Infrastructure : Development News

At last week’s Canadian Architect Awards, Toronto’s Rounthwaite, Dick and Hadley Architects took two of the five top prizes.

RDH won Awards of Excellent for its work on both Brampton Springdale Library and Neighbourhood Park and the new Eglinton GO Train station.

“They’re both completely different projects but the office has a consistent language and conceptual approach that’s reflected in both of them,” says Tyler Sharp, a principal at RDH.

Both projects do also share triangular influences. Although the Springdale Library is designed to organically blend with the park around with an amorphous edge where some of the rolling created topography of the exterior landscape is echoed inside the courtyards of the building, its overall shape is a triangle. The actual site is quite suburban and flat, so the hills and landscaping are meant to add interest and a greater level of engagement. A neighbourhood park with a splashpad for kids is separated from a terraced garden, intended for more contemplative uses.

The site for the GO Train station is also triangular, so Sharp and the team balanced that constraint against the perspective of the lines of sight of the train tracks. Compared to the infrastructure projects of the past, RDH was able to bring real imagination to the design. The tech specs on the station match other GO stations, but there was room to be creative.

“I think one of the reasons the Eglinton station was chosen was GO and Metrolinx’s attempting a paradigm shift in putting quality of design at the forefront of their projects,” says Sharp.

The Architect Awards recognize unbuilt work. Construction on the library and park project is expected to start soon with completion as early as the end of 2016. The Eglinton GO station has yet to be tendered is expected to be completed in 2017.

Writer: Paul Gallant
Source: Tyler Sharp



















 

People living near the Davenport Diamond rail crossing have stepped up their campaign to get Metrolinx to consider options other than a proposed overpass intended to increase rail traffic through the neighbourhood.
 
Last spring Metrolinx announced its intentions to build an elevated structure of more than 1.4-kilometres in length in order to increase the frequency of GO trains along its north-south Barrie line, which currently crosses CP tracks north of Dupont Street. The provincial transportation authority dismissed the possibility of a trench or tunnel, which it said would be more expensive, and initially reached out to residents to consult on mitigating the impact of the overpass with community projects and recreational facilities.
 
Twice this year, the City of Toronto asked that the Transit Project Assessment Process (TPAP), difficult to change once underway, be delayed until the spring so city planners could more closely examine the proposal. In October, Metrolinx agreed to the delay but backtracked on November 12 when Bruce McCuaig, president and chief executive officer at Metrolinx, sent the city a letter saying the TPAP needed to start in January, “citing any postponement beyond January would result in delays to increase transit service and electrify the corridor within the 10-year program established by the Province of Ontario,” states a city backgrounder.
 
“City staff have reviewed a number of Metrolinx documents and received additional information on the assessment of alternative solutions to the grade separation, including the trench and tunnel options,” states a November 16 city report. “Based on the information provided to date, city staff have determined the tunnel option, on balance, represents greater long term city-building benefits compared to the overpass option. The key benefit of the tunnel is the removal of visual and noise impacts compared to the overpass, and the translation of these benefits into positive long term societal impacts. However, additional time is required in advance of commencing the TPAP process to continue this assessment, and to work with the local community to achieve a balanced solution.”
 
In the meantime, more than 700 residents have signed a petition and put up yard signs protesting the overpass, which they describe as a “Gardiner for Go Trains.”
 
“Dozens of volunteers went door to door this weekend, distributing signs, collecting signatures for our petition and spreading the word about what Metrolinx is trying to do here,” Laura Zeglen, chair of the group Options for Davenport, said in a news release this week. “What is extremely troubling is the number of people we meet who had no idea about the overpass plan—or who had been told it was already a done deal.”
 
Zeglen says the group is not against increasing rail capacity in the GTA. “Expanding transit is important, but so are communities. One shouldn’t have to suffer at the expense of the other.”
 
City Council is expected to review the issue soon.
 
