Archinect - News

Rafael Viñoly Architects reveals first Canadian project in Toronto

2024-05-03T11:59:00-04:00

Rafael Viñoly Architects' debut work in Canada has been announced as a two-million-square-foot mixed-use development in Midtown Toronto. The four-tower, 2,364-unit scheme previewed by the firm last week was designed by its late founder before his passing and will stand as his sole Canadian project at the culmination of an undetermined construction phase that begins next year.

Rendering courtesy Binyan and Madison Group

Two 58-story structures will connect with another pair equaling 61 stories via a six-story skybridge between 90-110 and 150-164 Eglinton Avenue in the popular commercial neighborhood. A public plaza area will engage the site further with its civic context with a new amphitheater, retail spaces, and a children’s play area.

Rendering courtesy Binyan and Madison Group

MPFP Landscape Architecture will complete the landscape design for the program. Turner Fleischer Architects is listed as a collaborator. Overall, this is the third new project announced by the firm since Viñ...

Henning Larsen plans new mixed-use civic center for Toronto

2024-04-18T13:33:00-04:00

Henning Larsen has debuted its plans for the Etobicoke Civic Centre (ECC) in Toronto, a mixed-use design within the city’s redeveloped Etobicoke Civic Centre Precinct that contains government offices and council chambers, child care center, library, public health clinic, recreation centre, and retail spaces aside a new 47,000-square-foot public square.

This project includes approximately 264,000 square feet of below-ground space and another 210,000 square feet of offices defined by a series of nine exponentially taller green-roofed buildings supported by a 300,000-square-foot podium.

Image rendering courtesy of Adamson Associates Architects, Henning Larsen and PMA Landscape Architects

The podium contains the majority of its public functions (an art gallery, healthcare component, the library, a fitness center, and multi-faith ceremony rooms). Adamson Associates and PMA Landscape Architects are also included in the design team. Construction for the project commenced this month with a c...

Nidus3D completes North America's first 3D printed three-story building

2024-03-13T18:19:00-04:00

A new home design that stands as North America’s first three-story 3D printed structure has been completed in Canada using a special printer from the Danish construction technology firm COBOD.

The Toronto area proof-of-concept project from Nidus3D delivered what is reported as one of Canada’s first residentially permitted 3D printed structures. The 4,500-square-foot townhouse also includes the world's first 3D printed basement. It has a total of four residential units forming semi-attached homes made from locally sourced concrete and finished by a steel-frame roof and brick facade to match the local vernacular.

"Completing the world’s first 3D printed basement is another impressive achievement that only amplifies the technology’s potential to transform construction, and we notice with pride that multiple of our customers are pioneering what can be achieved with the 3D printing technology," COBOD's co-founder, Philip Lund-Nielsen, said in a news announcement.

Aerial view of the compl...

Royal Ontario Museum unveils renovation design by Hariri Pontarini Architects

2024-02-14T19:50:00-05:00

Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum has unveiled plans for a renovation of its Daniel Libeskind-designed Michael Lee-Chin Crystal expansion, which opened in 2008. Led by Canadian firm Hariri Pontarini Architects, the OpenROM project is being enacted to expand its public offerings to an anticipated 1.4 million visitors annually.

The brief calls for a reconfiguration of its main floor, plus the addition of upper-level gallery spaces and the reimagining of an existing entrance on Bloor Street. A new water feature will be added to the heritage facade surrounding the building on Bloor Street and Queen’s Park, punctuated by a cantilevered bronze canopy. A total of 4,000 square feet of programmable public spaces will be added through the overall design.

Image courtesy Hariri Pontarini Architects

Also part of the project is the addition of a four-story atrium called The Hennick Commons. The atrium will be serviced by a multi-level adjacent lily pad feature staircase replete with viewing platform...

Buro Happold and Dialog unveil new urban thermal comfort study for Toronto

2024-01-22T18:45:00-05:00

The City of Toronto recently completed a groundbreaking study of its ‘thermal comfort’ done by Buro Happold and Dialog. The work will provide valuable lessons to urban planners, developers, and other stakeholders as the country’s largest metropolitan area prepares a strategy to suitably mitigate the growing number of extreme heat days it faces in a given year.

