instant city
In time for the 2015 Pan / Parapan American Games this summer, Toronto’s waterfront
is ready for its biggest reveal yet: a whole new neighbourhood in the east end, and a
slew of other major projects happening along the shore By Elizabeth Pagliacolo
Clear Spirit Condominium,
Distillery District
Canary District
Condos, by KPMB
Victory Soya Mills Silos,
heritage buildings
Lake Ontario
Future site of Canary
District Condos,
by KPMB Architects
When the games begin
in July, athletes from
41 countries will sleep
on bunk beds set up in
the brand new condos,
college dorms and
townhouses that make
up the Canary District.
The neighbourhood
is built on reclaimed
industrial land, just a
15‑minute streetcar
ride from downtown.
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2015-03-06 3:15 PM
Fred Victor
affordable housing,
by Daoust Lestage
George Brown College
residence, by
architectsAlliance
Canary heritage
building
YMCA community centre,
by MacLennan Jaunkalns
Miller Architects
Wigwamen
affordable housing,
by Daoust Lestage
PHOTO BY tom arban
Front Street
Promenade
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2015-03-09 12:57 PM
of Toronto’s KPMB Architects is addressing a roomful of developers,
planners and journalists who have made the trek to the Rotman School of
Management on a cold night in January to find out how the city’s site for
the pending Pan/Parapan American Games is shaping up. “You have to
believe in the people on your team,” he says. “You get to the game, and you
bring everything you’ve got.”
If any project merits the sports metaphors, it’s the Athletes’ Village,
built on the east side of the city’s downtown core by Dundee Kilmer
Developments in just 36 months – overnight in urban planning terms. The
district at this time of year is still shrouded in snow, its glass buildings
resembling architectural icebergs. A few days after the presentation, journalists were invited to crunch through the snow, and to engage in a dead-ofwinter version of the question that has preoccupied the site’s planners for
three years: what will this place be like when it’s full of people?
While sports fans will be focused on the games, 10,000 athletes and
team officials from 41 countries will have the run of this built-from-scratch
neighbourhood. The athletes will claim their bunk beds in otherwise empty
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condos; they’ll share meals in a makeshift dining tent; and they will be
bused out to the official sports facilities spread across the Greater Toronto
Area and beyond. But to see how the village truly performs, we will have
to keep watching long after the games end. In early 2016, the cluster of
condos will be rebranded as the Canary District, and construction crews
will step in to apply the final finishes (including installing the kitchens)
before residents move in. Essentially, some 1,563 people will settle into
this instant city, the first wave of many neighbourhoods to come.
“Cohesive diversity” is the buzz phrase architects and developers
have been lobbing about to describe the project. By having the buildings
designed by multiple firms – KPMB, architectsAlliance, Daoust Lestage
and MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller – the aim is to achieve an assortment of
structures. Ironically, this modern LEED Gold community begins with a
gateway formed by two historic landmarks: the 1858 red-brick Canary restaurant and an old railway building across the street. Front Street has been
extended to form a wide promenade separating two rows of discrete blocks.
Toronto firm architectsAlliance designed the most outwardly exuberant
building, the George Brown College residence. With an entrance propped
photo by Tom Arban
“It’s high-speed urbanism and design,” says Bruce Kuwabara. The principal
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Top photo by Zero Fractal Studio, bottom photos by Tom Arban
← The George Brown College
residence, by architects
Alliance, will house 500
students after the games.
→ One of the River City
condominiums, by Saucier +
Perrotte. Developed by Urban
Capital, the black-clad midrises were the first to stake a
claim in the east end. Phase
three will soon break ground
with another dramatic S+P
building, called RC3.
↓ A view of Lake Ontario
from the rooftop of the
George Brown College Water
front Campus. The school is
about a 20-minute walk from
the new residence.
↘↘ The city hopes to attract
tenants from the high-tech
sector with ultra-high-speed
bandwidth capabilities at
the Waterfront Innovation
Centre, one of the more
eye-catching office complex
proposals, designed by
Sweeny &Co of Toronto.
on a cross-hatch of concrete pillars, the L-shaped seven-storey complex is
set on top of a YMCA community centre designed by MacLennan Jaunkalns
Miller, also of Toronto.
