Lifetime Design Achievement Award was given to Bruce Kuwabara. And lastly, Leslie M. Klein won the Order of da Vinci, which is presented to persons who have made a significant and meaningful contribution to the profession of architecture. www.oaa.on.ca
2015 AIBC Awards call for entries.
The Architectural Institute of British Columbia showcases the best in BC architecture through its highly respected Architectural Awards program, which includes the Lieuten-
ant-Governor of British Columbia Awards in Architecture (both medal and merit), the AIBC Innovation Award, the AIBC Emerging Firm Award, and the AIBC Special Jury Award. Winners will be celebrated at an architectural awards reception on October 28, 2015 as part of the AIBC annual conference. The deadline for submissions is June 29, 2015 at 4:30pm PST. http://awards.aibc.ca
Ecclesiastical Insurance Cornerstone Awards for Building Heritage call for nominations.
The National Trust for Canada is accepting nominations for the Ecclesiastical Insurance Cornerstone Awards for Building Heritage to recognize excellence in the regeneration of heritage buildings and sites in Canada in two categories: Adaptive Use/Rehabilitation and Infill. The purpose of these awards is to bring national attention to exemplary commercial, institutional, mixed-use and/or social purpose projects, and to recognize the people who have helped make them happen. The National Trust is seeking entries for the juried awards from individuals or organizations, including architects, developers, builders and owners—who may self-nominate—no later than June 22, 2015 in one or both of the following categories: Adaptive Use/Rehabilitation—projects that
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demonstrate sensitivity and creativity in preserving the heritage values of a site while making possible a continuing or compatible contemporary use; and Infill—projects that integrate new construction in a historic context in a way that reinforces the character of the streetscape, enhances heritage values and contributes to the revitalization of the complex or district. Eligible projects must have been completed between 2010 and 2015. Recipients will be fêted at a gala ceremony as part of the National Trust’s annual national conference this October in Calgary.
Design modern.
www.heritagecanada.org/en/get-involved/awards/make-nomination/ecclesiasticalinsurance-cornerstone-awards
COMPETITIONS Winners of the Lost Spaces 2015 Ideas Competition announced.
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Six prizes and six honourable mentions were selected from more than 290 submissions from 40 countries that considered art, biodiversity, water management, utility, memory, and the function of the public realm in order to rethink what has been previously left over and left behind. The jury selected Lost Railways as the top award winner. Reinvigorating a disused railway, the idea considers the ecosystems that transform naturally over time, and was conceived of by Laboratoria de arquitectura y paisaje (Edgar Mazo, Sebastian Meija, Iojann Restrepo, Glenn Pouliquen). In addition to the first prize, five field prize awards were selected for their ability to address challenges facing the improvement of public infrastructure, parks and the public realm. The Transportation Field Prize was given to Occult Prairie by Judit Urgelles and Casey Collins, while the Water Services Field Prize was awarded to Calgary Dehydrants by Kyle O’Connor. The Parks Field Prize recognized Pollen-nation by Jamal Nureddin and Nadja Pausch, while the Public Art Field Prize went to UnderSky by Jorge Sanfulgencio and Julio Romero. The Planning Field Prize was given to Clover Leaf by David Whittman, Mike Murray, Hannah Perry, Jonathan Sagi, Katelyn Junkin and Dave Robertson. Six honourable mentions recognized Get Lost in the Street by Felicia Sartika, Juanita Christine and Shirleen Alvita; Outplay by Mihail Dimitrov, Ana Dyadkova, Stamena Slavova, Stoyko Enchev and Simona Kbadova; Seepers by Jitka Svensson, Christel Lindgren and Mike Friesen; Greeting Cards by Federico Perugini, Thais de Roquemaurel, Alessandra Vizzini and Paolo Pirasso; Lineside Park by Yves Poitras and Trevor Steckley; and Playful City by Emily Cheng and Jennifer Davis. The jury was comprised of: Shane Coen, founder of landscape architecture studio Coen+Partners in Minneapolis; Diana Sherlock, independent Canadian curator, writer and educator; Susan S. Szenasy, publisher/editor in chief of METROPOLIS; award-winning Quebec architect Pierre Thibault; and Shauna Thompson, curator at Calgary’s Esker Foundation. www.dtalks.org
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The Canadian Canoe Museum is taking another step towards relocating to the Parks Canada Peterborough Lift Lock National Historic Site on the Trent-Severn Waterway. Over 90 submissions from North America, Europe and Asia were received, from which six design teams were shortlisted, representing some of the best and brightest firms working globally in architecture today: Kohn Pedersen Fox of New York City, Heneghan Peng Architects of Dublin, Bing Thom Architects of Vancouver/Lett Architects of Peterborough, Provencher_Roy
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NEWS of Montreal/NORR of Toronto, Patkau Architects of Vancouver/Brook McIlroy of Toronto, and 5468796 Architecture Inc. of Winnipeg. Stage 2 of the Competition will run through August 11, 2015, and the Canadian Canoe Museum is expected to make a final selection of the design in the fall of this year.
Bendtsen (Inform Interiors), Omer Arbel (Bocci Design), John Patkau (Patkau Architects), Tom Dixon, Michael Anastassiades, Falken Reynolds, along with ANDLIGHT team members—Lukas Peet, Caine Heintzman and Matt Davis.
L A M P’s 2015 Lighting Design Competition call for entries.
WHAT’S NEW
Ottawa; Yew-Thong Leong, Toronto; Anthony Mancini, Toronto; Thomas Tillmann, London; Richard Witt, Toronto; Giuseppina (Pina) Petricone, Toronto; Pat Hanson, Toronto; Margaret Graham, Toronto; Mary Jane Finlayson, Toronto; Jonathon Soules, Toronto; Jaroslav L. Glos, Windsor; Heather Dubbeldam, Toronto; David Moore, Toronto; Charles Hazell, Toronto; W. Carson Woods, Toronto; Ajon Moriyama, Toronto; Scott Stirton, Winnipeg; Bernard Flaman, Regina; Gene Dub, Edmonton; Amir Hemani, Calgary; Richard John Isaac, Edmonton; Mark Chambers, Calgary; Nicholas John Bevanda, Vancouver; Noel Arthur Edwin Best, Vancouver; and Susan Gushe, Vancouver. In addition, a prominent Canadian social entrepreneur and a Greek architect, both employing design for social change, will receive Honorary Fellowships at the Festival: Zita Cobb is the founder of the Shorefast Foundation, which uses architecture, art, design, craft and food to invigorate the economy and culture of Fogo Island off the coast of Newfoundland; Vassilis Sgoutas is an architect from Athens who, during his tenure as president of the International Union of Architects (UIA), focused on barrier-free design and poverty in the developing world.
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2015 RAIC Fellows announced.
