WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en-US 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.360 [Sam Johnson] And I have the   00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:08.160 privilege of introducing our guest today, Marc  Ryan, who co-founded Public Work in Toronto,   00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:19.600 which is a landscape architecture and urban design  studio that stresses the importance of intelligent   00:00:19.600 --> 00:00:28.240 growth of a modern city. And the firm's central  question, as stated on their website, is how can   00:00:28.240 --> 00:00:34.560 every urban project, public or private, contribute  to the quality of life and experience in the city?   00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:42.480 A little bit about Marc. He received a bachelor of  landscape architecture at the University of Guelph   00:00:42.480 --> 00:00:50.720 in Ontario, after which he got, landed a couple  amazing jobs, and I think from what I’ve learned,   00:00:50.720 --> 00:00:57.840 his education and early career really marked  by several amazing mentorships he had with   00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:04.960 our field's elite, which started with Rich Haag  in Seattle. I think he knocked on his door,   00:01:04.960 --> 00:01:08.560 sort of toward the end of his career and  worked on projects with him in his basement,   00:01:09.520 --> 00:01:15.520 at a time in his life when he had very little  patience for projects that didn't inspire him. So   00:01:16.080 --> 00:01:19.360 I think learned a lot there. He came  to Denver to work at Design Workshop   00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:23.600 with my dad. And that's where  I met him when I was a kid.   00:01:25.520 --> 00:01:31.840 And after that he received a masters of  excellence in architecture from the Rotterdam,   00:01:33.360 --> 00:01:40.000 forgive my pronunciation. And he started working  at the internationally acclaimed West 8 firm   00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:46.800 under Adriaan Geuze, also forgive my  pronunciation, another icon in the industry. 00:01:49.600 --> 00:01:56.080 In 2009 they shipped him back to North America  to open a West 8 office. Is that in Toronto?   00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:02.080 In Toronto and New York, yeah. So they opened  West 8 in North America, and he worked on some   00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:10.400 major projects on this continent, including the  governor's island park in public space master plan   00:02:10.400 --> 00:02:16.400 and Toronto’s central waterfront master  plan. Those alone accumulated 16 awards   00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:23.200 and acknowledgments. In 2012 with his business  partner, Adam Nicklen, he started Public Work   00:02:23.760 --> 00:02:30.000 in the same city. And although not every  project is in Toronto, they spent a lot of time   00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:34.720 working there. And much like Salt  Lake City and Utah's urban centers, 00:02:36.880 --> 00:02:41.440 they're facing massive staggering  population growth rates. 00:02:43.600 --> 00:02:48.240 Public Work’s sustained investment in  local projects has elevated the quality   00:02:48.240 --> 00:02:54.240 of Toronto's urban systems and improved the  connectivity of its public realm. This interest in   00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:59.040 the public realm has already benefited the growing  population and surely will continue to do so.   00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:05.600 All of us landscape designers, planners here  in Utah should pay close attention, as we reach   00:03:06.480 --> 00:03:10.880 explosive growth. I’ll mention  a couple projects that I found,   00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:18.320 that I found on their website briefly here.  The Bentway is a project in Toronto which   00:03:18.320 --> 00:03:23.440 activates about two kilometers of space under  a highway and simultaneously connects seven   00:03:23.440 --> 00:03:31.760 neighborhoods for pedestrians and cyclists.  The midtown in focus vision plan is a plan to   00:03:31.760 --> 00:03:37.040 double the midtown neighborhood's green space  to prepare it as a key growth hub in Toronto.   00:03:38.480 --> 00:03:43.840 Their great streets transformation is an effort  to realize the importance of major urban streets   00:03:43.840 --> 00:03:52.480 and boulevards, not just as places to connect a  city, but also as a runway for civic engagement,   00:03:52.480 --> 00:03:58.400 historical and cultural engagement, as well.  These are just three project, projects that   00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:03.600 basically picked at random from their website. And  they all fall under the umbrella of the downtown   00:04:03.600 --> 00:04:10.000 parks and public realm vision for Toronto. An  audacious 50-year plan to enhance public space   00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:17.200 at all scales throughout the city's urban core.  Public Works sees existing cities as landscapes,   00:04:17.200 --> 00:04:20.880 and their projects demonstrate all the  opportunities this perspective offers.   