KPMB designed two condominium developments, one featuring a pair
of mid-rise buildings made up of Jenga-like stacks; and two affordable rental
properties, designed by Montreal’s Daoust Lestage, feature super-sized
floor numbers cascading down their facades, and colourful archways that
allow people to walk through one building to the other. Moving residents
through, over and under buildings, and into shared green space, is the master
plan’s stroke of genius. The neighbourhood is capped by a public park,
Corktown Common, and it will be served by a new streetcar loop. It will
also be wired to the hilt, with a broadband network and one of the fastest
internet speeds in North America.
Zoom out from the marketing hype, and Athletes’ Village/Canary District
is Waterfront Toronto’s most prominent development and the face of
the city’s eastward expansion. Nearby, River City, 1,100 units designed by
Saucier + Perrotte of Montreal, continues to take shape. Launched by developer Urban Capital before Toronto won the Pan Am bid in 2009, the private
project was a first foray into this no man’s land. “There was absolutely
nothing, except pink pipes coming out of the ground,” recalls principal
Gilles Saucier. From the shard-like black mass of the first buildings to the
drawer-like units and balconies that define the latest tower, RC3, these are
radical and visionary for a city with far too many predictable towers. River
City’s best idea – to place social and playground amenities (including basketball hoops and skateboard ramps) underneath the Gardiner Expressway
– was so ingenious the city ran with it, and turned it into Underpass Park.
The dynamic programming that now defines the east end is the result
of long-vision planning and commitment in the face of controversy. Since
it was formed in 2001, Waterfront Toronto has opened up the city and
re-naturalized former industrial dead zones. The completion of Athletes’
Village, on budget ($709 million) and on schedule, is more than just a
milestone; it’s a vindication for an organization that has come under fire
from gravy train–obsessed politicians who point out overspending with
not enough signs of progress.
To Torontonians, the construction seems endless, until you consider that
the 800‑hectare site is the largest continuous project (continued on page 90)
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2015-03-06 3:16 PM
Aven
ue
Spad
ina
Toronto’s 800-hectare
lakeshore development
is the largest in the
world. These major
projects are redefining
the new blue edge.
Bat
hur
st S
tree
t
At the Water's Edge
Rogers
Centre
CN Tower
L Tower
This 58-storey blue laminated glass
tower by Daniel Libeskind was
recently topped off, and residents
will begin moving in this summer.
Billy Bishop
Pedestrian Tunnel
Designed by Patkau Architects of
Vancouver and Kearns Mancini of
Toronto, the new entrance to the
222-year-old historic site is located
at the city’s former shoreline.
Queens Quay West
Where airline passengers used to take
a short ferry ride to reach the island
airport, they can now glide between
terminal and shore on four underground
moving sidewalks. The new tunnel,
30.5 metres beneath the harbour,
makes for a six-minute journey from
end to end.
P84-92_PanAm_MAY15_F.indd 88
Plans are afoot to turn the Toronto
Island ferry dock into an architectural
showstopper. Five dream teams have
been shortlisted:
• Clement Blanchet (Paris), Batlle i Roig
(Barcelona), RVTR (Toronto)
• Diller Scofidio + Renfro (New York),
architectsAlliance (Toronto)
• West 8 (Rotterdam); KPMB and
Greenberg Consultants (Toronto)
• aLLDesign (London); Quadrangle and
Janet Rosenberg & Studio (Toronto)
• Stoss Landscape Urbanism (Boston),
nArchitects (New York), ZAS
Architects (Toronto)
One Yonge
For almost three years, this touristic boulevard has been marred
by construction. By the time the Pan Am Games arrive, the
1.7‑kilometre road will integrate various forms of travel, including a
dedicated bike path along a tree-lined promenade with sidewalks
paved in granite. Still to come: five footbridges, designed by West 8
of the Netherlands and local firm DTAH, linking the inner harbour’s
slip basins and inlets into one continuous pedestrian route.
