Dutch company wins waterfront design competition
| quote: | Dutch company wins waterfront design competition
Last updated Jun 2 2006 03:29 PM EDT
CBC News
A Dutch design hailed as "bold, beautiful and buildable," has been chosen to provide the face of a revitalized Toronto central waterfront.
The winner was announced Friday by the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation, which put out the call for entries earlier this year.
West 8, of Rotterdam, headed a team that included Toronto-based du Toit Allsopp Hiller, Schollen & Company, Diamond + Schmitt Architects, Halsall Associates and David Dennis Designs as well as New York-based Arup.
The competition area stretches along the water's edge from Parliament Street in the east to the Western Gap, near Bathurst Street, for a distance of 3.5 km. The "key objective" was to "create a continuous access from Bathurst to Parliament, establish gateways at the heads of slips and complete the Martin Goodman Trail through the central area."
West 8's design includes:
· Creating continuous water's edge public promenade for the length of the central waterfront, including transforming Queens Quay into a boulevard that "kisses the lake."
· That promenade would include a wooden boardwalk, floating finger piers and a new "green foot" – a double row of large, native trees to the north.
· A remarkable maple leaf-shaped promenade jutting out into the water.
· A series of bridges rising out of the boardwalk and spanning the ends of the slips to give continuous public access along the edge of the lake.
· Traffic will shift to the north side of the existing streetcar tracks, which remain in place, leaving four metres on the south side for the completion of the Goodman walking and cycling trail, and a larger pedestrian sidewalk.
· The design also incorporates features such as a new storm water management system on Queens Quay and pontoons for the floating piers designed to encourage fish habitat and improve water quality.
Construction will be phased in over "several years," with the section of Queens Quay between Spadina and York streets, including the completion of the Goodman trail, beginning later this year.
The $20.1 million needed was including in the 10-year waterfront funding plan approved by federal, provincial and municipal governments last fall.
A total of 38 design teams from 15 countries on four continents submitted proposals, which were whittled down by a panel to five finalists, including: · Foster and Partners, London, UK and Atelier Dreiseitl, Uberlingen, Germany
· WASAW, Princeton, New Jersey
· Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, New York and Martinez Lapena-Torres Architects, Barcelona
· Snohetta, Norway, Sasaki Associates, New York, nARCHITECTS, New York, Weisz + Yoes Architecture, New York, H3, New York, Balmori Associates, New York and Halcrow Yolles HPA, New York.
Each of the finalists had six weeks to produce the designs, which were then put on display for public input in Toronto over a 10-day period.
The jury included filmmaker Atom Egoyan, urban designer Ken Greenberg, designer Bruce Mau, landscape architect Claude Cormier, New York architect Lise Anne Couture, and architect Brigitte Shim. |
Source: http://www.cbc.ca/toronto/story/tod...02.html?ref=rss
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