N CHOLAS GOSSEL N por tfol o
This is a photograph that I took while working at Toronto’s City Hall. The way the materials are employed make the smooth metal mullions and rough concrete walls reverse roles. At this angle, the repetition of the mullions makes the steel much more tactile than the concrete. Exhibiting this contrast on the city’s icon represents the balance designers must orchestrate between aesthetics and civic responsibility, form and function. The work that follows is indicative of what I learned in Toronto’s academic, public and private sectors.
Nicholas Gosselin
TABLE OF CONTENTS Resume
i
Fragmented Urbanity
1
Think Around the Box
9
The Urban Observatory
17
Light Transfer
23
Peripheral Exploration
27
Landform Transitions
31
Typological Manipulation
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Professional Experience
37
INFO
WORK EXPERIENCE
AWARDS
NICHOLAS GOSSELIN 4333 Poltava Crescent Mississauga, Ontario L4W 3B9 416.801.0489 nick.gosselin@live.ca
TORONTO FINANCIAL DISTRICT BIA Urban Design Consultant 2013-Present
COMPETITIONS PLAYscapes International Design Competition Honourable Mention 2013
EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO 2013-Present Master of Landscape Architecture Daniels Scholarship Recipient UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO 2007-2012 Honours Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Design and Urban Studies with High Distinction
GEORGE BROWN COLLEGE 2009
Hired by the FDBIA as a freelance consultant for their public realm master plan to provide insight about contemporary and sustainable streetscape design. Produced graphics of existing/proposed conditions and appropriate types of planting and hardscape materials. IBI GROUP INC. Landscape Architecture Intern 2013 Assisted with the production of tender packages, detail drawings, planting and material plans, cost estimates, conceptual renderings and schematic plans for public and private sector clients across Canada with landscape budgets ranging from $250,000 to 5 million. URBAN STRATEGIES INC. Design Intern 2012-2013
AutoCAD 2013, Adobe CS5 Suite Inc., SketchUp Pro, ArcGIS, Microsoft Office Suite, V-Ray, ArchiCAD, Rhinoceros
Mississauga Blooms Streetscape Competition Second Place 2010 S-Tower Design Competition Finalist 2009 Top Paper for OCAD Sharp Centre Winner 2007
LEADERSHIP
Produced master planning graphics, streetscape designs, 3D models, renderings, and physical models for a variety of high profile urban design projects within Ontario
BACHELOR OF ARTS ARCHITECTURAL STUDIES SOCIETY Vice-President 2011-2012
CITY OF TORONTO Urban Designer 2010-2012
JANE’S WALK Volunteer 2010-2011, 2014
AutoCAD Certificate Program (2D)
SKILLS
Junction BIA Public Realm Master Plan Finalist 2013
Involved in all aspects of the design process (from conceptual design charrettes to construction drawings) for streetscapes and public spaces across the City.
FRAGMENTED URBANITY Riverdale Park is situated in an area in Toronto that is characterized by fragmentation and individualism. These traits have been translated into a system composed of modules that carry out different functions to support habitat diversity, stormwater management and social integration. They also form terraces to inject program into the park’s eastern hill while take advantage of the view of the skyline. Infrastructure in the form of wet and dry swales are embraced and are fully integrated into the park’s social spaces to enhance the public’s understanding of stormwater management. These linear connections respond to the surrounding street grid and the locations the channelized Don River once penetrated the site.
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Rendering illustrating the transition zone between the dry and wet swales during a storm event
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Conceptual models exploring the fragmentation that currently characterizes Riverdale Park
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Hydrology
Circulation A
ve
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ve
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Program
Vegetation
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ard S
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wA
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yvie
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rkway
lley Pa
Don Va
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ie adv Bro
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Dry Swales
River Edge
Section AA
Section BB
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Gabion Bleachers
End of Dry Swale
Wet Swales
Amphitheatre
Path/Swale Interface
Wetland
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Left: Laser-cut model emphasizing terrace condition Above: Rendering illustrating the wet swale, filled with phragmites, during the winter season
THINK AROUND THE BOX The suburbanization of North America has produced landscapes of monotony with streets that have no reason for people to visit, explore, or play on. A consistent feature throughout subdivision streets are hydro transformer boxes - scattered adjacent to the road on municipal property in order to lower the high voltage electricity from transmission lines to the household current. While they are often surrounded by mature trees, they are viewed as eyesores and are often vandalized. This proposal transforms the suburban street by embracing banal suburban infrastructure and industrial design as integral streetscape elements and community-building nodes. It puts forth a new, modular scaffolding system that can be customized and transformed overtime according to the community’s desires - rendering the transformers as catalysts for improving the walkability, and consequently, livability of suburbia. Honourable Mention in PLAYscapes International Design Competition
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Exploded diagram illustrating the components and joints for the modular system
Conceptual rendering of the chess table typology of the hydro transformer box
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Diagram highlighting the design mechanisms that reduce opportunities for at grade social interaction of a typical suburban street and the potential for the modular system
Plan and section drawings of a typical suburban street in Mississauga, ON
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Rendering illustrating the ping pong configuration and a potential sidewalk bump-out that could occur on a suburban street
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Rendering illustrating the sand box configuration with a bioswale bump-out to collect stormwater and educate residents about water sustainability
THE URBAN OBSERVATORY Berczy Park has a strong relationship to the idea of performance. It is immersed in the Theatre District of Toronto, where numerous parades pass by the park. There are also stage curtains on the mural that anchors the site. I embraced these cues and created a park to watch the city unfold through time. I explored the context based on three qualities: historic fabric, pedestrian flow, and skyline view to establish a grid that organizes programme and different seating typologies - created by folding linear strips. As a result, the range of seating allows for different perspectives to view the city and for social interaction. When the context became less significant, the strip vocabulary was maintained to create pockets of natural succession and habitat as well as to create the feeling that the user is immersed within a more natural, yet highly designed, space.