00:04:22.160 --> 00:04:29.040 I see much of their work as an effort to reinstate  a soul in a, in a shiny steel-clad city by   00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:36.480 re-texturing urban spaces with natural elements in  really exciting ways. All while using the common   00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:43.360 ingredients that we all are familiar, with like  grasses, trees, shrubs, and. The results are often   00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:50.320 a fantastic weave of the formal rectilinear shapes  of a modern city, followed by organic form. I defy   00:04:50.320 --> 00:04:56.800 you to go to their website projects page and not  find a project that you aren't inspired by, or   00:04:56.800 --> 00:05:03.360 that makes you jealous you didn't think of it. I’m  so excited. Please join me in welcoming Marc Ryan. 00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:08.400 [Marc Ryan]   00:05:08.400 --> 00:05:15.040 thank you for, yeah, that was beautiful. Wow, what  is this, if you want to use it. Thank you, Sam.   00:05:16.880 --> 00:05:27.440 Can you hear me? Is this this work, or is we're  just, okay. Sam, thank you. That was something,   00:05:29.760 --> 00:05:38.480 I’m really, really honored to be here,  and just sort of see Todd Johnson   00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:46.880 and Craig and Sam in one room, is just really  amazing for me, as Sam said I started my career   00:05:46.880 --> 00:05:51.840 in Denver, working with Todd. So Todd was  a mentor, one of my first early mentors,   00:05:52.960 --> 00:05:58.800 yeah, in my career and really launched me into,  I think, thinking about cities and landscapes as   00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:06.880 interwoven and, as, you know, as full of, full  of inspiration. So I want to talk a little bit   00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:14.960 about Public Work. This is, as Sam said, this is  our 10th year. We founded this office together,   00:06:14.960 --> 00:06:23.120 with my partner Adam Nicklin in 2012. And in some  ways the whole, my career arc has been somehow   00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:31.040 about coming back home. The first 13 years of my  practice were abroad, but in founding Public Work,   00:06:32.960 --> 00:06:39.280 it's, I really think of it as a kind of local  practice, and a way of engaging with a city at,   00:06:39.280 --> 00:06:45.760 uh, at a period of change. Toronto's a city that's  sort of becoming a version of itself. It's yet to,   00:06:45.760 --> 00:06:51.120 it's yet to finish its process. Like all cities  it's endlessly, uh, it's endlessly evolving.   00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:56.400 But we were so fortunate enough to sort of  come to this, this city in a time of change.   00:06:58.640 --> 00:07:04.240 And as I worked for West 8, we were, uh, lucky  enough to win a competition to work on the   00:07:04.240 --> 00:07:10.160 central waterfront in Toronto, which I was able  to be a project leader on. And that's a picture   00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:15.520 of me with my partner Adam, standing over one of  the wave decks under construction, sort of been,   00:07:15.520 --> 00:07:19.280 sort of in a way out of our league,  in terms of the kind of construction. 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:28.720 But we learned so much in designing and delivering  public spaces along the kind of foreshore of   00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:36.640 Toronto, in the inner harbor. That gave us a lot  of experience, and I think like a sense that that   00:07:36.640 --> 00:07:43.680 things are possible in the city. And that gave  us the kind of hope that we could continue with   00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:49.280 the energy that was happening on the waterfront,  through this waterfront regeneration process was   00:07:49.280 --> 00:07:53.840 taking place, inviting all international firms  to kind of demonstrate the power of public space,   00:07:54.400 --> 00:07:58.720 and the power of landscape leadership  to kind of provoke change in a city. 00:08:01.280 --> 00:08:09.920 So yeah, as Sam said, our practice is really  about finding the public dimension in the city,   00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:20.080 and in the public realm. And so our focus is  on cities and how they can how they can be, uh, 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:32.000 landscape sensibility. And here's a picture of  Toronto around about 20 years ago. And I know   00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:37.520 a lot of you haven't perhaps visited Toronto, but  welcome you to come check it out. It is constantly   00:08:37.520 --> 00:08:46.880 changing. In a period of about 20 years, it looks  like this. And this is already out of date and   00:08:47.680 --> 00:08:54.240 you know you know Toronto was marked by cranes.  You would just, you see the most cranes in North   00:08:54.240 --> 00:09:00.800 America at any given time in the last 15 years  in Toronto. And that kind of, in a way, caught   00:09:00.800 --> 00:09:07.840 a lot of us by surprise. It wasn't always like  this. This is a, this is the year I was born. And   00:09:09.680 --> 00:09:15.680 at this time, this is sort of Toronto with  this will, will to become a global city,   00:09:15.680 --> 00:09:21.600 but sort of without yet establishing its, kind  of, its guts or its fabric. And there was,   00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:26.320 there was, the city had a disposition  that was sort of oriented to buildings   00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:34.800 at that time. And a particular obsession with one.  