When RDHA was commissioned to design a new emergency generator tower to service Toronto’s Union Station, its architects saw an opportunity to design something more than a standard metal box. The enclosure, says principal Tyler Sharp, instead creates “an object of intrigue” for people driving past on Lakeshore Boulevard and the Gardiner Expressway.

Sharp’s concept took inspiration from the generator tower’s immediate neighbour: the 1930 Scott Street signal tower, a hip-roofed, Italianate structure designed by the Canadian Pacific Railway’s Chief Engineer of Buildings at the time, John Wilson Orrock.

The generator structure replicates the heritage building’s dimensions, tripartite massing, and roadway setback. In place of brick, it is rendered in lightly polished aluminum. Sections of the panels are angled open to allow for natural ventilation of the machinery within, adding texture and detail to the sculptural form. While the enclosure is rarely occupied, a service door is concealed at the east end of the façade. The result is a shimmering, abstracted twin of the nearly century-old structure.

Between the generator building and the signal tower, a concrete retaining wall is detailed with equal care: a curve at the base recalls the signal tower’s round-topped windows and gently curved roof lines, and a planter at the top will allow for ivy to cascade down its surface.

“We often get these down-and-dirty projects, and we fight to elevate them,” says Sharp. He reflects how in the 1930s, it was normal for utilitarian buildings such as the signal tower to be treated as civic architecture. “That was a generation where they put effort into infrastructure.” RDHA’s work on the accompanying generator tower aims to revive that spirit: “This is a generation that is trying to put effort into infrastructure.”

Even though the level of design involved is more complex—and convincing clients to invest in such projects can be challenging—the effort is worth it, says Sharp. “There’s so much that can be beautified in the city.”

The post Generating Interest: Scott Street Interlocking Signal Tower Generator, Toronto, Ontario appeared first on Canadian Architect.

TEXT Shannon Bassett

PHOTOS Vid Ingelevics and Ryan Walker

Something big is happening east of downtown Toronto. The Don River runs through one of Toronto’s major ravine systems, and is one of the most urbanized watersheds in North America. In the largest design and construction project of its kind currently underway in North America, crews are restoring the natural systems of the mouth of the Don River, where it empties out into Lake Ontario. The river, in its current configuration, is being moved.

It’s a monumental effort to carve a new river channel out of the existing industrial lands. This entails dismantling buildings, remediating soils, layering new habitat on top, and setting the stage for future development. This de-engineers over a century of development, and will ultimately recover the site’s deep ecological history as a dynamic estuary: the mouth of the Don River was once the largest freshwater wetland on the Great Lakes. But people are also a big part of the picture: the result will include large-scale urban parks, as well as an urban neighbourhood embedded in nature.

A landscape architecture firm—as opposed to an engineering firm—is leading the overall master planning and design efforts for this project. This meant that the design process for Villiers Island, as the landform defined by the re-directed river will be known, began with a close examination of the area’s ecology. Michael Van Valkenburgh and Associates (MVVA), the winner of a design competition for the masterplan in 2008, asked: How could the infrastructure of the river bed become the foundation for place-making in this part of Toronto? By considering the larger hydrological network and reconnecting to the Don River Ravine system, the scheme also designs for resiliency in the context of climate change.

The design strategy takes its form from the morphology of the Don River, rather than from colonial urban grid laid down by John Graves Simcoe in the late 1700s, or the Keating Channel that redirected the Don through a sharp 90-degree turn in 1893. A single, complex parkland is used to naturalize the mouth of the Don River, provide a floodway for storm events, and allow for recreational uses. Rather than attempting to restore back the site to a pre-settler “pastoral” condition, MVVA’s design for Villiers Island takes a more layered approach which reveals the site’s previous uses, including its industrial regimes, creating references between the restored ecologies, the river, and the City of Toronto itself.

Layers of context

Dating back to prehistoric times, Toronto was a meeting place for First Nations, and Ashbridges Bay was a fertile fishing and hunting ground. The site’s history as an Indigenous cultural landscape added another layer to the design. MVVA has integrated Indigenous professionals into the design team, and Waterfront Toronto has established a Memorandum of Understanding with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, which holds Treaty 13 with Toronto, moving their role towards partnership rather than simply consultation. This input has helped to inform the project, which for Indigenous stakeholders represents an important healing of the land and re-engagement with the river, providing renewed access to the water. The design of the area’s interconnected green spaces also support Indigenous-led programming: an event lawn includes a lookout and spaces for pow wows along the river, fire pits allow for ceremony, and gathering areas invite sunrise gatherings. The planting palette is also informed by Indigenous knowledge, with species chosen for their cultural and ecological importance to the pre-settler landscape.

The design is also attuned to the needs of local animal species. In the future Promontory Park, a restored wetland is already attracting local wildlife. Colourful flags have been strung up to protect the growing fish population from predatory birds until it is fully established. In other parts of the site, new sandy riverbanks are attractive to swallows: the ecological restoration team includes a trained falconer, who is charged with keeping the birds away until the landscape is completed—if they become established, nesting birds could mean a stop to construction.

Much of the design is geared towards protecting new development, as well as adjacent neighbourhoods, from flooding—but in a way that works with nature, rather than against it. In 1954, Hurricane Hazel brought 110-kilometre-per-hour winds and dropped 285 millimetres of rain on Toronto in 48 hours, resulting in widespread flooding that was exacerbated by the artificial mouth of the Don River. The new river valley in the Port Lands is designed to mitigate similar events: the river is set in a 30-metre-wide floodplain, with wetlands lining the river to act like a sponge, and a new channel helping to draw floodwaters out, conveying them to Lake Ontario. Nature trails allow the wetlands to be enjoyed during drier times; these trails would not be accessible during a flood event. More permanent programming is located at the top of the bank, including parks, picnic areas, and play structures.

Green infrastructure & the Villiers Island masterplan

Toronto-based Urban Strategies led the development of the Villiers
Island masterplan, which is currently being updated by O2 Planning & Design. Over the next several years, RFPs will be going out to developers, who will in turn be hiring architects to design the individual parcels.

All new development in the Portlands will follow design guidelines crafted by the City of Toronto in partnership with Waterfront Toronto. These guidelines will includes requirement for green infrastructure in all new developments, such as green roofs that will assist in Villiers Island’s role as an important flyway for North American bird migrations.

The urban plan also integrates innovation in its urban massing: the planned mid-rises maintain view corridors and gradually increase in height from south to north, giving the buildings greater access to sunlight. MVVA’s initial design proposal included the managing and conveying of stormwater flows from buildings through the streets into the parks, but this was not permitted under current city guidelines. A district energy plant is in the works for the Island as part of a 30-year plan.

The area will be home to some 10,000 residents, living in 5,000 residential units; schools and some 3,000 employment opportunities are also envisaged for the Island. Alternative mobilities are also part of the plans: the area is close to the East Harbour GO Train station and the new Ontario Rapid Transit Line, currently being built. The Toronto Waterfront Business Improvement Area is actively campaigning for funding to implement a light rail transit line that will traverse the area.

Villiers’ streets will include integrated pedestrian and bike systems; its waterways will invite boating—a shared kayak system is in the works. Four new bridges were added to the site, designed by Entuitive, Grimshaw Architects, and SBP—one of these, the Cherry Street North Bridge, is designated for a future transit line into the Port Lands. In several cases, the bridges currently span dry land, making the construction of supports easier. As a final step when the landscape is completed, plugs at the ends of the new waterway will be removed, allowing the river to be filled.

Conclusion

Introducing a naturalized river mouth, the plan for Villiers Island stands in contrast to the willful engineering of the Keating Channel, which forced the Don River into a right-angle turn towards Lake Ontario. The island also resists the existing Simcoe street grid to instead develop topography-sensitive diagonal elements and through-block pedestrian connections. It is itself an act of engineering, even more intense than the original redirection of the Don: a $1.25-billion effort, funded equally by all three levels of government, that has involved moving 1.4 million cubic metres of soil, roughly the volume of the Rogers Centre. The new riverbed and wetlands are set into place, rather than being open to changes over time, and fully lined to prevent groundwater contamination.

But rather than confronting nature, the landscape and urban design takes its cues from—and even strives to enhance—its ecological and environmental setting. It suggests how Canadian cities can be more sensitive to the topography of places and landscapes that were long stewarded by First Nations.

There is still more work to be done. It will be crucial to leverage the new development in order to advance equity, particularly in the face of Toronto’s housing shortage. This would include a targeted percentage of subsidized affordable housing units, as well as incentives for artists’ live-work studios, to maintain the historic presence of artists in the Port Lands from when it was an industrial zone. At the building and architectural scale, it will be instructive to push for architectural solutions which key into the larger site and ecological recoveries. How can the next iteration of the masterplan implementation, as well as the residential and mixed-use typologies, integrate relationships to larger ecological and hydrological systems? In addition to the already mandated green roofs, this might further include living walls, green infrastructure and other low-impact design strategies at the lot, block and neighbourhood scale.

As we move towards the increasingly dire need to design our coastal cities for resiliency, Villiers Island will serve as a best-case practice model. The project will usher in the next generation of sustainable waterfront developments, defining new relationships between nature and city, human and non-human, and the restoration of original Indigenous landscapes. It will help us reimagine—and rebuild—our cities, with green infrastructure and resilient communities at their heart.

Shannon Bassett is Canadian-American architectural and urban designer, and an assistant professor at Laurentian University’s McEwen School of Architecture, where she teaches architecture and urban design. She holds a Masters of Architecture in Urban Design from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

The post Recalibrating Infrastructure and Ecologies: Port Lands, Toronto, Ontario appeared first on Canadian Architect.

Most industry embodied carbon targets and benchmarks focus on architectural building materials, without considering the embodied carbon impact of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems. But more and more studies are now revealing just how significant the embodied carbon impacts of our MEP systems can be.

Integral Group recently completed a study comparing different residential space heating options in the UK. The embodied carbon emissions associated with a Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) split system, with refrigerant for heating and/or cooling, was about 800 kgCO2e/m2 over 60 years—equivalent to a third of a typical home’s total operational energy use over that time. Additionally, in a study of an eight-storey office building, we found that the mechanical system design’s embodied carbon could be, to our own astonishment, equivalent to that of the building’s structure and envelope combined.

Until now, the industry hasn’t been considering the embodied carbon emissions from the MEP equipment that enable our buildings to operate efficiently. Clearly, that needs to change.

Heavy Mass, All Metal, Frequent Replacement: A Perfect Recipe for High Embodied Carbon

Just how much do these MEP systems contribute to the overall mass in a building? One study by the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) estimates that the mass of MEP equipment in a typical office building in the U.S. Pacific Northwest can range from 14.6 to 22.7 kg/m2—roughly the weight of six four-litre water bottles stacked on each square metre. It would be far greater in labs, health care facilities or data centres.

MEP systems are made largely from high embodied carbon metals—for instance, aluminium for electric motors and heat exchangers; copper for internal pipework; rare earth metals for electric batteries and solar PVs; steel for enclosures, support rails, and ductwork; cast iron for pipework; and a combination of metals for boilers and chillers. Currently, due to the low recyclability of most of these equipment types, virgin metals need to be mined, treated, and processed—a highly energy intensive endeavour—to create new equipment. Moreover, since global mining is concentrated in a handful of countries, these metals must be transported over long distances to the manufacturing facilities where the final products are created. Ethical sourcing and forced labour issues are also a deep concern in the supply chain related to the mining, extraction, and manufacturing processes that create MEP systems.

These environmental impacts are compounded by how frequently equipment needs to be replaced. On average, HVAC equipment, including heat pumps and boilers, requires replacement every 20 years. Most lighting fixtures need to be replaced every three to seven years. This represents repeated carbon impacts during a building’s lifetime.

