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Competitor

Atelier Girot

Lower Don Lands Design Competition / Concours de design pour les terres du Bas-Don

Presentation Panel

no.1

Presentation Panel

no.2

Presentation Panel

no.3

Presentation Panel

no.4

Presentation Panel

no.5

Presentation Panel

no.6

Perspective

Don Mouth Park and downtown

Perspective

Night view Don Mouth Park City

Perspective

Aerial view of Don Mouth Park City down Cherry Street

Perspective

Commissioners' Park ecological slip in summer

Perspective

Don Greenway sport fields in winter

Perspective

Footbridge at parliament slip looking towards the Don Mouth Aquarium

Perspective

The Cousins Steps at Commissioners' Bank looking at the inner harbour and downtown

Perspective

Inside the Aquarium

Perspective

Don Mouth Boardwalk at Villers street

Perspective

The Martin Goodman Trail in the wetlands east of Cherry Street

Plan

Project phases

Plan

Implantation

Plan

The Don Mouth Aquarium

Plan

The Cousins Steps

Section

Queens Quay

Section

Cherry Street

Section

Villers Street

Section

Commissioners Street

Section

Don Greenway with green claws, north-south section from the CN rail yard to the ship channel

Section

Don Mouth, east-west section from Parliament slip to the Don Roadway

Axonometric Drawing

Don Mouth Aquarium at Parliament slip

Axonometric Drawing

Cherry Street bridge over the Don and the Keating Eco Slip

Axonometric Drawing

Villers Street footbridge over the Don

Axonometric Drawing

Green claw at the Don River bend

Diagram

Don river-flow, L-principle

Diagram

Key to a continuous waterfront park system

Diagram

City urban-flow, L-principle

Diagram

Don Mouth Park river-flow meets urban-flow

Diagram

Surfaces ratio

Diagram

Circulation

Diagram

Built program

Diagram

Typology

Diagram

Sustainable city

Diagram

Don River flood level

Diagram

Ecology and vegetation

Diagram

Vegetation typology

Diagram

Urban landscape and open space

Diagram

Program and activities

GENERAL INFORMATION ON THE COMPETITOR

Competitor	Ove Arup & Partners


	Baird Sampson Neuert Architects
	www.bsnarchitects.com

	Applied Ecological Services
	http://www.appliedeco.com/

	Atelier Girot
	http://www.girot.ch/

	J. Mayer H. Architects
	www.jmayerh.de

	Office Of Landscape Morphology
	www.o-l-m.net

	ReK Productions


Team	Philip Ursprung
Doc. level	75%

Description

TORONTO'S DON MOUTH PARK: TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE WATER-BASED LANDSCAPE FOR LIVING

Can natural landscape regeneration go hand in hand with dense new urban growth successfully? This is challenge posed by Toronto's Lower Don Lands Innovative Design Competition. We believe that a new form of city in the Lower Don Lands that can actively contribute to the improvement of the immediate environment of the Don River and Inner Harbour by fostering a more direct form of stewardship of nature.

We believe that the Don Mouth Park project can recover this estuarine area to produce a sustainable neighborhood of outstanding environmental and urban quality for Toronto. We imagine Don Mouth Park as the first truly water based city in the Toronto agglomeration, as a landmark for an entirely new form of civility, where a responsible approach to the environment coupled with applied methods of sustainable living could create an appropriate model for the city of the 21st Century.

The Don Mouth Park is thought of as a catalyst of value with a mutual reciprocity in both economic and ecological terms. The fundamental convergence of interests in economy, ecology and leisure, means that this project will be capable of generating a much needed environmental regeneration of the Don Mouth, while providing outstanding amenity value for appropriate development.

The direct correlation between a dense living environment and its immediate natural environment will help foster a new way of living, where the Don Mouth Park landscape becomes the direct expression of a particular form of urbanity. Instead of landscape and city being juxtaposed to one another, they will complete each other symbiotically.

Substantial topological and morphological transformations are needed to enable sustainable environmental improvements to happen in the Don Mouth Park. These topographical changes are based on a specific understanding of the dynamics of the Don River and its history of sedimentation, with mouth patterns that have repetitively led to a west-facing L shaped configuration over time.

In the event of a major flood the water overflowing from the Don Mouth into the Greenway would be channeled via a system of “green claws” into the “ecological slips” located between each bank. The systematic repetition of this L shaped pattern considerably reduces the risks of flooding and increases overall urban contact to the waterfront fourfold. Seen in a dynamic perspective The Don Mouth Park will have up to four “arms” conveying water through to the Inner Harbour in the event of major floods. The “spreading” of such waters will also help reduce the process of siltation in the Inner Harbour. New institutions such as the Don Mouth Aquarium, a gateway to the Don Mouth Park the Don Mouth Aquarium – incorporates the Victory Grain Silos – will serve as a cultural attractor and as a landmark that links the site with the rest of the Toronto Waterfront.

The Don Mouth Park is to become a vast leisure ground for all Torontonians accessible to the general public via public transport and alternative walk and bike routes. It remedies and controls water, but also provides a sanctuary for wildlife, enabling a more accessible contact to nature for its inhabitants. The challenge posed by the exigencies of a new sustainable city and its landscape necessarily results in a skilled balancing act between built form and nature, between a variety of flows and fixed points. In this precise instance only, will the culture of nature and that of the city finally merge and become one with the promise of an enriched environment for the benefit of all.

(From competitor's text)

Jury Report

The jury recognized the innovation and clarity of the Girot design particularly the interlocking of natural and urban systems and the series of L-shaped channels. The Girot design was viewed as an ambitious model for its integration of the morphology of the river into an urban context. The jury also noted the economic potential of such significant amounts of water's edge development.

The jury questioned whether the density and building typologies were appropriate for the Lower Don Lands given the high importance placed on naturalization, landscape and ecology in the area. While the parallel piers of housing were convincing in plan, the number, heights and placement of the residential towers, while generating a layered mini-Manhattan image from certain vantage points, was not considered appropriate for the area.

The jury also felt that the channels may not flush adequately and could result in large pools of stagnant water. Several members of the jury criticized the lack of an idea of transition between the hard surface of urban development and the constructed natural systems. From a transportation point of view, it was felt that the one route down Cherry Street was insufficient and would have to be very wide to accommodate projected demand. At the same time, there was not an adequate network for movement within the urban neighbourhoods.

(From jury report)

List of accessible documents

46 scanned / 44 viewable

IMPORTANT NOTICE : Unless otherwise indicated, photographs of buildings and projects are from professional or institutional archives. All reproduction is prohibited unless authorized by the architects, designers, office managers, consortiums or archives centers concerned. The researchers of the Canada Research Chair in Architecture, Competitions and Mediations of Excellence are not held responsible for any omissions or inaccuracies, but appreciate all comments and pertinent information that will permit necessary modifications during future updates.
info@ccc.umontreal.ca

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