The tower. my childhood, I remember like sort of   00:09:34.800 --> 00:09:42.800 loving the energy of cities, and just wanting  Toronto to become a big city. And in a relatively   00:09:42.800 --> 00:09:47.600 short amount of time, I think it's done so, and  when I come back when I came back to Toronto,   00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:54.400 the question was sort of, what now. Now that  we've, now that we've established sort of the   00:09:54.400 --> 00:10:01.040 vitality of a large city of metropolis,  what is, what's the next sort of agenda?   00:10:01.040 --> 00:10:08.640 And the topic of the public realm, I think, was  one that had to kind of be discovered after they   00:10:08.640 --> 00:10:14.080 got to this point. It's almost like a retroactive,  you know, thinking about the public realm and its   00:10:14.080 --> 00:10:22.080 role in cities. And how important that balance of  public space and built form is to quality of life.   00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:29.680 And so our work sort of began by starting to look  at the city itself, but also around its edges.   00:10:30.880 --> 00:10:37.920 And, in a way, to start to reappreciate the  kind of natural landscapes. This is the ravines   00:10:37.920 --> 00:10:44.560 of Toronto, which are just an amazing  kind of stretches of wilderness, almost,   00:10:44.560 --> 00:10:51.440 that enter through these valleys. These are carved  by glaciers thousands of years ago. And the sort   00:10:51.440 --> 00:10:57.920 of ring of violence around the inner bay of the  harbor. Toronto actually sort of forgets that it's   00:10:57.920 --> 00:11:05.280 surrounded by a landscape. And then, and even sort  of to look around the edges of its, sort of its,   00:11:05.280 --> 00:11:10.160 the edges of its core, and to sort of remind  ourselves how that kind of relationship from   00:11:10.800 --> 00:11:15.200 the core of the city to its edges could be  strengthened. And that became kind of like,   00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:19.760 you know, I would say like a kind of obsession in  our office, to start to think about how we could   00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:26.880 work at scales that tried to look at the big  picture. Try to think strategically. Try to   00:11:26.880 --> 00:11:33.200 create visions you know at the large scale, but  also knowing and realizing that we wanted to build   00:11:33.200 --> 00:11:41.040 projects that were often enacted at on sites that  are very discreet and independent. And so for that   00:11:41.040 --> 00:11:45.440 reason, our practice really tried to embrace  this combination of urban design and landscape   00:11:45.440 --> 00:11:52.720 architecture as sort of as a fluid and integrated.  And so I want to just reflect on 10 years of sort   00:11:52.720 --> 00:11:58.880 of working in that way in Toronto. And some of  the themes and projects that have kind of emerged,   00:11:58.880 --> 00:12:03.200 and how we've been trying to engage in this  city during this time and period of its growth.   00:12:04.560 --> 00:12:08.880 And one of those themes is really about sort  of the landscapes that preceded the city. 00:12:10.960 --> 00:12:15.280 The kind of raw you know like original  landscapes. That many of them that have   00:12:15.280 --> 00:12:19.840 been lost, or others that need this sort of, to  turn up the volume and see them in a new way.   00:12:20.880 --> 00:12:27.280 And one of our very first projects as an  office was a public park at the former   00:12:27.280 --> 00:12:31.760 mouth of Garrison Creek, where it emptied right  into lake Ontario, which you see on the left.   00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:38.160 About 300 years ago. And on the  right, you see that situated now,   00:12:38.160 --> 00:12:43.040 with about 900 meters of fill out to the  harbor, disconnected from its sort of origins.   00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:52.080 And it's part of the national historic site of  Fort York. Which was our defense against the   00:12:52.080 --> 00:13:02.080 American invasion in 1812. So uh, I come in  peace today. But, uh, yeah, so this is sort   00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:09.520 of this incredibly changing context, where today  we don't have any clue of what was there before,   00:13:10.400 --> 00:13:15.840 and coming up on its edges as a new community  of 18,000 living vertically in high rises.   00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:23.360 And there's no trace of this original promontory  where this creek emptied out into the lake. And   00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:29.520 no sense of how the fortification related to  its broader landscape. And this is a story we   00:13:29.520 --> 00:13:36.560 saw this, uh, this morning in Salt Lake. You know  the transformation of the watersheds of the city   00:13:36.560 --> 00:13:40.400 during the 20th century, which has just  kind of evaporated most of the creeks   00:13:40.400 --> 00:13:46.960 and water systems in the core of the city.  And so Garrison Creek, the park that this,   00:13:47.680 --> 00:13:54.160 or the creek that this park is named  after, can only be seen in a sewer. So,   00:13:55.120 --> 00:14:00.880 the simple idea was that here on a national  historic site that's celebrating military history,   00:14:00.880 --> 00:14:06.880 that we could add the dimension of a longer a  longer history, to not think in terms of 350   00:14:06.880 --> 00:14:13.760 years, but to think more in 12,000 years. And to  bring back an artifact of the original landscape,   00:14:13.760 --> 00:14:18.560 so that that could you know help your kind  of balance the interpretation of this place   00:14:18.560 --> 00:14:28.080 and its evolution. And so we found like anecdotal  sketches from early settlers in the 19th century,   00:14:28.080 --> 00:14:33.600 and we started to think about how that  reconstruction could be reformed. The sort   00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:38.800 of sense of the bluff, the materialization of the  bluff, using ancient techniques like rammed earth,   00:14:40.160 --> 00:14:44.400 and to bring back also the kind of  indigenous textures of the place.   