The study will go a long way in informing Toronto’s response to heat and climate, leading eventually to the creation and implementation of new comfort guidelines included as part of a broader Heat Relief Strategy that was debuted two years ago. Toronto's City Planning Division contracted Buro Happold and Dialog to lead the study based on the former’s extensive experience with similar plans for large metro areas such as New York, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis.

“These are significant new kinds of guidance that city leaders everywhere need to help protect their citizens and support public health in an era of rapid climate change,...

StudioAC plays with gabled forms for an ‘unapologetically contemporary’ Toronto home

2024-01-05T13:20:00-05:00

Toronto-based Studio AC has offered a look inside their “unapologetically” residential scheme in the Canadian city. The three-story home reads as a series of stacked boxes from the outside with echoes of traditional residential forms.

Image credit: Doublespace Photography

At the base of the scheme, an otherwise contemporary rectilinear massing holds a gable-shaped opening while, above, the scheme is crowned by a gabled roof form. Inside, the emphasis on gabled forms continued with ceiling levels on the first and third floors that follow a peaked, sloping form.

Image credit: Doublespace Photography

“While a gabled roof is one of the quintessential icons of “house”, the Studio was interested in elevating this phenomenon beyond motif to a spatial experience that defined a narrative throughout the project,” the design team explains. “This approach was integral to working with the client's budget strategy and thesis:...

Toronto Metropolitan University unveils plan for SCITHub, the 'world’s first fully digitally-enabled building'

2023-12-28T15:49:00-05:00

A new prototype demonstration of different burgeoning smart building technologies is coming to the campus of Toronto Metropolitan University as part of a cross-institutional effort that will result in the construction of a new 3,229-square-foot Smart Campus Integration and Testing Hub (SCITHub) designed by WZMH Architects.

The initiative has been in development since 2019, with a finalized design for the structure submitted two years later, and its construction is now fully funded through a mixture of public grants and private donations that covered the total project cost of about $6 million.

The TMU SCITHub is part of the Network of Living Campuses (NLC), which involves seven other universities across Canada. Researchers are hopeful it will serve as a kind of nexus for the various data-driven investigations into smart building tech that are happening at their respective campuses.

Image courtesy Toronto Metropolitan University

A mass timber building envelope and exterior Intellige...

Canadian housing pioneer and RAIC Gold Medalist Jerome Markson passes away at 94

2023-11-21T12:28:00-05:00

Jerome Markson, the 2022 RAIC Gold Medalist and modern social housing pioneer whose influence was felt widely across Canada, died in Toronto on Saturday, November 18, The Globe and Mail reported. He was 94 years old.

Markson will be remembered as a progressive architect who affected the post-1970s immigration boom in Greater Toronto through humane and uplifting designs for The Smith Residence (1955), Market Square Condominiums (1980), Group Health Centre in Sault Ste. Marie (1962), and Alexandra Park Public Housing (1965), among others.

“His work epitomizes a deep caring towards those who will use and enjoy his projects as well as the communities in which they exist. Many architects will offer praise by referring to colleagues as an ‘architect’s architect’. Jerome Markson is certainly deserving of the title ‘planner’s architect’ — quite possibly a more difficult and exceptional achievement within the profession,” the jury citation for last year’s RAIC Gold Medal states concisely. ...

StudioAC completes coastal Canadian home embedded into a steep ridge

2023-10-26T11:51:00-04:00

Toronto-based StudioAC has completed a residence east of the city, in a landscape characterized by an “intricate coastline and a bourgeoning wine-making industry.” The home, named Cherry Valley House, sits on a steep ridge that descends to the lakeshore.

Image credit: Felix Michaud

The house is sunken into the ridge, “protected at its back and providing a vantage point below the trees,” according to the team. Large windows on the shore-facing facade frame views of the lake, while panoramic windows at ground level face an adjacent meadow. Above, large dormer windows bring additional natural light into the space.

Image credit: Felix Michaud

The home’s contemporary spatial sequencing is contrasted by materiality drawing inspiration from the area’s agrarian architecture. Outside, brick and cedar “celebrate the duality of the site,” with brick used on the solid wall holding back the hillside, and a cedar roof wrapping down the facade fa...

