Infrastructure : In The News

Do women make prettier cities?

The Telegraph Wednesday, February 20, 2013

An article appearing in the Telegraph cites that if more women were to partake in architecture and city infrastructure, cities would become safer and better designed. Featuring an interview with Christine Murray, Toronto expat and editor of Architects' Journal, the article says "more women architects could lead to better designed cities that were more 'humane,' 'safer' and 'livable.'"

"Women have a unique perspective on the world, and it is not to say that men cannot design excellent cities, or a good nursery or workplace, but everybody would benefit from designs by both halves of the gene pool," Murray told the Telegraph.

The article explains women face many challenges in the industry such as high female drop out rates, pay discrepancies, lengthy education periods, bullying, and cites having children as a disadvantage. Only 20 per cent of the country's registered architects are women, a trend common across the board.

Read the full story here.

Original source: The Telegraph

Toronto startup offers underwater solution to energy storage woes

Smart Grid Technology Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Toronto-based startup Hyrdrostor could soon make Ontario's energy infrastructure significantly more efficient thanks to their innovative new energy storage technology—the underwater "accumulator." The accumulators or compressed air energy storage (CAES) units are giant underwater energy storage units that convert unused energy from the grid into compressed air for future usage. After a successful pilot project last summer, Hydrostor has recently partnered with Toronto Hydro to construct a 1MW, 4MWh demonstration facility about seven kilometers from Toronto's shore later this year.

"As Hydrostor president Cam Lewis explains, his company's first-of-its-kind system mechanically converts electricity from the grid to compressed air, which is captured, cooled and can be stored indefinitely in underwater accumulators. These accumulators are large, high-strength polyester bags that inflate with the air like a big balloon—no doubt producing quite an underwater show for salmon and lake inhabitants. When the grid needs the stored energy, the weight of the water pushes the air back to the surface where Hydrostor's expander/generator system sends it back."

"The idea, Lewis says, is to transmit excess electricity at night when demand is less and reverse it when demand is high. The technology offers 70 per cent round-trip efficiency, he says."

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original source Smart Grid Technology

Toronto's waterfront called one of world's biggest urban shoreline revitalization efforts

Wall Street Journal Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The Wall Street Journal spotlights the Toronto Waterfront redevelopment in a tripartite feature that includes not only an in-depth article on the effort, but also a slideshow of the many redevelopment projects underway and a video interview with Waterfront Toronto CEO John Campbell.

Declaring the redevelopment of Toronto's shoreline, "one of the world's biggest waterfront revitalization efforts" the Wall Street Journal looks both at projects still in progress (e.g. the West Donlands) and those projects that have been successfully integrated into the fabric of the city (e.g. the Simcoe Wavedeck).

see full feature here (subscription required)
original source Wall Street Journal

How Scarborough Civic Centre's modernism started with a single tree

Torontoist Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The Torontoist takes us through the history of the Scarborough Civic Centre, and how a single oak tree inspired its creation.

Designed in 1973 by architect Raymond Moriyama, the modernist geometric structure remains a well-used and iconic public space.

"A space station, a castle, a ship... make any fanciful comparison you will, but the Scarborough Civic Centre is open for business and pleasure."

"Such was the grand description applied to architect Raymond Moriyama’s geometric design in a 1973 tourism brochure, shortly after the Scarborough Civic Centre’s official opening on June 29 of that year. It was a building that would, at least for a time, be dubbed the jewel of Ontario."

"But it was a project the architect had initially been hesitant to get behind."

"Moriyama changed his mind when he saw the proposed development site. What has now become Scarborough Town Centre—home to its own mall, RT station, and bus terminal in addition to the Civic Centre complex—was, in the late 1960s, almost entirely farmland, with 'prominent strands of mature hardwood still intact.' The idea of preserving this streak of nature within an expanding urban context tickled the designer. His imagination was fired particularly by the presence of a single, old oak tree."

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original source Torontoist

A pre-condo history of Liberty Village

BlogTO Wednesday, February 22, 2012

BlogTO's Derek Flack goes deep into the archives to unearth Liberty Village's industrial past. Flack's archival photo essay reveals the Liberty Village that existed "before the condos"—from the early 20th century prison that gave Liberty Village its name, to the growth and decline of the area's industrial activity, to the transformation of the area by a small group of artists in the 1980s.

"For all the development that's shaped Liberty Village over the last decade or so, the area's industrial past retains something of a ghostly presence—at least if one confines himself to exploring the western half of the neighbourhood. The eastern end, leading in across the still new-feeling East Liberty Street from Strachan Avenue, on the other hand, remains a source of angst for heritage preservationists who lament this city's near-complete contempt for 19th and early 20th century industrial architecture."

