Dutch Firm Wins Toronto Waterfront Design Competition

West 8, a Rotterdam-based urban design and architecture firm, has won a design competition to rejuvenate a 2.1-mile stretch of Toronto’s long-neglected, much-debated central waterfront along Lake Ontario. The jury’s choice was unanimous.

The plan will ultimately produce public promenades along the water’s edge, flanked by trees, and lined with bridges and ramps. The $18 million first phase is expected to get underway by next spring, with completion by 2008. The total project is expected to cost about $54 million.
Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp. (TWRC), a creation of municipal, provincial and federal governments, announced the winning team on June 2. It will be led by West 8 and will include Toronto firms du Toit Allsopp Hillier and Diamond and Schmitt Architects. Financing comes from a 10-year waterfront funding plan approved by authorities in fall 2005.

The West 8 design envisions a 59-foot-wide promenade along the waters, including a wooden boardwalk, floating piers and a double row of large trees on its edges. Bridges rising from the boardwalk and spanning the ends of the slips will provide continuous public access to the lakeshore. The design incorporates sustainable features like a new storm water management system on Queens Quay and pontoons for the floating piers designed to enhance fish habitats and improve water quality.

“We made sure that the really interesting and do-able parts were within the budget,” says John Hillier, a partner at du Toit Allsopp Hillier, adding that the proposal “established some simple and straightforward network connections across the waterfront.”

Five years ago local and national politicians pledged $1.35 billion to redevelop the entire waterfront. There have been some modest improvements along the opposite ends of the waterfront, but political bickering among the governments who control pieces of the site has hampered progress.

Other finalists included Foster and Partners, Tod Williams Billie Tsien, Snøhetta, Sasaki Associates, and nARCHITECTS.