Evergreen Brick Works received a 2013 Charter Award, which was announced May 29, 2013 at the CNU 21 conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Charter Awards are the global award for excellence in urban design and only a handful of Canadian projects have ever been awarded.

Jurors praised the project for its innovative reuse of a challenging – but historic – built fabric. "The project respects the enterprising spirit and built legacy of the original industrial use while responding to environmental considerations and the need for gathering space within the larger community,” according to the jury remarks.

The purpose of the CNU Charter Awards is to celebrate projects that both embrace the principles outlined by CNU’s founders in the Charter of the New Urbanism and to reward those that go beyond them.

Related projects

• Evergreen Brick Works

Join Architect Megan Torza of DTAH on May 18, 2013, to learn about the transformation of the former Don Valley Brick Works into Evergreen Brick Works.

Megan was a key part of a multi-disciplinary design team that transformed the derelict brownfield site into the environmental community and education centre that it is today. Come explore adaptive reuse in action and a variety of innovative design features from an insider!

Visit Evergreen Brick Works Site Tours webpage for more information.

Related projects

• Evergreen Brick Works

We invite you to explore the inner workings of our studio at 50 Park Road on Sunday May 26 as part of Doors Open Toronto 2013.

This year's theme is entitled 'Creators, Makers and Innovators' and features many older buildings that have been redesigned, re-invented and re-purposed into modern 21st century spaces that host collaborative teams of imaginative people who are creating new ways of thinking, making and doing.

Visitors to DTAH’s studio will experience the history of this modernist building that sits in the Rosedale Valley ravine in the heart of downtown. You are invited to tour the building and examine historical images of 50 Park Road and its evolution over time. Learn about John B. Parkin Associates, the architects who won the building design competition in the early 1950’s, and how they contributed to the design of significant buildings such as Toronto City Hall (1965; with Viljo Revell) and the Toronto-Dominion Centre (1969; with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe).

You can also learn about how DTAH is continuing to shape the city around you, through projects such as Evergreen Brick Works, the WaveDecks and Queens Quay Revitalization on Toronto’s waterfront (with West 8).

Redefining Utility: From Infrastructure Corridor to Mixed-Use Public Space
Evergreen presented in partnership with ReNew Canada

Toronto has a vast network of infrastructure corridors—some in use, some abandoned—with the potential for reuse. Unused rail corridors like New York’s High Line are commonly repurposed as public spaces and Toronto has had similar success with its Rail Path, a favourite route of cyclists and joggers. Beltline and linear parks could turn old rights-of-way into multi-use public spaces, creating new parks for city dwellers, taking the pressure off busy roads by providing a separate route for cyclists, and even incorporating agricultural uses.

What are the barriers to these redevelopments and what role does the public have in pushing this agenda?

Moderator: Mira Shenker, PROFIT Magazine
Panellists
Christopher Hume, architecture critic, Toronto Star
Joe Lobko, DTAH Architects, Green Line competition juror
Dave Harvey, Toronto Park People
Jennifer Keesmaat, chief planner, City of Toronto
Netami Stuart, landscape architect, Parks, Forestry and Recreation, City of Toronto, Green Line competition juror
Edward Keenan, senior editor, The Grid

Celebrate Jane’s Walk on Saturday May 4th along Toronto’s main waterfront street. Inspired by urban thinker Jane Jacobs, Jane’s Walk is a series of walking tours designed to help people better understand the cities they live in. Last year, walks were held in 85 cities around the world.

The Queens Quay walk will begin at the Spadina WaveDeck at 1pm. During the walk, participants will learn more about the visionary design for Queens Quay from Waterfront Toronto’s Vice-President of Planning and Design, Christopher Glaisek and West 8 + DTAH landscape architect, Jelle Therry. As the walk moves east on Queens Quay, the group will see first hand how construction is unfolding. Along the way, participants will see where 2.5 million pieces of granite will be installed for an impressive new promenade and how the new roadway will be reconfigured. There will also be time to climb Toronto’s must-see wavedecks and stroll along the water’s edge promenade at Canada’s Sugar Beach.

This is a rain or shine event and RSVPs are not required. More information is available on the Jane’s Walk website.