As more and more all-electric equipment is installed in buildings for cooling as well as heating, the use of refrigerants in such equipment skyrockets. Commonly used refrigerants, such as R410A or R134A, have very high global warming potential (GWP)—in the order of 1,000 times the impact of comparable volumes of CO2—and tend to leak into the atmosphere.

CIBSE TM65 enables consistent calculations at scale

In 2019, Integral decided to advance and share knowledge around embodied carbon in MEP designs, in order to make it a top priority for us and the building industry. One of the first things we realized was the need for an industry-wide methodology to assess the embodied carbon of MEP products. This would need to be developed in the absence of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs)—as there were (and still are) a limited number of MEP EPDs.

We have been working with the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) to develop this methodology, including addendums that show how to use this method globally. The methodology was published in early 2021 as Technical Memorandum (TM) 65. TM65 provides a consistent method to estimate the embodied carbon of MEP products when no EPDs are available. Our end goal is to create a knowledge bank and meaningful rules of thumb that can assist all engineers in making the right decisions early in the design, which is when we can have the most significant impact.

Today, many manufacturers that stepped up to provide information for TM65 calculations are asking us what next steps they can take to produce EPDs for their products. This is a huge win for the industry, and will escalate progress towards embodied carbon data transparency and accessibility for MEP systems.

Case Studies: the numbers speak for themselves

As part of this research effort, we have explored the embodied carbon of MEP designs at different levels, from the product to the overall building. Here are some examples of these studies.

Rooftop solar PV installations

In this technical report, we explored the embodied carbon impact of different rooftop solar PV installations in the UK, and compared them against the operational carbon benefits. When including all equipment associated with the installation of PV—inverters, cables, optimizers, support, etc.—we found that the overall embodied carbon impact over the 25-year-lifespan of a system was around 100 kgCO2e/m2 of the building’s footprint. This impact was more than offset by the operational carbon benefits of the system. We calculated that 2000 m2 of PV could generate 87% of the energy required by a UK school, while representing 16% of the school’s embodied carbon impact.

Residential heating systems

In CIBSE TM65.1, we looked at the embodied carbon of typical space heating and hot water systems in highly insulated new-build homes. Our study tested 13 different strategies in a notional three-bedroom terraced home and a two-bedroom apartment. Depending on the heating design strategy, we found that space heating and hot water systems could represent between 1% and 9% of the upfront embodied carbon impact, and over 60 years, between 3% and 25% of the total embodied carbon impact. When refrigerant leakage is included in the calculations, the embodied carbon impact of the space heating and hot water systems can reach 832 kgCO2e/m2 in the case of VRF systems—exceeding the total embodied carbon impact of the building’s initial construction.

MEP as share of an office building’s overall embodied carbon

In an early study, we found that, over 30 years, the impact of MEP can represent between 15%-49% of a commercial building’s total embodied carbon (including PV systems and refrigerant leakage). In the case of a retrofit, it can be up to 76%.

Key actions for architects

How can architects reduce the impact of the embodied carbon of MEP systems in their designs? Here are the key strategies that have emerged from our research so far.

1. Prioritize passive design. Take a “fabric first” approach and incorporate passive design strategies like good daylighting, natural ventilation, and sensible window-to-wall ratio to “design out” building services as much as possible. In CIBSE TM65.1, our research showed that upgrading the envelope performance from business-as-usual (30 W/m2 load) to Passive House design standard (10 W/m2) leads to a 40% embodied carbon reduction of the mechanical equipment alone.

2. Incorporate the philosophy of “less is more.” Assess the project program to determine where mechanical systems can be eliminated altogether. When they do need to be designed, collaborate with the project engineers to specify equipment with a lower weight. Look for efficiencies of scale, too. Our research has shown that having one, larger-capacity piece of equipment has a lower embodied carbon impact compared to multiple pieces of equipment providing the same total capacity. In another study, we found that by downsizing equipment and integrating it with architectural design (in this case, choosing a concrete slab with radiant cooling over a typical steel structure with VRF cooling) reduced the whole-life carbon emissions by at least 40% over a business-as-usual all-electric building.

3. Adopt circular thinking. Ensure easy access for equipment inspection, maintenance, and replacement. Specify products and components that can be easily demounted, disassembled, reused, or recycled at the end of their useful life. Give preference to manufacturers that offer take-back programs and promote Extended Product Responsibility. Additionally, explore Products as a Service (PaaS) models for leasing equipment, instead of owning it outright. Most MEP products are materials-intensive but have short lifespans. It’s important to work towards using those materials longer.

4. Mitigate refrigerant leakage. Increasing air pollution and warmer temperatures are requiring more mechanical cooling. Moreover, as electricity grids decarbonize, the use of heat pumps and variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems is becoming more widespread. When designed correctly, these systems can deliver significant reductions in energy demand. However, their operational carbon savings can be negated when the embodied carbon impact of refrigerant leakage is factored into the whole-life carbon emissions.

Refrigerant leakage varies by equipment type, and the GWP of different refrigerants also varies. Specify low-GWP refrigerants that have low leakage rates. Reduce the overall refrigerant charge by right-sizing equipment and, where possible, specify factory-sealed equipment to minimize leakage during transportation and installation. At the end of the product life, take the necessary steps to capture and recover 100% of the refrigerant during decommissioning.

To help engineers and other designers make informed decisions on selecting systems and refrigerants with the least environmental impact, we authored Refrigerants & Environmental Impacts: A Best Practice Guide.

5. Conduct Life Cycle Assessment early. Work with the engineer and LCA consultants to start developing and analyzing LCA models as early as possible in design. Iterate and refine the results to inform better design decisions. Think holistically about operational and embodied carbon impacts, as these are highly interconnected when it comes to MEP systems.

6. Ask for EPDs. Advocate for data transparency by requiring product-specific EPDs during bidding and procurement. When EPDs are unavailable, methodologies such as CIBSE TM65 can be used to calculate the embodied carbon impacts associated with MEP systems.

7. Support the MEP 2040 Challenge. Working with the Carbon Leadership Forum, Integral Group is one of the founding signatories of the MEP 2040 Challenge. This initiative calls for MEP engineering firms to work towards total lifecycle decarbonization, including embodied and operational carbon. As an architect, your support of this challenge is valuable, as it contributes to helping raise awareness of this issue throughout the industry.

8. Don’t forget operational carbon along the way—it’s all about Whole Life Carbon thinking. Shifting our focus away from operational carbon and solely onto embodied carbon would be a mistake. Instead, we must adopt a Whole Life Carbon approach to designing our buildings, which considers both operational and embodied carbon. We are involved in different industry working groups, such as ASHRAE and CIBSE, to create more knowledge on this next frontier.

Energy efficiency should remain a top priority, but we also need to broaden our thinking to ensure that we also select the lowest embodied carbon options available with the lowest GWP refrigerant. The time for action is now!

Louise Hamot (M. Arch, MSc Eng,) is the Global Lead of Sustainable Innovation at Integral Group and has been instrumental in creating industry knowledge about MEP embodied carbon. She is the primary author of CIBSE TM65 – Embodied Carbon Calculation for Building Services Equipment, and several studies on the subject.

Kanika Arora Sharma is an Associate Principal and the Sustainability team lead for Integral’s USW offices. She spearheads Whole Life Carbon work in the US, working closely with clients to deliver high-value, high-quality analysis, starting early in design through construction and procurement, for better decision-making on embodied carbon emissions reductions.

Jeremy Field is a Senior Sustainability Officer based in Integral’s Vancouver office.

The post Hiding in Plain Sight: Embodied Carbon & MEP Systems appeared first on Canadian Architect.

In architecture competitions, the runner-up scheme is sometimes the most interesting one. That’s the case in the recent Re-imagining Railways design competition, run by RIBA and Network Rail, which aimed to rethink Britain’s over 2,100 small and medium-sized railway stations. The winning proposal, by Edinburgh-based 7N Architects, is an elegant design with a beacon-like clock tower and a modular station layout. But a more impactful and unexpected re-thinking of the nature of infrastructure can be seen in the proposal by Toronto’s Workshop Architecture, one of five finalists selected from over 200 entrants.

Workshop co-founder Helena Grdadolnik was familiar with rural British rail stations from a stint working in the UK. “They were often an unpleasant 30-minute walk outside of town, and not that visible from the road. If you didn’t know where you were going, you wouldn’t necessarily see them,” she says. The fact that many of the buildings are shuttered, more than half of the stations are unstaffed, and few have washrooms, all make the experience even more uncomfortable—especially, say, for a woman travelling alone at night. According to Network Rail’s surveys, 61 percent of passengers do not feel safe at its 1,192 unstaffed stations.

Workshop determined that the core issues with Network Rail’s stations wouldn’t be solved with nice new buildings, but would need to start instead with having a person on-site at each and every station. In their vision, a station agent—not an employee of the railway, but a local selected through an open call process—holds the keys to the site and fosters its use by other local groups.

“The agent could be an individual, a collective, a not-for-profit or a social enterprise. They could be a gardener-in-residence, an outreach worker or a yoga instructor. They could manage a community kitchen, run a farm store or a book exchange,” writes Workshop. “The role can help to remove the operational barriers that keep Network Rail from allowing small stations to have green landscaping, public amenities and a fence with wide openings and multiple entry points.”

While paying for an extra person may make the project seem like a non-starter, research shows that every $1 spent through such a partnership scheme would generate over $4.60 in community benefits, increased rail ticket sales, and reduced crime and vandalism. Moreover, local stewardship could allow the rail stations to become community living rooms, says Workshop, “with cats, plants, rugs and mugs.”

The proposal also saves money in its thrifty approach to the station buildings, which advocates for renovating existing structures. Such retrofits would aim to enhance their energy performance, and to convert single-purpose waiting rooms into maker spaces, galleries, and community halls.

For sites where new buildings must be created, the team envisaged bridge-like structures, with an elevated indoor community space that doubles as a pedestrian crossing over the rails. These projects would piggy-back onto an already-planned rollout of accessible footbridges. “Constructing a station building and footbridge together will minimize disruption, save costs, and be a more efficient use of resources,” writes Workshop.

Site planning was not part of the original design brief. Workshop nonetheless suggested that it would be key to readjust site plans to focus on pedestrians rather than parking and improve accessible access to the rail platforms. In their vision, the platforms are widened to add allotment gardens, pollinator planting beds, and shaded rest areas.

While the project did not win—in part, Grdadolnik thinks, because they did not develop a showpiece building the way that Network Rail expected—she still values the experience of developing the proposal. She believes it’s important to put architectural thinking to work not only in designing buildings, but in unpacking multi-faceted problems linked to the built environment. “For me, it’s a dream project to look at a system,” she says, “and to try to make a meaningful improvement that isn’t about our ego or a visual, but about improving people’s lives.”

The post Editorial: Station Agent appeared first on Canadian Architect.

In 1932, construction began on Toronto’s Victoria Park Water Filtration Plant and Pumping Station. Designed by architect Thomas Canfield Pomphrey and engineers Gore, Nasmith and Storrie, it held forty filtration beds, making it the city’s largest facility for cleaning and disinfecting water drawn from Lake Ontario, for safe use as drinking water. By the time it was completed, in 1941, it was known as “the palace of purification.” A few years later, it was renamed in honour of Ronald Caldwell Harris, the visionary Commissioner of Works that conceived of the plant.

Over the course of a year, architectural photographer Amanda Large documented the buildings and grounds of the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant. “I wanted to spend some time revisiting a place over and over, getting to know how it changes in the light and in the seasons,” says Large, who first became aware of the plant when an architecture professor assigned Michael Ondaatje’s novel In the Skin of a Lion. Her photographs, taken with film, digital cameras, drones, and polaroids, capture the plant’s enduring architecture, but also its ongoing life as a working facility—and a place integral to the life of the city.

The post Longview: R.C. Harris Water Filtration Plant appeared first on Canadian Architect.

