Tomorrow, on the second day of
Construct Canada, the country's biggest building trade and professional show, Cliff Korman will lead a discussion on the negotiating skills needed to get a project built in as close to the way it was intended as possible.
According to Korman, who put the "kor" in Kirkor Architects, "It's an idea I've been working on for a little while, something called the 'collaborative planning process.'" He says about 90 per cent of the work he does in Toronto involves intensifications or re-zoning, and as a result has to wend its way through a labyrinth of panels, committees, interest groups and regulations.
"It's become a very, very complex group of problems," he says. "In the municipal planning process, we have planners, ratepayers, councillors, design review panels, neighbourhood design charettes; you don't just have a client anymore, you have a huge collaborative effort."
We've got plenty of design and development talent in the city, he says; all we need is a little more negotiating know-how to convey the value of projects to a wide variety of stakeholders and decision-makers.
Korman's panel will include Moiz Behar of M. Behar Planning & Design, Niall Haggert, executive vice president of Daniels Corporation, and Stephen Upton, vice president of development planning at Tridel.
Construct Canada, which this year offers 1,050 exhibits, and is being held at the same time and next to the Home Builder and Renovator Expo, Concrete Canada and Design Trends, takes place Dec. 1-3 in the South Building of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Cliff Korman
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