The Lighting Architecture Movement Project (L A M P) is preparing for its third annual international lighting design competition and is sending out a call for entries to designers worldwide to participate. The design event will be held in November 2015 in Vancouver, and the deadline for entries is July 27, 2015. The competition offers participants the opportunity to exercise their talents for the chance to be part of a growing exhibition that connects the local community with dynamic design. The three categories are: student, emerging, and established designers. After reviewing all submissions, the jury will base their decisions based on criteria such as aesthetics, marketability, innovation, and unique interpretation of this year’s theme of “Crystallize.” The confirmed panellists for 2015 include: Nancy
The College of Fellows of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) bestows Fellowship in recognition of outstanding achievement. Criteria include design excellence, and exceptional scholarly contribution or distinguished service to the profession or the community. This year, 36 Canadian architects were inducted as Fellows at the Festival of Architecture in Calgary. They are: George Anthony Cotaras, Halifax; Barbara A.W. Nicholson, Fredericton; Susan Anne Mansel Fitzgerald, Halifax; Philip Pratt, St. John’s; Christopher Young, Halifax; Clément Demers, Montreal; Sylvie Perrault, Montreal; Annmarie Adams, Montreal; Graham Murfitt, Ottawa; Robert Matthews, Ottawa; Martin Pierre Tite, Ottawa; Vladimir A. Popovic,
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CIRCLING THE SQUARE JOHN BENTLEY MAYS CONSIDERS THE SUCCESSES AND SHORTCOMINGS OF RECENT RENOVATIONS TO TORONTO’S NATHAN PHILLIPS SQUARE. Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization PLANT Architect Inc., Shore Tilbe Irwin & Partners/Perkins+Will, Inc., Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architecture, Adrian Blackwell Urban Projects ARCHITECTS PLANT Architect Inc. | Perkins+Will, Architects in Joint Venture TEXT John Bentley Mays PHOTOS Steven Evans PROJECT
COMPETITION DESIGN TEAM
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One recent Sunday afternoon, I joined tens of thousands of revellers who had gathered in Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square, which opens grandly in front of Viljo Revell’s Modernist City Hall, to celebrate the birthday of their Sikh faith. Young families with children, gaggles of smartly dressed teenagers, middle-aged and elderly folk strolled across the pavers, milled along the elevated walkway that defines the square on three sides, and listened to music and speeches from perches atop City Hall’s podium. Though many citizens were present, there was no crowding. One rarely feels crowded at urban-scale events on the plaza. As it had done countless times since opening in 1965, Nathan Phillips Square once again proved its capacity to accommodate Toronto’s multitudes comfortably, and to serve as a huge platform on which the passions, convictions, traditions and values of the city’s famously diverse population find visible expression. The square’s success on the day of the Sikh festival could make us almost forget, at least for a moment, the criticisms and controversies that have dogged its renovation throughout the five years since shovels went into the ground. But the critics have been prominent and impossible to ignore. Rob Ford, mayor from 2010 to 2014, publicly assailed the overhaul instigated by his predecessor, David Miller, as a wasteful and unnecessary extravagance.
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OPPOSITE Designed to resonate with Viljo Revell’s Modernist City Hall, a new theatre offers a fully equipped stage, complete with dressing rooms, a green room, and AV support underneath. When not in use, it’s an ideal vantage point for observing the theatre of urban life. ABOVE Key strategies for renewing the 11-acre site include opening the centre of the square and revamping the infrastructure beneath it.
The current mayor, John Tory, has again and again lambasted the scheme for its tardiness and especially its cost, which has risen from an original (and certainly too low) estimate of around $40 million to its present level of $60 million. The corrosive political atmosphere around the project has skewed media coverage, which has usually—and, alas, perhaps inevitably—emphasized budget problems and other disappointments. “It really comes down to what the big news story is,” said Jack Landau, who writes about the project for the popular architectural website UrbanToronto.com. “As much as I’d like to believe that everyone on the planet cares about architecture, the fact is that it’s not as publicized as delays and cuts. Those are generally the things that make the headlines.” But is the project’s largely negative public image an accurate portrayal
THEATRE CONFIGURATIONS
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The stage is a theatre for small performances SMALL STAGE
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Stage is a bandshell on the square BANDSHELL
Stage accomodates most programmed events with minimal modification
1. Standard stage with roll down side walls 2. Audio Video booth on the square EVENTS
Expanded Stage for traveling performances LARGE 1. Expanded stagePERFORMANCE for large performances; 2. Compound connected to subgrade theatre spaces; 3. Portable trailers as dressing rooms; 4.Audio Video booth on the square
Reoriented stage for civic spectacles CIVIC SPECTACLE 1. Temporary stage; 2. Compound connected to subgrade theatre spaces; 3. Temporary backstage tent; 4. Portable Trailers as dressing rooms and power generation; 5. Video Audio booth on the square
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A statue of Winston Churchill was relocated from the southwest corner of the site to a sheltered northwest location; the Peace Garden is in the process of being relocated to the west side of City Hall, freeing up the centre of the square. OPPOSITE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP The podium is home to an extensive green roof; glass balustrades enclose a patio above the snack bar; integrated fountains add cooling relief in the summer.
ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT
of reality? To answer this question, one has to begin at the beginning: in 2007, when the Miller administration accepted the verdict of a well-run international competition and handed the design contract for the job to a young Toronto-based team. This group was led by Chris Pommer, Lisa Rapoport and Mary Tremain of PLANT Architect, Andrew Frontini of Shore Tilbe Irwin + Partners, and Toronto designer Adrian Blackwell. It
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also included Chicago landscape architect Peter Schaudt. Shore Tilbe Irwin was subsequently acquired by Perkins+Will, which is now responsible for fulfilling the contract. In an interview, Larry Wayne Richards, former dean of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto and a member of the public advisory committee struck by Mayor Mil-
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ler to assist with the revitalization effort, called the team’s winning proposal “very competent, good, thoughtful, doable.” Anyone reading the proposal today will find it was surely all those things. “Nathan Phillips Square has always acted as an agora, the ancient Athenian place of public and political exchange,” the designers noted in their submission to the jury, “but [it] also claims the dual functions of theatre, the place of focused gathering, and square.” Spinning their scheme out of this insight, the architects served up a convincing mixture of repair, revision and new construction that emphasized the historical mission and sense they had identified in the square. The competition documents attractively blended re-
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spect for City Hall’s svelte Mid-Century Modern fabric with sound plans for the refreshment of Revell’s Canadian version of (in Richards’ words) “the hard-paved, big European piazza.” In a bid to underscore the character of its central area “as a space of pure potential for varied interactions and events,” for example, the team proposed the removal of the Toronto Peace Garden, dedicated by the Queen in 1984, from the middle of the plaza. The square’s perimeter, marked out for special attention in the proposal, would be strengthened by the addition of many new forest trees and by structures to be linked by Revell’s elevated walkway, which would be resurfaced, furnished and landscaped. The
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list of these peripheral buildings included a restaurant, an information kiosk, a permanent stage and a new skating and snack pavilion. The roof of the podium at the foot of Revell’s curved office towers, until then a desolate expanse of asphalt and precast concrete pavers, was slated to become a public park above the streets. On the sunny afternoon of the Sikh festivity—just shy of a decade after the competition for the Nathan Phillips Square renewal was announced—I looked for signs that the recommendations of the winning entry had been carried out, and I found that several had been abandoned along the way, or postponed indefinitely. The shortcomings are perhaps most obvious at the plaza’s edges. In the opinion of Toronto planner, urbanist and author Ken Greenberg, the renovation was an opportunity—missed, as things have turned out—to set right what had always been a problem. “Think how Toronto was back in the mid-fifties,” he said. With the adoption of Viljo Revell’s scheme, “a city struggling to define itself takes this incredibly bold step of declaring its modernity. It created a distinctive monumental solution, but one of rejecting the city floor—public space, the streets and so on. What it has created is a place that still, to this day, has an uneasy relationship with its surroundings. If you look at Bay Street or Queen Street, you have these vast stretches of hostile street territory.” Indeed, the Sikh celebrants who flooded the square the day I was there avoided the Bay Street sidewalk. They might have used it, had its landscaping and freshened address to the street not been axed from the program. Also cancelled, forever or for the time being: the continuous intensification of the urban forest on the site, the paving and landscaping of the ribbon of trampled lawn on the Queen Street boundary, the transformation of the elevated walkway and the ceremonial ramp that sweeps up from the plaza into a linear garden, along with the replacement of the homely garage entrance at Queen and Bay by a glassy, welcoming information and bike rental kiosk. Earlier this year, the City’s government committee voted to allow a restaurant to be raised on the blank spot at the site’s southwest corner—but financed by somebody else. At the end of 2015, when the contract and legal commitment of the winning team wind down, Adrian Blackwell’s in-
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novative seating will have been installed along the perimeter walkway. But by and large—especially to the south and east—the edge of the site will remain as sad and poorly joined to the adjacent city as it was before the rejuvenation began. As I moved among the Sikhs and curious tourists, however, it was easy to spot fulfillments of the original vision—noteworthy ones that have surely not received the public attention they deserve. The Peace Garden, always an obstruction to the full use of the plaza, was gone. It is being reconstructed in a new enlarged format, west of the walkway, beside Osgoode Hall courthouse. Andrew Frontini says the garden is on track for completion in the summer of 2015. At the insistence of the garden’s ardent friends and fans, but over the objections of the architects, the faux-dilapidated gazebo that stood at the monument’s former location has been moved to the new one. The team scored a triumph for their side, however, with the landscaping of City Hall’s 35,000-square-foot podium, opened to the public in 2010. On the day of the Sikh fête, it was still too early in the season for the sedum, alliums and grasses to be doing much. But the place was wonderful—a vast patch of sun-washed lonesome prairie or badlands, a quiet refuge from the downtown din of Canada’s busiest city. The efficient, well-considered and well-equipped stage, which steps up like a ziggurat from grade to the level of the walkway on the western border of the square, was in vivid use by musicians, municipal and provincial politicians, and Sikh clerics and community leaders. The new two-storey snack building nearby, with its open-air upper deck connected to the walkway, was busy, as usual. Invisible from the square, of course, was the thick membrane below the pavers and above the enormous underground parking garage—where, the designers said, unpleasant surprises and the necessary updating of utilities and elderly structural elements more than once sent engineering costs soaring, and caused some of the delays that have irritated politicians. Reflecting on the mixed record of the renewal, Frontini admitted that “it sounds like a hard-luck story or a series of missed opportunities. But the things that have been accomplished were hard-won, and they have made a
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OPPOSITE, LEFT TO RIGHT A new pavilion provides amenities including public washrooms, a snack bar, and a skate rental counter; office workers lounge on seating integrated into a newly landscaped island at the south end of the square; security bollards double as seating blocks along Queen Street.