PROJECT 9th Avenue Parkade + Innovation Centre, Calgary, Alberta

ARCHITECTS 5468796 Architecture in collaboration with Kasian Architecture, Interior Design and Planning

TEXT Trevor Boddy

PHOTOS James Brittain

On the long list of architectural virtues, “future proofing” is a particularly tricky one to pull off. Most fundamentally, which future is to be proofed? Is future proofing a mere hedging of bets, or one of the few ways to guarantee success in a constantly changing world? What is to be done when we lack certainty about the future? Because of climate change, the hypotheticals multiplied by hypotheses that are inevitable components of future proofing will become ever more important, particularly in large public constructions.

Calgary’s near-downtown East Village is home to Canada’s largest and most intriguing investigation of future proofing to date. Designed by the collaborative team of 5468796 Architecture and Kasian Architecture, Interior Design and Planning, this huge above-grade parking garage with room for 509 cars is conceived for a time—thought not-too-distant—when there will be diminished need (or no need at all) for its trays of automobile storage. This is a major public building with its own transformation built into every detail, a bulbous chrysalis containing the DNA of a lyrical butterfly that all hope will one day flutter out over the good green world.

The short-term reasons for the $80-million Parkade and Platform Innovation Centre were real and urgent. The site along 9th Avenue S.E. is close to the major concert hall, theatres and galleries of Arts Commons, Calgary’s equivalent to Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles. It is just down the block from Snøhetta and DIALOG’s acclaimed Central Library (which has no parking at all), and nearby the museum of music, performance spaces and nightclubs of Allied Works and Kasian’s National Music Centre (also with no parking). The new residents and businesses of the East Village neighbourhood face parking mayhem when multiple events coincide, despite this entire zone and even individual buildings like the library being bisected by a LRT line.

The Parkade complex is the last facility that will ever be constructed by the Calgary Parking Authority. This quasi-civic agency had powers to collect fees from developers of downtown towers to construct more efficient and better located shared garages. When oil prices tanked in 2014, it was quickly evident that the city faced a serious glut of office space, which has only gotten worse since—meaning much reduced revenues to the Parking Authority. As a result, the Authority was wound down in 2021, with much of its remaining funds (which they were contractually bound to use to build parking and mobility facilities) dedicated to the Parkade site. The Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC), a successful agency that catalyzes private development with public investments throughout the East Village, was charged with overseeing the project.

A few years back, CMLC had worked with Johanna Hurme and Sasa Radulovic of the leading-edge Winnipeg firm 5468796 on a modest pavilion-like shed for an East Village community garden. Impressed with the team’s dynamism and creative flair, demonstrated through their ingenious design on a limited budget, CMLC engaged them again for the Parkade project, adding the ballast of Kasian’s production and construction oversight expertise as architects of record. CMLC President and CEO Kate Thompson states that from the very beginning, “design excellence was one of our key goals—it was never to be a conventional garage, nor to look like one.” This is the largest building ever constructed by 5468796, and the trust these Winnipeggers received from the CMLC hearkens back to another, more generous era for Canadian architects under 50—when Erickson and Massey got to design SFU after solely crafting wooden houses, when Douglas Cardinal designed a university for Grande Prairie after a church, when Granville Island was Hotson Bakker’s first project, and when John Andrews was entrusted with a huge swath of Toronto rail-lands after a string of academic buildings.

Hurme and Radulovic found a way to accommodate the garage that also left valuable sites for the CMLC to sell for development at either end of the parkade when the boom returns, as it surely will. This is future proofing of a financial sort—no surprise given Hurme’s experience as Chair of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce. However, that ideal placement was crossed by a curving underground LRT alignment, one that required several storeys of overhead clear span above it: what Thompson describes as “a complicated piece of land.” This necessitated huge trusses at mid-project, and a ramp up through the first two storeys. Those two floors are allocated to CMLC’s development partner, the Platform Innovation Centre, which is an incubator for start-ups and workshops—an investment in fostering a Calgary economy beyond oil and gas. With a site strategy and program set, the future proofing ambition now needed to pass from good intentions to the crafting of building details that would ensure long-term flexibility.

Polyvalent Details

Achieving future proofing meant that 5468796 and Kasian had to consider many key building details according to two different criteria—as an efficient parking structure, as well as for partial or complete conversion to housing, offices or light industrial workshops. Design is difficult enough for large public buildings, but simultaneously achieving both initial and end-goal functionality required the kind of creative thinking that is 5468796’s hallmark.

Most architects recognize the huge concentration of embodied energy in concrete structures, and aim to adaptively reuse them when possible, but parking garages aren’t readily converted to other uses. The biggest impediment to the reuse of parking garages is their sloping floors, with spiral ramps being particularly difficult to adapt, and very expensive to demolish. In addition, the large floorplates of parking structures mean a lot of area far from perimeters and potential windows—making them hard to convert into inhabited spaces, such as offices or housing.

5468796 and Kasian’s solution for this is to run an open-to-above atrium along almost the whole length of the site. This creates shallow flanking floor plates only 40 feet wide, with the additional benefit of increased penetration of daylighting into parking areas. The bright, open sense of the Parkade makes it an unusually pleasant place to park, whether you’re driving a Pontiac or a Porsche.

Early sketches and diagrams showed that the block-long project would allow for parking floors with two-way traffic winding all the way to the top on slopes of only 1%-2%, without internal ramps. Hurme and Radulovic determined that office and workshop uses to come could readily tolerate slopes of this order. Any future housing would require new wood-framed floors, which could be designed for flatness. The only ramp in this huge parkade runs from its entrance at 9th Avenue and 3rd Street S.E., up through the Innovation Centre floors to the first parking level. From this point on up, there is one continuous, gently sloping spiral circuit, with the heroic open atrium at its centre. This breakthrough idea so pleased Radolovic he nicknamed the project “the Cathedral of Cars,” and designed a logo for the complex based on a stylized “figure 8, the infinity symbol set upright,” derived from its overall floor plan. He then evolved an original font from these shapes, that has now been installed in wayfinding signage of his design.

Adding to future convertibility, floor-to-floor heights are higher than in most garages, allowing for amenity as living or working spaces. Recognizing that the shear walls typical of mid-rise concrete structures can limit flexibility, Radulovic explains that the Parkade instead “distributes lateral forces to wider columns, eliminating cross-bracing or shear walls that would impede convertibility.” Structural bearing capacity, elevators, stairwells and stand-pipes were sized to accommodate future light industrial, residential and commercial occupancies, minimizing the scope of work required in future. Bringing polyvalency down to the detail level, the parkade guard rails can be directly reused as future residential or commercial balcony rails, without further adaptation. “We believe in multi-functional uses that could serve across typologies,” says Radulovic. The design is such that conversion can start on any parking floor, and in any sequence top to bottom.

The continuous circuit is the reason that both ends of the Parkade are rounded, making the overall plan “pill-shaped,” in the words of the designers. The rounded ends have a radius sufficient to accommodate pie-shaped residential units—perhaps akin to the cylindrical disc of apartments on stilts in 5468796’s 62M project in Winnipeg (see CA, Nov 2018). Flexibility and inter-changeability are features of their Bloc 10 housing and many other projects, and the extensive diagrams of conversion options show their intellectual finesse in applying lessons from small projects to this, their largest. The rounded ends and super-scale of the project give it the appearance of an ocean liner, gleaming in the sharp Alberta sun.

On the exterior, the Parkade is ringed by aluminum pipes, hung vertically. At ground level, the pipes angle upwards around the car entrance at 3rd Street S.E., and form a shallower sine wave around the pedestrian entrance to the Innovation Centre. A surprisingly dynamic streetscape for passing cars and pedestrians results, the verticality and variation of the suspended tubes providing scale and continuity. True to their future proofing ethos, these sets of aluminum pipes (which the designers poetically name “the guard shroud”) can be readily recycled when uses of the building begin to change.

Even more mysterious shiny objects are found inside. Mirrored half spheres, attached to the soffits of parking ceilings in their curving sections, qualified as public art, but also have the practical function of serving as warning mirrors for cars approaching round the corner (yet more polyvalency in details). Even more eccentric are knee-high precast concrete spheres anchored to the ground floor, which serve as traffic bollards. When I visited the site on a summer weekend, the landscape of spheres were welcome playscape elements for the skate-boarders and pick-up basketball players gathered there. Lively, diverse and light-filled, the Parkade feels like no other garage I have seen; 5468796 are Canada’s reigning champions of whimsy driven by practicality.

Similarly shiny is the 5468796-designed interior fit-up for the Innovation Centre, with its ingenious use of standard scaffold elements to form pitch theatres, stairs, meeting areas, amphitheatres and so on. The new technology firms, consultancies and fabricators who will use these spaces will have enormous flexibility to adapt them to their needs using this simple kit of parts. Radulovic compares the underlying ethos to the adaptable factory model of Carmen Corneil and Jeffrey Stinson’s Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University, rather than the over-determined elegance of NADAAA and Adamson Associates’ John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at One Spadina.

The Price of Convertability

The designers opine that the Parkade needs to “last fifty years as a parkade, and another fifty after conversion.” Creating this flexibility with shallow floor plates, the inclusion of an atrium, high floor-to-floor heights, avoidance of perimeter beams and so on required a premium on building structure of about 25 percent, Radulovic says. As is the case for much new architectural thinking, there was pushback when it was revealed the Parkade would have some of the most expensive price-per-stall costs of any Calgary parking garage. That popular press critique is not really fair, as the Parkade has the programmatic complication of the Innovation Centre, the structural implications of the cross-site underground LRT line, and the commitment to easy conversion to multiple new uses.

Future proofing requires architects to be smart, flexible and unburdened by convention and ‘lookism.’ The Parkade demonstrates that it takes double the design energy and a bit more initial investment, but this should pay off with many times the flexibility to emerging needs. Few doubt that because buildings endure for decades or even centuries, architects have special duties to serve both current masters and long-term needs. As the era of sustainability fades into a more pro-active period of resilience, the ideas, diagrams and built experiments of the Parkade will be tested over the years to come. “We choose not to wear Green on our sleeves,” says Radulovic of this long-term approach, “but instead look for something new and practical.” It will take a long time to evaluate the practicality and value of the Parkade, but the richness of its ideas will make the wait worthwhile—and one day, we’ll have proof.

University of Calgary graduate Trevor Boddy FRAIC has just published the lead essay “Enclaves of Invention: Inside the Architecture of D’Arcy Jones” in a new book from Dalhousie Architectural Press.

CLIENT Calgary Municipal Land Corporation + Calgary Parking Authority | ARCHITECT TEAM 5468796—Emeil Alvarez, Pablo Batista, Ken Borton, Jordy Craddock, Eric Decumutan, Donna Evans, Ben Greenwood, Johanna Hurme, Jeff Kachkan, Stas Klaz, Lindsey Koepke, Kelsey McMahon, Colin Neufeld, Sasa Radulovic, Amanda Reis, Matthew Trendota, Shannon Wiebe. Kasian—Katherine Robinson, Joanne Sparkes, Tesfa Mulat, Fredrick Voo, Bart Otwinowski, Melody Zaleschuk | STRUCTURAL Entuitive | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Smith + Andersen | LANDSCAPE Scatliff Miller Murray | CIVIL Aplin Martin | SHROUD Heavy Industries | ACCESSIBILITY Level Playing Field | AREA 26,500 m2 Parkade + 4,650 m2 Innovation Centre | BUDGET $80 M | COMPLETION Winter 2022

The post Proofing the Future: 9th Avenue Parkade + Innovation Centre, Calgary, Alberta appeared first on Canadian Architect.

The infrastructure required to process water—both as it enters our cities and homes, and returns to our lakes and streams—is vital to our everyday lives, and often taken for granted. Buildings that elevate this infrastructure underscore the importance of water, and the right to clean water for all. Through architecture, these often invisible systems enter the public eye, and begin to solidify the place of waterworks in our collective consciousness.

