Welcome to our new cohort of undergraduate students coming this fall. The Daniels Faculty has a long and distinguished 125-plus year history. There have been other times when we have had to cope with unpredictable circumstances. Our past and our present are replete with stories of our students, faculty, and staff rallying together for the greater good. Together with our faculty, undergraduate students in our Architectural Studies program have assembled some of those moments in the video above. You will also see previews of some of the exciting things you will be engaged in as a Daniels student.

We look forward to meeting everyone soon.

Jeannie Kim, Undergraduate Director, HBA Architectural Studies

Lateral Office, an experimental design practice co-founded by Daniels Faculty associate professor Mason White, created Impulse in 2016. The public art installation consists of a series of see-saws, which light up and make sounds when they're used by passersby.

Impulse was a hit when it debuted in Montreal's Quartier des Spectacles, and the installation has since toured the world and won several prestigious design awards, including the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's Urban Design Award. Impulse's lighting was done by CS Design, and its sound designer was Mitchell Akiyama, an assistant professor at the Daniels Faculty.

The piece is currently on loan to the Garment District Alliance, a New York non-profit, who have installed it on Broadway, in midtown Manhattan. There, the eye-catching teeter-totters attracted the attention of the New York Times.

The Times writes:

Sandra Lindum and Deirdre Amendolaro said they each brought their children to the art exhibit so the young ones could experience a piece of New York that’s become increasingly hard to find.

“I remember when we could just run outside and jump on one of these old rusty things,” said Ms. Lindum, who grew up in Queens. “Now they’re art. It’s the new New York, I guess,” she added with a giggle.

Arianna Rosario, 26, said she was walking along Broadway with her friends Nikita Nelson and Stephanie Centeno when she spotted the dazzling lights of the seesaws — and the ecstatic sounds of riders. “It’s fun to be that high up. It brings you back to your childhood,” Ms. Rosario said.

Impulse will remain on display in New York until February 1. Read the rest of the New York Times article here.

Photograph: Impulse in Manhattan. By Alexandre Ayer/Diversity Pictures LLC.

Earlier this week, a group of graduate students from the Daniels Faculty's architecture and urban design programs gathered in the main hall at One Spadina for the Faculty's annual Student-Professionals Networking Event.

Through a series of "speed networking" sessions, students were able to make connections with established design professionals, who may one day be their employers or colleagues.

Representatives from 24 local architecture and design firms were in attendance. They engaged students in conversation about the realities of transitioning from school into professional life.

Dean Richard Sommer and Shane Williamson, director of the Master of Architecture program, welcomed participants:

Students gathered around tables for group conversations with guest professionals:

The two-hour event was followed by an informal reception with light refreshments and snacks:

The event was made possible through the generous support of the Ontario Association of Architects, represented by VP Regulatory Mélisa Audet. The OAA’s mandate is to develop and uphold standards of skill, knowledge, qualification, practice, and professional ethics among architects, and to promote the appreciation of architecture in broader society. We thank the OAA for its continued support of the Daniels Faculty. And we also thank the design professionals who committed their time in support of our students in the architecture and urban design programs.

The firms represented at the 2019 Student-Professionals Networking Event were:

• Adamson Associates
• architectsAlliance
• Bousfields Inc.
• Brook McIlroy Inc.
• Concord Adex Inc.
• CS&P Architects Inc
• DesignAgency
• dkstudio
• DTAH
• Dubbeldam Architecture + Design
• exp
• Forrec Ltd
• Giannone Petricone Associates
• Hariri Pontarini Architects
• IBI Group Inc.
• KPMB Architects
• Moriyama Teshima Architects
• SvN
• Stantec Architecture Ltd.
• superkül
• The Daniels Corporation
• Williamson Williamson Inc.
• WZMH Architects
• Wonder Inc.