substantial impact. We did one thing, which was to open the square back up and remove the clutter and encumbrances, so that you can have the art fair, the Sikh festival, the Winter Festival of Lights—really large-scale urban events—and support them.” This is good. If testimony to the value of the cleared plaza is needed, I offer the free, relaxed movement of the Sikhs in their many thousands as evidence. But is that good enough? Should Torontonians be content with a newly outfitted central area, but one lacking the revived and revised margins promised in the original scheme? Some observers have argued that citizens should never have expected anything better than half-done execution. The fickleness of public opinion in Toronto during the last several years, the City of Toronto’s chronic financial problems, the skyrocketing cost of construction, the hostility of David Miller’s successors toward the whole idea—these and other forces doomed the project from the outset to achieve only a few of its objectives. While this line of reasoning has substance, it nevertheless does not go very far toward explaining what has gone wrong with the Nathan Phillips Square revival. The issue has never been the imaginative quality of the initial program, which was solid and, in its basic form, feasible. Frontini attributes the cost overruns to mid-course changes in the construction contracting of the project and the addition of program elements by the City, among other factors. I requested contact information for a City spokesperson to address these claims, but no one in the communications department got back to me. “What is Toronto capable of? Can we get something that’s not just right, but outstanding?” Larry Richards asks. “Go to New York and you see people polishing brass plates, washing windows, cleaning their sidewalks with a sense of pride. There is a certain set of values about the public realm that is very weak, or missing, in Toronto. It’s a lack of caring.” Richards’ comment takes the observer to the heart of the problem, which lies in Toronto’s urban culture. The city’s history is marked by remarkable public-sector surges in consciousness—the political struggles over the design
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of City Hall and Nathan Phillips Square occasioned a very important discussion in the late 1950s—followed by spells of inattention (and even what often seems like animosity) by urban leaders and the populace toward the public realm. We appear to be in such a spell. While Toronto finds itself in the midst of a private development boom that is redefining the skyline, politicians and officials and ordinary citizens have proven notably reluctant to invest enough time, intelligence, financial wherewithal—and heart—in the city’s public spaces to make them great. But well-meaning Torontonians, dismayed by the neglect of the commonweal or the non-completion of good works like the revitalization of Nathan Phillips Square, could exaggerate this reluctance, or at least overestimate its stubborn persistence in the city’s culture. Not much effort would be required, I suspect, to convince the Sikhs whose company I enjoyed that the city’s central square is a treasure worth fixing and maintaining. And the huge numbers of voters who live in mid-rises and towers and 1,000-square-foot houses across the metropolitan area? Would it really be so difficult to persuade them that the avenues, parks, sidewalks and streetscapes they share should be wonderful? John Bentley Mays is an architecture critic and writes regularly for The Globe and Mail. CLIENT CITY OF TORONTO | DESIGN TEAM PLANT—CHRIS POMMER, LISA RAPOPORT, MARY TREMAIN, VANESSA EICKHOFF, LISA DIETRICH, ERIC KLAVER, ELISE SHELLEY, LISA MOFFITT, JANE HUTTON, HEATHER ASQUITH, SUZANNE ERNST, JESSICA CRAIG, JEREMY MCGREGOR, MATT HARTNEY, CLEO BUSTER, RENÉE KUEHNLE, OLIVIA MAPUÉ. SHORE TILBE IRWIN/PERKINS+WILL—D’ARCY ARTHURS, ANDREW FRONTINI, VIS SANKRITHI, JOE DHANJAL, LINDA NEUMAYER, ADRIAN WORTON, STEVEN VAN DER MEER, GAVIN GUTHRIE, LIA MATSON, ELIZABETH TSERONAKIS, PERRY EDWARDS, AARON CHEUNG, AIMEE DRMIC, EMILY MACLENNAN, TALAL RAMEH. | LANDSCAPE HOERR SCHAUDT LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE INC., URBAN TREES + SOIL | URBANISM ADRIAN BLACKWELL URBAN PROJECTS | STRUCTURAL BLACKWELL STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL CROSSEY ENGINEERING | INTERIORS SHORE TILBE IRWIN & PARTNERS/PERKINS+WILL, INC. | HERITAGE MUSE BLANCHE LEMCO VAN GINKEL | CONTRACTOR FLYNN CANADA/GARDENS IN THE SKY (PHASE 1A); PCL CONSTRUCTORS CANADA (PHASE 1 & 2); FOUR SEASONS SITE DEVELOPMENT (PHASE 3) | COST ESTIMATOR VERMEULENS INC. (PHASE 1) | GREEN BUILDING SYSTEMS ENERMODAL ENGINEERING LTD. | AREA 13 ACRES (LAND); 2,953 M2 (THEATRE) | BUDGET $60 M | COMPLETION AUTUMN 2015
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ROW, ROW, ROW YOUR BOAT A PAVILION-LIKE COMPETITION AND TRAINING FACILITY FOR ROWERS TAKES ADVANTAGE OF THE CALM WATERS OF AN EX-SHIPPING CANAL IN SOUTHERN ONTARIO. Welland International Flatwater Centre, Welland, Ontario VJAA Inc. (Design Architect) with RDH Architects Inc. (Architect of Record) TEXT Chloe Town PHOTOS Paul Crosby PROJECT
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The drive from Toronto, along the perimeter of Lake Ontario towards Welland, is marked by a steady progression of nondescript buildings. It is difficult to see much evidence of site-specific sensitivity, let alone architecture crafted with great care. Filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni may have found cinematic beauty in shipping ports and polluted estuaries, but the steel plants near the Hamilton Skyway today are far from sublime. Closer to St. Catharines, just before the Welland Shipping Canal cuts across the land to Lake Erie, the built landscape changes tone. Manufacturing sheds give way to neat acres of clipped grape vines. Real plants. These fields are tangible evidence that the region’s effort to rebrand itself as “Niagara wine country” has been a planning success. But can vineyards alone replace the economic importance that manufacturing once played in this part of Southern Ontario? This question can be answered in part by the recently completed Welland International Flatwater Centre (WIFC). Conceived to promote a “healthy, active lifestyle” and attract “sports tourists” to the area, the project was largely conceived with the 2015 Pan and Parapan American Games in mind. The facility will host all of the Games’ sprint canoe and kayak races. Yet the boosterism of the facility’s name (indicated by the word “International”) demonstrates a further commitment to the idea that a highly specialized program can bring many more people to
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ABOVE Envisaged to serve the area long after the Pan/Parapan American Games, Welland’s new rowing centre incudes a glass-enclosed finishline tower, outdoor viewing area, and four-seasons training facility.