Stormwater Facility by gh3*

Toronto, Ontario

TEXT Elsa Lam

The most recent project by Toronto-based architecture and landscape firm gh3* is actually one of its first. Architect Pat Hanson and her team were awarded the contract to design a stormwater facility on Toronto’s waterfront in 2009—just three years after their firm was established. The initial design, for a stone-clad building half the size of the present facility, came in over the budget at the time, and was subsequently put on hold.

Since that time, the development of the east waterfront area has progressed by leaps and bounds. A larger facility was required, to not only handle stormwater runoff from the Canary District as per the original remit, but also from the developing East Bayfront and part of the Portlands.

After an initial filtration that removes debris, urban runoff from these areas travels to a 20-metre-diameter, 90-metre-deep shaft at the west end of the site, marked at ground level by a supersized radial grate. From here, it’s siphoned into the main treatment plant—a path visualized by surface paving patterns—then cleansed for a return trip into a separate outer ring in the shaft. The purified water is deposited into the nearby Keating Channel.

The treatment plant itself houses two floors of equipment—flocculation tanks, fine sand filters, UV purification—all wrapped in a sculptural form. “It’s conceived as a series of manipulations of a simple volume, to show the shedding of the water,” says architect Pat Hanson. She adds that the involvement of Waterfront’s Design Review Panel pushed the design to become even more “expressive in showing the passage of the water.” This resulted in an integrated gutter that traces the path of rainwater from the roof, down the walls, and into a drain along the building’s perimeter. The canted roof is further accentuated by a triangular skylight and an array of chevron snow guards.

Because the industrial nature of the facility created latitude for experimentation, the construction is the inverse of a typical wall section: the exterior is a 400-mm-thick cast-in-place concrete wall, with insulation and a rainscreen concrete block wall on the inside. In the past year since its opening, the exposed concrete has taken on some hairline cracks, which Hanson says are to be expected, and don’t affect the concrete’s strength. Over time, she expects that it will continue to acquire patina, with the once-pristine surface picking up urban pollution and the gutters darkened by water stains. “Once it gets dirtied up, it’s fine,” says Hanson. “It falls into line with the Gardiner [Expressway] and railway tracks, it fits in.”

The facility is currently surrounded with chain-link fences and hemmed in by adjacent construction sites. But in a few years, it will develop a public presence. The urban plans for the area include re-routing Lakeshore Boulevard to run directly in front of the site, bringing cyclists, pedestrians, and car traffic alongside a large window that invites views of the machinery inside. A new plinth, planned for the south side of the building, will create a public plaza centered on the sculptural landmark, looking over the road towards Lake Ontario.

CLIENT Waterfront Toronto and Toronto Water | ARCHITECT TEAM Pat Hanson, Raymond Chow, Elise Shelley, Richard Freeman | PRIME CONSULTANT RV Anderson | STRUCTURAL / MECHANICAL / ELECTRICAL RV Anderson | LANDSCAPE gh3* | INTERIORS gh3* | CONTRACTOR Graham Construction | WASTE WATER WSP | SOILS & ENVIRONMENTAL GHD | AREA 600 m2 (building); 6460 m2 (site) | BUDGET Withheld | COMPLETION May 2021

Galt Water Intake by Smith Vigeant architectes

Montreal, Quebec

LOCATION Montreal, Quebec

ARCHITECt Smith Vigeant Architectes

tEXT Odile Hénault

PHOTOS David Boyer

A recently unveiled building, which punctuates Montreal’s eight-kilometre-long Promenade de l’Aqueduc, is intriguing. It stands out as an unusual object in a park, particularly striking on foggy days and at night, when it turns into a giant lantern. Officially a water intake station, this project is a far cry from the industrial, corrugated metal-clad buildings that usually house municipal infrastructures. Its striking presence was celebrated by the Ordre des architectes du Québec in its 2022 Awards of Excellence.

The 35-metre-long, 12.5-metre-wide, 9-metre-high box is set on a park-like promenade much appreciated by the neighbourhood’s residents, who kept a close watch over the project from the moment the City of Montreal’s Drinking Water Division made its intentions public. Smith Vigeant architectes, who were selected from a shortlist of three firms, fully understood what was at stake in terms of public acceptance. And they started dreaming. “We wanted to create a significant gesture that would go beyond the building’s function,” says architect Daniel Smith. “We were looking for a visual signature that would enliven the public space, while reminding passersby what a precious resource water is.”

The building plays an essential role in Montréal’s drinking water system, acting as a first clean-up station for raw water drawn from the St. Lawrence River. Four screening devices operate 24 hours a day, catching algae, branches, and other debris carried by the river. The only manual operation performed in the fully automated water intake facility is cleaning the screens on a regular basis. Once the water has gone through this primary process, it is channeled towards an underground conduit that leads to the Atwater Water Treatment Plant, 900 metres away. Ultimately, water treated in this plant will reach 40% of Montreal homes.

The program stressed the need for a highly secure and energy-efficient facility, which resulted in heavily insulated walls and a green roof. The planted roof not only addressed energy issues, but also was seen as one way of compensating for the loss of park space on the ground, a concern strongly voiced by the Borough of Verdun’s residents. Another major factor that impacted the shape and height of the building was the close proximity of high voltage power lines on the site.

The concept chosen by the architects appeared in their very first sketches, where they played with stripes of colour meant to represent the ever-changing nature of water. The green roof was present from the start, as was a dark mineral base, today made of concrete bricks in three tones of anthracite grey. The initial poetic intention remained paramount for both the client and the architect. “The building’s appearance and its impact on its immediate surroundings were top priorities,” says Daniel Smith.

The four façades in the windowless structure were clad with 30-centimetre-wide horizontal aluminium bands, painted in seven distinct shades, from almost white, to turquoise, to dark blue. Roughly 60 centimetres in front of this first layer is a second skin, made of vertical translucent glass panels. The superimposition creates a subtle shimmering effect and, rather unexpectedly, gives the façades a pixelated appearance.

One of the most evocative spaces of this intake station is the narrow corridor running between the façades’ glass and metal skins. Inaccessible to the public—as is the rest of the building—this service corridor will somehow remain as a fleeting presence, only to be seen by technical staff.

In its own modest way, this small intake station is linked to a remarkable tradition of architecturally significant infrastructural works. It may not be as eloquent as the grand Italianate Atwater Water Treatment Plant (1918) or as Toronto’s Art Deco R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant (1941), which inspired Michael Ondaatje’s novel In the Skin of a Lion. But Montreal’s new water intake facility does emphasize the importance of investing in public architecture, however humble its function.

Quebeckers, who seem to live under a collective delusion that water is an unlimited resource, are among Canada’s highest users—and wasters—of domestic water. Hopefully, this rather unique project will help raise awareness of the essential role water plays in our lives and of the importance of using it wisely. Let us also hope the leadership shown here by the City of Montreal will have an impact on future infrastructure projects across Quebec and the rest of the country.

Architectural writer Odile Hénault is a regular contributor to Canadian Architect. 

CLIENT City of Montreal drinking water division in collaboration with the borough of verdun | ARCHITECT TEAM Daniel Smith (MRAIC), Anik Malderis, Mariana Segui, Jennifer Dykes, Stéphan Vigeant, Sabrina Charbonneau | STRUCTURAL / MECHANICAL / ELECTRICAL Hatch | CONTRACTORS Procova and CRT | AREA 381 m2 | BUDGET $3M | COMPLETION June 2021

Clayton Water Reservoir by Local Practice

Hazelgrove Park, Surrey, British Columbia

TEXT Courtney Healey

Water is life. Throughout human history, people have built systems that capture and convey this life-sustaining force allowing communities to grow and flourish. Today, while inter-jurisdictional uncertainties continue to complicate the provision of safe drinking water on First Nations reserve lands across Canada, bringing clean water to new municipal settlements like East Clayton in Surrey, BC, is a complex but achievable endeavour. Turning that infrastructure into poetry is next level.

The need for the Clayton reservoir dates back to 1996, when Surrey City Council identified East Clayton as a suitable area for new development. But it was only over the past decade that dense new subdivisions started rolling out across this former agricultural area and the shared unceded traditional territory of the Katzie, Semiahmoo, and Kwantlen Nations, who have been its stewards since time immemorial.

Designed by Local Practice, a Vancouver-based firm co-founded by Michel Labrie and Matthew Woodruff, the Clayton Reservoir earned a 2019 Canadian Architect award. Since its completion in 2020, it has largely fulfilled the design team’s goal: “to create an object of integrity without attention seeking,” in Woodruff’s words. He says that infrastructure like this is “foundational for a stable society‚“ and “should make visible the necessary work of living with dynamic natural systems.” Indeed, the water that feeds the reservoir is in constant motion, flowing from mountaintops through a vast downstream system of dams, water mains, and pump stations managed by Metro Vancouver, the body responsible for regional water service. Clayton is one of over 20 storage reservoirs near the end-point of the system, which fill up overnight to meet peak early morning demand. The increased storage capacity at Clayton will help the community weather increasingly warm and dry summers.

Woodruff’s involvement with the Clayton reservoir started in 2010, with a feasibility study that located the structure at the north end of a new park. This early decision was key to the project’s success, creating a strong edge to the green space, and making room for sport fields and other outdoor amenities. The reservoir will eventually double in size to meet demand as the neighbourhood is fully built-out, and Local Practice’s design accommodates this expansion through a mirroring of the plan to the north.

Design decisions are few, but effective at bringing down the perceived scale and mass of the reservoir. Rounded corners ease the eye around the edges, while a strong horizontal datum humanizes the height. Two patterns of undulating precast cladding modulate the surface, with a light gray billowing convex surface above, and a dark gray concave scalloped surface below.

Beyond its essential work, the Clayton Reservoir serves as a quiet backdrop to Hazelgrove Park. On sunny days, it acts like a movie screen, its surface alive with shifting sunlight, clouds and the shadows of waving trees. It’s a calming architectural presence, with a materiality that offers subtle visual cues to the important work going on behind the facade. Investing in infrastructure and making it visible is a noble goal. It would be wonderful to celebrate the delivery of clean water through beautiful infrastructure like this to all communities across Canada.

Courtney Healey is an architect and writer living and working on the unceded traditional territories of the xwməθkwə’yəm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwəta?l (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

CLIENT Metro Vancouver | ARCHITECT TEAM Evelyne Bouchard, Geoff Cox, Heidi Nesbitt, Justin Power, Maddi Slaney, Mallory Stuckel, Matthew Woodruff (MRAIC), Melanie Wilson | ENGINEERING LEAD AND PRIME CONSULTANT Associated Engineering (B.C.) Ltd. | CONTRACTOR Westpro / Pomerleau | LANDSCAPE space2place | GEOTECHNICAL Golder & Associates | AREA 3,500 m2 | BUDGET Withheld | COMPLETION Fall 2020

The post Water Ways: Projects by gh3*, Local Practice, and Smith Vigeant architectes appeared first on Canadian Architect.

PROJECT Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage, Edmonton, Alberta

ARCHITECTS gh3* (design architect) with Morrison Hershfield (prime consultant)

PHOTOS gh3*

One of the few lazy diagonals in a hard-working grid-iron city, Edmonton’s Fort Road is well-named. Dating from the 18th century and by far the oldest street in the city, Fort Trail—now renamed to the blander Fort Road—is a former First Nations then Settler ox-cart trail that meandered from Fort Edmonton to Fort Saskatchewan. During the past hundred and fifty years, first a rail line, then a light rail transit corridor arrived to flank its path.

Fort Road is also the unlikely location of two pioneering works by top Toronto architects, separated by two generations. A spirit of innovation and of taking workplaces very seriously links the two buildings constructed on this site: Eric Arthur’s 1936 Canada Packers Plant and Pat Hanson’s Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage, completed last year in its place.