Scarborough's Dragon Centre mall, located near Sheppard Avenue East and Midland Avenue, was the first indoor mall in North America to cater specifically to Chinese merchants and shoppers. When it opened in 1984, it instantly became a hub of activity for Chinese newcomers to the Greater Toronto Area—many of them ex-Hong Kongers who had relocated ahead of that city's return to Chinese rule in 1997.

Dragon Centre's shops and food stalls have faithfully served Toronto's Chinese-Canadian community for 35 years. Now, with the mall on the verge of being demolished to make way for condos, a group of local urbanists, artists, and curators is commemorating the building with an exhibition, which will take place at Dragon Centre on October 5, starting at 1:30 p.m.

Daniels Faculty assistant professor Erica Allen-Kim helped analyze the mall's history and its place in Scarborough's urban fabric, with assistance from Daniels Faculty MArch students Phat Le and Marienka Bishop Kovacs. Daniels Faculty lecturer Morris Lum shot photographs. The exhibition is presented by ThinkFresh Group, with support from Camille Begin, ERA Architects, Myseum of Toronto, Shiu Pong Group, and the Daniels Faculty.

Photograph from the Multicultural Historical Society of Ontario.

The event will include tours of the mall and the sharing of stories from people who had meaningful experiences there over the years. For more information, visit dragoncentrestories.ca.

Mark Sterling, the Director of the Daniels Faculty's Master of Urban Design program, was recently named a fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) in recognition of his outstanding achievement to design excellence, scholarship, and distinguished service to the profession.

Fellows will be inducted at the College of Fellows Convocation ceremony at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto on October 29 during the annual RAIC Festival of Architecture, which takes place October 26-30.

An award-winning architect, urban designer and professional planner, Sterling is a leading thinker on new approaches to compact urban form and an innovator in exploring intelligent development scenarios through a variety of approaches to digital visualization. In addition to his role at the Daniels Faculty, he is Principal of Acronym Urban Design and Planning, where his experience in city building at multiple scales, combined with his ability to bring diverse groups of people together, make him a strong guide to the designers who collaborate to build better communities. 

Sterling is currently leading several major intensification projects, including Toronto Community Housing’s Lawrence Heights Redevelopment Plan, a new 100-acre neighbourhood design that includes incremental rebuilding of existing social housing stock while rebalancing the transportation network for pedestrians, cyclists, and current and future transit facilities.  He has also been leading teams developing strategies to increase density around proposed transit corridors in Markham and Newmarke in response to Ontario’s Places to Grow legislation.  On the West Don Lands Public Realm Plan, he is the urban design lead working with Waterfront Toronto to transform a previously underused 80-acre site into new public space that encourages active transportation.

For the new Steeles West Station, a new station on the extension to the Spadina subway line, Sterling led a review to investigate development potential around the new station that included balancing the goals and requirements of multiple stakeholders including the TTC, York Region Transit/VIVA, GO Transit York University, The City of Toronto and the City of Vaughan. Experienced in transit-oriented environmental assessments, his team also provided urban design studies along Toronto’s waterfront for the TTC from Union Station to Exhibition Place and from Dufferin to Roncesvalles. 

Sterling’s experience includes the University of Toronto at Mississauga Campus Master Plan, OCAD’s Capital Master Plan, and the Port Lands Implementation Strategy for Waterfront Toronto. He led urban design components in “Making Waves: Principles for Toronto’s Waterfront,” City avenue studies for Lake Shore Boulevard and O’Connor Road, the Highway 7 Land Use Futures Study in Vaughan, and the subsequent York Region Urban Design Futures study that accompanied new rapid transit proposals.  As Director of Architecture and Urban Design for the former City of Toronto, Sterling led the development of civic improvement projects and new urban design and planning frameworks for several of the city’s most important districts. 

Sterling is actively involved in his profession as a founding member of the Inaugural Urban Design Advisory Panel for the City of Mississauga, a member of the City of Ottawa Urban Design Panel, a jury member of the Mississauga Urban Design Awards, and former vice-chairman of the Toronto Society of Architects.  He has been an adjunct member of what is now the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto since 1987.