Writer: Paul Gallant
Sources: Laura Zeglen, City of Toronto

The public art component of the six new stations of the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension aims to go beyond decorative subway tiles, integrating an artistic experience into the architecture itself.
 
At a seminar at IIDEXCanada National Design + Architecture Exposition & Conference this week, two of the project leads on the Finch West subway station design will discuss how bringing the artist on board early in the planning process radically changed the look and feel of the station.
 
“The extension stations will be destination-worthy,” Brad Golden, principal of Brad Golden + Co., told Yonge Street Media in advance of the presentation. Golden worked on the public art component of all six of the new stations on the $2.6-billion extension, expected to open at the end of 2017. “We really pushed the limits. It’s immersive and spatial, with technology involved. The TTC was phenomenal in allowing latitude of the art expression.” The transit commission invested about $3 million into the extension’s public art program.
 
Communications technology helped bridge the geographic distance between UK artist Bruce McLean—best known for his cheeky works across a variety of media, including sculpture, painting and film—and the project’s architects and engineers. “The artist was given direct input into the model, which was very efficient and helpful. So we knew right away how it would look. He designed the columns in the public space and the bus canopy,” said Ana-Francisca de la Mora C., project architect at IBI Group Architects.
 
Golden compared the process to jazz, where collaborators take cues from each other as they bounce ideas back and forth.
 
“In real, successful collaborations those boundaries between the disciplines really break down in a wonderful way, especially if you have the different design disciplines at the table early enough,” he said. “You can look at that station as a piece of art, as a piece of architecture and urban design. A true collaboration is a crossover.”
 
IIDEXCanada, which this year takes place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, attracts about 30,000 attendees with 1,600 exhibitors, 500 speakers and 350 seminars and tours.
 
Writer: Paul Gallant
Sources: Ana-Francisca de la Mora C., Brad Golden

Next week City Council will consider fast-tracking construction of rental housing in the railway lands.
 
The site at Block 36 North, between Bathurst and Queen’s Wharf Road, north of Fort York Boulevard, has been vacant for more than 20 years and has been set aside to use for affordable housing. With Fort York Library and the proposed Project: Under Gardiner public spaces to the south and the new Creek Park to the west, the 0.38-acres site is in a particularly attractive location for developers. The city is hoping a non-profit organization or private company will take the lead on building there.
 
If council supports the item, the director of the Affordable Housing office would report by June 2016 on a successful non-profit or private-sector partner to develop and operate at least 80 new affordable rental housing units on the site for up to 50 years. With its current zoning, the site could accommodate a residential building of between six and nine stories, but the city could be more flexible than usual on the particulars of a proposal.
 
The fact-track approach comes out of the city’s Open Door Program, adopted last April, which aims to “unlock opportunities on public land” by creating policies to allow the city to have more flexibility working with housing providers—for example, reduced parking requirements, less red tape and more collaborative in funding strategies. In 2010, council set a goal of creating 1,000 affordable rental and 200 affordable ownership homes annually.

“Progress in meeting our goals was made during the past five years with some 2,792 new affordable rental and 750 new affordable ownership homes being completed,” states the letter to council from Mayor John Tory and councillor Ana Bailão advocating for the program. “But we are falling behind…. At the current pace, by 2020 the city will significantly under- achieve our affordable housing objectives by an estimated 6,810 rental and 734 ownership homes. It is clear the city must refocus its efforts if it is to meet the 10-year affordable housing targets…. We can do better by addressing key factors that reduce the cost of doing business and thereby increase affordability.”
 
Writer: Paul Gallant
Source: City Council

The City of Toronto and Waterfront Toronto showed off some of their placemaking strategies for the Port Lands at a public open house last weekend.
 
The event was part of a round of public meetings this month to look at three studies of the area that are currently underway and how the various initiatives, like the draft Villiers Island Precinct Plan, intersect and interact with each other and with nearby projects like the Don Mouth Naturalization, the Lower Don Lands Masterplan and the plan for the Film Studio District.
 