LOCATION
TRANSFORMATION
FORM
MATERIALITY
SEATING TYPOLOGIES
SECTION A
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SECTION B
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ING WELL
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Schematic site plan illustrating different programmatic zones, arranged according to conceptual diagrams on previous page
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Grading plan with proposed contours and spot elevations
Rendering illustrating the range of seating typologies and their relationship to the street and historic context
SUDBURY STREET - 1:250
LIGHT TRANSFER Queen Street West is emerging as a valuable night time entertainment node for the City of Toronto. This emerging trend was recognizedLIGHT and the phenomena of light was INTENSITIES BASED ON SPEED used as a way of transitioning from the Toronto Rail Path to Queen Street. The existing fabric of Queen Street West was studied as one would experience it at night from different modes of transportation. At this time of the day, spatial conditions are defined by light sources and the speed at which they are experienced.
Connecting Infrastructure Through Light
The parklette’s design similarly controls the cyclists’ speed in order to manipulate their experience. Narrow portions of the path that bend are slower areas that contain finerdetailed plants and materials, such as ‘New England Aster’, ‘Black-Eyed Susan’, timber surfaces, and benches to view people. Wide and straight areas of the path are experienced at faster speeds and defined by LIGHT PERCEPTION QUEEN STREET ‘Switchgrass’, ‘Indian Grass’,ALONG concrete surfaces and strip lighting.
LIGHT TRANSFER
Partner: Emma Mendel
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Exploring the relationship between speed and perception at night
LIGHTING
PLANTING - DETAIL
MATERIALS
+ DETAIL
- DETAIL
SPEED
+ DETAIL
FASTER
SLOWER
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Three types of lighting typologies implemented within the park design
Exploded diagram illustrating the various layers of the parkette
Conceptual Site Plan
SECTION A
SECTION B
SECTION C
PERIPHERAL EXPLORATION The conceptual component of our green roof design relies on exploring the environmental conditions and exposure of the roof surface. These vary from an entirely exposed edge on the south and east sides, to an enclosed space on the west and north sides. In order to emphasize these qualities, we used plantings that vary in height, form and colour to ease the transition from a warmer, quiet inside edge to a cooler, louder outer edge. The paving system applied also supports this approach by incorporating space for soft groundcover to a nearly complete hardscape condition.
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Monochromatic model to understand the texture and heights of different plants groupings on the green roof
Concept Collage 1:50
LANDFORM TRANSITIONS The Old Field in Hart House Farm in Caledon Hills has a rich array of vegetation arranged in distinct layers - each with their own scale and intensity. I used the ecotones - the transition zones between different plant communities - as inspiration for the organization of program across the site. I arranged four geometric landforms of similar shapes but different scales in ways to enable a range of programmatic opportunities to flourish at the transition zones between landforms. These range from an intimate reading and sun tanning area to amphitheatre and lecture area. A swale has been established to connect to the former zone from the site’s entrance to act as a form of wayfinding that also maintains the intended scale of the area.
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SECTION A
SECTION B
Laser-cut model of the proposed landform manipulation and how they tie into existing contours
TYPOLOGICAL MANIPULATION As a way of critiquing the townhouse typology used in the redevelopment of Regent Park, I redesigned a block of the plan based on ensuring that a communal courtyard would thrive as a key space for residents. One of the major problems with the previous space-enclosing structures of Regent Park was that residents could not see their children playing outside due to restricted sightlines. Through several interventions in building height, massing, orientation, and setbacks, this problem was addressed with a staggered design that provides each resident a view of the entire courtyard. While it accommodates commercial uses to animate the streets, it lowers the stores a half storey below grade to reduce their presence in the courtyard. This form and the midblock connection ultimately increases the the physical and visual permeability of the block.
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Left: Aerial hand drawing of existing versus proposed block plans Below: Perspective hand drawing
Process of manipulation of original typology
Above: Typical townhouse floor plans used in Regent Park Townhouse typology employed in RP Below: Internal Above: Unit sightlines plans and views
Above: Proposed townhouse floor plans Proposed townhouse typology Below: Internal sightlines Above: Unit plans and views
Below: Typical section and views.
Below: Typical section and views.
Townhouse typology employed in RP Above: Unit plans and views Below: Typical section and views.
Proposed townhouse typology Above: Unit plans and views Below: Typical section and views.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE The work that follows is a brief selection of the broad range of projects I have been fortunate enough to work on in my career. They convey some of the different computer softwares I am capable of operating, as well as, the variety of scales that I have experience with. In order to produce a sustainable and dynamic urban landscape, it is critical to be able to operate at each scale to ensure they compliment each other and contribution to the greater whole. I have explored these scales through urban design guidelines, district master plans, mid-sized park design, streetscape plans, and construction drawings. Spread 1: Lower Sherbourne Street for Public Realm Section, City of Toronto Spread 2: Confidential project in Toronto for Urban Strategies, Inc. Spread 3: Project in Halifax for IBI Group, Inc.
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