When Canada Packers planned an ultra-modern meat-packing plant at the height of the Great Depression, they turned to Eric Arthur, a New Zealand-born University of Toronto architecture professor who had worked for Sir Edwin Lutyens. They asked him for a contemporary, no-nonsense design, which was realized in association with the workhorse firm of Anthony Adamson.

Built in red brick just as this building material was falling out of favour in Alberta, the resulting building—with its unapologetic programmatic expressionism, rounded corners and bold massing—earned my appraisal, in Modern Architecture in Alberta (1987), as Edmonton’s first pure example of modernism. Arthur’s design was published and exhibited internationally as a paradigm of the new functionalist style, winning a Gold Medal at the 1937 London Exhibition of Architecture and Allied Arts. The same is true of the recently demolished Calgary concrete grain terminal so beloved by Le Corbusier, and published by him in Towards a New Architecture. These two remain the most famous and influential Alberta buildings of the first half of the 20th century.

Eric Arthur went on to become a prominent preservationist and author of the classic book Toronto: No Mean City. The Canada Packers plant, for its part, fell into disuse in the 1980s, and was bought by a devel­oper and demolished in 1995, save for its landmark 50-metre-high smokestack (which had long spread a perpetual smell of bacon over this entire quarter of the city!) Vancouver has a smaller sister Canada Packers building by Eric Arthur on Terminal Avenue, which is also now threatened with demolition, despite its similar renown. Unlike mayor’s houses, churches and art galleries, workplaces are Dangerfields that don’t get no architectural respect.

Fast forward eighty years, and a similarly distinguished Toronto architect was awarded the commission for a massive transit bus facility on the site of Arthur’s Canada Packers plant. Pat Hanson and her firm of gh3* are one of the beneficiaries of Edmonton’s enlightened procurement program for civic buildings, under the direction of City architect Carol Bélanger (see CA, August 2021 and July 2015).  Hanson and her firm have designed two park pavilions, a fire hall and the Borden Park natural swimming pool for the City of Edmonton. The project for Edmonton Transit is larger than all their public buildings combined.

Twinkling mischievously when seen passing by on Fort Road, the new Kathleen Andrews Transit Centre is a beguiling and serene sight, with its long walls of shimmering reflective metal skin punctuated by stairwells. On their public sides, these stairwells are capped by topographic contours set vertically, a highly successful public art installation. The design by gh3*, in association with Morrison Hershfield Consulting Engineers, is no dumb big box—it’s a far cry from a generic Amazon fulfillment centre or Canadian Tire mega-warehouse. At a time when major employment hubs like these have become the crudest of space enclosures, with barely an inflection evident from their architects, Hanson and her team have applied architectural sophistication to the Andrews Garage’s every element, inside and out, floor plan and elevational grandeur.

The entire layout shows deep respect for the important civic business of driving, repairing and storing city buses, including both conventional gas-powered vehicles and a growing fleet of electric buses. Since contaminated soil from previous uses (imagine what dripped down during 50 years of slaughterhouse operations!) had to be removed, bus drivers can park under the main bus level in this excavated zone converted to employee’s garage, avoiding outside treks at -35°C from a staff parking lot. The atrium-lobby, locker and change rooms, and meeting spaces for the union and community groups are all unusually dignified and handsome. 

Part of the same sensibility of deep respect for the art and craft of driving buses, the complex is named after Kathleen Andrews, Edmonton Transit’s first female bus-driver in the 1970s, after a campaign by her daughter advocating for the building to be named after an employee, not some civic worthy or forgotten bureaucrat. Not only is this tough and functional piece of urban infrastructure designed by one of the leading women in Canadian architecture, but it is named after a woman who wheeled out her bus daily from a less amenable bus barn—there were no female washrooms, at first. From its palette of finishes, landscape embellishments, and amenities for workers to its very name, the Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage is a proud burnishment of Edmonton’s deserved reputation as a blue-collar city.

The Garage sits at a good spot to send buses on their way—the intersection of the Yellowhead Trail (the Highway 16 version of the Trans-Canada Highway) with Fort Road. According to Pat Hanson, both the overall site layout and internal organization of the building “are all about vehicular movement—from the booker’s shack [where staffing is set], to the caddyshack [where drivers check in], to where they drop their accumulated coin fares at the end of a shift.” From the girdling circuit of bus routes into and out of the garage, Hanson and her team were determined to “let the footprint be what it wants to be: perfect for the maneuvering of buses.” The roadways are set on a circuit, with a huge room for the storage of up to 300 idle buses, packed head to tail, and another section of 35 diagonal drive-through bays for maintenance and repairs, a string of inductive plate charging stations for electric buses, a gas-station for conventional ones, and a bus-wash, much needed in dusty and mucky Edmud-town. Set on a largely diagonal plan at the northeast corner of the complex are the support spaces for the drivers, while the offices for administration and management occupy 5,000 square metres conforming to the exterior grid.

A surprisingly elegant atrium is located at the junction of the diagonal and orthogonal floor plan geometries. Within this cubic, daylit room graced with brightly coloured furniture, a sculptural feature stair adheres to the diagonal layout of the driver’s zone, an almost political gesture of reconciliation between the social classes of workers, both being represented through architecture. The original plans included board rooms and an executive suite for senior managers for the entire Edmonton Transit Service. (This particular garage supports routes solely in the northeast quadrant of the city.) But in the course of construction, senior ETS management decided—in my view, foolishly—that they would rather be in an office tower closer to City Hall than near their own drivers. Consequently, much of this office wing—along with an on-site daycare—remains in an unfinished state, awaiting a re-allocation of other City staff and funding. Like Kathleen Andrews waiting for her washroom, drivers will wait for the on-site daycare that will make family life easier.

Enclosure for the Kathleen Andrews Garage is a tour-de-force of effective simplicity. Similar to the Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art in Winnipeg (designed by David Penner Architect, Peter Sampson Architecture Studio, and DIN Projects), the whole complex is wrapped in one of the most cost-effective walls going—freezer panels, normally used for cold-storage warehouses. The Sobotec panels deployed here have a corrugated stainless steel skin. Under the architects’ hand, the corrugations are set vertically, and are variegated in width, adding visual interest at the vast scale of this garage. The building’s most dramatic element is a set of five rooftop light wells and stairs along the Fort Road elevation—a string of unexpected lanterns giving civic scale to this civic building, an effect seldom achieved by infrastructure projects. Hanson speaks of the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant in Toronto and Edmonton’s Rossdale Power Plant as precedents from the early 20th century of civic infrastructure with high architectural ambitions.

The roof lanterns are faced with that rare public art installation that works at city scale, even when driving by, whether in bus or car. Selected from a call for proposals, Berlin artist Thorsten Goldberg researched on Google Earth to find five mountainous locations around the globe at Edmonton’s latitude, starting with Alberta’s Mount Chown, and including peaks in Alaska, Russia, China, and Ireland. He then crafted their local topographies in three-dimensional steel panels, and set them vertically to crown gh3*’s building. At certain times of day, these topographies have the drama of glaciers calving off the coasts of Greenland, and share a same-but-different visual quality to the corrugated steel walls running below them. Dear Vancouver, with your lame identi-kit public art and your banal Biennale occupying public spaces with elsewhere-unwanted large sculptures, please look to Edmonton for how to commission significant public art, or for that matter, civic buildings.

Goldberg’s conception here was generated by what the artist calls the “globe game”; putting one’s finger on the sphere, then spinning it to see what other places share roughly the same latitude.  When this architectural historian/critic played the game, he came up with the astonishing revelation that the following crucial global design centres are all at the same latitude as Edmonton, plus or minus three degrees: London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Berlin and Moscow.  In other words, Modernism in architecture is overwhelmingly the creation of latitude 53.  Glenn Gould understood the “nordicity” of Modernism, but few in our own field have explored this.

Some powerful landscape embellishments—also designed by gh3*—complete the conception. Set out from the building are metal mesh gabion baskets filled with Alberta river stones. These provide sensual counterpoint to the metallic glimmer, while in places providing some protection from vehicular attack on this essential services building. Providing more security are emergency generators set out from the building for functional reasons, but finished in flat black panels, giving them a sculptural quality that could have them mistaken for even more public art.

Alberta sunlight is laser-like, and reflections off the steel elevations are accentuated by a contrasting ground cover of matte black granulated rubber tires. I came around to this idea, as a native Edmontonian remembering that grass is green there only from May to September, and more often patchy brown with melting snow blobs. As installed, the black ground cover (which is porous to rainwater and aids the recharging of aquifers) is a brilliant framing device, but I wonder what it will look like after several decades of prairie dust settles upon it.

The same rubberoid ground cover is set around the carefully preserved foundation fragments of Eric Arthur’s meat-packing plant, with its heroic smokestack remaining as a reminder of that building’s defiant act of optimism. Feet in the rubber, standing in the shadow of this brick cylinder, and looking across at the Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage glinting in the prairie light, I became convinced that Arthur would approve of what a fellow Torontonian has done here.

Vancouver architecture critic/consultant Trevor Boddy FRAIC has collaborated with Barry Johns FRAIC to co-write and co-produce a feature video on Arthur Erickson’s 1962 missing minor masterpiece, the Dyde House, located near the Aga Khan Garden west of Edmonton, to be released by Sticks and Stones Productions in 2022.

CLIENT City of Edmonton | ARCHITECT TEAM Pat Hanson (FRAIC), Raymond Chow (MRAIC), Louis Clavin, Byron White, Elise Shelley, Joel Di Giacomo, Jeffrey Deng, Bernard Jin | STRUCTURAL/MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL/CIVIL/LEED Morrison Hershfield | LANDSCAPE gh3* | INTERIORS gh3* | HERITAGE CONSULTANT David Murray Architect | CONTRACTOR Graham Construction | COST CRSP | AREA 50,000 m2 | BUDGET Withheld | COMPLETION March 2020

The post A Workplace Shines: Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage, Edmonton, Alberta appeared first on Canadian Architect.

PROJECT 4th Street SW Underpass Enhancement, Calgary, Alberta

ARCHITECT the marc boutin architectural collaborative inc.

TEXT Ximena Gonzalez

PHOTOS Yellow Camera

When the economic downturn hit Calgary in 2014, offices and businesses vacated the city’s downtown core. Today, with the added impact of the pandemic, nearly 30 percent of office space remains vacant. But a program started when the city was booming is helping hold up spirits and support future investment in Calgary’s business district.

Launched in 2010, the Centre City Underpass Enhancement program set out to improve the pedestrian experience at each of the eight railway underpasses joining downtown Calgary to the Beltline neighbourhood to the south. These underpasses were originally designed to overcome the ground-level barrier created by the CP rail line at the southern edge of the core, and move cars in and out of downtown. Little thought was given to people moving on foot, who were funneled along narrow sidewalks at the edges of the underpasses.

A decade ago—with a thriving economy and thousands of pedestrians using the underpasses on a daily basis—the possibilities for improving these infrastructural links seemed endless. “The Centre City is the economic engine of Calgary,” reads the Downtown Underpass Urban Design Guidelines. Now, projects like the underpass enhancement program remain equally important, providing a solid foundation for recovery. 

Designed by MTa and completed in 2016, the 8th Street SW underpass was the first of these enhancements. That was followed by 1st Street SW, designed by the marc boutin architecture collaborative (MBAC) and completed in 2019. MBAC is also responsible for the latest of the series, the underpass at 4th Street SW, completed at the end of 2019.“The [4th Street SW] project started when the city had decent budgets,” says architect Marc Boutin, whose firm was awarded the 1st Street commission in 2012 and the 4th Street commission in 2015. “[Then] all of a sudden, the economy crashed.”

But despite budget changes, the design team delivered a space that is more than a safe connector. The 4th Street underpass functions as a poetic catalyst for an embodied experience, facilitating a conversation between people and place.