Because of the size of the area is so large—350 hectares, much of it owned by the city itself—planners have broken the Port Lands up into a series of smaller places to figure out how the area should grow and evolve. Planning will have to take into account residential, employment, commercial and industrial uses. For example, in what’s called the Unilever precinct, close to the Don River, just north of Lakeshore Boulevard East, the city expects that there will eventually be 23,500 jobs, with another 9,250 jobs south of Eastern Avenue and 25,000 to 30,000 more jobs in the Port Lands proper. The area is not a blank slate and will remain home to the city’s port, which will influence what springs up around it.
 
“We’re basically creating a small city within a city,” project manager Cassidy Ritz told attendees. “When you add up [those jobs], that’s 50,000 people, which is bigger than the town I grew up in.”
 
There are currently seven active development applications within the Port Lands and South of Eastern area including three new buildings at 459 Eastern Avenue, a seven-storey building at 462 Eastern Avenue, a hotel, office and retail proposal for the existing film studio at 629 Eastern Avenue, a review of the former Uniliever site and employment lands with an eye to creating an employment precinct, a warehouse and designer’s studio at 300 Commissioners Street, a low-rise building at 475 Commissioners Street and a high-rise mixed-use building at 309 Cherry Street.
 
The first plan likely to be ready will apply to Villiers Island, establishing the streets and block structure, height and massing standards, parks and community facilities, public art and urban design standards, affordable housing strategy, heritage preservation strategy, parking provisions and strategies to develop a mix of uses.
 
Writer: Paul Gallant
Source, Cassidy Ritz, Port Lands Acceleration Initiative

As the city frets about what exactly to do with the eastern end of the Gardiner Expressway, a generous donation from philanthropists aims to transform a western stretch of the expressway from an eyesore into an urban gem worth visiting.
 
Judy Matthews (herself a professional planner) and her husband Wil Matthews are contributing $25 million toward creating more than four hectares of new public space and 1.7 kilometres of multi-use trails beneath the Gardiner from Strachan Avenue to Spadina Avenue. The project will knit together seven communities with parks, trails and programmable space featuring music, food, the arts, sports and recreation, all sheltered by the ceiling of the five-storey expressway. The spaces will be designed as “rooms” defined by the concrete post-and-beam structures that hold up the Gardiner.
 
With construction starting next year and the first stage from Strachan to Bathurst slated for completion by July 2017, the project is exceptional not only in scale and imagination but in its ambitious timeframe. Public consultations to hear what locals and Torontonians want to see in the new public space and what it should be called will happen very quickly, marshalled by Waterfront Toronto, which is leading the project on behalf of the city.
 
“We had been looking for an interesting project, a neglected vacant space that had the power to be a new kind of public space,” said Matthews at the announcement Tuesday. She and Wil were driving forces behind the Toronto Music Garden on the waterfront and the revitalization of St. George Street where it runs through the University of Toronto. “Imagine in winter if you come down to find a skating rink with hot chocolate there.”
 
More than 70,000 Torontonians live in neighbourhoods adjacent to the project, from Liberty Village to CityPlace, most of them high-rise dwellers dependent on public space to give them some room to move. The project will serve them, but also aspires to be a tourist destination comparable to New York’s High Line, linking attractions like the Molson Amphitheatre, Historic Fort York, Queens Quay and The CN Tower. The donation will be entirely devoted to the design and creation of the spaces; discussion about how to fund the maintenance and programming will take place while construction is underway.
 
“Toronto is an amazing path now where we’re going to find ways to say yes to things like this,” said Mayor John Tory at the unveiling. Restoration work worth $150 million is currently underway on the structure of the Gardiner itself.
 
Writer: Paul Gallant
Source: Judy Matthews, John Tory, Waterfront Toronto

Fourteen of the 30 new schools announced by the Ontario Ministry of Education this week will be built in the GTA, and 11 of the 26 schools being renovated or expanded provincially are also located here.
 