the region for years to come. The Centre owes its existence to the shipping industry’s physical legacy in the city of Welland. Built on the low banks of the former shipping canal, the WIFC seems the perfect program for a site that for decades was highly undesirable. In 1973, the original shipping route through Welland was abandoned in favour of a straighter and wider new canal to the east. Years passed before anyone could figure out what to do with the remains. Factories closed and were torn down, and the shores of the 12-kilometre-long old canal were essentially left fallow. It took until 1997 to turn the area into a recreational waterway and close to a decade more to take it a step further. Smooth protected water, it turns out, is exactly what flatwater sports require. And because the old canal was dug deep enough for shipping vessels, the water remains exceptionally flat, even on a windy day. In other words, the WIFC is situated on a site with exceptional proximity to a unique body of water. Key elements of the design are the result of functional standards required to host Pan and Parapan Am events. The finish-line tower, for example, has three identical floor plans, each with its own kitchenette and barrier-free washroom. This ensures that scorekeepers, officials and judges do not influence one another during meets. Yet other important moves, such as the clever programmatic flexibility within the main
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building, are due to a close and thoughtful collaboration between the project’s two architects—Toronto-based Rounthwaite Dick & Hadley Architects (RDH) and VJAA from Minnesota. RDH proposed the partnership based on the fact that VJAA has built two similar facilities in the United States: the Minneapolis Rowing Club Boathouse (2001) and the Porter Boat House (2005) at the University of Wisconsin. VJAA’s familiarity with the equipment needs and storage specificities of the program, matched with RDH’s well-deserved reputation for smartly detailed buildings, made for a solid collaboration. It helped too that both offices share a design sensibility that favours simple forms and materials. There is no public transportation to the building, so the majority of visitors arrive by car. From the parking lot, one can see the three-storey timing tower to the right and a long, shed-like building to the left. These two forms are separated by an open concourse but relate to one another through a shared cladding palette, largely comprised of metal siding and glass. Inside both buildings, the steel structure is exposed and painted white, and most rooms have poured and polished concrete floors. The materials readily suggest that, architecturally speaking at least, manufacturing and athletic facilities have a certain equivalence. But there is a lot more floor-to-ceiling glass than an industrial facility. The tower looks like a very elegant but oddly undersized condo, and from the concourse one can see that the lower building is mostly curtain wall too. This latter volume only looks like a shed from the rear: circling around, the metal-clad wall cants out slightly and then folds over into the roof plane, not unlike a covered grandstand. Keep your eyes on the
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canal, it suggests. Your attention should be on the water. Inside, the floor plan is essentially divided into three parts. First there is a shallow entrance bay with a long reception desk that faces the central plaza. Behind it is an exercise room, equipped with a line of stationary rowing machines. Beyond, separated by a glass interior wall, is yet another training room. This one has a sunken tank of water at its centre. This last room isn’t large and it is conceptually marred by exposed HVAC and electrical conduits, but it is nevertheless spectacular. It is full of light and reflection, both from the water in the tank and the surrounding glass. The airiness of the room is further amplified by the fact that the tank has a guard with mirrors facing the water on all sides. The effect is less Hall of Mirrors than Dan Graham. The still water lends a tranquil and somewhat indulgent quality to the space, also bringing to mind Paul Rudolph’s Beekman Place apartment in New York with its all-white surfaces, glass and mirrors. It is clean, utilitarian and modern. Architectural musings are abated, however, once athletes begin their practice. They sit at either the edge or centre of the tank in what look like animal feeding troughs but are in fact replicas of canoes, kayaks or dragonboats in their simplest form, truncated at each end but exact in width. The pool includes two tanks, allowing for two different currents operating at the same time. Athletes place their oars or paddles in the
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1 BOAT LANDING 2 MEDIA ZONE 3 FINISH-LINE TOWER 4 VIP TERRACE 5 PLAZA 6 SPECTATOR SEATING 7 ATHLETES’ CENTRE 8 BOAT STORAGE APRON 9 JUDGE’S FLOOR 10 PUBLIC RESTROOMS 11 LOBBY 12 IT ROOM 13 MECHANICAL 14 FITNESS/TECHNICAL OFFICIALS 15 ROWING TANKS 16 MEDALS 17 DOPING CONTROL 18 PRINTING 19 MEDICAL 20 LOCKER ROOMS 21 ATHLETES’ DINING AREA/STORAGE
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OPPOSITE Metal siding wraps from wall to roof of the training facility, accentuating the shed-like structure’s modern profile. An open plaza beckons spectators towards the finish-line seating, which cascades down the bank. ABOVE Mirrors surrounding the high-tech training pool allow rowers to view themselves from different angles, and also lend a surreal touch to the interior space.
water, a trainer adjusts the variable speeds, and away they go. Yet they stay put. Their bodies simply glide forward and back, multiplied through a reflective corridor. The mirrors, it turns out, are there so that the athletes can observe themselves from several angles. It is an ingenious aid and mesmerizing to watch. Something about their metronomic pace and synchronized movement is deeply satisfying. When Frank Underwood uses a rowing machine in House of Cards, his strenuous effort symbolizes his relentless struggle to move forward. Yet here, where there is actual water, the movement doesn’t seem futile or illusory. This tank is as close to the real thing as possible, and in Canada’s cold winter months, it is an invaluable resource to athletes. By mid-April, the building’s relationship to the surrounding site expands as athletes abandon indoor simulacra in favour of the canal. The storage room cuts into the bank, putting vessels a few short metres away from the waterway. The WIFC becomes less of a central attraction, and more like an auxiliary space. Eyes on the water, remember. The interior tank is drained, covered over, and suddenly there is a lot more inside space with unobstructed views to the outdoors. The storage room, empty of buoys and boats, becomes a shaded preparation and gathering area. The adjacent plaza becomes a viewing plat-
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form. With permanent outdoor seating for 500 and standing room for at least twice as many more, it is impressive to see the old canal reclaim its relevance as a destination. The whole concourse feels open and inclusive, even civic-minded. To this end, one hopes that the WIFC will attract more than just professional athletes and tag-along tourists. The local public should feel welcome too, for days walking or resting by the water. The building might also become a destination for cyclists riding along the banks of the recreational waterway. In all cases, it stands as an extraordinary addition to the region. Chloe Town has practiced architecture in New York and Toronto and has taught at universities in Philadelphia, San Francisco and Galt, Ontario. She is currently a sessional instructor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto. CLIENT TO2015 AND CITY OF WELLAND | ARCHITECT TEAM VJAA—VINCENT JAMES, JENNIFER YOOS, NATHAN KNUTSON, PAUL YAGGIE, NAT MADSON, TIM OGREN, NATE STEUERWALD. RDH— BOB GOYECHE, SANJOY PAL, CARLOS TAVARES, GRAHAM GAVINE, MIKE FARIC, BRYAN CHESNIAK. | STRUCTURAL/MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL EXP SERVICES INC. | LANDSCAPE VJAA INC. (TRAVIS VAN LIERE) | INTERIORS VJAA INC. AND RDH ARCHITECTS INC. | CONTRACTOR ELITE CONSTRUCTION INC. | SUSTAINABILITY OECI | COMMISSIONING CFMS WEST | COST MARSHALL & MURRAY INC. | ACCESSIBILITY PAULA BOWLEY ARCHITECT INC. | CODE LRI | AREA 17,000 FT 2 | BUDGET $8 M | COMPLETION JULY 2014
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Toronto’s Front Street culminates in the new Canary District, a mixed-use development including retail spaces, market condominiums, affordable housing, a student residence and a community YMCA.