‘The limits of what architecture can do’: Critic Alex Bozikovic looks for evidence at Renzo Piano's new Ontario Court of Justice

2023-07-28T15:20:00-04:00

Yet the courthouse reveals the limits of what architecture can do. Its spatial clarity and sedulous details don’t resolve some issues with where it is placed. This is a spectacular execution of a flawed recipe. [...] Then there is a larger question: Is a centralized courthouse a good idea in the first place?

The Globe and Mail architecture critic Alex Bozikovic reviews the massive new RPBW and NORR-designed Ontario Court of Justice project, calling it characteristically calm, natural, and “friendlier” than other contemporary North American courthouse designs owing to a well-articulated “European attitude to justice.”

The new Ontario Court of Justice at the center of the photograph. Image courtesy RPBW

Its site opposite Toronto’s spectacular City Hall from 1965 is the largest foil to Piano’s first Canadian design, he argues. The project was completed in March and offers a consolidation of six smaller facilities that expands access to court services, proponents maintain over the protests of attorney associations like the Society of United Professionals. Here it becomes obvious, Bozicovic reminds us, that "design can’t fix everything."

Placing a ‘culinary emporium’ inside an old Toronto postal station

2023-07-27T11:28:00-04:00

Giannone Petricone Associates has completed Stock T.C, a “culinary emporium” designed to offer a selection of high-quality ingredients, ready-to-eat foods, and an inviting dining experience.

Situated in a historical postal station in Toronto, Canada, the space includes an open market at the ground level, a 200-seat bistro on the second floor, and an event space with a circular bar and roof terrace on the third floor.

Photo credit: Doublespace

The restoration and repurposing of the 1936 limestone postal station included lining the perimeter walls with a second skin, from which shelves, lighting, and acoustic dampeners are hung, integrating the original structure with modern installations.

Photo credit: Stephanie Palmer

The space is infused with what the team calls “the omnipresence of food preparation, with a clear ‘backstage’ treatment” which “mixes with the building materials to entertain the senses.” Reflecting the venue’s mix ...

Frank Gehry reminisces on Toronto's past while detailing his Forma design for the New York Times

2023-07-26T12:56:00-04:00

A lot of work has gone into it. It’s like a painting. So the glass is offset in places to take the light a certain way and separate that surface from the rest of the building. A lot of care has gone into organizing that visually. It’ll become apparent over the years. You’ll see it and you’ll say: Oh, that’s what he was doing.

Gehry, whose family left Toronto for Los Angeles in 1947, also detailed his misgivings at the city’s contemporary development. The landscape has taken an even more markedly vertical turn since the beginning of 2021 thanks to a “race to the top” among developers (including the backers of the Gehry-designed Forma scheme, the Great Gulf Group) led by the forthcoming 105-story SkyTower design from Hariri Pontarini Architects for Pinnacle International.

Gehry’s only completed permanent work in his birth country, the 2008 renovation of the Art Gallery of Ontario, is also the subject of a major expansion designed by Diamond Schmitt, Two Row, and Selldorf Architects.

Groundbreaking on Forma’s first tower began last month, with an expected completion slated for 2028. Gehry also expressed an interest in refurbishing Arthur Erickson's Roy Thomson Hall, which still hasn't fine-tuned its acoustics since the last KPMB-led upgrade in 2002.

Frank Gehry’s Forma development begins construction in Toronto

2023-06-12T14:49:00-04:00

Frank Gehry’s biggest-ever contribution to the city in which he was born is now underway after construction began on the two-tower Forma condominium scheme in downtown Toronto.

A total of 2,087 residential units will be constructed as part of the process, filling out the pair of 73- and 84-story towers that, once built, will stand as the tallest buildings the 94-year-old Gehry has completed during the course of his illustrious six-decade career in architecture.

Image courtesy Forma/Great Gulf.

Gehry himself was on hand for last week’s groundbreaking ceremony, where he commented on the project’s significance as a new landmark rising from the busy commercial core of the city that has recently become a battleground for developers looking to surmount the fray of tall building proposals proffered there since the beginning of 2021.

Image courtesy Forma/Great Gulf.

"You think about the buildings in other cities like Rockefeller Center, where there’s an ensemble of buildings that create publ...