In recent years, the term “smart cities” has become increasingly ubiquitous. But despite it’s widespread use, for many, the concept remains fuzzy.

Last semester, we held a series of lectures that explore the contemporary rhetorics, histories and politics of the smart city phenomenon.

Looking to deepen your understanding of the issues, risks, and opportunities associated with smart cities in light of the release of Sidewalk Labs’ development plan for Toronto? Check out the keynote presentations and panel discussion from our Urban IQ Test symposium, available on the #UofTDaniels YouTube channel.

Spearkers include:

Orit Halpern, Concordia University (17:45)
Jesse Shapins, Sidewalk Labs (35:38)
Jesse LeCavalier, Daniels Faculty (49:48)
Michael Sorkin, Michael Sorkin Studio, City College, NYC (1:10:55)
–moderator, Richard Sommer, Daniels Faculty

Dr. Orit Halpern is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia University and a Strategic Hire in Interactive Design and Theory. Her work bridges the histories of science, computing, and cybernetics with design and art practice. She is also the director of the Speculative Life Research Cluster, a laboratory situated at the intersection of the environmental sciences, architecture and design, and computational media. You can find out more at: www.orithalpern.net | www.speculativelife.com | www.planetaryfutures.net.

Jesse Shapins has been a leading designer and entrepreneur at the intersection of media, technology and community-based placemaking for over a decade. Currently, Jesse is Director of Public Realm & 307 at Sidewalk Labs, where he leads vision, strategy, design and prototyping for the future of public space. In 2004, before smartphones, Jesse invented Yellow Arrow, one of the first platforms to globally connect physical locations, digital media, and communities. Before joining Sidewalk, Jesse was Director of Product at BuzzFeed — named by Fast Company as the most innovative company in 2016 — where he worked closely with journalists, entertainers and tech teams to push the boundaries of content and technology. Read more.

Jesse LeCavalier (LECAVALIER R+D) uses research, writing, and design to explore the architectural and urban implications of contemporary logistics. His book The Rule of Logistics: Walmart and the Architecture of Fulfillment (University of Minnesota Press, 2018), examines the activities of the international retailer to tell a larger story about the ways the logistics industry has developed at different scales and through the emergence of particular technologies. Read more.

Michael Sorkin is the principal and founder of Michael Sorkin Studio. His practice and work spans design, criticism and pedagogy. In 2005, Sorkin founded Terreform, and is currently its president. He is editor-in-chief of its imprint, UR (Urban Research), which was launched in 2015. He is on the board of several civic and professional organizations such as Urban Design Forum (Vice President) and the Architectural League of New York (Director). He is also a member of the International Committee of Architectural Critics. Read more.

In Toronto, 91% of residents agree that climate change threatens personal health and well-being. But while the vast majority of those in Canada’s largest city understand that more extreme weather is on its way, 48% of Torontonians don’t know what can be done to address it.
 
How do we as a city prepare for greater instances of flooding and extreme heat, as well as increasing inequality that can exacerbate our ability to bounce back?
 
To address this question, the City of Toronto has developed its first ever Resilience Strategy, launched June 4 at the Daniels Building. An exhibition highlighting the work of the strategy — and how design can contribute to building a city that is better able to adapt, survive, and thrive in the face of growing challenges — is also now on display in the first-floor heritage hallway of One Spadina Crescent.
 
Assistant Professor Fadi Masoud (MLA 2010), whose research focuses on coastal urbanism, adaptive climate planning, resilient infrastructure, and design responses to urban flooding, was part of the Flood Resilient Working Group that contributed to the Strategy. He also curated the Resilient TO exhibition on display until Aug 1st, 2019.
 
“We wanted to showcase what the physical city could do to increase resilience,” says Masoud. “Our exhibition showcases the elements of the strategy related to the built form of the city and how design can contribute to meeting the strategy’s goals.”
 
