May 27, 2008

Canada’s National Ballet School in Toronto.

Ontario projects dominate national urban design awards

National Ballet School, Corktown footbridge, lower Don Lands project and UOIT stand out

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

Projects in Toronto, Ottawa and Oshawa are in the winners’ circle in the 2008 national urban design awards program, scoring four of the top six non-student awards.

Winners include Canada’s National Ballet School in Toronto, the Corktown footbridge in Ottawa, the lower Don Lands in Toronto and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa.

“This year’s award submissions exemplify the importance of urban design in our lives, through a careful and deliberate blending of architecture, urban planning and landscape design,” said Blake Hudema, president of the Canada Institute of Planners (CIP).

The awards are presented by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC), the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects and CIP.

In the urban architecture category, the award went for the master planning of the ballet school’s Project Grand Jêté campus on Jarvis Street and the adjacent Radio City residential development.

In a backgrounder, the RAIC said the mixed-use development establishes a model for the “harmonious co-existence” of heritage and contemporary architecture and demonstrates broadly recognized urban planning principles that link the level of street life and diversity of activities to the level of safety in a neighbourhood.

One of the original goals was to help revitalize Jarvis Street.

“The design of the National Ballet School has received national and international coverage and numerous awards,” the jury said. “But its real urban success lies in the organization of the larger site, in the combination of cultural and intensive residential uses and in the inventive collaboration of the multi-disciplinary teams representing the dual clients.”

Lead firms were Goldsmith Borgal & Company Ltd. and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects in joint venture (Project Grand Jêté) and architectsAlliance (Radio City).

Ottawa’s Corktown footbridge project won in the civic design projects category. The project involved design and construction of a new pedestrian/cycle bridge over the historic Rideau Canal. Lead firms were Du Toit Allsopp Hillier/Du Toit Architects Ltd.

The Corktown foot bridge in Ottawa earned an urban design award.

Jurors were impressed with the “thoughtful” placement of the bridge’s alignment.

The lower Don Lands project scored a special jury award for sustainable development. The port lands estuary urban plan addresses 280 acres. Waterfront Toronto sought to transform the site into a new mixed-use development. The winning proposal crafted “an ecologically based and environmentally sensitive” approach that provides a long-term strategy for sustainable development. Lead firm was Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc.

The University of Ontario Institute of Technology won a special jury award for small or medium community urban design. The design concept for Ontario’s first laptop-based university is that of an academic village surrounding a landscaped outdoor quadrangle.

The University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa.

The jury perceived the project, in its edge-of-city setting, as an exemplary, sustainable prototype for the future expansion of the university. Lead firm was Diamond + Schmitt Architects.

The awards will be presented officially at the upcoming Architects Association of New Brunswick/RAIC conference and Festival of Architecture in Fredericton.

The other two winning non-student projects are from Montreal. Five other projects received certificates of merit. Details of these winners can be seen at www.raic.org.

“Our neighbourhoods and communities reflect who we are and affect every facet of our life,” said RAIC president Kiyoshi Matsuzaki.

“Through good design, whether through revitalization of existing urban areas or development of new ones, we can make our lives more pleasant and satisfying.

Print | Email | Comment