Re: East Gardiner �dea
And Hume, from the Star:
The Lower Don's rise
The long-forgotten area around the foot of the Don is attracting attention from urban designers.
Where river meets lake is a forgotten bit of city. But four plans show how it could become one of T.O.'s most desirable areas
Apr 14, 2007 02:30 AM
Christopher Hume
Right now, the Lower Don Lands are little more than a forgotten part of the city people drive past on their way somewhere else.
But when – and if – the waterfront revitalization ever happens, it could be one of the most desirable areas of Toronto.
The potential is vast, just how vast comes clear in the plans submitted by the four finalists in the Lower Don Lands Design Competition. Organized by the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp., the contest covers a critical district of the city where the Don River empties into Lake Ontario, from the Parliament St. slip east to the Don Roadway.
This is where nature and urbanity meet, sometimes not very happily, and where the possibilities are most exciting.
All four teams picked up on that, and in its own way each re-imagines Toronto as a waterfront city, a place fully integrated with its environment.
The best of the quartet, from Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (New York), Behnisch Architects (Los Angeles) and Ken Greenberg (Toronto), would retain the Keating Channel but add a second waterway (an estuary) to the south. The channel, which replaced the mouth of the Don decades ago, would be lined with housing on both sides. The earth excavated to create the new estuary would be used to extend the Don Lands to the west and create a new park.
"The Keating Channel would become an urban channel," Van Valkenburgh explains. "Beyond that there would be a whole series of neighbourhoods and parks."
Practical and poetic, the scheme would be completed in six phases during the course of 20 to 30 years, which is why it has been designed for maximum flexibility.
A close second is the proposal from Stoss Landscape Urbanism (Boston), Brown + Storey Architects (Toronto) and ZAS Architects (Toronto). As team leader Jill Desimini says, "The idea is to bring the lake to the city, instead of bringing the city to the lake."
The group suggests a dramatic mix of wild spaces and highly urban housing complexes built around courtyards. The Don would turn west before entering into the lake, with a marsh that would accommodate the Don when it floods.
The group has also emphasized environmentalism and its expectation is that the Don Lands would be a net exporter of energy. Geothermal, solar and wind turbines would be used, making each building an energy generator. Given that there will eventually be 10,000 housing units on the 40-hectare site, that would be no mean feat.
The third team, Atelier Girot (Zurich), Office of Landscape Morphology (Paris) and Jurgen Mayer (Berlin), presented a plan based on the concept of "ecological fingers" – land and water – that would clasp like two hands in the area south of the mouth of the Don. Each finger would have a boardwalk lined with lowrise residential towers. The highlight is an enormous aquarium nestled around the Victory Silos at the foot of Parliament St.
"Our intention is to create a different relationship with nature," says Christophe Girot, "a new way of living with water. It will be a machine for living in the future."
This very thoughtful and visionary exercise might best be understood as a process designed to reconcile the environment with the natural world. It is more about establishing a set of conditions that would allow density to exist without harming nature.
The fourth offering, from Weiss/Manfredi (New York), du Toit Allsopp Hiller (Toronto) and McCormack Rankin Corp. (Toronto), intervenes minimally into existing conditions. The big gesture is the Don's widening as it turns west at the lakeshore. The east end of the Don Lands, directly south of the mouth, would become a large park with sports fields. It would also handle floodwaters and be lined on both sides by berms that could be installed with amphitheatre seating. Buildings would serve to define the open space.
It's worth noting all four schemes assume the continued existence of the Gardiner Expressway. Some of the participants were even referring to it as "heroic" and as the "main heritage element of the site."
Interesting how the raised highway has gone from something that must go to one that can be successfully incorporated. No doubt that will make drivers – and politicians – happy, but one wonders just how much better waterfront integration would be without it.
"I'm thrilled," says TWRC vice-president of planning and development, Chris Glaisek. "The entries are fantastic. There was some skepticism because there are so many elements."
All four entries – models, maps and drawings – will be on display at the BCE Place Atrium for eight days starting Monday. The teams will present their plans at a public session from 6 to 9 p.m. Monday evening.
The winner will be announced in early May.
AoD