88 may 2015
Jack Layton
Ferry Terminal
Developer Pinnacle International
plans to build Canada’s largest luxury
residential complex at the foot of
Yonge Street. The design by local firm
Hariri Pontarini squeezes six towers,
between 40 and 88 storeys, into one
block. Now under review by the city,
the project must overcome a few more
obstacles before it gets the green light,
including rerouting a freeway ramp to
make way for an expanded promenade.
map courtesy of waterfront Toronto / edited by taylor kristan
Fort York
Visitor Centre
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eet
ent Str
Parliam
ne Street
Sherbour
Yonge Street
1
2
3
6
4
5
5
East Bayfront
Developments
Pier 27
One of the more playful condo developments is designed by architects
Alliance. More than 300 units fill two
sets of glass slab volumes; each pair
of 11-storey buildings is joined by a
three-storey-high skybridge, where
the penthouse units will reside. The
$55-million complex, which primarily
contains single and one-bedroom units,
is by Cityzen Development Group and
Fernbrook Homes.
Waterfront Innovation Centre
As part of a master plan by inter
national architects Hines and Pelli
Clarke Pelli, some 1,800 occupants will
call Bayside home in the next decade.
The first building of six residential
and two office mid-rises is Aqualina,
a 13-storey condo designed by global
firm Arquitectonica, expected to be
finished by 2016.
River City
Canary District /
Athletes’ Village
Toronto fast-tracked this major east
side development and the neighbouring
areas to finish in time for the Pan Am
Games, where the buildings will host
athletes from 41 countries before residents, owners, tenants and students
move in next year.
1 YMCA community centre
2 George Brown College residence
3 Affordable housing
4Condominiums
5 Future condominiums
6 Corktown Common Park
Keating Channel
The city hopes to lure such tech brands as Google and Ubisoft to this
jewel-like complex, which offers a sleek environment for up to 2,000
employees. Construction of the centre, designed by Sweeny &Co,
remains on hold until at least half of the space is leased. Meanwhile,
groundbreaking is planned for 2016.
If all goes according to plan and downtown Toronto keeps growing eastward,
this will be the next big neighbourhood
to emerge, transforming 125 hectares
of industrial wasteland into a mixeduse district with 4,700 residential units.
This $383-million development by
Urban Capital is creating 1,100
loft-style condos and townhomes in
a cluster of buildings by Saucier +
Perrotte of Montreal. Phase three,
now underway, is a 29-storey structure called RC3, shaped like a boot
with jutting balconies that resemble
stacked USB keys.
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George Brown College’s
school of health sciences,
completed in 2013. The highly
transparent building, designed
by KPMB, is now used by
3,500 students. It was among
the first non-residential
projects completed along
the lakeshore.
in the world. As each of its more photogenic components is unveiled – the
WaveDecks, Sugar Beach, Corktown Common – the bigger picture of laying
groundwork to connect the three major precincts of Central Waterfront,
East Bayfront and West Don Lands has continued more quietly.
For 15 years, industrial zones have been remediated, streets repaved,
sewer systems installed and trees planted to create one cohesive fabric.
Most important, the vibrant parks and public spaces were carved out first,
before private developers could come rushing in – and, thanks to the established infrastructure, they have. When all is said and done, the waterfront
will be home to 40,000 residential units and one million square metres of
commercial space, and it has already attracted $2.6 billion in private
investment, twice the initial amount of public financing. The recently
announced Waterfront Innovation Centre, designed by Sweeny &Co of
Toronto and funded by Menkes Developments, is expected to attract
more jobs and tenants in the creative and tech sectors.
