The City of Greater Sudbury
1.1 Context and Vision
Since Greater Sudbury was formed in 2001 by merging the towns of the former Sudbury Regional Municipality with several towns that were not previously incorporated, it became the largest city in northern Ontario and the fifth largest city in Canada. In particular, the discovery of mining clusters and hundreds of lake landscapes have made Greater Sudbury possess infinite potential. In line with their characteristics and potentials, we propose the following three visions for Greater Sudbury development goal in 2050: a competitive metropolis, a sustainable Sudbury, and a healthy lifestyle.
1.2 Strategies of the Vision
In order to achieve those three main visions mentioned above, more critical strategies are needed. In this regard, we put forward the following three important points and strategies to serve them.
The initial idea is to propose Downtown Sudbury acts as the hub of the region to promote the regional cultural, economic, and technical development. In the end, the whole metropolis can form the specific satellite city network that can drive Greater Sudbury to promote a more competitive metropolis.
The second idea is about making Greater Sudbury more sustainable by a regional green system with different phases of operations. More specifically, the regional green system will spread from the current southeast downtown area to the entire Greater Sudbury to promote a sustainable Sudbury. This will not only benefit the development of more comprehensive wood production, but it will also be of great help in dealing with future global climate changes.
The last idea is to Propose a healthier lifestyle for the region and strengthen the connection between urban and nature. Within this context, a network of suggested bicycle infrastructure and other related road networks needs to be further improved. Therefore, the sustainable traveling style will be promoted and encouraged in Sudbury.
1.3 Overall Concept
It is obvious that Downtown Sudbury always plays the most central role, when the above three important strategies are superimposed into a complete space operation system. In particular, this can be reflected in the three strategies proposed above. From the initial strategy, the overall metropolis will get a more responsible corporate culture in the end. Downtown Sudbury has the strong potential of the creative and tech city of the metropolis. And talking about the second strategy, as Downtown Sudbury contains the various types of production lines for the harvested forests, it can provide a more sustainable reference to the surroundings. Moreover, the last strategy can bring nature to the residents and other urban visitors. Since Downtown Sudbury is nearest to the surrounding nature, the first step is easy to start from here obviously. To sum up, in order to encourage the development of Greater Sudbury, the further development of Downtown Sudbury is particularly important. In this sense, Downtown Sudbury should be the starting point of reimagining the overall region.
Greater Sudbury's Urban Core
2.1 Current Issues of the Urban Core
When we go further into the current situation in Downtown Sudbury, we notice the following three important issues.
· Physical barriers
Rail corridors and busy roads create a tough environment for pedestrians and cyclists
· The irrationality of the urban layout
Unwell excavating and allocating all the spatial potential of the city center
· A negative overall image
Vacant space at both street level and upper stories caused the deterioration of the downtown
2.2 Future Potential of the Urban Core
Of course, in addition to the above issues, the current environment also has many other potentials. The potential is as follows.
· Remarkable history
Diversified urban history from wood production to mining and railways
· Accessibility and open land
Rail land with the high potential of transportation use and land use
· Downstream Junction Creek
The significant historical waterway running through the city center
2.3 Design Proposals to the Urban Core
Based on the summary of the above-mentioned problems and potential, our group proposed the following three main design schemes to build a more powerful Sudbury center.
· First of all, we create the metaphor of a multifunctional bridge as a bold proposal to break through the barriers. It can not only be the connection for the surroundings, but also be the art gallery or other social public space for the city.
· Secondly, we propose three layers to re-imagine the urban green and blue network and mining historical, highlighting the unique identity of Downtown Sudbury. They mainly include a compact urban green network that provides a livable city image for downtown Sudbury, multiple spatial methods to highlight the historic creek system, and mining elements that excavate historical features of the city.
· Finally, with the spatial connection of different parts of Downtown Sudbury, areas along the railway will usher in greater development opportunities. In this process, the metaphor of the multifunctional bridge helps to alleviate the deterioration of the urban area, increases accessibility and safety, and also becomes a city landmark for a better city image..
Generally speaking, develop the 'Greater' Sudbury needs more comprehensive and systematic design proposals like the above explained. Three design guidelines proposed from different perspectives need to be superimposed on each other to form the most complete success model for Downtown Sudbury.
2.4 Making it Real
Besides, public engagement is particularly important for making it real. The following briefly states the public engagement strategies for different groups of people.
For the surrounding residents: Just like the design proposals briefly explained above, the bridge we create will have more unlimited possibilities. Therefore, when discussing more specific construction directions in the future, the surrounding residents can participate in the proposal and actual operation of the plan.
For the mining-related stakeholders: At present, the entire region is constantly striving to regreen the damage of the surrounding environment caused by mineral development. And we want to propose that mineral-related stakeholders can be in an interesting position to have a chance to be involved in the process of a healthy lifestyle. It can also be beneficial for them to create new opportunities for tourism.
For the surrounding business stakeholders: Since all the proposed design schemes are more concentrated around the current railroad track area, this also means that many surrounding plots that are currently forgotten may have new business opportunities. So it is very important to bring in more different businesses to discuss the specific development direction in the future.
2.5 Future Slogans of the Urban Core
The planning and development starting from the urban core will establish a sustainable, healthy, and competitive city for Downtown Sudbury in the future. It is not only an important development slogan at the urban core but also an important slogan driving the development of the entire Greater Sudbury.
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