Canada's traditional shopping centers are turning into mall cities

2023-06-07T14:00:00-04:00

“It’s less about e-commerce than it is about how people want to live and what they want to experience [...] People want to connect, they want to be social, so we’re trying to give them more reasons and more opportunities to do that.”

The movement is not without its detractors, however, as planning experts like the University of British Columbia’s Dr. Penelope Gurstein balance the media’s mostly effusive coverage for such projects with criticism that they are marketed towards affluent retirees and wealthy overseas buyers whose apartments are vacant much of the year.

The government has attempted to mitigate this via a new ban on foreign property ownership. Still, most feel the industry is well-positioned to adapt, as evidenced by the 420 units of below-market-rate units that were included in the 28-acre Henriquez Partners master-planned Oakridge Park development in Vancouver.

“Ten years ago, I was expanding malls, 20 years ago I was building malls, five years ago we were talking about demolishing malls,” one developer tells the Globe and Mail. “You can’t predict the future.”

Toronto builders set their sights on (near) net-zero buildings by 2030

2023-05-04T15:24:00-04:00

Toronto builders have a challenging task ahead of them, and with a rapidly approaching deadline: constructing all new buildings with near-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

This goal falls under Toronto’s TransformTO Net Zero Strategy initiative, which aims to reduce community-wide greenhouse gas emissions in the city to net zero by 2040. The building mandate targets the sizable portion of carbon emissions that buildings account for. As reported by Storeys, data from The Atmospheric Fund (TAF) on carbon emissions in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) found that the building sector accounts for 44% of all emissions in the region.

One Canadian construction company, EllisDon, has reportedly been exploring ways to contribute to meeting these sustainability goals. With a large amount of building emissions originating from materials used within the construction process, the company began working with building and material sciences specialists. One shift includes altering cement usage by implementing alternative materials, nam...

Mass timber pedestrian bridge rises at Toronto's George Brown College

2023-04-28T14:26:00-04:00

Canadian construction company PCL Construction is celebrating a major milestone in the construction of George Brown College’s new Limberlost Place on Toronto’s waterfront, with the installation of a mass timber pedestrian bridge.

Standing 65 feet above street level, the structure connects level five of Limberlost Place to level six of the college’s Daphne Cockwell Center for Health Sciences. The 10-story Limberlost Place is reportedly set to be the first mass timber, net-zero carbon emissions institutional building of its kind in Ontario. It was designed by a team consisting of Moriyama and Teshima Architects and Acton Ostry Architects. The building is expected to be completed by 2024 and will be open for classes in January 2025.

Video via PCL Construction on YouTube

The pedestrian bridge stretches approximately 70 feet and is made up of two glue-laminated trusses and four cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels. Individual CLT pieces were prefabricated at an off-site location befor...

Art Gallery of Ontario reveals Selldorf, Diamond Schmitt, and Two Row-led expansion design

2023-03-02T16:52:00-05:00

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) has just revealed the initial plans for its new Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery project led by Selldorf Architects, Diamond Schmitt, and Two Row Architect.

The 40,000-square-foot addition will add 13 galleries in order to expand its total exhibition space by 30%. The project is being funded by a $35 million donation from Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss and, led by Two Row, has sought expensive input from Ontario’s Indigenous community in addition to the other two architect-advisors that were announced by the gallery last year.

The AGO says: “These conversations and others are instrumental in leading the team to adopt adaptability, accessibility, relevancy, zero carbon operating, and inclusivity as their guiding principles.”

Rendering courtesy of Art Gallery of Ontario, Diamond Schmitt, Selldorf Architects, and Two Row Architect

The project will accomplish a zero carbon emissions output for all its operations and otherwise be designed along int...

Revived Toronto Quayside master plan is making headway

2023-02-03T17:16:00-05:00

A clearer vision is emerging for the futuristic Quayside project planned to transform a stretch of Toronto's waterfront, one that is shaping up to be one of the most architecturally-distinct pockets of development in the entire country.