"According to a report from the University of Toronto's Centre for Urban and Community Studies, "municipal deregulation of land uses in the King Street West area in 1994 contributed to the attraction of the area for developers and real estate speculators.... Many small businesses and low-income tenants were evicted to allow property owners to renovate their buildings. The deregulation of zoning bylaws had increased the pressure to redevelop industrial lands and put planners under constant pressure to allow the conversion of old industrial buildings for residential or office use."

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original source BlogTO

Travel mag ranks Bayview station among world's 15 most beautiful subway stops

BootsnAll Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Online travel magazine BootsnAll lists Toronto's Bayview Station as among the "15 most beautiful subway stations in the world."

Opened in 2002 and designed by Stevens Group Architects, Bayview Station is singled out for its high-ceiling entrance pavilions, long-angled roofs and for showcasing wall projections by Toronto artist Panya Clark Espinal.

"Throughout the station, you can see From Here Right Now, a trompe l’oeil installation by Toronto artist Panya Clark Espinal. Her website explains that in From Here Right Now, 'twenty-four hand-drawn images have been 'projected' onto the architecture of the station so that when seen from the original location of projection, the images are crystalized and realistic, but when seen from other locations they appear to be abstractions. These images act as beacons, drawing the viewers along various paths of movement. Depicting everyday objects and simple geometric shapes, the images are rendered in an uncommonly large scale and in unusual orientations, allowing one to interact playfully with them as one moves through the space."

read full story here
original source BootsnAll

Time-lapse video captures Toronto's nonstop construction

Yahoo News Wednesday, January 25, 2012

ConstrucToronto, a time-lapse video making the rounds on the Internet, documents Toronto's seemingly unstoppable high-rise construction. As reported by Yahoo News (who also featured the video), there is now almost more high-rise construction in Toronto than all of the US combined

"If you live in the city of Toronto almost everywhere you look you will see new construction. There is so much the National Post referred to it in a headline as the 'city of mass construction.' But rarely do people get to view it in fast forward. When one photographer started to see a building going up, the camera started rolling."

"'I thought I'd try to document it as best I could,' said the filmmaker, who goes by the handle FMR on vimeo. 'My second attempt at a 'time-lapse' and 'tilt-shift' piece.'"

"There are 132 buildings under construction in Toronto, followed by 88 in Mexico City and 86 in New York City. In all of the US, there are only 139 highrises being built. And Toronto isn't the only Canadian city with a boom. Calgary, Vancouver and Mississauga are building eight, seven and six high-rises respectively."

check out video here

original source Yahoo News

Toronto's aging bank towers go green

Toronto Star Wednesday, January 11, 2012

The Toronto Star looks at the "greening" of Toronto's financial core. In addition to a surge in the construction of new sustainable office towers, many iconic Toronto buildings—from First Canadian Place to the TD Tower—are in the midst of massive "green" refurbishments.

"A number of Toronto’s landmark bank towers are now swaddled in scaffolding as they undergo a combined $300 to $400 million in refurbishments that include everything from updating their aged food courts to, in the case of First Canadian Place, replacing its almost 40-year-old marble façade."

"'The trophy towers are getting to that 30- and 40-year-old mark so they are hitting the gym again, so to speak, and getting into shape because they realize they aren't the only game in town anymore,' says John Peets, vice president of leasing for Oxford Properties."

"Oxford, the real estate arm of the OMERS pension fund, announced in October that it's teaming up with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to do what would have been unthinkable a decade ago. They're building a 30-storey office tower between Bay and York Sts. that will become the new domestic banking headquarters for the Royal Bank of Canada."

"Most of the renos are aimed at helping the financial towers, the first of which was built in the 1960s, achieve so-called LEED certification—an internationally recognized acknowledgement that the building is energy efficient and environmentally sound."

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original source Toronto Star

Toronto's long-time chief planner talks about the past and future of city building

Torontoist Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The Torontoist writes on Gary Wright's final annual conversation as Toronto's chief planner. In a talk hosted by the Canadian Urban Institute, the Cities Centre at the University of Toronto and NRU Publishing, Wright shared his almost four decades worth of wisdom on the past, present and future of city-building in Toronto.

"Wright began working in planning in 1974, during a citizen-driven epoch of neighbourhood development. In response to the transition from surface transit to underground subway development along the Bloor-Danforth corridor, Bloor West business owners set up the city's first Business Improvement Area in 1970, and throughout the decade others would follow—an energetic, community-minded time for city planning in Toronto. The 1980s, marked by recession, would be different. Wright recalls one particular development, an office tower at the northeast corner of Queen and Yonge in the mid-1980s, as being particularly momentous. 'It's just a reminder: you look out here—and what are they talking about, like 119 cranes in downtown Toronto or something like that?—and we were absolutely delighted that there would be one crane.'"