The province is investing $498 million in new and renovated schools this year, as well as toward 2,135 new licensed spaces for infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers. That’s an increase over last year’s budget, according to Lauren Tedesco, director of communications to the minister’s office. “This year is unique as well because we included childcare capital funding to build new childcare rooms which are part of the schools.”
 
Some of the new schools, like the Toronto District School Board’s Davisville Junior Public School, will replace out-of-date buildings on the same site, while others will be new roomier digs for smaller schools that are consolidating. The Davisville project, announced on October 26 but under discussion since at least 2010, will be funded to the tune of $14.7 million, replacing a building built in 1962. The school will host 728 elementary students and a new full-day kindergarten class.
 
“The boards have just been notified in the last few weeks that their projects have been approved so they will be starting construction soon,” says Tedesco. “There’s a lot of criteria to meet, but the design, the timelines and all of that is up to the school boards.”
 
Here’s the list of new builds and improvements that will take place in the GTA:
 
NEW SCHOOLS

• Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud, Mississauga, Mississauga
• Conseil scolaire Viamonde, Richmond Hill, Académie de la Moraine
• Conseil scolaire Viamonde, Oakville,  ÉSP Gaétan-Gervais
• Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board, Brampton, Mount Pleasant #1
• Durham District School Board, Ajax, Mulberry Meadows PS
• Durham District School Board, Oshawa, Windfields Farm PS
• Halton Catholic District School Board, Oakville, New North Oakville ES
• Peel District School Board, Brampton, Countryside Village PS
• Peel District School Board, Brampton, Credit Valley Sub Area 3 # 1 PS
• Peel District School Board, Brampton, Mount Pleasant # 7 PS
• Toronto Catholic District School Board, Scarborough, Cardinal Newman CSS
• Toronto District School Board, Davisville, Davisville Jr PS
• York Region District School Board, Stouffville, Stouffville Southeast ES
• York Region District School Board, Thornhill, E J Sand PS

 
RENOVATIONS AND EXPANSIONS

• Durham Catholic District School Board, Ajax,  St. James CS
• Durham District School Board, Claremont, Claremont PS
• Halton Catholic District School Board, Milton, Holy Rosary CES
• Halton District School Board, Burlington, Alton Village PS
• Halton District School Board, Milton, Craig Kielburger SS
• Peel District School Board, Brampton, Esker Lake PS
• Toronto Catholic District School Board, Downsview, St Augustine of Canterbury CS
• Toronto District School Board, Etobicoke, Norseman JMS
• Toronto District School Board, Agincourt, Terry Fox PS
• Toronto Catholic District School Board, Etobicoke, St Clement CS
• York Region District School Board, Richmond Hill, Charles Howitt PS

 
ADDITIONAL OF CHILD CARE FACILITIES

• Durham Catholic District School Board, Ajax, St. Josephine Bakhita CES
• Durham Catholic District School Board, Oshawa, St. Kateri Tekakwitha  CES
• Durham Catholic District School Board, Pickering, Father Fenelon  CES

 
Writer: Paul Gallant
Source: Lauren Tedesco

Metrolinx has delayed the Transit Project Assessment Process (TPAP) for the proposed Davenport Diamond rail overpass after the city complained that it didn’t have enough time to properly review the project and gather community input.
 
Metrolinx notified the city last spring that it intends to build a 1.4-kilometre rail overpass at an estimated cost of $140 million to avoid the “Davenport Diamond” railway intersection, where commuter trains along the Barrie corridor cross a CN cargo line. Rather than examine alternatives like a trench or tunnel, initial consultations focused how to use the space underneath and around the proposed overpass for community purposes, something that upset many local residents, who see the overpass proposal as a “Mini Gardiner Expressway” through their neighbourhood. If the project followed Metrolinx’s timeline, the TPAP would provide little opportunity for serious input and change.
 