Following over two years since the cancelation of the Sidewalk Labs plan to develop Toronto’s Quayside, a new approach to bring a mixed-use community to the lakefront site is being led by public entities Waterfront Toronto, the City of Toronto, PortsToronto, and private landowners. This past December, Waterfront Toronto’s Board of Directors approved an agreement with development partners Great Gulf Group and Dream Unlimited. The development is set to feature buildings designed by the likes of Adjaye Associates, Alison Brooks Architects, and Henning Larsen.

A recently-presented master plan update highlights new details about upcoming features at the site, including information on the Adjaye Associates-designed Timber House, the Alison Brooks Architects-designed Western Curve, and the Overstorey by Henning Larsen. The development will feature residential spaces, including affordable housing, retail, food, and cultural offerings. The master plan also aims to achieve near-zero greenhous...

Montgomery Sisam design net-zero timber research center for University of Toronto

2023-02-02T12:05:00-05:00

Toronto-based Montgomery Sisam Architects has unveiled their design for the overhaul of the University of Toronto’s Koffler Scientific Reserve. Situated in a rural site in King Township north of the city, the new campus is intended to accommodate research students and faculty for extended periods of time as they study ecology and environmental biology.

Image credit: Montgomery Sisam Architects

The existing site, stitched together over the course of a hundred years, features an estate house, small farms, and a blend of woodlands, watercourses, and fish lakes. In response to the current lack of housing, teaching, and dining spaces at the KSR, the new scheme includes a purpose-built Dining and Operations Center, as well as twenty accommodation cabins.

Image credit: Montgomery Sisam Architects

Montgomery Sisam’s design approach revolved around their interpretation of KSR’s work, where minor changes in specific plants can yield broader narratives about global issues such as climate change....

Toronto’s proposed Ontario Place redevelopment is getting even more contentious

2023-01-10T14:43:00-05:00

New details are emerging in the controversial plan to redevelop Toronto’s mostly decommissioned Ontario Place after the exclusive Toronto International Film Festival unveiled further plans for a partnership with Therme Group, the Austrian entity behind the proposed $350 million project.

Local website blogTO has more details on the community’s negative response to the partnership, which will “promote the role of art and film in creating more human cities” through a series of talks spread over a ten-year period.

The online responses are only the latest thorn in the side of the provincial Ontario government and Premier Doug Ford following last summer’s harsh responses that eventually yielded a revised plan which reclassified a mere 12-acre segment of beachfront property for public use while retaining the original plan to have more than one-third of the site be developed privately.

Previously on Archinect: Toronto reveals still-contentious revised plan for proposed Ontario Place redev...

Toronto reveals still-contentious revised plan for proposed Ontario Place redevelopment

2022-12-14T12:10:00-05:00

Revised plans for the proposed Ontario Place redevelopment in Toronto are once again drawing critical attention after being submitted to the city’s planning officials at the end of November.

Storeys has the details on the updated scheme, which still calls for one-third of the 155-acre site to be privately developed — a contentious provision that has led many Torontonians to call for the plan to be rejected outright in place of something more in tune with its original use as a public attraction. The revision also reclassified a 12-acre swath of beachfront land for public use in what appears as the only slight concession.

Previously on Archinect: Torontonians aren't happy with the city's planned Ontario Place overhaul

The update also includes details for a five-level underground parking structure to be enacted between the Therme Group’s nine-story private spa and the renovated Live Nation amphitheater at the cost of over 800 trees, which is about 40% of the current iteration's total c...

Toronto’s race to the top gets a new 105-story contender

2022-11-14T18:58:00-05:00

In the quest to build the tallest skyscraper in Canada, developer Pinnacle International appears to be inching ahead, with a new proposal that would see the second tower at the foot of Yonge Street reach over 100 storeys. Pinnacle submitted an application late last month with the city, seeking to allow 12- and 10-storey increases to the already approved 80- and 95-storey towers in its development at the site of the current Toronto Star building.

Hariri Pontarini Architects’ amended design for the already-underway SkyTower could become Toronto’s first triple-digit-story supertall, equaling the height of the CN Tower’s observation deck. Anson Kwook, a VP of marketing for the developer said it would also add a “piece of artwork” to the city’s skyline.