As of yet, there are no swooping Zaha Hadid buildings or shiny Anish
Kapoor beans. For all its Jacobsian “eyes on the street” urban planning,
the Athletes’ Village exudes typical Toronto modernism, a multiplication
of glass boxes with nary a curve or odd detail. “We knew if we could
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deliver this project for the lowest amount in terms of public expenditure,
that would be a compelling proposition,” says Peter Clewes, principal at
architectsAlliance, whose pragmatic viewpoint is widely held by local
developers and architects. To reduce time and labour costs, the buildings
employ standardized components and off-the-shelf exterior wall systems.
And they have been selling before the games, to avoid the stagnant fate of
Vancouver’s village after the Winter Olympics.
Rather than statement buildings, the vision is to build a tapestry of small
but impactful moments. Finally slated for completion in June, the revamped
Queens Quay, southwest of the downtown core, will unite streetcar tracks
with a lakeside bike path and sidewalks paved in a granite pattern of giant
maple leaves. The entire 1.7‑kilometre stretch will be lined by a double allée
of trees, fed by an underground irrigation system.
This green-canopied spine, part of a master plan by Dutch firm West 8,
will transform the central waterfront, right down to the details. “Before we
started, the street furniture was ridiculous,” says Samantha Gileno, former
communications manager for Waterfront Toronto. “We counted something
like 60 different garbage cans, light poles, benches, public-private furniture –
no consistency whatsoever. So one of the big moves (and it’s nothing
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2015-03-06 3:16 PM
outrageous) is about creating consistency along the way so people know
this is public space.”
It’s also about building a future city that is walkable, high tech and
affordable. In this respect, the waterfront development is ahead of its time,
and then some. “This city is growing south and east,” Kuwabara explained
to that packed room in January. “For the past 20 years, we grew west; Frank
Lloyd Wright said all cities grow west, except L.A. But the mouth of the
Don River is the future of the city. We’re reinventing the city.”
He’s not exaggerating. Waterfront Toronto’s next significant project is
to re-naturalize the mouth of the Don and flood-proof the surrounding
industrial lands and adjacent neighbourhoods. Within a decade, we will see
this bizarre landscape of massive silos, beaches, parks and sailing clubs
scattered across 125 hectares of depressing concrete morph into mixed-use
communities with lush parkland, all connected to the rest of the city by
public transit.
The initial master plan was approved in 2010, after New York landscape
architect Michael Van Valkenburgh and urban designer Ken Greenberg
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won the international competition. Waterfront Toronto wasn’t moving fast
enough for former mayor Rob Ford and his brother, Doug, who stepped
in with dreams of their own, starring a Ferris wheel, and a monorail straight
out of an episode of The Simpsons. Their showboating forced Waterfront
Toronto to renegotiate its meticulously planned, environmentally sound
vision. “They insisted on a value-engineered plan, which shrank the landscape a little, taking out the river’s curvilinear nature and containing
the landscape in more of a box,” explains Greenberg. “Parts of the changes
addressed technical issues, and parts were just in aid of political face saving.” But he is happy that the essence of the plan has survived.
For Greenberg, the assertions from politicians that nothing is happening
on the waterfront are laughable. “It couldn’t be further from the truth.
Transformation takes decades,” he says. “Waterfronts all across North
America are being reinvented.” As for Michael Van Valkenburgh, news that
the environmental assessment to naturalize the Don is now approved has
him excited: “We’re chomping at the bit to get started. Toronto has a
passionate public, and it’s time to give them back something good.”
Bottom left photo by Guillaume Paradis, Bottom right photo by Tom Arban
← In place for a few years
now, West 8’s WaveDecks are
located along Queens Quay,
one of the most tourist-friendly
strips on the waterfront. The
high-traffic promenade will be
completed this June, with a
1.7-kilometre allée, fed by an
underground system of Silva
Cells to ensure that the trees
mature and thrive.
↙ Sugar Beach, a triangular
park filled with pink umbrellas
and white sand, has won
numerous awards since
it opened. The park was
designed by Claude Cormier
+ Associés of Montreal.
↓ Pier 27, two sets of buildings, each topped with a
three-storey horizontal tower.
The design by architects
Alliance maximizes views
of the lake with surrounding
parkland that invites
passersby to wander down
to the water’s edge.
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