As pedestrians reach the start of a gentle downward slope at either end of the underpass, a sense of anticipation is created by the glowing lights of the installation ahead, as if one were to enter a stage. Then, as each user moves through the space, a digital avatar appears across the street at the opposite end of the underpass, travelling in sync to meet the participant at the middle of the space. In the central stretch, which is open to the sky, the walls are crowned by polycarbonate veils that capture and reflect colour and light. Mirroring the movements of pedestrians, the digital display nudges pedestrians to realize that they are more than mere observers in the urban realm: they are active participants.

“In some ways, this space is a public manifestation of the self into the idea of spectacle, and into the idea of a conversation at the scale of the city,” Boutin says. “And it is a physical one, as opposed to an immaterial one.” 

This experience is facilitated by a design that seamlessly integrates public art, pedestrian needs, and City maintenance requirements.

MBAC’s design for the underpass, completed in collaboration with visual artist Krzysztof Wodiczko, began by observing pedestrians using the existing sidewalks. The designers identified the opportunity to create an interactive installation that would allow for active engagement with the space of the underpass. “It was a building of the narrative around body, space, and conversation,” Boutin says.

Supported by INVIVIA, a design consultancy and technology research company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Wodiczko developed a responsive public art installation to capture the movements of pedestrians. Four 360-degree cameras are carefully concealed on the columns that support the road and rail line: two towards each end, and two near the middle.

The video captured by these cameras is processed through custom software developed by INVIVIA, which controls the lighting system and generates the pedestrian silhouettes that move along the responsive media wall.

Constructed with translucent polycarbonate panels, the responsive wall extends along the east and west sides of the underpass—stretching along the 800- and 900-block on 4th Street SW, this underpass is longer than the others. The panels act as a light-diffusing surface for the LED lights behind. This system shares similarities to the design for the 1st Street underpass, which includes a two-layered skin with supergraphics of rolling prairie grassland and soaring mountains overlaid by a perforated aluminum screen. For 4th Street SW, the designers introduced light as the key graphic element.

With 1st Street, the MBAC team experienced the challenges inherent to redesigning a public space of this kind, including accounting for vandalism and maintenance. To protect the media wall, they decided to locate the assembly’s structural aluminum ribs on the outer surface. The exposed aluminum ribs were sculpted to catch and reflect the light of the LED fixtures. “We needed to make sure it didn’t look like a jail,” Boutin notes. Furthermore, for ease of maintenance, the wall is designed so that a single person can detach the aluminum ribs to clean the glass, and remove individual panels to change the LED lights.

Despite Calgary’s changing economic climate, the design team succeeded at transforming a dingy underpass into an interactive display—part public space and part public art—that improves the experience of all pedestrians. “We knew that part of the success of the project would hinge on how integrated it was,” Boutin says. “The project is a piece of urban infrastructure, it’s a piece of streetscape, and it’s a piece of public art.”

In a struggling downtown, MBAC’s public realm work helps keep Calgarians hopeful for the future. A new downtown strategy, aiming to attract talent and investment, is currently in the works. A draft of the plan, titled A Roadmap to Reinvention, describes downtown Calgary as “a resilient and vibrant place for everyone, with welcoming neighbourhoods, active streets, and well-used public spaces.” Multi-functional projects like the 4th Street SW underpass lay a solid foundation for this vision to materialize.

Ximena Gonzalez is a Calgary-based writer and editor with an educational background in architecture and environmental design.

CLIENT The City of Calgary | ARCHITECT TEAM Marc Boutin (FRAIC), Nathaniel Wagenaar, Trevor Steckly, Jodi James, Sean Knight, Ryan Agrey, Michelle Smith Cowman | STRUCTURAL Entuitive Engineering | MECHANICAL Reinbold Engineering | LIGHTING/ELECTRICAL Nemetz (S/A) & Associates Ltd / SMP Engineering | CONTRACTOR Pomerleau | PUBLIC ARTIST Krzysztof Wodiczko and Allen Sayegh / INVIVIA | BUDGET $6.7 M | COMPLETION Winter 2019

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The Ontario Association of Architects (OAA), along with 14 other design and construction stakeholders, has joined Workforce 2030, a new coalition led by the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC).

This broad, cross-sectoral coalition of employers, educators, and practitioners in the buildings sector advocates for fast-tracking the workforce needed to build a low-carbon Ontario by impacting government policy, business practice, and education, explains OAA President Kathleen Kurtin.

“The climate crisis is the defining challenge of our times and given the role the architecture profession plays in designing our built environment, it’s critical we take a leadership role in ensuring our new and existing buildings can be climate-stable,” she says. “It’s very much in the public interest to ensure those who design, build, and maintain our buildings are knowledgeable and prepared for these new opportunities and challenges.”

While the world continues to confront the effects of a global pandemic, this nevertheless remains the critical time to address the climate crisis. As Canada transitions toward a low-carbon future, the building sector will need to be at the forefront of change. Reshaping the way the built environment is thought about, designed, and constructed offers a readily available solution to significantly reduce carbon emissions.

The CaGBC reports that building operations, construction, and materials together account for almost 30 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions. However, the sector is collectively working toward a future where, by 2030, all new buildings must be built to zero carbon and by 2050, all existing buildings must operate at net-zero carbon.

The OAA has already demonstrated that it is possible. Faced with an increasingly energy-inefficient headquarters, the OAA Council decided to undertake an ambitious renovation project that harnessed its embodied energy, rather than build anew, and ensure its building would have zero carbon emissions. Last year, the Renew+Refresh vision was realized. This project was intended not only as a strategic investment for the OAA, but also as a strong case study to show others the potential of adapting existing buildings.

At the November 5, 2020 OAA Council meeting, architect Mae Shaban was confirmed to serve as the Association’s inaugural representative on Workforce 2030’s advisory board.

“What an exciting and opportune time for the OAA to be part of this cultural and economic paradigm shift,” says Shaban, regarding the OAA’s role as a foundational partner in Workforce 2030. “I am privileged to support our profession’s journey as we realize our collective potential as global leaders in sustainability, the green economy, and a low-carbon and resource-efficient future.”

Other members of Workforce 2030 include The Atmospheric Fund, Rescon, The Carpenters’ Union, the Toronto Region Board of Trade, The Ontario Association of Professional Engineers,  PassiveHouse Canada, WSP, Pomerleau and Great Gulf.

To learn more about Workforce 2030, visit www.cagbc.org/Workforce/home.aspx

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On October 1^st, Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, announced a $10 billion investment in new major infrastructure initiatives to create jobs and economic growth. This includes a $2 billion investment in large-scale building retrofits to increase energy efficiency and help make communities more sustainable.

According to a release by the Prime Minister’s Office, the Canada Infrastructure Bank’s (CIB) Growth Plan is a three-year plan that will help build a low-carbon economy, connect more households and small businesses to high-speed Internet, and strengthen Canadian agriculture.

The Growth Plan will invest in five major initiatives:

• $2 billion to invest in large-scale building retrofits to increase energy efficiency and help make communities more sustainable.
• $2.5 billion for clean power to support renewable generation and storage and to transmit clean electricity between provinces, territories, and regions, including to northern and Indigenous communities.
• $2 billion to connect approximately 750,000 homes and small businesses to broadband in underserved communities, so Canadians can better participate in the digital economy.
• $1.5 billion for agriculture irrigation projects to help the agriculture sector enhance production, strengthen Canada’s food security, and expand export opportunities.
• $1.5 billion to accelerate the adoption of zero-emission buses and charging infrastructure so Canadians can have cleaner commutes.

To accelerate the delivery of projects in which the CIB intends to invest, it will also allocate $500 million for project development and early construction works.

In response to the announcement, CaGBC applauds the government for taking a significant step toward Canada’s low-carbon future.

“This investment has the power to kickstart the green economy, and meaningfully lower carbon emissions. Our members and stakeholders in the green building industry are prepared to deliver the low-carbon, energy-efficient retrofits that will help Canada reach its climate targets, create jobs, and build healthier, more resilient communities. As the Prime Minister said, this is a win-win for all Canadians,” said Thomas Mueller, President and CEO of Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC).

Since the spring, CaGBC, along with partners, members and allies, has been pushing the benefits of a green recovery. Soon-to-be-released research shows that an investment in green building and progressive policies can achieve 1.5 million green building jobs by 2030. A document titled “Ready, Set, Grow,” detailing CaGBC’s recommendations to the government, proposed investments in workforce development, zero-carbon construction, and in the retrofit economy as a way to reignite the economy post-pandemic.

It also encouraged the use of the Canada Infrastructure Bank to kick-start retrofits by stimulating the development of shovel-ready projects, as well as de-risking investment in retrofit projects through approaches that increase investor confidence.

The CIB’s Growth Plan is expected to create approximately 60,000 jobs across the country, including in the construction industry, as well as in the clean energy and renewable generation and storage sectors.

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A permanent exhibition at Montreal’s Biosphere—with accompanying videos now available online—presents visions of Montreal’s future by 14 of the city’s leading architects and designers.

Produced by Kollectif in collaboration with the Biosphere environmental museum, MTL+ asked 14 architects to imagine what the city would be like in 50 years. The architects and designers were asked in particular to reimagine the city’s core infrastructure. The approaches range from philosophical ideas to technically rigorous proposals, reflecting a range of architectural thought.

Kollectif, who produced 14 videos featuring the creators behind each of the proposals, is now releasing those videos online. The videos are presented in English and French as part of the museum exhibition. The French version can be viewed on Kollectif’s website.

The participating designers included PARA-SOL, Catalyse Urbaine, Affleck de la Riva, Architecture Microclimat, Pelletier de Fontenay, Atelier Big City, Civiliti, Studio Jean Verville, Consortium Vert L’avenir, Atelier Barda, Collectif Escargo, Nós, Lupien + Matteau, and T B A.

Their ideas include an immense marsh for cleaning the city’s greywater, a new waterside promenade, and digital-free leisure zones next to subway stations.

“In organizing this exhibition, the Biosphere hopes that visitors will return home with the impression that society is capable—through its power of imagining the future—of creating spaces for life that are more ecologically responsible,” writes Kollectif.

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WINNER OF A 2020 GOVERNOR GENERAL’S MEDAL IN ARCHITECTURE

LOCATION Edmonton, Alberta
ARCHITECT gh3 architecture
PHOTOS gh3*

The built environment plays a central role in the sustainability and resiliency of our life on this planet. While climate change impacts many areas, foremost among the resources that humans must learn to use less of—and to care better for—is water.

Many regions of Canada are seeing hotter weather and more energetic storms, overwhelming existing municipal stormwater infrastructure. The Real Time Control Building #3 (RTC 03) is part of the City of Edmonton’s expanded urban ecosystem strategy. RTC 03 plays a central role in reducing untreated run-off and sewage flowing into the North Saskatchewan River.

Situated by the riverbank, on the corner of 84th Street NW and Jasper Avenue just east of the downtown core, the project invests in the design of its site and plant enclosure. It celebrates the importance of municipal infrastructure and recognizes the role infrastructure buildings play in shaping the city.

The facility is engineered for state-of-the-art handling and treatment of urban water, accommodating the dynamic loading of urban stormwater and wastewater. The architecture makes this below-ground process apparent: the form of the main underground shaft is notionally extruded to create the circular enclosure for plant equipment on the surface, and the location of secondary shafts, in-take tunnels, and out-take tunnels is telegraphed through the paving pattern. This imbues the site with an interpretive strategy and signals that RTC 03 is part of a larger, complex system.

The building envelope is made of structural steel and stud framing, a 10” cavity, and an outer skin of angled glass blocks. Using a familiar cladding material in a new way involved technical challenges, such as fabricating zig-zag control joints. The result is a simple, luminous veil laid over the inner workings of the building.

The cavity between the glass block façade and the inner structure acts as a thermal plenum. Through stack effect and mechanical ventilation, air is drawn through louvres at the base of the façade and vented at the roof edge.