Previously on Archinect: Construction kicks off on SkyTower, Canada's tallest residential tower

Toronto’s planning division has been flooded with proposed tall building designs since the beginning of last year, including designs for Studio Gang’s first Canadian venture; the forthcoming 55 Yonge mixed-use development by PARTISANS and Quadrangle; Frank Gehry’s revised King Street West apartments; and a proposed 31-story mass timber structure from local studio ICON Architects that would topple Milwaukee’s Ascent Tower for the world record use of that material upon its speculative completion in 2027.

Toronto-based Diamond Schmitt co-founder A.J. Diamond passes away aged 89

2022-11-02T18:00:00-04:00

One of the most significant Canadian architects of his era is being remembered this week after news that Diamond Schmitt co-founder Abel Joseph “Jack” Diamond passed away this weekend in Toronto at the age of 89.

Diamond was a mainstay on his adopted country’s architecture scene since first going into the practice in the early 1960s. Born in South Africa in 1932, Diamond studied for an architecture degree at the University of Cape Town in 1956 before reading Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) at Oxford University and then immigrating to the United States to attend the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed his master’s studies in architecture and began his career as an apprentice to Louis Kahn.

Diamond moved to Toronto in 1964, where he served as the inaugural director of UT’s Master of Architecture program and eventually founded his own practice, A.J. Diamond Architects, with American Barton Myers in 1975.

Previously on Archinect: Diamond Schmitt Architects' Emily Ca...

Torontonians aren't happy with the city's planned Ontario Place overhaul

2022-08-30T17:46:00-04:00

Toronto residents are expressing their concerns over the Diamond Schmitt-designed plan for a massive new aquatic theme park at Ontario Place they say is “tone-deaf” and exclusionary of their basic needs.

Spurred on by the recent release of updated renderings and other details of Therme Group's second North American project, opponents say the city's Waterfront Toronto Design Review Panel needs to consider a full-tilt reassessment of the scheme on the basis of accessibility, environmental impact, and a distressing lack of free public amenities.

“This seems like another plan to take away space, livable space that we are already so short on demand of down here,” a concerned area resident recently told the CBC.

The proposed Therme Toronto development. Image courtesy of Therme.

The new development is scheduled to stand on the site of a 155-acre public park and entertainment venue from renowned local architects Michael Hough and Eberhard Zeigler that has sat mostly abandoned since closing i...

Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) details the push behind its new name

2022-08-19T18:27:00-04:00

Concerns about the university’s association with and commemoration of Ryerson had been voiced by its Indigenous students, staff and faculty for years. How the university addressed those concerns with statements on its website or revised plaques placed next to Egerton Ryerson’s statue fell short of the steps necessary to speak to his legacy or the continued harm it was causing

Egerton Ryerson’s name is inextricably linked to the legacy of murder and abuse within Canada’s residential schools, as he is often cited as the system’s principal designer through his role as the country’s first Chief Superintendent of Education starting in 1844. This relation made the university a target of a nationwide protest movement which eventually took down a statue of the educator in a well-publicized June 2021 kerfuffle.

The rebranding was the product of a working group called Standing Strong (or Mash Koh Wee Kah Pooh Win) that convened with a 22-strong list of recommendations a year ago. Over 2,000 unique names (including the temporary 'X University' moniker) were considered in a public consultation. Dr. Eva Jewell, an Indigenous faculty member who detailed her own past experiences with racism at the school, tells University Affairs it "signals a willingness to listen and an attentiveness to the issues of our time."

Related on Archinect: National Gallery of Canada establi...

Inside the 'robust' new Ace Hotel Toronto by Shim-Sutcliffe Architects

2022-08-05T12:42:00-04:00

The 123-room Ace Hotel has opened in Toronto, designed by acclaimed Canadian practice Shim-Sutcliffe Architects, recipients of the 2021 RAIC Gold Medal. Located in the city’s Garment District, the hotel adopts what the team calls a “robust, solid architecture” with a material palette including brick, concrete, steel, and oak.

Entrance. Photo credit: William Jess Laird

The 14-story building’s exterior is clad in red brick — a “statement of resistance against recent thin and glassy developments in the area,” according to the team The main entrance is marked by a sweeping undercroft detailed in brick, concrete, copper, and wood, while oversized glass windows bring views and natural light into the interior.