Over the last few weeks, “discussions between senior City and Metrolinx officials have led to a commitment from Metrolinx to delay issuing Notice of Commencement for the TPAP until the spring of 2016, in order to provide more time for community and City input to an appropriate solution,” according to a memo from the city’s chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat, circulated by Ward 18 councillor Ana Bailão. “This is a significant step forward, and will provide the time necessary to table all of the information needed for informed decision-making on the range of viable solutions, in order to advance the RER program on the Barrie corridor in a manner that is most conducive to rail operations and the residents and businesses of the Davenport area.”
 
The memo says the city supports transportation expansion but points out that the Regional Express Rail initiative “can also present significant city-building challenges where major infrastructure incursions, such as the Davenport rail grade separation, impact established communities. Given these tensions and the importance of ‘getting it right,’ the City is fully committed to working with the local Councillor and other elected officials, the community and Metrolinx, to define a solution that meets the needs of our community, the City and transit expansion.”
 
Sam Barbieri, of the group Options for Davenport, says local activists are relieved they’ve been granted more time. “The idea is unprecedented in Toronto. We’ve always said we’re not anti-transit, we’re just anti-bad planning. We’re happy that they’re pressing pause and everybody’s taking a step back to look at this plan,” he says.
 
Writer: Paul Gallant
Source: Sam Barbieri

Mayor John Tory’s executive committee is asking City Council to endorse a revitalization of George Street that would be based around a new, combined community services hub replacing Seaton House, Canada’s largest homeless shelter.

The project would demolish the existing Seaton House to build a 600,000-square-foot multi-purpose facility providing a 100-bed emergency shelter program, a 378-bed long-term care home program, a 130-bed transitional assisted living program, 21 units of supported affordable housing and a community service hub. The existing Seaton House, which has been at its current site since 1959, can accommodate as man as 900 men—more than the proposed facility, which would offer a variety of program streams for people with various levels of need.

“Seaton House, with its aging physical plant and an environment that does not meet the needs of vulnerable men experiencing homelessness, is in critical need of redevelopment,” states the Executive Committee item adopted on October 20. “The combination of abandoned buildings and illicit activities on George Street has resulted in an air of neglect and has raised concerns for community safety.”

The new facility would, it’s hoped, provide “a unique opportunity to transform George Street, while setting a precedent for revitalization in the Garden District that is focused on providing a quality public realm and superior building design,” states the project overview released this month. “The redevelopment of the site will create a safe, inviting and vibrant place that reinstates the scale and rhythm of the greater neighbourhood. This project considers the building, site and streetscape comprehensively. Multiple entrances, new pathways, strong indoor-outdoor connections, dedicated landscaped areas, usable and flexible outdoor spaces all work to de-institutionalize George Street, while the restoration of heritage-designated properties revive the vernacular that defines the community’s
rich urban history.”

If the project moves ahead, City Council is being authorized to spend about $100,000 to conduct an analysis of project procurement and delivery options.

Source: City of Toronto
Writer: Paul Gallant

How do you accommodate large-scale sustainable growth right next to low-rise neighbourhoods?

In a presentation last month at the Performative Places conference in Lund, Sweden, Cyndi Rottenberg-Walker, a partner at Toronto's Urban Strategies, used the company's Humbertown project as an example of how smart urban design can reduce environmental impact through increased density, greener buildings and shared community spaces.

The project at Royal York and Dundas West, which last year won the Excellence in Planning Award for Urban/Community design from the Ontario Professional Planners Institute (OPPI), would replace a 1950s shopping plaza with a mixed-use village within Humber Valley Village, doubling the commercial space and adding 1,000 residents in a variety of building types, with 12 storeys as the highest building.

Despite the increased density and more intensive uses, there would be five times the number of trees on the site, including green roofs, and a goal of LEED Gold sustainable buildings. Interestingly, the site plan, broken down into five blocks, echoes the existing shopping centre's footprint, a nod to the historic significance of one of the GTA's earliest modern shopping plazas. But the parking, now a dominant feature of the site, will move underground to make way for public spaces that recognize the Kingsway as a main square, knitting the development back into the broader community.