The enclosure sits on a tarmac surface, accommodating service vehicles and lay-down areas for the building’s removable roof. The site’s surface water drains to a gutter at the base of the glass block wall, where it is then recirculated into the main shaft.

In addition to the water handling shafts, the building also houses gas monitoring and ventilation equipment, gate actuators, a generator room, noise control mechanisms, a motor control centre, a washroom and base building mechanical rooms.

RTC 03 is a model for civil engineering and architectural projects to lead the way in both performance and public profile. Instead of treating infrastructure as existing invisibly in the background, the design generates attention, curiosity and interest. It prompts us to learn about the essential role of water infrastructure in our urban environment, and raises public awareness of how we interact with our ecosystems.

:: Jury Comments ::  In one sense, RTC 03 is a humble piece of technical equipment—but it is also an intriguing and luminous sculpture in the city. Its precise details support a mysterious architectural experience, not dictated by scale or program. It also has a key function to play in the sustainable management of water resources in Edmonton. In this small but powerful project, the jury saw the potential to transform civic expectations of what engineering infrastructure can be.

PROJECT TEAM Pat Hanson, Raymond Chow, Joel Di Giacomo | CLIENT City of Edmonton | MECHANICAL Vital Engineering | electrICAL AB Electrical | civil V3 Companies of Canada Ltd. | STRUCTURAL Chernenko Engineering | CONTRACTOR Maple Reinders | OCCUPANCY november 1, 2015 | BUDGET $1.2 M

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WINNER OF A 2015 CANADIAN ARCHITECT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

ARCHITECT RDH Architects (RDHA)

LOCATION Toronto, Ontario

This project is a redevelopment of the existing Eglinton GO Transit commuter rail station in Scarborough, located between McCowan and Markham Roads. The primary program for the building includes upgraded passenger platforms and enhanced pedestrian and cycling access, as well as such completely original interventions as a new station building, tunnels and stairs, a structure for housing mechanical, electrical and IT services, and an elevated pedestrian bridge linking the station to overflow parking located across Eglinton to the north. It is the intention of the design team to create a facility that will raise the profile of the station within the neighbourhood and attract new users through its architecture and design.

The architectural concept began with an acknowledgement of the irregular, wedge-shaped site, whose topography allows for both a main street-level area and an upper platform-level area. The conceptual design for the station was inspired by linear movement, forced perspectives and lines vanishing into the distance. The idea of a two-storey wedge-shaped building receding into a tight corner appeared to have an appropriate and interesting formal dynamism for a transit station.

Beyond the initial formal response, notions of transparency, reflection and view have become important concepts to convey the visual and spatial experience of being at a train station. Transparency allows for visual communication of the building’s use and GO Transit’s overall aspirations to the street, the platform and to train passengers. The formal prominence of a transparent, glowing station building along Eglinton draws attention to the facility as potential users pass by the site.

Reflection—through the use of glass and other reflective materials—  accentuates the initial ideas associated with perspective and movement, and offers the potential to further display the experience and program
of the train station.

Finally, views have become an important conceptual design consideration. These include views from the outside into the facility, and from the inside to the exterior—but also views from cars and pedestrians travelling along Eglinton, and from the various levels of the trains that approach and pass by the station building.

The design team has been studying an initial material palette including high-performance glazed curtain wall incorporating a custom ceramic frit patterning. This would maximize views into and out of the station building, increase the amount of overall daylighting, and reduce the overall demand for artificial lighting. The suggested palette also includes polished aluminum panels for above-ground solid wall cladding, extensive green roofs for the majority of the station building, sedum tray planting fixed to exterior faceted concrete surfaces, and exposed cast-in-place concrete for the exterior retaining walls and other hardscape elements.

Jury Comments

:: Maxime Frappier :: There’s a quiet elegance to this project. We appreciated the functionality and simplicity of the plan. It’s a gateway in the way it has been designed, and it is going to participate well in the landscape along the highway.

:: Pat Hanson :: It’s a building about passage and threshold, and an example of what you can do with a utilitarian infrastructure that we haven’t paid attention to for decades.

:: Johanna Hurme :: This building has to be understood at two different speeds: from the automobile passing by as well as from the pedestrian point of view, when you get out of your car to catch a train. We look forward to seeing how the screen develops and how it can answer to that condition.

CLIENT Metrolinx | ARCHITECT TEAM Tyler Sharp, Bob Goyeche, Jacques Bergeron, Peter Osborne, Simon Routh, Luc Johnston | STRUCTURAL Halsall/WSP Engineers | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Moon-Matz Ltd. Consulting Engineers | LANDSCAPE Elias and Associates Landscape Architects | INTERIORS RDHA | AREA 575 m² (station building alone) | BUDGET     $3 M (station building alone) | $27 M (total site development)

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PROJECT Union Station Food Court, Toronto, Ontario

ARCHITECTS PARTISANS in collaboration with DIALOG and GH+A

Cultivating a future client

Seven years ago, I bought a ticket to a Charlie Burger event—one of those secret dinners where they fly in a renowned chef. I was seated across from a tall, confident stranger who was wearing a bespoke western rodeo-inspired plaid suit. After realizing our common love for architecture and food, he passed over his card and explained that he worked for a real-estate holding and development company named Osmington. I had never heard of Osmington. Plus, that jacket?!

A few months later, the stranger—Brad Keast—reached out to see if the studio that I co-founded with Pooya Baktash, PARTISANS, was interested in working on ideas competitions with him. He was clear that there was no guarantee for any work, but we would have an opportunity to try and impress some heavy hitters in the development community.

Brad’s email arrived at a time when PARTISANS was practicing out of a 500-square-foot loft; we had just moved from the inside of a storage facility’s loading dock. For two years, we worked on competitions together. The best we did was second place.

Bidding on a long shot

We eventually learned that Brad had an important project on the go. Around 2006, Osmington had won the bid for a 75-year head lease over most of the retail spaces in Union Station, and was inviting designers to submit proposals for an interior fit-out. As part of a larger renovation, Union was being revalued as a significant place in the country. Osmington saw the potential for Union to become one of the world’s most engaging civic experiences.

When PARTISANS inquired, we were told that the likelihood for us to be considered was slim to none—but that if we wanted to submit a bid, we were welcome to do so. We put a package together that included a partnership with the world-renowned Massimilliano and Doriana Fuksas. I had worked for them in Italy. The day of the submission, I delivered it in-person at the Osmington offices in a custom-made box. They smiled, but explained that the project required a partner located closer than Italy, with more grey hair than mine. They needed insurance. But they ultimately decided that they wanted to keep us involved. Fuksas was out, but we had gotten our toe in the door.

Finding a role

In many ways, Union Station is a bit of a miracle, given the challenges that its redevelopment has faced. The base building architect, NORR, along with many collaborators, pulled a rabbit out of a hat in excavating a whole new level under the existing train tracks, which needed to remain in continuous operation. Much credit is due to them.

PARTISANS was part of the interior fit-out team for the commercial spaces as well as helping to create the vision. We worked in collaboration with NORR, GH+A, DIALOG, Beauleigh, Hammershlag Joffe, RWDI, LightEmotion, and others. In 2013, our technology-driven studio contributed a stand-alone 3D BIM model that eventually became a design and construction tool for all participating architects, engineers and consultants. It not only demonstrated the scale and scope of the project, but also enabled an efficient sharing of information, facilitated the phasing of Union’s tenant fit-outs, and allowed for maximum flexibility while delivering the project.

At first, our contribution of the BIM model was treated with skepticism by the base building and contracting teams. There were, after all, almost a decade of standard CAD drawings that constituted the project. Yet, we felt it was important to understand the exact dimensions and components of the spaces to be able to fit them out.

To create the model, PARTISANS hired ten Revit-fluent Ryerson University graduates. The team compiled the existing drawings and used laser-scanning to develop the model, which offered a clear, three-dimensional picture of all the issues the project was facing. Pipe by pipe, duct by duct, wall by wall, the context emerged. We could finally start designing.

Wrestling with MEP

What we discovered through four rounds of design—during which we weren’t sure if we would keep our jobs—was that MEP systems drove everything. The complexity of these items tended to lowest-common-denominator solutions, like drop ceilings, which leave plenty of space for trades to do whatever they want above, but at the cost of beauty and complex future maintenance. Rem Koolhaas, at his Venice Biennale curatorial stint, commented on this problem, noting that present-day systems take up more space in buildings than even humans do!

On the lower level of Union, having a dropped ceiling would mean settling for a food court with an eight-foot-high ceiling. We concluded that a fully custom idea was needed to maintain the open ceilings, while accommodating everything from lights to fire sprinklers in the areas around the bulky HVAC runs.

Do you remember that scene in Apollo 13 where the engineers convene in a room and work together to “build a filter”? That is exactly what happened at Union Station. On our final round of design, we were able to gather every engineer in one place and ask: “Can we come up with a way to house sprinklers and water pipes, HVAC ducts and diffusers, a light fixture, and speakers in one single component?” We looked around the world for precedents. The group was particularly inspired by the original open disk ceiling at the Marcel Breuer-designed Whitney Museum in New York (now the Met Breuer). For Union, the result was the Pressurized Ocular Diffuser—or POD for short.

Inside the PODs

The sculptural PODs turn infrastructure into a set of aesthetically intriguing objects. 210 cloud-like structures playfully hover over the seating area, fitting in the spaces around HVAC runs and equipment to preserve the open ceiling. There are only two standard designs, but the amorphous form produces a strong sense of visual variety.

The PODs are the culmination of extensive research into the architectural potential of combining multiple building systems into singular sculptural objects. Off-the-shelf products are economical, low-risk solutions to increasingly complex HVAC requirements—and their intractable practicality has become a significant (albeit de facto) part of architecture. The PODs disrupt this status quo and reinvent the possibilities of the ceiling by blurring the distinction between architecture and systems design.

Each POD integrates an HVAC pressure vessel, light diffuser and sprinkler head into a single rigorously performative architectural object. It consists of two shells that nest together to form a plenum. The outer shell forms the HVAC pressure vessel and duct inlet, conceals lighting equipment, and provides hardware attachment points for installation. The inner shell acts as the luminaire. The gap at the edges of the two shells serves as the air diffuser; the sprinkler head is accommodated in a pocket at the apex.

The geometry was developed collaboratively with consultants including aerodynamic, lighting and mechanical engineers. Numerous digital simulations, including computation fluid dynamics analysis and illuminance studies, were conducted for both individual and aggregated PODs to inform the geometry and demonstrate feasibility. Performance was later verified with extensive testing of full-scale mock-ups.

Combining systems into a single object had the downstream benefits of streamlined coordination, accelerated installation and simplified layout changes. The food court portion of the retail concourse featuring the PODs opened to the public in late 2018.

We learned, in working on Union, that design opportunities emerge from unlikely places—a meeting with a stranger in a plaid suit, a determination to overcome the obstacle of a ceiling duct. We learned that design requires a village and a lot of people willing to have an open mind in situations where that feels almost impossible. When enough time is allotted for failure and iterations, then, beauty emerges. Innovation takes time, patience and a lot of teamwork.

Alex Josephson is co-founder of Toronto firm PARTISANS.

CLIENT Osmington Inc. | MECHANICAL The Mitchell Partnership | ELECTRICAL Hammerschlag & Joffe | CONTRACTOR PCL Construction | BUILDING PERFORMANCE RWDI | LIGHTING LightEmotion | CODE LRI Engineering | RETAIL Beauleigh Retail Consulting | AREA 2,322 m² | BUDGET Withheld | COMPLETION November 2018

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In a Walmart parking lot north of Toronto, a turtle shell-shaped canopy balances atop the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre subway station. An artwork by Paul Raff, MRAIC made of mirror-polished steel panels covers the ceiling, reflecting the warm glow of passengers below. Pierced by a series of blue skylights, the ceiling is like a 21st-century Ronchamp. The dramatic entrance shelters commuters and houses a pair of heroic staircases that provide access to the northern terminus of the Toronto-York Spadina Subway extension.

