ARC3015Y F
Instructors: Chris Glaisek, George Baird
Meeting Section: L0108
Tuesday, 9:00am - 1:00pm; Friday, 2:00pm - 6:00pm
Location: TBD

This fall, George Baird offers a studio in collaboration with Waterfront Toronto, that will focus on the design of a new neighbourhood at the mouth of the Don River, east of Toronto Harbour. The studio will be taught by Baird, together with Chris Glaisek, Vice President of Planning and Design for Waterfront Toronto.

The site for the studio will be Villiers Island, the new Island at the mouth of the Don River, and for which a precinct plan has been approved by City Council, together with the area immediately north of Villiers Island, stretching from the Keating Channel to the south, to the south edge of the main railway corridor to the north, as it extends east from Union Station, and from Cherry Street to the west, to the Don River to the east. This is an area that has not yet been planned.

The studio will also focus on issues which are the design foci of the design collaboration currently underway between Waterfront Toronto and its corporate collaborator Sidewalk Labs: “mobility”, “public realm”, “buildings” and “sustainability”.

It is also contemplated that there will be a optional field trip over a long weekend to Chicago, to explore issues relevant to the studio.

The anticipated output of the studio is an overall design for a new urban precinct on Villiers Island and on area to the north of it. It will include the configuration of all proposed public infrastructure, all new residential and non-residential buildings, and all proposed new vehicular and pedestrian streets within the precinct. It is anticipated that the buildings designed will all meet contemporary standards for “passive house” environmental performance; and that the new vehicular and pedestrian streets will reflect the introduction of such current aspects of “smart city” design as driverless cars.

Together with Baird and Glaisek, members of the Sidewalk Labs team Jesse Shapins and Neil Kittredge will participate in the work of the studio.

The studio will be open to architecture students, to urban design students, and to advanced placement landscape students holding a previous architecture degree.