“Humbertown is taking a site which is highly underutilized today, but still plays an important role as the focus of its community from a single-use development pattern to a mixed use development, which is by its nature more efficient, introducing opportunities for different forms of living into the Humber Valley community,” Rottenberg-Walker told Yonge Street Media after the conference. “Children who have grown up there can conceivably buy their first apartment there. There's a retirement housing component, so at the other end of the spectrum, once you've finished with your large house, there's a possibility of moving into a condominium or something that has assisted living.”

Initial community opposition has largely evaporated after extensive consultation. “You're asking for people to buy into something they can't see or feel,” she says. “The reason it happens is that people care passionately about where they live.”

The project is currently awaiting site plan approval. After about a year of infrastructure work is done, construction could start within the year.

Writer: Paul Gallant
Source: Cyndi Rottenberg-Walker

Since the grand reopening of Queens Quay back in June, Waterfront Toronto has been fine-tuning the transformed space to help people navigate it better. At a community meeting on October 14, they’ll give an update on what’s been happening and share a report on the substantial public feedback they’ve received so far.
 
The most common reaction has been that people really like the revitalization between Bay Street and HT0 Park which has bigger, nicer sidewalks, new trees and a designated space for the Martin Goodman Trail, which used to disappear as it passed south of downtown, leaving cyclists to fend their way on the means streets of Queens Quay.
 
Still, there have been some unpleasant encounters between pedestrians and cyclists using the new mixed-use lane, which runs at grade along and amidst the pedestrian spaces. The need for an educational YouTube video and a do’s and don’t’s slideshow also suggest that Torontonians and visitors face a learning curve when it comes to all the painted lines, lights, signs and signals spelling out who goes where and when on Queens Quay. As well as listening to feedback, Waterfront Toronto has been doing intersection-by-intersection audits on how people are behaving on the street.
 
“This is really a new kind of space in Toronto. What we’ve been doing is just adjusting some of the regulatory systems and signals, the visual cues for the people on the street,” says Mira Shenker, communications manager at Waterfront Toronto. Over the last few months, trail speed limit signs have been posted, as well as “Watch for cyclists and pedestrians” and “Slow, watch for turning vehicles” signs.
 
Blue boxes painted on the Martin Goodman Trail, intended as a space for cyclists to stop at lighted intersections, turned out to be too subtle (and a different colour from the city’s green bicycle boxes; the revitalization plan was finalized before there was a standard bike-box colour, says Shenker). Since the opening, the blue boxes have had the words “Stop here on Red,” painted on them.
 
“That was a direct response to the very measured and constructive feedback we received from people simply wanting to know the purpose of the blue boxes,” says Shenker.
 
At this month’s meeting, there won’t be answers to concerns about the bottleneck at the bottom of Dan Leckie Way, where there’s a 60-metre gap in the Martin Goodman Trail, so signs tell cyclists to dismount when they find themselves on the sidewalk. That area was beyond the official boundaries of the revitalization project. A pedestrian WaveDeck is ultimately planned for that stretch of the route, which would free up the sidewalk for mixed use, but the project is currently unfunded.
 
Writer: Paul Gallant
Source: Mira Shenker

The city is moving ahead on a proposal to a Toronto District School Board property into a hub for food and learning.

As Yonge Street reported in the spring, the 7.3-acre site at the corner of Bloor Street and Dufferin Street) is home of Bloor Collegiate Institute, Alpha II Alternative School and Kent Senior Public School. But the TDSB has designated the property for redevelopment and the city has put together an idea that would turn it into a community hub focusing on food and agriculture.

City council voted this week to enter into discussions with Toronto Lands Corporation (which is tasked with handling underused TDSB real estate), the Toronto District School Board, the province and FoodShare, a non-profit that works with communities and schools to deliver healthy food and food education, and other groups to come up with a plan. FoodShare’s HQ is already in the neighbourhood. The total property involved in a deal would be 10.4 acres and include Brockton High School, though a portion of the property would likely be sold to private developers to generate some revenue from the project.