The station is part of a $3.2-billion infrastructure project, including six new stations, that brings a subway connection to Toronto’s outer suburbs for the first time. Since the project launched in late 2017, critics have been quick to share their opinions. Some have questioned the political horse-trading involved in choosing station locations. Others have dismissed the stations as white elephants that serve too few people.

Given the significant level of investment, it seems fair to ask: How is the line delivering on its promise of dignified mobility for all segments of our population? And how might the stations support this goal as the surrounding areas develop over time?

The design of transit stations is a complex undertaking—one that aims to balance the functional needs of mobility with the desire to elevate the passenger experience, while also integrating with the surrounding context and supporting development. With their hefty budgets and long time-horizons, these projects also attract political attention, adding layers of complexity to the design process.

Toronto has responded to this challenge variously. The original Yonge and Bloor subway lines prioritized function, and broadcast these values through a consistent, streamlined aesthetic. In contrast, the Spadina line, whose generous stations were designed by Arthur Erickson and others, reflected the exuberance and expressionism of Canada’s Centennial. The Sheppard line, in turn, registered the dour parsimoniousness of the 1990s recession in its concrete and steel stations.

The Spadina Extension takes an approach that aims to split the difference. Platform elements, wayfinding and site furnishings have been standardized, while station designs have been assigned to individual architects and respond to their local context. This is the same approach employed by London’s Crossrail and Vancouver’s Millennium Line. In comparison, Toronto’s Crosstown LRT and Montreal’s REM LRT networks, both in progress, are aiming for a more consistent line-wide identity.

Travelling the new subway extension in Toronto, one immediately notices the exposed concrete station box walls at the platform level. Common to all stations, the ad-free walls are home to station identification signage that employs the Toronto Subway font (designed for the original network and recently resurrected), providing a clear visual connection to the city’s early subways.

Common elements employed across all stations also include robustly detailed terrazzo floors, platform-edge lighting, and granite stair treads that can be replaced after they inevitably disintegrate from winter salting. Red, pre-finished metal boxes and niches of various scales are another nod to Toronto Transit Commission’s legacy brand with its red logo and red streetcars. The enclosures house necessities such as fare collectors’ rooms, recycling bins, benches and pay phones. Together, these elements provide a coherent aesthetic to station amenities that acknowledges their antecedents.

The approach to standardization of site furnishings is, unfortunately, less than the sum of its parts. Best practices in contemporary station design have been deployed throughout the line—covered bike parking, landscaped pedestrian allées, and high-quality paving. But in several sites, this is spread out across an expanse of surface parking that subverts good intentions. At the Highway 407 station, bike racks sit empty, seemingly placed there by a forlorn cargo cult hoping to attract urbanity to a hydro-electric corridor. Cheap green plastic salt storage bins have already attached themselves to station entrances. Beyond the platforms, standardized elements give way to stations that are each unique expressions of civic infrastructure, bringing a level of dignity to the daily pilgrimage of their users.

The York University and Finch West stations are the busiest along the extension, but they couldn’t be more different. Designed by Foster + Partners with Adamson Associates and Arup, York University is cool, sober, symmetrical, curving and sleek, while the Alsop (now aLL) and IBI-designed Finch West is a heavy, rectilinear, riotous explosion of rainbow colours.

The York University station displaced over 1,400 daily bus trips that descended on the campus—a large number for the previous bus drop-off area, but a relatively small number for a subway. For much of the day, this results in an eerie quiet when you arrive. Sitting low to the ground, the boomerang-shaped station frames the eastern edge of the campus’s central quad without overpowering it, and introduces a moment of transparency along its main axis. A sunken amphitheatre sits in the elbow of the boomerang (sadly, it is closed to the public), while a vehicular layby is neatly tucked along the perimeter. Impeccable concrete work and refined detailing reflect an acute attention to detail. The rigid symmetry, central stair and consolidated fare gates make for a clear composition, although unfortunately, they result in a circuitous path for passengers requiring mobility devices.

Relatively modest when compared to other stations along the line, the Finch West station delivers valuable moments of delight to passengers. Working with artist Bruce McLean, the designers developed expressive concrete canopies and columns that suggest contemporary caryatids. Black-and-white barcode-like patterning on the exterior gives way to tinted skylights, tiles and glass panels that dapple the interiors with colours.

A large double-height space over the platform expands the interiors and signals connections to the future Finch West LRT, which will be accessible from the station. Property constraints forced the designers to integrate a traction power substation into the penthouse. They turned this into an advantage, with the extra volume ultimately contributing to the station’s unique urban presence.

Pioneer Village station, also by aLL and IBI, is a singular, surrealist design vision that defies convention at many levels. A pair of kidney-shaped entrances straddles Steeles Avenue. Clad in an unlikely pairing of etched weathering steel and bright red metal panels, the battered walls project a robust-yet-joyful Flintstones aesthetic that somehow works. The main bus terminal features an irregular canopy, clad in more weathering steel and balanced atop slender steel columns on tinted concrete. One gets the impression that every bench, column base and vent shaft was uniquely drawn, never to be repeated again.

Down below, the hard steel is replaced with an earthy warmth. Brass handrails, armrests and terrazzo inlays pair with polished concrete benches that are already smoothly patinated from human contact. Sadly, LightSpell, the interactive art installation by realities:united that stretches across the platform ceiling, remains inoperative due to fears the user-programmed letters may be used to spread hate speech.

Next to Vaughan Metropolitan Centre station, cranes work to complete a YMCA, library, office tower and 3,000 new high-rise units, that together will transform the area into a dense mixed-use neighbourhood. High-quality streetscaping and new bike lanes along Highway 7 and Millway Avenue presage a level of activity that is beginning to manifest. The subway station, bus rapid transit station, and bus terminal—which share a formal language while maintaining distinct identities—are located on adjacent plazas among the emerging urban grid of streets.

Designed by Grimshaw Architects with Adamson Associates and Arup, the Vaughan subway station has a formal rigour with its grand spaces and soaring canopy. However, the resolution is problematic where the building meets the ground. The tall glass walls at the ends of the structure succeed in bringing natural light down to the concourse level, but in doing so, force the entrances to the quarter-points of the plan.

As a result, the deepest canopies end up sheltering short-term bike parking, leaving the entrances exposed, and the entrances point away from the formal pick-up and drop-off areas on the north side of the station. Many drivers are ending up in the bike lanes to the east of the station.

The remaining two stations have attracted the most criticism with regards to value. Overbuilt stations, far from major destinations and with no development potential have tested the public’s trust in officials’ ability to effectively deliver major infrastructure projects. Located between a hydroelectric corridor, expressway and the headwaters of Black Creek, Highway 407 station is not anticipated to attract any development. The at-grade bus terminal portion has been sized to serve the future 407 Transitway but is underutilized at present; it resembles a giant Polycom speaker phone, rendered in steel and glass. The three-sided canopy sits atop a massive earthworks that cleverly incorporates skylights which funnel natural light to the concourse below.

At Downsview Park, a two-sided subway station was designed to straddle the GO commuter rail line that runs perpendicular to it. However, the second GO platform is not scheduled to open for several years, leaving half of the subway station redundant. Symptomatic of the design being out of touch with its surroundings, basic sidewalks to the popular Downsview Park Merchants Market next door have not been provided.

Toronto’s transit network continues to grow. The city currently has three subway lines in the planning stages and a number of LRT projects in the works. These projects will shape the city for decades to come. As debates rage regarding which line to prioritize or what mode to employ, we run the risk of losing sight of what is important. In this context, the successes and shortfalls of the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension offer many lessons for designers and politicians alike. Good transit design must start with an approach that puts the passenger first. Stations must connect major destinations and provide access to key interchanges. Standardized amenities offer equitable levels of comfort, while unique station designs respond to ridership levels and local context. When these elements align, stations can be safe, efficient and delightful. While low-ridership stations make for easy targets, residents of Toronto’s inner suburbs are equally deserving of high-quality transit that ennobles the daily commute.

Paul Kulig is the Urban Design and Transit Principal at Perkins+Will’s Toronto office.

Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Subway Station | CLIENT Toronto Transit Commission | ARCHITECTS Arup (prime consultant / engineer of record), Grimshaw Architects (design architect), Adamson Associates Architects (architect of record) | ARCHITECT TEAM Grimshaw—Juan Porral, Rosario D’Urso, Croz Crosling, Richard Yoo. Adamson— David Jansen (MRAIC), William Bradley (MRAIC), Ann Daniel, David Ellis, Sam Nicolini, Chuck Comartin, Denis Tesar, Alfredo Falcone | STRUCTURAL/MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Arup | LANDSCAPE The MBTW Group | CONTRACTOR Carillion Canada | CIVIL Arup | ELEVATOR Arup | GEOTECHNICAL Arup | TRAFFIC Arup | LIGHTING Arup | ACOUSTICS Arup | COST Hanscomb Ltd. | ARTIST Paul Raff Studio | AREA 17,997 m2 | BUDGET $197 M | COMPLETION December 2017

Pioneer Village Station and Finch West Subway Station| CLIENT Toronto Transit Commission | ARCHITECTS aLL Design with IBI Group (architect of record) | ARCHITECT TEAM aLL—Will Alsop, Anaïs Bléhaut, Melanie Clarke, Dieter Janssen, Sonila Kadillari, Christina Kalt, Vincent Lin, Duncan Macaulay, Steve Mason, Tarek Merlin, Ed Norman, Maxine Pringle, Philip Richards, Arnold von Storp, George Wade, Greg Woods, Bonny Yu. IBI—Bruce Han, Richard Stevens, Celia Johnstone, Charlie Hoang, Ana-Francisca de la Mora, Gui Chan, Stuart Hill, Michael Norton, Welland Sin, Michael Mueller, Jennifer Ujimoto, Colleen Gono, Amer Obeid, Andrew Chiu, Adetokunbo Bodunrin, Ashley Adams, Bijan Ghazizadeh, Bill Whitelaw, Claudia Rosario, Domenico Grossi, Gary Chien, John Lenartowicz, Timothy Mitanidis, Trevor McHugh, Manisha Athavale, Kirbi Abuyan, Nasir Jaffer, Jim Bazios, Shailza Bhavsar, Behrang Ghamisi, Marjan Zelic, Keerthana Balakunalan, Gabriel Colombani, Syed Navqi | STRUCTURAL LEA Consulting Ltd. / WSP (Halsall Associates) | CIVIL LEA Consulting Ltd. | MEP HH Angus & Associates Ltd. | LANDSCAPE Janet Rosenberg & Studio Inc. | ARTIST (Pioneer Village) realities:united (Tim and Jan Edler) | AREA (Pioneer Village) 16,200 m2 | AREA (Finch West) 11,200 m2 | BUDGET (Pioneer Village) $165 M | BUDGET (Finch West) $130 M | COMPLETION December 2017

York University Station | CLIENT Toronto Transit Commission | ARCHITECTS Arup (prime consultant / engineer of record), Foster + Partners (design architect), Adamson Associates Architects (architect of record) | ARCHITECT TEAM Foster—Spencer de Grey, Stefan Behling, James McGrath, Bela Kasza, Parul Singh, Petra Lui. Adamson—David Jansen (MRAIC), William Bradley (MRAIC), Ann Daniel, David Ellis, Chuck Comartin, Denis Tesar, Estelito So. | STRUCTURAL/MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Arup | LANDSCAPE The MBTW Group | CONTRACTOR EllisDon | CIVIL Arup | ELEVATOR Arup | GEOTECHNICAL Arup | TRAFFIC Arup | LIGHTING Arup | ACOUSTICS Arup | COST Hanscomb Ltd. | AREA 21,375 m2 | BUDGET $118 M | COMPLETION December 2017

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