Toronto launches design contest for new St. Lawrence Market building

The City of Toronto has launched an international architectural competition to find the best design for a new north building in the St. Lawrence Market complex.

“We’re looking for the best creative minds in architecture to replace the underused, single-storey North Market building with a new four-storey, multi-purpose facility that will be a model for sustainable design, energy efficiency and design excellence,†said Mayor David Miller.

“The challenge for architectural teams is to come forward with a forward-thinking design that is also mindful of the character and heritage of the St. Lawrence Market and surrounding neighbourhood.â€

The new North Building will continue to host the Saturday farmers’ market and Sunday antique market. Space for court rooms and administrative offices for Toronto Court Services and a 250-space underground parking garage will also be part of the new building.

The strategy to redevelop the North Building property was approved by Toronto City Council in November 2008.

As part of the official kickoff, Miller and Councillor Pam McConnell released the competition brief — a formal set of submission requirements and site and design criteria for architects vying for the winning design.

The competition is a two-stage process, with expressions of interest and then evaluation of submissions by the short-listed architectural teams. A winning design will be announced in June 2010.

The new building is expected to be completed and operating in 2014.
 
Whenever Toronto has an international design competition 3 of the 4 finalists are Canadian firms. What is the point in having one when we basically always go with a Canadian architect? We definitely need more of these competitions but we need to be less biased.
 
Simply because something is "international" doesn't mean that those submissions from outside Canada are better than those submitted by Canadians. I'm sure the number of Canadian submissions is substantially more than international ones, so you're bound to get some quality. And it's not like this is a substantial building. It wouldn't even register on the radar of most architecture firms outside of Canada.
 
Dugmor said:
Whenever Toronto has an international design competition 3 of the 4 finalists are Canadian firms. What is the point in having one when we basically always go with a Canadian architect? We definitely need more of these competitions but we need to be less biased.
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I don't really think that's true. ROM, AGO, OCAD, Foster @ UofT, Absolute, L, a bunch of stations on the Spadina extension etc etc.
 
This strikes me as a perfect little gem of a competition that ought to attract some good foreign entries, given Toronto's prominence and the civic nature of the project.

As for supposed 'bias' in favour of local firms, the AGO got around the problem of all that pesky local talent by bypassing an open competition entirely and annointing Gehry for their addition - everyone else, it seemed, was getting a Gehry ... so we had to have one. Also, with a blind taste test things can go awry - witness the selection of the obscure Carlos Ott's Opéra de la Bastille design, which the jury assumed was by the terribly famous Richard Meier.

It's always nice to win prizes, particularly from a jury of one's peers, but there's always the nagging and rather humbling feeling that on another day the same jury might have select an entirely different solution. Whether we're talking about a design competition like this one, or the the design review process that Toronto is trying out, what's interesting is the degree to which the thing is refined and improved where necessary after the competition has been won.
 
Urban Shocker said:
This strikes me as a perfect little gem of a competition that ought to attract some good foreign entries, given Toronto's prominence and the civic nature of the project.

As for supposed 'bias' in favour of local firms, the AGO got around the problem of all that pesky local talent by bypassing an open competition entirely and annointing Gehry for their addition - everyone else, it seemed, was getting a Gehry ... so we had to have one. Also, with a blind taste test things can go awry - witness the selection of the obscure Carlos Ott's Opéra de la Bastille design, which the jury assumed was by the terribly famous Richard Meier.

It's always nice to win prizes, particularly from a jury of one's peers, but there's always the nagging and rather humbling feeling that on another day the same jury might have select an entirely different solution. Whether we're talking about a design competition like this one, or the the design review process that Toronto is trying out, what's interesting is the degree to which the thing is refined and improved where necessary after the competition has been won.
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Does Toronto even have a design review panel? We seem to be a city that cares more about function than aesthetic beauty. I'm tired of hearing that a box is the most efficient building shape. That seems like a cop out for a lack of creativity.
 
Does anyone know if the underground parking will include space for trucks to unload? I would think that would be the most important thing to include given the usual Saturday morning chaos on Jarvis...
 
Dugmor said:
Does Toronto even have a design review panel? We seem to be a city that cares more about function than aesthetic beauty. I'm tired of hearing that a box is the most efficient building shape. That seems like a cop out for a lack of creativity.
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Toronto's DRP is new, projects are volunteered to it, and the panel process itself is being evaluated for future permanent implementation. Others here will know more about that than I.

DarnDirtyApe said:
Does anyone know if the underground parking will include space for trucks to unload? I would think that would be the most important thing to include given the usual Saturday morning chaos on Jarvis...
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That would be very helpful! I imagine plans including that would have a leg up on others.

42
 
Uncle Teddy said:
I don't really think that's true. ROM, AGO, OCAD, Foster @ UofT, Absolute, L, a bunch of stations on the Spadina extension etc etc.
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Are you sure about the Spadina line stations? I don't remember seeing any alternative designs for any of them. It seems that the TTC solicited international firms for the project and each handle a different station.
 
from today's Daily Commercial News....

FARMERS' MARKET RECONSTRUCTION Proj: 9018360-24
Toronto, Metro Toronto Reg ON CONTEMPLATED

St Lawrence Market North Building, 92 Front St, M5E 1C4
$15,000,000 est

Note: EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST from Architectural Consortia to complete design are invited by the Owner and must be received by the City by January 8, 2010. A qualified team of City staff and the Professional Advisor will select a short list of three (3) to five (5) Respondents to go on to Stage Two. Those Respondents selected to continue to Stage Two will develop design submissions that will be evaluated by a jury of seven members. The jury, chaired by the Professional Advisor, will select a winning design. DOCUMENTS are avalable at; www.toronto.ca/stlawrence_market/design/compbrief.htm. The deadline for ENQUIRIES for Stage One is December 9, 2009. Stage two and timeframe for an award is anticipated January/February, 2010. Further update at that time.

The Ventin Group is the Professional Advisor for this project. HOK Canada Inc is the Building Programming Consultant for the project.

Project: proposed redevelopment of the North building in the St Lawrence Market, the Farmer's market. The project proposes construction of a new building and/or renovation of the existing heritage buildings to provide 62,000 sq ft for the City of Toronto Court Services, including seven court rooms and administrative office space. The heritage market, which has existed at Jarvis and Front Streets since 1803 will be redeveloped with community space on the mezzanine, and space for markets, parties and special events and more ground floor space and building amenities at grade level. The building will be developed to be an energy efficient green building. Alterations to the South building can be followed under report number 9075862.

Scope: 12,000 m²; 4 storeys; 3 storeys below grade
Development: New
Category: Government offices; Retail, wholesale services
 
Short list in no particular order:
Adamson Associates Architects and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners
Cohos Evamy + Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden Architects
Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects
NORR Limited, Architects Engineers Planners
Taylor Hazell Architects and Montgomery Sisam
 
It is a fine list of firms and all are capable of producing a decent design (I like some of Hotson Bakker's work in Vancouver and it would be interesting to see what they would propose here).
 
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