Masoud was among the many community members, organizations, industry representatives, and government leaders at the Daniels Building June 4 for the Strategy’s launch. Toronto’s Chief Resilience Officer Elliott Cappell emphasized the importance of breaking down silos within the city, connecting the dots, and leveraging partnerships to move forward on the actions laid out in the report.

He also emphasized that flooding in Toronto is a major issue. To this end, Masoud and other members of the Flood Resilience Working Group created and signed a Charter that details their shared vision for flood resilience in Toronto.
 
“Unlike cities that are coastal, Toronto isn’t affected by sea level rise or storm surge, and we know how to manage riverine flooding though our conservation authorities. Our issue is surface flooding,” says Masoud. “The faster our city is growing and the more we are paving, the fewer places there are for water to go. We also have episodic extreme precipitation, but our watershed and flood maps have not been updated for a long time.”

Anchoring the exhibit are two large models that represent two of the fundamental pillars of the Strategy: equity and urban flooding. One model shows the City’s increasing inequality based on research by U of T Professor David Hulchanski; the second shows Toronto's topography, the hills, ravines, and river systems that affect where water flows.

“A lot of people think Toronto is pretty flat,” says Masoud. “but the reality is that the terrain of our city, what is upstream and what is downstream, has huge localized impacts on the city.”
 
He says there is huge potential to design networks of greenspace, both public and private, to serve multiple functions and to act as water retention systems.
 
While the threats to our resiliency are well laid out, the exhibition also highlights possible solutions, including award-winning design ideas proposed by Daniels Faculty students for a county in South Florida; urban design research on Toronto’s apartment tower clusters, which make up 45% of the city’s market rental housing stock; and the Faculty’s Green Roof Innovation Testing Laboratory (GRIT Lab) research that has helped informed Toronto’s pioneering Green Roof bylaw.

When asked at the launch event about the key take-aways from the Resilience Strategy, Cappell stressed that although the city as a whole is getting hotter, wetter, and wilder, residents throughout the city experience these things differently. Understanding how inequity influences a community’s resiliency is key. Lower income neighbourhoods are likely to be harder hit.
 
How is the concept of resilience integrated into research and teaching at the Daniels Faculty?
 
“Resilience is a framework that should set the tone for everything,” says Masoud. “It means that a system, building, or landscape, has to be able to bounce back and bounce back better than how it was before it faced stress, whether economic, social, or environmental. As designers, we need to build in flexibility to make sure that whatever is designed can respond to various pressures. Resiliency should be something that describes all designs.”
 
Click here to read the full Resilience Strategy.

The Daniels Faculty would like to thank the following sponsored of the Resilitent TO exhibition: Canadian Urban Institute and ResilientTO, School of Cities, Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, Autodesk, and Jay Pooley Design Practice.

Photos by Harry Choi

Assistant Professor Erica Allen-Kim will be a featured speaker at the event: “City Building and Civics: Toronto’s Asian Heritage,” presented by The Toronto Asia Pacific Youth Council (TAPYC), in partnership with the University of Toronto's School of Cities.

Her talk, “Chinatown Futures: Shaping a Diverse Inter-generational Landscape,” will discuss the effects of changing demographics on the businesses, public spaces, and cultural heritage of Toronto's downtown Chinatown.

Within the broader context of urban gentrification and housing pressures, how can new migrants and second generation Asian-Canadians — as well as other stewards of Chinatown's social and built fabric — reimagine the neighbourhood's future in a rapidly transforming part of the city?

Erica Allen-Kim is an historian of modern architecture and urban design. Her work on global cities and cultural landscapes focuses on issues of memory and citizenship. She received her Ph.D. from Harvard University and was a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto. Her book project, Chinatown Modernism, situates the architectural and urban projects of American Chinatowns within the broader context of modern architecture and planning.

The event takes place at Urban Space Gallery, 401 Richmond Street West. Interested in attending? Register for a ticket via eventbrite.