Toronto Ontario Square and Canada Square | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto

From the WT December Newsletter:

Design Team Selected for York Quay Revitalization Project

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) has been selected to lead the transformation of a key waterfront site. Their innovative proposal will design the underground parking garage as an inviting part of the urban experience rather than the traditional grim, utilitarian infrastructure.

Selected from among 15 submissions during a competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) process, MVVA was chosen to lead the design of the York Quay Revitalization Project (phase two) for Waterfront Toronto and Harbourfront Centre.

Plans for this prime location within Harbourfront Centre include replacing the 1.4 hectare surface parking lot currently on the site with an underground parking garage that introduces sunlight, air, water and plantings into its design. This important piece of parking infrastructure will free up the surface area for future public space and a thriving cultural/retail village.

In its proposal, the MVVA team imagined a parking garage where sunlight and air are directed from above grade, down into the structure through openings and innovative uses of glass and lighting. There may also be opportunities in the garage for integrated sustainable technologies such as the reuse of collected rain water for a summer fountain or winter ice display.

With the RFP process for the design team now complete, phase two work will move forward quickly beginning with conceptual/preliminary design work, followed by schematic/detailed design in the early new year. An accelerated project timeline will ensure that the parking garage is completed by spring 2011.

http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/newsletter/viewnewsletter.php?id=4b213fad699be&template=5

(also contains a new rendering for the GBC, other project updates)

AoD
 
I noticed the schedule doesn't include the above-ground construction. I thought some of that was included in the current phase?
 
newuser2k9 said:
I noticed the schedule doesn't include the above-ground construction. I thought some of that was included in the current phase?
Click to expand...

I read the Excel sheet schedule to say that Canada Square, which is "natural" will open in July 2011 (See Line 69 of the schedule - "Canada Square and Interim Uses") but I may not fully understand what's planned.
 
I'm getting more excited about this one. Looks like it could be a sort of Millenium Park-type space for the city near the waterfront. Not sure about the concept designs for the cultural village though, it all looks a bit messy, a bit 'shanty' like... and would still like to see some sort of monument in the centre of Canada Square, something that rises over everything and defines it better and maybe connects more physically to the lake. In this sense the connection with the water would represent the oceans, the textured open space of the square would represent the mountains and the green space the prairies...
 
Tewder said:
I'm getting more excited about this one. Looks like it could be a sort of Millenium Park-type space for the city near the waterfront. Not sure about the concept designs for the cultural village though, it all looks a bit messy, a bit 'shanty' like... and would still like to see some sort of monument in the centre of Canada Square, something that rises over everything and defines it better and maybe connects more physically to the lake. In this sense the connection with the water would represent the oceans, the textured open space of the square would represent the mountains and the green space the prairies...
Click to expand...

^^ I agree... seems to be a contrived Byward Market. Not appropriate for something we're planning on calling CANADA Square.
I too would like to see a grand link between QQ and the lake with a large fountain/monument... maybe a collanade on each side with shops would work better?
 
Personally I think the "messy shanty" is probably the best part of the scheme - human scaled buildings and spaces that people are actually going to use in the winter. Besides Canada Square proper refers only to that small bit of space between QQT and the Powerplant complex in the south - not the entire site per se.

AoD
 
I like the human scale of it. I'm just not sure about the design aesthetic, I guess. I look forward to seeing more details.
 
I'm glad we're avoiding the large, grandiose statement. Having attended performances and gallery shows at Harbourfront since the mid-'70s I'm delighted that the development will expand on what already works so well there. Besides, we're getting bold and perhaps rather overdesigned statements here and there anyway - those wooden wavedecks which are cordoned off by chain-links at this time of year and aren't part of the logical pedestrian route, designed for us by the clever Dutch, for instance.
 
I wouldn't even pay too much attention to the renderings, particularly for the village part of the scheme - there is going to be yet another design competition for that. The current proposal only covers the parking garage and the square.

AoD
 
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