“The property is strategically important for all four of the city’s defined municipal interests in school properties, and in particular is recommended as the setting for a flagship urban agriculture centre/community food hub, as requested by Council in 2013,” states the city’s agenda item. “Such a hub would promote linkages between education, community economic development and a healthy, sustainable urban food system.”

The staff report points out that there is a significant shortfall of licensed infant child care spaces in
Ward 18, where the property is located, as well as a shortage of parkland, both of which could be remedied with the right kind of facility. Since the provincial government has made the creation of community hubs one of its signature priorities, the city is hoping there will be increased motivation (and possibly cash) to make it happen. “Hubs can provide co-located services that are managed and delivered separately, or the hubs may be coordinated to respond to specific needs, populations, or sectors,” states the report. “Community hubs are advantageous in Toronto for many reasons, including potential cost-savings, service alignments and integration, the ability to target priority populations, bringing services to residents in their neighbourhoods, providing better customer service, and maximizing the use of and repurposing of public property. Every community hub will be spatially and organizationally unique, to reflect local conditions and community needs.”

An urban agriculture centre would provide education and training around growing food, provide economic opportunities and pathways to employment in the food processing and catering sectors, improve the city’s green infrastructure and create a vibrant public space.

The TDSB will review an updated report on the proposal next month.

Writer: Paul Gallant
Source: City of Toronto

UPDATE: The headline and story have been amended to reflect council adopting the item at its Sep. 30 session.

Can developers spark a love affair between Generation Y and the suburbs?

Certainly, the stereotype is that Generation Y dreams about social networking, not cars, craving connectedness that sprawling commuter communities have difficulty delivering. But high home prices in metropolises like Toronto, combined with better planning and transportation in smaller cities, may encourage Gen Y to re-evaluate the merits of living in 905.

A September 28 panel hosted by the Urban Land Institute Toronto examined how planners and developers in 905 can do a better job of building and shaping residential, commercial and recreational spaces that will attract those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s.

“They’re not necessarily going through anything different than previous generations, but their response to it may be different because the economic circumstances they're in,” said moderator Lou Iafrate in an interview with Yonge Street before the event. He’s executive vice president of research, valuation and advisory for Altus Group, which provides solutions for the commercial real estate industry. “The affordability issue wasn’t the same when Baby Boomers went through this part of their lives.”

Much of what panelists considered important to Generation Y may sound good to homeowners and renters of any generation: urban villages where people can live within walking distance—or easy transit distance—of where they work and play. While some complain that 905 cities aren’t especially pedestrian friendly, not all of it can be blamed on poor planning and design. Many of the cities are young and not particularly built up. Increasing density can fill in some of the gaps.

“Certainly 905 has a lot of work to do in streetscaping,” said panelist Lisa Lafave in a pre-panel interview. As senior portfolio manager at HOOPP (Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan), she helps manage a portfolio of more than $10 billion annually, including investments in real estate development. “It takes time to densify an area. It’s not going to happen overnight. In Mississauga, there are some areas where there are no sidewalks or bus shelters.”

Lafave says she won’t invest in a project that’s not transit-oriented. “I’ll move with the transit, but I won’t speculate on something that’s not transit-linked. By that definition, cities are denying themselves more investment in the city if they don’t invest in the infrastructure first,” she said.

The cities along the top of the GTA can also be smarter about connecting to each other, so work and recreational patterns aren’t all under the influence of Toronto. “If you can link Vaughan, Brampton, Markham, Richmond Hill, then people living in the 905 don’t necessarily have to come into the 416 for entertainment. The Vaughan Metropolitan Centre or the Markham City Centre are good examples of where they’re trying to create that urban village feel, that urbanized centre, in a traditionally suburban market. But it’s going to take time,” said Iafrate.

Writer: Paul Gallant
Sources: Lou Iafrate and Lisa Lafave

 

Two reports out this month aim to give Ontario some advice about improving the bang it gets for the buck from infrastructure investment.
 