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ACCELERATED URBANISM THE PAN/PARAPAN AMERICAN GAMES ATHLETES’ VILLAGE WAS BUILT IN LESS THAN THREE YEARS. AFTER THE GAMES, THE AREA WILL TRANSFORM INTO THE CANARY DISTRICT, TORONTO’S NEWEST NEIGHBOURHOOD. THE ARCHITECTS BEHIND THE WINNING DESIGN EXPLAIN HOW IT HAPPENED. INTERVIEWER
Elsa Lam
Waterfront Toronto has a long roster of slow-burning projects on its list. But they recently put the pedal to the metal on one of these endeavours— the redevelopment of a 14.3-hectare site bordered by the Don River. The accelerated developement was spurred by Toronto’s successful bid for the Pan/Parapan American Games. Originally planned for completion in 12 years, more than half of the neighbourhood has been designed and built in less than three years. Initially, the newly minted buildings will house over 10,000 competitors and officials participating in the Pan/Parapan American Games. Following the Games, the Athletes’ Village will convert into the Canary District, a mixed-use neighbourhood including market and affordable housing, student housing for George Brown College, and a new YMCA community centre. Much of the initial planning was completed under Waterfront Toronto’s West Don Lands Precinct Plan, initiated in 2004 and led by Boston-based Urban Design Associates. Extensive public consultations resulted in a detailed document that defines the location, scale, character and function of public spaces, streets, buildings and facilities in
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the community. “By the end, we had an approved master plan with zoning in place that was oriented around very good urban design principles,” says Chris Glaisek, Vice President for Planning and Design at Waterfront Toronto. When the Province came up with the idea to put the Athletes’ Village on the West Don Lands, the site was ready to go. The approved precinct plan was the basis for an unusually comprehensive design-build-finance procurement document, complete with construction drawings for the entire public realm and block-by-block guidelines for the whole area. A team comprised of architectsAlliance, KPMB Architects, Daoust Lestage and MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects (MJMA) led the design for the winning bid. They refined the precinct plan to establish overall compositional principles. Then, each team member designed individual buildings within the ensemble. Canadian Architect sat down with Peter Clewes MRAIC (architectsAlliance), Bruce Kuwabara FRAIC (KPMB), Renée Daoust FIRAC (Daoust Lestage), and David Miller MRAIC (MJMA) to discuss how the project unfolded.
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Let’s start by talking about the genesis of the project and how you became involved as a team. PC: Dream Developments and Kilmer Van Nostrand came together and
wanted to put a bid in on the project. Dream owns the Distillery, so it was a logical extension of what they’d been doing within the area. Our firms [architectsAlliance and KPMB] had both worked on the Distillery, so we had a relationship with Dream. For both of us, it was important that there be more architects involved. When you start to do a series of buildings, you play with this idea of architectural diversity, you negotiate with yourself, and it becomes a bit facile. It’s far better to work with a series of different architects that have different perspectives. We both suggested MJMA, for their technical experience in doing a facility like the YMCA.
BK: We wanted to have someone from Montreal, so we asked Daoust Lestage. I thought that was really important—it couldn’t just be an all-
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Toronto panel; we wanted to look to other cities where the level of urbanity was quite high. Daoust Lestage immediately started analyzing the site as they would in their own methodology, looking at the historical layers of the site. RD: It was a very interesting site actually. It was a railway courtyard.
The end of the courtyard was just next to the heritage Canary Building. The train tracks were coming in with a curved movement because of the river. So we thought it could be interesting to reveal these traces of the past, to connect the courtyard with the semi-private and private spaces. The notion of connectivity was really important to all of us.
How much liberty did you have in manipulating Waterfront Toronto’s plan for the site? BK: Very little. You had to sit within the envelopes specified in the plan. One of the successes of the project is that the buildings all do that and
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yet they don’t have the traditional setback expression of base, middle and top. We were able to create a contemporary urban village within a new urbanist envelope. PC: It’s also interesting in a time when Toronto is talking about a de-
velopment permit system, which is really code for very prescriptive base zoning. What we’re used to in Toronto is that every project goes by a site-specific rezoning. We’re used to having great freedom, and we’re probably cheered on by our clients—more density, more height, more this, more that. In this case, they’re saying, “What do you mean you can’t vary these envelopes?” What you see from a massing perspective, and the definition of the streets and blocks, was a complete given. We were very much working within that and trying to develop connectivity, intimacy, beautiful buildings and everything that goes with creating a great neighbourhood. You were able to add value in some of the urban moves, such as in the expression of the laneways behind the buildings. BK: Those were building on Renée’s notion that the traces [of railway
tracks] that were running east-west would somehow penetrate the blocks. The manifestation of that is now in the laneways and the mews in the laneways. The condo project that we did on the park—its massing is split even though the zoning allowed you to build a continuous frontage on the park. It’s really two buildings, so you can enter the lobby between the two—anyone can go through. There are more choices of routes in our scheme, there is a finer grain that wasn’t there in the original planning. For the other building we did, Block 11, it’s unusual because there’s parking in the middle. We’ve made an outdoor amenity space—a courtyard on the roof of the parking.
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DM: One of the first moves was stepping the YMCA back from the CN building. I think it added to the urban realm and made it a lot better. At one point, we had a scheme where a lane went through the YMCA, allowing it to connect to Front Street. But the YMCA wanted to be completely alone and wanted to face out. PC: There’s a few housing blocks in the project. It’s not a typology that’s
been used very frequently in the city—it’s much more of a European idea. In the block that we designed, the units face into the courtyard, so that they have their front doors in that courtyard. As you transit through the blocks, not only do you get from one street to another, you’re actually going through another level of semi-public space.
RD: Connectivity is being celebrated in the project but in different formats—going through KPMB’s transparent lobby, the mews, the portecochère that we did underneath our building, the forest of tall columns, and so on. It’s woven through the courtyards and even onto the rooftops.
You decided to only build out parts of the site at the two ends, leaving other parcels to be developed later. PC: We realized the team that will have a high likelihood of winning will be the one that reduces the provincial subsidy to the lowest possible amount. So the question was: how can we build fewer buildings and still provide proper accommodation for the Games? We realized we could consolidate the accommodation by using bunk beds, and build far fewer and smaller buildings, which ultimately could be successful in the marketplace. By comparison, Vancouver’s Olympic Village had massive cost overruns; it didn’t have the discipline of this process. When you look at the neighbourhood now, you have to imagine the other blocks being filled in. My preconception was that you should con-
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Views of the entry into the Canary District in 2012 and in 2015 demonstrate the accelerated pace of development. ABOVE A site plan showing current and planned development on the site. The completed buildings to date include Blocks 1 and 14 (student residence by architectsAlliance), the YMCA Community Centre (MJMA), Blocks 4 and 11 (market housing by KPMB), and Blocks 3 and 15 (affordable housing by Daoust Lestage).