Front desk. Photo credit: William Jess Laird

Inside, the lobby features a series of poured-in-place, steel-edged concrete structural arches. Each frame terminates with an oversized industrial steel “knuckle” that transfers the load of the floors above from the arches to the foundation...

Populous will help the Toronto Blue Jays modernize the Rogers Centre for the first time in 33 years

2022-08-01T13:20:00-04:00

The Toronto Blue Jays baseball team has unveiled its first round of new upgrades to the Rogers Centre. They claim it will turn their 33-year-old home into a modern player and fan-experience-oriented baseball facility thanks to a privately-funded $300 million CAD ($234 million USD) effort.

Populous has been tapped to handle all aspects of the renovation, including creating new social areas across three levels, replacement of aging seats, reworked outfield and bullpens, and new family and training areas for the team. The firm had previously worked with the Blue Jays to hasten a series of similar enhancements to its Spring Training facility before the start of last year's season, the first six weeks of which had to be played in Florida.

Image render courtesy of Populous.

This will constitute the first time any architectural firm has laid its hands on the former SkyDome in any significant way since Rod Robbie’s 53,506-seat venue debuted as the world’s first-ever retractable roof stadium ...

A new tall mass timber proposal is heating up the race to the top in Toronto

2022-07-15T13:02:00-04:00

Around the same time the new world record holder for tall mass timber buildings — the 25-story Ascent tower — is making its much-awaited debut in Milwaukee, another North American design proposal has been revealed in Toronto that would surmount the historic milestone by a total of six stories if approved.

The proposed 31-story residential tower is being floated by 26-year-old developer Jackey Chen, who says an impressive 80% of the building’s 494 total apartment units will be made affordable under the city’s Open Door program, with project costs totaling between $75 and $80 million. Toronto studio ICON Architects will serve as the building’s designer.

The development would entail the preservation of three semi-detached heritage buildings located in front of its would-be podium and take around two years to complete following an anticipated start of construction sometime before 2025. The proposed plan would join a list of at least five other mass timber developments in the GTA that in...

Considering the Quayside failure as proof futuristic Smart Cities may be a thing of the past

2022-06-30T18:16:00-04:00

Smart city technology should do things like shorten commute times, speed the construction of affordable housing, improve the efficiency of public transit, and reduce carbon emissions by making building technology more efficient and providing less polluting transportation alternatives to the car. But often its proponents focus on what it can do rather than what it should. If Sidewalk’s Quayside failure taught us anything, it’s that these technologies need to respond better to human needs.

The MIT Technology Review took a dive into the abandoned pre-pandemic conversion of Toronto’s 12-acre Quayside waterfront plot into an elaborate “Smart City” development by the hands of Sidewalk Labs. The revitalization was recently repackaged as a mixed-use green corridor concept to be overseen by Adjaye Associates, Henning Larsen, and Alison Brooks Architects. Sidewalk Labs has said it was planning to redevelop the vacant brownfield site “from the internet up.”

Previously on Archinect: Sidewalk Labs' Quayside project in Toronto is cancelled

Author Karrie Jacobs considers the history of urban planning concepts such as the 15-Minute City and Ville Radieuse in relation to the rebuked concept, which has dominated the past two decades of planning, and will be felled, she predicts, by an “emphasis on the optimization of everything” and the contradictory desire to “eradicate the very thing that makes cities wonderful.”

Meet architectural storytellers Yabu Pushelberg: Your Next Employer?

2022-06-20T08:10:00-04:00

Following last week’s visit to Seattle’s LMN Architects, we are moving our Meet Your Next Employer series across the border to Toronto, Canada, where we find high-end designers Yabu Pushelberg.

Founded in 1980 in Ontario by business and life partners George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg, the firm has grown over three decades from its interior design routes to now encompass carefully crafted architecture, interiors, landscapes, lighting, products, graphics and branding.

Now counting over one hundred members across their Toronto and New York offices, the firm is currently hiring for a Senior Interior Designer position on Archinect Jobs.

George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg. Photo by Thomas Whiteside. Image via Facebook

For the firm’s founders, Yabu Pushelberg’s origin in interior design was crucial for teaching them about the importance of environments. Today, this value has been translated across high-end hospitality and retail design projects, with the added emphasis of infusing stories ...