In last spring’s budget, Ontario announced a $130-billion commitment to building infrastructure over the next 10 years, about 1.9 percent of provincial GDP per year. That includes $81.5 billion for transportation infrastructure, more than $11 billion in hospital capital grants and more than $11 billion in school board capital grants.
 
Both the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario (RCCAO) and the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity have released hefty reports this month suggesting that the government should adopt new approaches to this spending.
 
“One thing is certain: assuming Ontario society and its various governments can continue into the future by following the paths of the past is the route to unpleasant surprises, with expensive and embarrassing policy failures. Even in a fog, the best course is to look through the windshield, not the rear-view mirror,” states the RCCAO report, which lays out some key questions Ontarians should be asking: What new forms of infrastructure will emerge and which will be obsolescent? Can new technologies render some major infrastructure unnecessary, or open the door to more modest solutions? How will major societal and economic trends influence the kind of infrastructure we will need? How will these trends change the economy, ecology and society that infrastructure must support?
 
The report suggests trends like the pace of technological change, increasing urbanization and connectivity, social trends like our aging population, economic and workforce trends, environmental and energy trends, and political and fiscal trends should drive decision-making. The authors make three key recommendations: Firstly, elevate the ministry division responsible for infrastructure to a full-scale Policy Secretariat, headed by a minister and deputy minister, advised by an ongoing “Ontario Future Council;” secondly, use research grants to engage post-secondary and healthcare scholars and leading thinkers from the various sectors of Ontario society to address infrastructure issues; and lastly, appoint a Royal Commission on Ontario’s Future, with a particular focus on the role that infrastructure can play in creating a prosperous, productive and equitable society.
 
The Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity report, called Better Foundations: The Returns on Infrastructure Investment in Ontario, also calls for infrastructure planning to focus on increasing prosperity. Some kinds of infrastructure spending are more likely to increase productivity than others.
 
“The institute recommends that the province prioritize productivity-enhancing investments in ground transportation infrastructure and machinery and equipment that support public transportation services, as well as projects that improve trade with the United States,” states the report. “At the same time, the institute recommends that the province be extremely cautious and use sound, case-by-case cost-benefit analysis for investing in other forms of transportation.” infrastructure.
 
Writer: Paul Gallant
Source: RCCAO, Institute for Competitiveness & Prosperity

One elephant will have to wait until spring to come out to play on a spider’s web, as work gets underway to make a Davisville playground worthy of its musical namesakes.
 
The space in June Rowlands Park at Davisville and Mount Pleasant was named the Sharon, Lois and Bram Playground last year in honour of the musical trio. Now a $300,000 revitalization will see new equipment, playful new names for amenities, a performance stage and an elephant sculpture (a nod to the group’s The Elephant Show from the 1980s) installed to create a more tangible connection to Sharon, Lois and Bram’s sensibility and music.
 
“We were deliberate about starting construction a week after Labour Day, because we didn’t want to interfere with the height of the season,” says Josh Matlow, councillor for Ward 22, St. Paul’s. The first phase of the project is new wayfinding signs, including renaming the natural ice rink the Skinnamarink after Sharon, Lois and Bram’s most ubiquitous earworm. Upcoming community consultations will determine what kind of new playground equipment the park will get, with installation expected to be completed by spring.
 
“What was originally proposed by staff just didn’t fit into the earthy character of the playground,” says Matlow.
 
Though group member Lois Lilienstein passed away last spring (a playground concert was her last performance), Sharon Hampson and Bram Morrison have continued to be very involved in planning the park, which will have a stage where children can perform music. “They’ve attended every meeting,” says Matlow. A father himself, Matlow confesses that his own childhood was full of the trio’s music.
 
In other musical park news, Matlow is also hosting consultations this month on playground improvements at Glenn Gould Park, named after the famed Canadian pianist. “I expect there will be a musical component on the table for that project too,” he says.
 
Writer: Paul Gallant
Source: Josh Matlow