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solidate everything into a very dense group of buildings, and yet we’ve skipped over some blocks. I think that was very clever from an urbanistic perspective. You’ve got KPMB’s buildings that start to define the park and give the promise for what’s going to come to the south. You have a bunch of vacant lots in there—but our respective projects start to define Front Street and the gateway. RD: The work that’s been produced was very strategic because the pieces are creating an ensemble. It could have been bits and pieces here and there, not creating a significant or coherent ensemble at the end. BK: As opposed to Vancouver, where they saw the deadline as the Games, we saw the deadline as years after the Games. It’s a deeper strategy on city-building—at high speed and with high stakes because of the Games. It’s an accelerated urbanism. You had to get the drawings in, they had to get costed—there were a whole bunch of quick drills on this. The scheme is as good as it is because of the experience of all the design teams. So you get the people who’ve actually done this before whose first instinct on it would be pretty good. We’ve been involved in other schemes where you can study and refine it endlessly. But this is a quick essay.
What architectural moves did you make to indicate the direction of the parcels to be developed in the future? BK: When you get the envelopes, they’re just plain like loaves of bread.
There’s no articulation. So it becomes a game of establishing rhythms that
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relate to units, unit expression, ground-floor cadence. And then there was the issue of whether or not to use brick. We went with dark iron-spot brick in precast panels to maintain the industrial tone of the place. One of the things was to find a scale of building mass that would work through the whole precinct. That’s one of the reasons our building is so stratified—we could see what architectsAlliance was up to setting the stage for the residence. There are shifting long volumes to create an intermediate scale well below the envelope. On an architectural level, there’s a lot that’s different than anything else around it. This is a relatively mid-rise, cohesive precinct with different buildings, and the rest of the city stands as several mountains of vertical towers. PC: There’s always this tension between fabric and individuality—with architects wanting to assert themselves individually with their work. But then how do those buildings coalesce into this notion of fabric? So there’s a conscious—or maybe an unconscious—effort on our collective part to have this idea of fabric and consistency. But then there is also an individuality between the buildings. RD: At the onset, we set a six-metre-high datum. Everybody worked with that and tried to animate that. I think it works well even with the connectivity underneath the columns. It’s connectivity but at all scales: at the scale of the street, at the scale of a district, and between two districts. PC: One of my obsessions, particularly with residential architecture, is
how the buildings meet the ground. As you walk around all of these buildings, there’s a consistency of the execution of the detailing at that
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The curved façade of Block 4 condominiums forms a clear edge to the park known as Corktown Common; an open colonnade adds to the expansive streetscape along Front Street; a view looking east shows affordable housing units fronting a landscaped street parallel to the main promenade.
ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT
first datum. You’re dealing with a development and construction marketplace where those things are never considered. As a team, we were constantly challenged about the details: why would you do it a certain way when you could do something more cost-effective. There was that constant debate and tension, which I think was a positive thing. For people who were charged with the execution of this project at a certain budget and in a certain time, challenging us was their role. In the end, when you walk though, it’s effective: these details are very modest but are well-resolved and I think will stand the test of time.
The clients also included Waterfront Toronto, the Pan Am committee, the YMCA, George Brown…
RD: We had a lot of discussions also about retail on the ground floor and the iconography of retail. It was about connecting with the grain of the retail fabric, plus the architectural gestures that would be associated with that—like not having these long façades, but recessed awnings. We fought for specific elements, like high-quality awnings. One thing that really struck me during that process was the dialogue that was established between the team members, and I think that the buildings are dialoguing also. It reflects the process that happened between us architects.
BK: If it’s challenging with IO, what would the alternative have been? Would it just be several RFPs? But those are not the cards that we’re being dealt. The amazing thing is that Toronto did get the Pan Am Games. Then there’s the pressure to open on the day of the Games, which is fixed. Failing the schedule or any part of it wasn’t a good option for anybody involved. Many of these large-scale Olympics or Pan American Games really are problematic, in ways that are beyond IO—like with overruns, or missing the schedule completely. Thinking down the line to other bids, this positions Toronto really well.
How was your experience with the P3 process in this project? PC: At first blush, most architects are concerned about what it can
mean. In our team, I was intrigued about how you could actually take this process and turn it into something positive. It’s there to realize value for public money. There was a lot of public expenditure on this project in terms of the infrastructure, because it was publicly owned land that needed to be serviced. So you’ve got the P3 as a client, Dundee-Kilmer as a kind of client; they in turn created a commitment with EllisDon and Ledcor as the builders. Then there was the compliance team that did the initial work for Infrastructure Ontario (IO); they became a kind of a notional client. So we had these layers of people...
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PC: Some of those clients came out from behind the curtain after we
won. That introduces another level of complexity and interesting debate. If you can produce a compelling piece of architecture and compelling neighbourhood within that system, I think it’s remarkable. It’s about being savvy and understanding what the objectives of each of those (sometimes competing) interests are.
Having gone through this experience, what would be your one recommendation to Infrastructure Ontario? DM: One issue with this process is that with the written Project Specific Output Specifications (PSOS), you are locked down for things one might have later reconsidered. It speeds it up, but that notion of doing everything by writing it down is like trying to describe how to build a car. Normally, you rethink things as you go through—you adjust certain relationships and finishes—and here you just didn’t have that opportunity. With some changes, the client wanted to do it, we wanted to do it, but the process couldn’t handle it.
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The affordable-housing developers only came in quite late, so Renée, you were designing almost entirely based on the PSOS.
theories about how to get best value for public money. There should be a healthy public debate about the subject; we’ve got enough evidence.
RD: We got a bit beyond design development based on the PSOS and the compliance architects’ comments, but then the operators came on board. They were two different organizations, so they didn’t want exactly the same thing. It was difficult not connecting directly with these clients and operators. You have to go through this process of asking questions that go through the compliance team, then to the operator, and then come back. It takes too much time, going back and forth. The process is a bit frustrating. We design for people and for clients—isn’t there a more direct contact that can be established? Design excellence is also an important element. I think that we managed to win some battles in giving more importance to design excellence because we were four firms associated with the project.
DM: We should all just embrace the notion of best value. When we say
DM: How do you mandate design quality? Perhaps on the IO side it should start by looking at what quality of building they want on the site, and trying to arrive at a number for the cost. In Nova Scotia, the school board sets a reasonable fee schedule, and if you are over that amount or under that amount, you’re penalized. It’s led to consistency and they’re getting better work. Why couldn’t we do that for these projects? Set a number with quantity surveyors, based on existing examples—say, this should cost $600 million. If you’re right on target, you’re good. If you come in lower, what have you done that’s less? If you’re over, what have you done that’s too much—and is it worth it? PC: The whole idea of how you ensure design excellence within a P3 process is a very big question. On the one hand, public money is a sacred trust. Then there’s the more nebulous idea of architectural excellence, and how that can feed back in to the objectives and aspirations of the client. There’s no clear answer: it’s very complicated how you assess this. BK: We think that IO is some kind of monumental block that is going to run our lives. It’s not; it’s people who are coming in with different
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design, everyone else sees it as some kind of surface treatment. But if you play out the notion of best value, that’s not the lowest possible cost all of the time.
BK: Why did we win the Athletes’ Village? Was it good value? PC: I can’t be objective, but they picked the best team. With all the hun-
dreds of people involved in this—from financing to building to strategizing—it was a very powerful team. You could flip this question around and ask: do we think this is a successful project? And if so, perhaps the IO process was a good one in this case. I think it was a successful project. How does this process—and the Athletes’ Village—fit into the future of Toronto?
BK: We’re in touch with people at the City, in the neighbourhood, and at Waterfront Toronto, and there’s a pretty good buzz about this as an idea. We had architects of a high quality. We have a brand-new community with a lot of affordable housing, and different kinds of residents. I know older people who bought there because they love the location and they want to face the park. Then there are students and low-income tenants in the Fred Victor and Wigwamen Community Housing buildings. It’s a rich story—it’s not only high-end condos that are coming out of this. What’s amazing is that the pieces are coming into focus now. When I look at the city, I read all the levels of urbanity. The buildings of this generation are about building an urban fabric and an urban neighbourhood. The next group of buildings are going to control the walking experience from here to the Distillery and to the waterfront. I walked around Underpass Park and Gilles Saucier’s River City the other day. Michael Van Valkenburgh’s park changes everything. We’re not some weird outpost. It’s all connecting.