Walk Details
Date: Saturday, May 4, 2013
Time: 1pm
Duration: Approximately 90 minutes
Locations: Meeting Place – Spadina WaveDeck (Lower Spadina Ave. and Queens Quay)
Accessibility: Accessible

Directions
TTC: 509 Harbourfront Bus from Union Station or 510 Spadina
Parking: Paid parking is available to the east and west of the Spadina WaveDeck (at Dan Leckie Way or Rees Street)

Related projects

• Spadina, Rees and Simcoe WaveDecks
• Toronto Central Waterfront Design Competition
• Queens Quay Revitalization

Architecture for Humanity Toronto, 2013 Lecture & Symposium Series:
April 23, 2013: "Thinking Local" panel members:

• Joe Lobko, Partner, DTAH
• Charles Rosenberg, Partner, Hilditch Architect
• Janna Levitt, Partner, Levitt Goodman Architects
• Moderated by Ian Chodikoff, Director, Farrow Partnership Architects Inc.

6:45 – 8:30 PM; refreshments begin at 6:00pm
The Centre for Social Innovation Annex, 720 Bathurst Street, Toronto, ON

Join us for a series of events discussing communities and architecture. How do communities impact architecture, and how does architecture impact communities? We know how to create more sustainable buildings, but how can we create more sustainable communities? As our lives become increasingly interconnected how do the spaces, in which we interact, adapt to an ever-changing social landscape? We'll explore these issues and more in three dynamic evenings with local and international architects who have pioneered socially engaged design practices.

Pay what you can (Suggested 10$, includes 1 raffle ticket for 1 free 3-month Community Memberships at any CSI location)

For more information, visit:

https://www.facebook.com/events/496548013728136/

http://toronto.architectureforhumanity.org/

The City of Toronto is hosting a meeting, Tuesday, April 2, 2013 - 6:30 to 9 p.m. at St. Paul’s Church, Cody Hall, 227 Bloor St. E., to discuss the Lower Don Trail Accessibility, Environment and Art Master Plan – a project currently being led by DTAH.

The intensification and development of new communities in the Lower Don Valley neighbourhoods will bring an estimated 80,000 new residents into the core of the city.  These new residents will significantly increase the demands put on the Lower Don River valley lands as a place to recreate, commute and explore.

In anticipation of this increased use, Parks Forestry & Recreation, in partnership with Transportation Infrastructure Management and Toronto and Region Conservation, have been undertaking a master planning exercise that will examine accessibility, environmental protection and opportunities for the incorporation of public art on these lands. The master plan is intended to integrate and build on other current studies, planning initiatives, and consultations in the study area.

The Ontario Growth Secretariat has started to list case studies on the Places to Grow website  that illustrate key policies in the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. The urban form case study on Artscape Wychwood Barns outlines the redevelopment's success in transforming an urban brownfield site “into a multi-purpose facility and public park, while creating a transit-supportive, pedestrian-oriented environment and high quality public open spaces.”

Related links

• PDF: “Urban Form Case Study - Artscape Wychwood Barns”, Places to Grow, February 2013

Related projects

• Artscape Wychwood Barns

Bryce Miranda, landscape architect and DTAH partner, was part of an expert panel that met to present recommendations for the future use of Ontario Place on Feb. 4 at an evening public meeting at Innis Town Hall. The Rethinking Ontario Place meeting was organized by the Martin Prosperity Institute, the Design Industry Advisory Committee and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.

The recommendations grew out of a Dec. 1, 2012 design charrette at which design and landscape architects, urban planners, futurists and others gathered to imagine what Ontario Place might be now that it has been shut down by the provincial government, and how it may serve the social, economic, academic and cultural needs of Toronto and Ontario.

Among the recommendations are calls for improvements to public transit to the site, a centre for research, innovation, conferences and entrepreneurship, the rejection of a casino at both Ontario Place and neighbouring Exhibition Place, and the importance of including the entire length of the waterfront and Toronto Islands in any plans for revitalization.

DTAH is designing the new permanent home for Crow’s Theatre in Leslieville, Toronto. This unique project is incorporated into the ground floor of a new condominium at Dundas St. E. and Carlaw Ave, currently under construction by Streetcar Developments, which includes community space for programming such as farmers’ markets and clothing swaps.

This $8-million project will give the company a 3,000-square foot theatre with a capacity for 200 people and other space, including a studio, lobby, offices, kitchen and dressing rooms. Successfully balancing technical issues around the residential and theatre needs includes additional acoustical soundproofing between the spaces.

“Like the majority of contemporary theatres in Canada, particularly in Toronto, the company has been using space as needed,” managing director Monica Esteves said. “We’ve been a nomadic company…this will be Crow’s first actual space that it owns.”

Related links

• PDF: "Crow's Theatre finds permanent nest in Leslieville", Toronto Star, 2013-01-08