Archinect - News

New skateable furniture adds personal benefits a sense of 'pure gnar' to any office

2024-11-19T19:52:00-05:00

Believing "anytime is the right time to take a Skate Break," the Ontario-based designers known as the Zenga Bros. have produced what could be the ultimate furniture addition to any shred happy office space looking to add an eccentric touch.

Their new product line is aptly named 'Skate Brake' and fabricated by Christian and Benny Huizenga to incorporate different (and difficult) skating configurations that provoke a sense of "pure gnar."

Photo by Gordon Nicholas

The series consists of three different ramps (a desk, two modernist style lounge chairs, and a six-foot-tall lamp), a boardroom table, barrier bench, and a 11’x5’x8’ "Ramper Camper" micro house/electric truck complete with a wood stove and grindable bookshelf ledge.

Image courtesy Gordon Nicholas

"Skate Break is a project extracted straight from the dream realm by the Zenga Bros. and brought to reality through their craftsmanship. I’ve never had so much fun skating furniture," friend and former Olympic skateboarding competitor...

BIG updates KING Toronto construction progress

2024-10-23T18:00:00-04:00

Here’s a brief construction update on the BIG-led new KING Toronto development with Diamond Schmitt Architects. The design pays homage to the definitive modularity of Moshe Safdie’s seminal Habitat 67, with 514 units rotated on a 45-degree angle and arranged as through a canyon overlooking the nightlife-centric King Street West corridor. Ingels says it will top out soon at 16 stories after beginning construction in mid-2020. This "experimental" addition will be the Danish firm’s third project for developer Westbank, following Vancouver House and the Telus Sky tower in Calgary.

Field Operations announces new The Bentway Islands project in Toronto

2024-09-30T12:00:00-04:00

Field Operations has announced they are working with Canadian partners Brook McIlroy on a new public realm rehabilitation project dubbed The Bentway Islands in Toronto.

The plan calls for the redevelopment of three traffic islands into a new space that totals 125,000 square feet. Design concepts for the project will be revealed next year. It will serve as the "sister site" to a previously completed Phase I development. Field Operations also recently completed the final piece of the award-winning Domino Park in Williamsburg. Brooklyn.

Image courtesy The Bentway

Phase I of The Bentway development. Image courtesy Nic Lehoux

Phase I of The Bentway development. Image courtesy Brandon Ferguson

Modern summer home by Akb emerges from cluster of scattered islands in Ontario's Georgian Bay

2024-08-29T17:37:00-04:00

Toronto-based architecture and interior design studio Atelier Kastelic Buffey (Akb) has designed a modern cottage secluded amidst the natural beauty of Ontario’s Georgian Bay.

Image: Doublespace

The retreat is located three hours north of Toronto on a small island called Whistling Wind in a community named Pointe Au Baril. The region is defined by the expansive sky, open waters, and the many rock archipelagoes that are scattered along the coast of the Bay, forming many narrow waterways.

Image: Doublespace

The cottage comprises four pitch-roofed structures, which are each scaled proportionately to fit the island’s one-acre size. They are clad in silver-weathered cedar shingles, and, in certain light conditions, they are barely discernible from the brownish-gray rocks that surround them.

Image: Doublespace

The main cottage is at the highest elevation, and it is joined by a smaller cabin, a sauna, and a boat storage, which also contains a small fitness room. They are situated on differe...

PEI adds rhythm to the Toronto skyline with new 2221 Yonge Street design

2024-07-30T20:39:00-04:00

The latest addition to Toronto’s skyline, PEI Architects’ 2221 Yonge Street tower, is now open after a 2022 completion. New images of the 56-story design reveal the presence of cantilevered wraparound balconies leading down to a six-story podium with a grand porte-cochère and sloped garden, a facade concept which PEI’s principal Li Chung (Sandi) Pei explains as a "unique design feature, rather than as appendages to a large glassy mass." Quadrangle Architects were included on the project team for the 435,000-square-foot high-rise that includes 566 total residential suites.

It will be joined nearby by Hariri Pontarini Architects' record-breaking Pinnacle One Yonge and the proposed 55 Yonge project from Quadrangle and PARTISANS.