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PRACTICE ROY OOMS, COURTESY OF KASIAN ARCHITECTURE INTERIOR DESIGN AND PLANNING LTD.
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INACCESSIBLE ACCESS: A PARADOX OF DESIGN TEXT
Loraine Fowlow
THE DESIGN OF EXTERIOR ENTRANCE AREAS CAN MAKE OR BREAK THE EXPERIENCE OF WHEELCHAIR USERS AS THEY APPROACH BUILDINGS. With strengthening accessibility requirements, all new buildings in Canada meet—and sometimes surpass—minimum building code requirements for barrier-free design. Paradoxically however, the execution of finished projects often falls short of the goal of providing accessibility for all. Specifically, exterior entrance areas often present obstacles to wheelchairs, resulting in challenging access and egress to fully accessible buildings. The design of these areas can fall into a grey zone of professional responsibility—but it is precisely these details that can make or break an otherwise barrier-free building. As with so many aspects of architecture, a significant part of the issue relates to scale. The average manual wheelchair’s front caster wheels are three to five inches in diameter, and it is these wheels that “break trail,” so to speak. It doesn’t take much of a difference in surface elevation to catch these relatively small wheels, resulting in a sudden stop or pitching the wheelchair forward. Even a half-inch discrepancy in surface continuity can present a hazard, particularly if taken at any speed. One instance of this problem occurs when hardscaping materials are unevenly surfaced and don’t lay flat, such as with brick pavers, which are often irregular in profile. Another common culprit is the differential settlement that can occur when ground-plane materials are not homogeneous. For example, a slab of concrete often tilts upwards due to settlement, resulting in a sloped surface and raised edges. Brick pavers are prone to settlement in all directions, often resulting in a jumbled surface of slanted and projecting bricks that is extremely hazardous for a wheelchair user to navigate. If placed together, the varied settlement between concrete and brick can create a hodgepodge of the ground-plane surface. An example of inaccessible access to an otherwise barrier-free building is a recently completed low-rise office complex in Calgary. It provides full accessibility once inside, but presents an obstacle course for wheelchair users outside. The apparently innocuous pavement leading up to the building is curved, and therefore slopes in two directions. Furthermore, the surface is subdivided into narrow strips of poured concrete slabs alternating with rectangles of brick pavers. Navigating the narrow, curved and doubly sloped strip of concrete (while avoiding the uneven brick surfaces) is difficult, requiring the wheelchair user to simultaneously push uphill while controlling the turning required—a
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ABOVE A smooth, gently sloped plaza leading to the Taylor Family Digital Library exemplifies best practices in designing acccessible entrance areas.
balancing act engaging both vertical and horizontal stability. A Cirque du Soleil performer would have no trouble with the acrobatics required, but the average wheelchair user is exhausted by the time he gets to the building’s front doors—if he makes it that far. While the designer of the exterior environment no doubt had good intentions regarding the varied appearance of the pavement, there was no consideration given to the experience of someone who might be traversing the area on wheels. In contrast to this stands the Taylor Family Digital Library (TFDL) at the University of Calgary, designed by Kasian Architecture Interior Design and Planning, with landscape architecture by O2 Planning + Design. Sited adjacent to the larger pedestrian environment of the university quadrangle, the TFDL provides seamless integration of building entrance with its homogeneously surfaced exterior hardscaping. Variations in surrounding topography are handled through gentle sloping of the ground plane, so as to link between neighbouring buildings without the need for stairs. The main plaza flows directly into the west entrance of the building, which has a low-profile door threshold that provides completely barrier-free access. The east entrance is accessed via a ramp from a pedestrian and service vehicle mall, a sequence that is entirely curb-free. The ground plane surrounding the TFDL is one continuous uninterrupted surface that does away entirely with the need for providing alternative barrier-free access routes: through the simple means of not including barriers in the first place. Therein, perhaps, lies one solution to the paradox of inaccessible accessibility: minimize the barriers to begin with. This requires thoughtful consideration of the realities of traversing the ground on wheels, coupled with a conceptual framework of barrier-free design thinking that goes beyond the building code. The code provides minimum requirements for accessibility, which can be followed by rote without creative consideration. But to design to code alone is the technical equivalent of paint-by-numbers. It’s possible to embrace the spirit of accessibility and go beyond the code, inside and out, to eliminate inaccessibility, by design. Loraine Fowlow, MRAIC, is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Calgary, and has recently begun exploring the built environment on wheels.
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Brutalist Architecture in Winnipeg
The West Coast Modern House: Vancouver Residential Architecture
Lost in Space: Architecture and Dementia
By Jeffrey Thorsteinson. Winnipeg: Winnipeg Architecture Foundation, 2012.
Edited by Greg Bellerby. Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2014.
Edited by Eckhard Feddersen and Insa Lüdtke. Basel: Birkhäuser, 2014.
This elegant booklet is one in a series of tour guides prepared by the Winnipeg Architecture Foundation under the directorship of Susan Algie. It highlights 18 Brutalist buildings designed and constructed in Winnipeg between 1966 and 1979. Its selection ranges from cultural havens, like the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre and Blessed Sacrament Church, to more hard-boiled civic hubs: the Taxation Centre, Transit Garage, and city jail. What these edifices share, according to author Jeffrey Thorsteinson, is a spartan display of structure, rough masonry, “corduroy concrete,” and local designers keen to participate in an international trend. The 53-page publication consists of an explanatory prologue, brief glossary, select references and handy map, together with streetside images and cursory data for each building on the tour. More documentary than interpretive, Brutalist Architecture in Winnipeg will amply inform the tourist’s gaze while implicitly advocating for the conservation of these half-century-old structures—all but one of which still successfully accommodate their original programs. Yet the booklet can do more. In the hands of the critically inclined, it should revive awareness of what Reyner Banham called New Brutalism’s “ethical stand.” For, through its monumentalized mundanity and raw aesthetics, this controversial movement confronted brute realities, re-engaging social and economic challenges of the time. This civic motive— exposing social structures as much as concrete structures—remains worthy of preservation.
The past few years have seen a resurgence of interest in Vancouver’s vernacular architecture, most recently reaffirmed with this new monograph edited by Greg Bellerby, former curator of the Charles H. Scott Gallery at Emily Carr University. Bellerby, along with Christopher Macdonald and Jana Tyner—local authorities on the subject, contribute poignant essays. The book also features a 1947 essay written by one of Vancouver’s fathers of Modernism, C.E. (Ned) Pratt. The sepia-toned photographs of 53 selected houses—many of which consist of modest light wood framing interspersed with poured concrete, heavy timber structure, and single-glazed fenestration—include famous exemplars of the type, such as B.C. Binning’s seminal 1941 house he designed for himself, along with Arthur Erickson’s two Smith Houses. As Christopher Macdonald points out, the architects were often their own clients, boldly exploring what was, at the time, uncharted territory using new building materials. As well as B.C. Binning’s own home, also featured are those of Ron Thom, Zoltan Kiss, Douglas Shadbolt, Peter Oberlander and Barry Downs, to name only a few. As a fitting epilogue, the last dozen pages of the book (in colour) are devoted to the next generation of West Coast house designers, including the work of David Battersby and Heather Howat, as well as Javier Campos and Michael Leckie. Patricia and John Patkau are also featured: no book on the subject could be complete without them, as they have been both inspiration and teacher to many of the region’s current architectural practitioners. The West Coast Modern House is essential reading material, and one of the most comprehensive monographs on the subject to date.
