What’s next for Quayside? The resumes of the four teams vying to reimagine Toronto’s waterfront might offer a hint

The creators and designers behind Toronto’s The One Condos, Montreal’s New Vic and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington are just some of the people who hope to fill the gap left by Sidewalk Labs to develop the expansive quayside land on Toronto’s East-End waterfront. are doing.

Portfolios of four shortlisted teams are competing for an opportunity to redevelop the Quayside range, from building or designing new social housing units to lakeside condos, sleek office towers and eye-catching public spaces.

As part of the Request for Proposal (RFP) process, teams consisting of well-established local developers are joining forces with high-profile architects – many architects with international credentials – to build their vision for the future of Vacant 12. Putting perspectives together. One-acre parcel of land that was abandoned by Google’s sister company Sidewalk Labs last year.

A spokesman said recently that Waterfront Toronto, the tri-government corporation that owns most of the quayside land located near Parliament Street and Queens Quay East, will make a final decision early next year.

Critics suggest that new development at Quayside may not be just about condos and retail, but should include public connections to the waterfront as well as vibrant venues for entertainment and cultural events.

“We are trying to position ourselves as a global city with significant waterfront development. We have failed on that front in many respects to date,” said Shauna Braille, an associate at the University of Toronto’s Institute for Management and Innovation Professor says.

She says our waterfront is less accessible than other cities.

“We have slowed down. You can see many great examples of our waterfront changes and access improvements over the past 15 to 20 years, but we still have the wall of the Gardiner Expressway and the wall of tall towers that block access to the water. closes,” Braille says.

“So here on the (Quayside) coast there’s this wonderful opportunity to do things right and well and effectively and we can’t miss it again,” she adds.

The four collaborations selected for the redevelopment of Quayside are:

U of T’s John H. The team of developers and architects promises the potential for an “integrated design approach,” says assistant professor Petros Babasicas, director of the Honors Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies Program in the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. For Quayside – an approach that considers not only private developments and condos, but also the public domain.

“For me the integration of architecture, urbanism and various programs – public, civic, commercial and market use – will be the primary driver here and hopefully a balance developers and architects (Waterfront Toronto) can strike in creating their proposals,” says Babasicas it is said.

As part of Quayside’s process, supporters are not allowed to speak to the media or the public about their proposals.

But looking at the background of some RFP participants can give teams some insight into the guidelines.

“The results of each of these (four) collaborations, I think, will be very interesting, at least architecturally,” says Babasikas.

“Some of these firms are really innovative and their portfolios are based on experimentation,” he says.

Quayside Impact LP

Team: Dream Unlimited Corp. and Great Gulf, with Lead Architect Adjaye Associates, Alison Brooks Architects, Henning Larsen

Notable buildings: Canary District (Dream), One Blur (Great Gulf), Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture (Adjay)

Quayside Impact Team member Dream Unlimited is a leading real estate firm with assets spread across North America and Europe.

DREAM is one of the members of a partnership with all three levels of government to create a mixed-use Canary District housing development east of the downtown core in the West Dawn Lands.

The George Brown College residence at Cherry and Front Streets, and the Cooper Ku YMCA building in the Canary District area, are a dream creation, known for its large stained glass windows.

Great Gulf, partner of Dreams on the Quayside Pitch, has developed several iconic buildings in the city, including the Monde Condo Building on the waterfront, which has its signature wavy design. Great Gulf is also the developer of Yonge and One Blur Condo HighRise in Bloor.

On the architectural side of that team, UK-based Alison Brooks Architects have designed mixed-use developments that have garnered accolades.

The firm was nominated for an award in 2017 for designing Ely Court, a revitalized housing initiative that transformed a rundown public housing project in north-west London, UK, into three midrise blocks of contemporary housing, with approx. There were 44 units.

Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye, Head of Adjaye Associates, is known worldwide for his community-oriented designs. His work includes the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.

Hines Canada Management II ULC

Team: Hines Canada and Tridale Builders Inc. with Lead Architect Foster + Partners

Notable buildings: CIBC Square (Hines), Aqualuna (Tridel/Hines), The One (Foster + Partners)

Hines and Treadle are well-established real-estate developers in Toronto. Hines is a global firm partnering with Canadian real estate investment, development and asset management company Ivanhoe Cambridge to develop the sprawling CIBC Square office complex near the bay and front streets.

Tridale has an extensive portfolio that includes work on large condo highrises on the waterfront along the Hines – Aqualuna, AquaVista and Aquabella buildings.

Treadle is also the driving force behind the Alexandra Park redevelopment – ​​a 12- to 15-year remake taking place in a 7.2-hectare community near Bathurst and Dundas Streets, where there are just over 400 rent-gear-to-income (RGI) units. are being replaced, approximately 400 RGIs have been refurbished and 1,540 new market condos built.

Treadle was selected late last year by Toronto Community Housing to take on the remaining phases four and five of Regent’s Park as the new developer in the revitalization.

Foster + Partners, the architectural lead with Hines and Tridgell on their quayside proposal, The One, a mixed-use residential building set to be completed in Yonge and Bloor in a few years. Once completed, it will become the tallest building in Canada with 80 floors.

Daniels Corporation and Hullmark Developments Ltd.

Team: Daniels Corp. and Hulmark Development Ltd., with Lead Architect Diamond Schmidt Architects Inc.

Notable buildings: Regent’s Park Revitalization (Daniels), Montreal’s New Vic (Diamond Schmidt)

The team at Daniels Corp and Hullmark Developments sees two key players joining forces on Toronto’s development landscape.

Daniels is best known for partnering with Toronto Community Housing to launch the multibillion-dollar master planned revitalization of Regent’s Park. Formerly a vast cluster of public housing buildings, the community is now a mixed housing community with condos, townhouses, new public housing buildings, a new park, a large new swimming pool, a bank, restaurants and more.

Hallmark has developed a number of interesting buildings in the city, including a timber frame office midrise in Liberty Village.

Partnering with those developers on Quayside RFP is Diamond Schmidt Architects, one of the top Canadian architectural firms. He produced the designs for the New Vic, a project in Montreal that involves the conversion of the former heritage buildings of the Royal Victoria Hospital into a new McGill University campus.

KMT Quayside Development Inc.

Team: Kilmer, Matami Homes and Tricon, with principal architects MVRDV and Kobes

Notable buildings: Amsterdam’s Silodum Habitat (MVRDV)

KMT Quayside Developments, a collaboration of Kilmer, Mattamy Homes and Tricon, is a consortium of firms with portfolio and expertise that includes rental housing, business development, investment and infrastructure.

On the architectural side of the team the Netherlands-based MVRDV has designed housing developments across Europe, consisting of attractive silodoms, units of housing contained in multicolored blocks of housing that sit in the Amsterdam harbour.

Danish architectural firm Kobe designed two of three mixed-use buildings for Toronto’s West Don Lands area, the buildings being home to hundreds of rental units, 30 percent of which would be affordable.

The Senior Manager of Waterfront Toronto, in addition to representatives from the city and Creato, an agency that manages the city’s portfolio of real estate properties, includes the appraisal committee for the RFP process for Quayside.

The Appraisal Committee will make recommendations to a Steering Committee, which in turn will make a recommendation to Waterfront Toronto’s Board of Directors.

Waterfront Toronto spokesperson Carol Webb said in a recent statement, “Waterfront Toronto continues to work with shortlisted supporters through the RFP phase of the process and we are looking forward to selecting the preferred proponent for the (Quayside) development in 2022. look forward for.”

Donovan Vincent is a housing reporter based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @donovanvincent