Photo: Kerun Ip, courtesy of PEI Architects

3XN and Arcadis IBI release design for new University of Toronto Rotman Commerce Building

2024-07-12T19:09:00-04:00

3XN, in collaboration with Arcadis IBI, has revealed the design for a new, unified Rotman Commerce Building at the University of Toronto. The building aims to prepare students for professional life after university by fueling both learning and networking through open and interconnected spaces.

The current Rotman Commerce program is dispersed across four separate sites across the school’s St. George campus. The new 92,000-square-foot building will comprise five levels above ground and two levels below. It will host a variety of learning spaces, staff offices, and a 200-seat event space.

Image courtesy 3XN

The building’s design is guided by the principle that optimum learning is supported by flexibility, transparency, and interaction. As one moves through the building, the social levels shift, from the lower levels to the more private and quiet areas towards the top.

Image courtesy 3XN

The Rotman Commerce Building is designed in line with the University of Toronto’s Climate Positive ...

Dubbeldam's Shift House stands out through a unique push and pull of interior volumes

2024-06-27T11:29:00-04:00

In Toronto, Dubbeldam Architecture + Design has completed a new residence distinguished by projecting and retracting volumes and the way it offers occupants a meaningful relationship with the outdoors.

Called Shift House, the 3,200-square-foot home’s façade is also highlighted by contrasting cladding. Western red cedar fills the voids left by the retracted volumes, providing a striking contrast to the predominantly charcoal gray exterior.

Photo: Shai Gil

The house is spread across two stories, and its layout consists of an interior grid of six staggered volumes that shift in and out to shape the exterior envelope. The resulting interplay of solids and voids across the structure’s façade allows opportunities for greater light transmission, additional views, and access to outdoor space.

Photo: Shai Gil

Permeability and openness were the primary design themes for the house. The transparency of the front of the home, in addition to its glazed rear elevation, blurs the bou...

Moriyama Teshima Architects opposes 'shock' closure of Ontario Science Centre in new letter

2024-06-26T15:26:00-04:00

Moriyama Teshima Architects has provided a statement in rebuke of the sudden closure of its late founder Raymond Moriyama’s beloved Ontario Science Centre in Toronto. The closure was announced Friday by the provincial government, citing the need for repairs in many of its RAAC roof panels in the interest of public safety.

The issue is another salient note in the controversial Ford administration-led plans to remove the structure as part of the proposed redevelopment of Ontario Place and has been called into question by critics Alex Bozikovic and Elsa Lam. Each responded with the position that the government's reading of the engineers' report is wrong and meant to favor prospects for a new development.

"The Rimkus engineering report makes it clear that closing the OSC is not a necessity," the letter states decidedly. "Repairs are needed, but on a manageable scale and with potentially minimal impact on the public experience of the building."

Legal challenge to block Toronto's controversial Ontario Place redevelopment fails in court

2024-06-24T17:06:00-04:00

The Art Newspaper is reporting on the failure of a legal challenge that would have blocked Toronto’s controversial plans to realize a massive spa complex on the site of Ontario Place after the provincial Superior Court of Justice’s June 11th decision.

The project is contentious on both heritage and environmental grounds and has likewise drawn ire from its reported costs north of $650 million CAD ($476 million USD) to taxpayers. Therme, the company behind the plan, had previously signed a 95-year lease with the city government.

The removal of Raymond Moriyama's Ontario Science Centre, which is at the heart of the issue, is also stirring debate after it closed abruptly last week over fears of collapse stemming from the flawed RAAC concrete materials used in its roof. All this is "based on a faulty business case" says a closer analysis from Elsa Lam.

BIG marks progress on Habitat 67-inspired KING Toronto development

2024-05-23T18:52:00-04:00

BIG Partner Kai-Uwe Bergmann has posted an update to the firm's new contribution to the Toronto skyline, KING Toronto. The scheme is being developed at over 600,000 square feet alongside Diamond Schmitt Architects for clients Westbank Corp and Allied Properties. The project, which began construction in mid-2020, is inspired by Moshe Safdie’s Habitat 67 design and will culminate at 16 stories while adding an “experimental” touch to the nightlife-rich King Street West corridor.

This is the firm’s third project for Westbank, following the new Vancouver House and Telus Sky development in Calgary.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kai-Uwe Bergmann (@kaiuwebergmann)

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...