Seven-hundred-and-fifty-thousand Canadians suffer from dementia—a number set to double by 2031. The challenge of designing environments for them offers a chance to revisit the fundamental concern of how we perceive space. Architecture has the power to do more than keep people safe or satisfied: it can improve our quality of life and renew our material and spatial awareness. Referencing relevant peer-reviewed literature and built examples, this richly illustrated book argues that architecture impacts how we behave, influencing our moods, feelings and memories. Physical surroundings are especially important to people with weakened cognitive or physical abilities. The book includes essays by sociologists, philosophers, gerontologists and architects. Architectural precedents are included throughout, often from the editor´s own practice, which specializes in creating truly inspiring health-care environments. Lost in Space is rare: there are few architecture books about dementia and those that do exist tend to focus on elements such as therapeutic gardens, rather than the phenomenological underpinnings of designing for rehabilitation. The editor carefully balances evidence-based research, philosophical investigations of dwelling, and the practicalities of buildings. A highlight is the case study of De Hogeweyk, a dementia-care village in the Netherlands. Low-rise courtyard buildings create clusters of high-quality places designed around daylight, thresholds, procession and spatial variety. These are strong concepts for any housing design—reinforcing the thesis that the starting point for designing for dementia is in clear, quality architectural expression.
For purchasing information and for related books and
Sean Ruthen, MRAIC, is a Vancouver-based architect
Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the
research, please visit www.winnipegarchitecture.ca.
and writer.
University of Toronto.
Lisa Landrum, MRAIC, is an architect, writer and associate professor in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba.
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Terri Peters is a post-doctoral researcher at the Daniels
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3DXL: A Large-Scale 3D Printing Exhibition May 14-August 16, 2015
Featuring work by Denegri Bessai Studio, Michael Hansmeyer and Benjamin Dillenburger, this exhibition at the corner of King Street and Blue Jays Way in Toronto presents immersive largescale 3D-printed projects. www.dx.org
Lost Spaces Found May 25-July 28, 2015
This exhibition in the windows along Calgary’s Centre Street LRT platform features the winning entries from the Lost Spaces Ideas Competition that reimagine remnant urban public spaces. www.dtalks.org
Olafur Eliasson: The Collectivity Project May 29-September 30, 2015
Conceived by global art superstar Olafur Eliasson, this installation of white Lego bricks on the High Line in New York features an im-
aginary cityscape conceived and designed by the public, and welcomes all visitors to build and rebuild the structures. http://art.thehighline.org
London Festival of Architecture June 1-31, 2015
The annual London Festival of Architecture takes place across the UK capital throughout June at venues such as the Design Museum, the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Serpentine Galleries, and the V&A Museum. www.londonfestivalofarchitecture.org
RAIC Festival of Architecture June 3-6, 2015
Themed “Regeneration + Integration,” this year’s festival takes place at the Hyatt Regency Calgary, and promises an exciting agenda of networking opportunities, continuing education sessions, architectural tours and the President’s Awards Gala. www.festival.raic.org
Atlantic Real Estate Forum June 9, 2015
This event at the World Trade & Convention Centre in Halifax features significant provincial planning and growth management policies in key cities, along with a plethora of other topics. www.realestateforums.com
Berlin and pairing new buildings with those erected during the era of the divided city. On June 18th, the artists will join curator Axel Wieder to discuss the film and to screen their previous efforts.
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CALENDAR
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Urban Ecologies 2015 June 17-19, 2015
Heart of the Nation June 10, 2015
This presentation at 7:00pm at Ottawa City Hall examines the history of Ottawa’s parliamentary and judicial precincts, the key principles of its layout, and the role of a long-term master plan to accommodate its evolving needs.
This conference at Toronto’s OCAD University brings together the brightest minds from around the world to examine the future design of our cities, moving beyond sustainability toward a more advanced humanitarian frontier. www.urbanecologies.ca
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Annual Institute on the Library as Place 2015
Berlin 2012/1983
July 6-7, 2015
June 12-August 23, 2015
This conference takes place at the Delta Hotel in Waterloo, Ontario and focuses on the impact that architectural spaces and design have on the human experience.
This silent film exhibition at the TIFF Bell Lightbox continues the preoccupation of artists Daniel Young and Christian Giroux with the built environment, documenting architectural construction in
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COURTESY OF TORONTO CITY HOUSING DEPT. (REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT JUNE 1981)
LOOKING BACK
ART JAMES (REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT JUNE 1981)
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ST. LAWRENCE DISTRICT, TORONTO TEXT
Joey Giaimo
In the 1970s, the St. Lawrence neighbourhood entered Toronto’s landscape as an alternative approach to the Modernist planned neighbourhood. Decades on, it stands as the predecessor of current large-scale planning in the city. Unlike some of its contemporaries, there has been no call for overhaul, interventions or renewal. It works, and changes aren’t required. The site—a 17.8-hectare piece of vacated industrial land in a disconnected part of the city— was prime for a large-scale redevelopment agenda. The direction it ultimately took had to do with a cast of influential characters at the reform-minded City Hall. With the municipality leading the agenda, and the omnipresent Jane Jacobs overseeing the process, the project gained early momentum from proponents including David Crombie, Michael Dennis and John Sewell. Their architectural counterparts—Alan Littlewood, Eberhard Zeidler FRAIC, Jerome Markson FRAIC, Ron Thom, Henno Sillaste, Irving Grossman, and later Jack Diamond FRAIC—set out to design a neighbourhood that, instead of deploying big Modernist moves, exercised restraint. Developing an alternative to the default planning dogma of the time was no small feat. Taking cues from the site’s immediate context and the city’s built heritage, the design approach was varied and considered. Old downtown roads
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An aerial view from 1981 of Toronto’s St. Lawrence neighbourhood, a renewal project from the 1970s that has endured to the present; an axonometric drawing of the complete scheme.
ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT
were extended, uses and demographics mixed, cars welcomed into the neighbourhood, building forms democratized, boundaries obscured. The planning attitude was, seemingly, to devise nothing new at all: a sort of throwback to the courteously developed city. The intention was to present St. Lawrence as a typical Toronto neighbourhood with fabric buildings and landscapes integrated into larger city programs and processes—a reverent nod to the ordinary. Its success is hinged on this idea. Taken in increments, the neighbourhood’s demure presence is convincing. However, this perception tends to overshadow the innovations of the neighbourhood at the larger scale. The built forms and characteristics may point to the past, but the master plan is a radical take on the city’s residential areas. Take the best bits from Toronto’s neighbourhoods, mix them up and reassemble them along a kilometre-long swath of land. It is this contextual reassembling that is most compelling— the insertion of primarily residential typologies into the exacting post-industrial context. Prominent east-west linear landscapes and buildings serve the residents well, as they are cleverly laid out with clear public, semi-public and private spaces. Running parallel with the Esplanade, a long linear park becomes the communal connector for the neighbourhood. If this park stands
at the forefront, then a mid-rise building datum forms the middle ground, guarding the tranquility of the residential areas in the background. A set of raised townhouses, mid-rise and high-rise buildings form the southern edge, offering respite from the Gardiner Expressway and the rail line, just metres away. The neighbourhood’s legacy resonates a couple of blocks west, in what is known as the C-2 Block. Completed in the late 1990s, the block comprises four co-op residences bound together to define a hard urban edge, which pull away at the centre to encompass a courtyard. More recently, a podium-plus-tower building has taken root in a pocket between the original precinct and C-2. Its attempt to blend with the neighbourhood context at grade and at the podium level is notable, but these moves dissolve in the upper storeys with a showy tower that proves particularly awkward in this area. More than 30 years on, the St. Lawrence neighbourhood remains a unique Toronto prototype. Its exceptional master plan—combined with deftly modest architecture and intact social objectives—prove that it is the value of the reticent collective that endures. Joey Giaimo, MRAIC, is a Toronto-based architect. He is a former associate at ERA Architects and now principal at Giaimo.
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