"The 1990s and onward, with economic growth and the amalgamation of Toronto proper with its five adjoining boroughs, brought about dramatic changes to city planning. Suddenly, city planners were forced to cooperate with a number of different mindsets—'a much bigger city with much different interests.'"

"'Amalgamation helped us all learn,' Wright recalls. 'There's lessons learned from everywhere, doesn't matter whether it's in Scarborough or Etobicoke or North York. Now we find the commonality of those languages, the commonality of those structural changes that we work with all the time. So, we think differently.'"

"Looking forward, Wright sees citizen engagement and collaboration as essential for city building—the harnessing of social cohesion for momentum."

"'We live in a very interesting, complex, interactive society in which all different kinds of people and influences make us think about where we're going next,' he says, citing the necessity of fostering collaboration between developers, activists, businesses, politicians, media and philanthropists in order to foster positive, and effective, growth."

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original source Torontoist

Toronto's high-rise boom, 'ubiquitous' cranes turning heads

Architectural Record Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Architectural Record writes on Toronto's seemingly nonstop downtown growth. While many North American cities remain in a growth slump, construction in Toronto's core continues to sore.

"In most North American cities, active construction cranes are a rare sight these days. But in downtown Toronto, they're ubiquitous, lifting up steel beams and glass panels for new towers in Canada's largest metropolis, where the population—currently at 2.5 million—is gaining 80,000 to 100,000 people per year."

"While the U.S. construction market remains in the doldrums, Toronto's real-estate sector has been humming along since the late 1990s, with only a brief slowdown in 2008. Today, the research service Emporis is tracking 147 high-rise buildings, among other projects, under construction in Toronto; the majority are residential and office buildings in the urban core, although towers are also popping up in the suburbs. In terms of design, most of these buildings won’t turn heads. But some developers are tapping top talent in hopes of creating architectural standouts."

"We're very excited about what's coming," says Alfredo Romano, head of Castlepoint Realty, one of the developers of 3C Lakeshore, a 2.4-million-square-foot district that Foster + Partners is master-planning for a former docklands. Romano says the 13-acre, mixed-use site will feature 'signature towers' by Foster, along with buildings by the local firms Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg and ArchitectsAlliance."

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original source Architectural Record

Toronto park makes Atlantic's list of world's best projects under overpasses

The Atlantic Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Toronto's Underpass Park--a 2.5-acre park now in construction under the city's Eastern Avenue, Richmond and Adelaide overpasses--has topped the The Atlantic magazine's list of the world's "9 Cool Projects Under Freeway Overpasses." When complete, Underpass Park will transform a derelict and neglected space into a bright, multi-use pedestrian thoroughfare.

"Elevated freeways slice through cities all over the world. At their best, they make getting into and around cities incredibly easy; at their worst, they segregate and isolate communities. Somewhere in between those two poles is a ton of potential. The spaces beneath those overpasses are often underutilized--or utilized in ways illegal or undesirable. Cities are beginning to take advantage of these dead spaces as usable parts of the public realm. These projects highlight some of the ways cities and communities are taking advantage of the space beneath freeways."

"The most notable development in this trend is Underpass Park, a new 2.5-acre public park now under construction in Toronto. The park re-uses the dead space beneath and around two freeway overpasses near the city’s downtown and right next to the Don River."

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original source The Atlantic

The New York Times on house hunting in Toronto

New York Times Wednesday, September 28, 2011

The New York Times writes on Toronto's "robust" real-estate market. The Toronto housing market--fuelled equally by long-standing Canadians and new immigrants--has, unlike many other major cities, managed to survive and grow despite the global economic downturn.

"Toronto's housing market is robust. 'People are investing here,' says Paul Dineen, a lawyer with the Toronto law firm Chapnick & Assoc. 'They see it's a good parking place.' The population is expected to increase by 1 million over the next 30 years, providing an ever-larger pool of prospective buyers. Mr. Dineen said that because the housing market hadn't been overpriced before the global downturn, Canada weathered the crisis when other countries had more difficulty. 'All it was here was a speed bump,' Mr. Robert said. 'The market took a deep breath for maybe four months, but then recorrected itself. We're just steaming ahead, moving forward.'"

"Buyers here include new immigrants, especially those from China, Hong Kong, India and Iran, as well as Canadians whose lineage goes back many generations. The city is attractive to many foreigners because it is considered safe, family friendly and multicultural."

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original source New York Times