00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:51.040 The biotope of the place, which is actually  a return to the kind of a Carolinian forest,   00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:59.200 which also has a strong kind of adaptive role for  thinking about climate change and uh the raising   00:14:59.200 --> 00:15:07.200 rising temperatures in Toronto. And we created  a kind of with this artifact of the promontory,   00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:12.320 we started to create vertically three distinct  landscapes: a lowland where we daylight the creek,   00:15:13.920 --> 00:15:20.080 and then the upper promontory of dry green,  mediated by these kind of raw slopes, against,   00:15:20.080 --> 00:15:24.160 Sam, I love the way you put it,  against the shiny, shiny glass towers,   00:15:24.160 --> 00:15:26.320 to sort of return textures that we… 00:15:28.800 --> 00:15:29.300 did 00:15:31.040 --> 00:15:36.000 to do something with this grade shift that  we are we are left with, that's kind of four   00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:41.360 meter grade shift, but instead of smoothing  out that transition, to actually create this   00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:47.600 very strong landscape that could kind of  mediate this, excuse me, mediate this, 00:15:53.040 --> 00:15:58.480 mediate this, divide, hang on,  sir, I’m having trouble here. 00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:04.400 So here's some glimpses of that of that park   00:16:06.080 --> 00:16:14.320 and this kind of like raw rugged edges and the  connections of trails that are facilitated here. 00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:25.440 This file must be so big. It's slow. I’m sorry,  yeah, I’m like okay, yeah, maybe I’ll do that. 00:16:28.640 --> 00:16:36.000 The next thing is you know in a, in a growing  city at the pace of Toronto right now, we   00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:43.600 have the opportunity to create new kinds of public  spaces in different places. And sort of the this   00:16:45.520 --> 00:16:52.480 is a project where a client is a private, a  private client, and we're creating a park that   00:16:52.480 --> 00:16:57.280 bridges over the rail tracks at the core  of our central station. And this is an area   00:16:57.280 --> 00:17:04.080 totally vacant of green space and there's  a chance to kind of install this elevated,   00:17:04.080 --> 00:17:10.800 kind of sky park, right amidst a  transit hub, a new, a new bus station,   00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:18.720 and the kind of anchor of our subway system.  And right it's right next to Canada's busiest   00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:24.640 intersection which is at Front and Bay street,  where 75,000 people are passing by in a day.   00:17:27.520 --> 00:17:30.320 And to start to create this kind of  bridging landscape. Which offers,   00:17:31.520 --> 00:17:37.440 out of, almost out of thin air, a kind of space  of refuge, I, you could say above the tracks,   00:17:39.520 --> 00:17:44.800 above the bustle of the city, created by these big  steel trusses. And it's under construction now,   00:17:44.800 --> 00:17:50.640 currently. There's a kind of glimpse at it,  and the idea was that this space was completely   00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:56.320 different than the sort of floor of the city, that  unlike, you know, this kind of, Toronto has a sort   00:17:56.320 --> 00:18:02.160 of gray pavement kind of culture. Especially, this  is part of an extension of the financial district.   00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:06.960 It's just all kind of gray granite. And here's  an opportunity to think differently about   00:18:07.520 --> 00:18:12.640 the kind of softness, the organic kind of feel  of a landscape. When you enter this space,   00:18:13.200 --> 00:18:17.280 you see green from another perspective because  you enter from the south. And from the north,   00:18:17.280 --> 00:18:24.800 from another's perspective, to feel the material  of wood and its softness. And that's kind of, sort   00:18:24.800 --> 00:18:29.760 of, just showing you kind of glimpses of recent  construction. It's sort of being built right now   00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:39.040 with these kind of really oversized robust  timber glue laminated CNC kind of benches, that   00:18:39.600 --> 00:18:48.160 start to create these generous points of gathering  amidst these planted areas, all sort of floating   00:18:48.160 --> 00:18:58.080 above the rail tracks. So here's a very small  park less, than an acre, but it was sort of also   00:18:58.640 --> 00:19:04.000 very important to think about how it could be  activated, with its different from the ground.   00:19:05.040 --> 00:19:12.800 So it's taking on these roles of performance  of sort of oscillating, seasonal programming,   00:19:12.800 --> 00:19:19.760 including skating. And to facilitate a lot  of that programming within the landscape,   00:19:19.760 --> 00:19:28.560 we've sort of tucked in a landform that also  supports maintenance and washrooms. So this,   00:19:29.120 --> 00:19:36.320 kind of this, botanical hill, also sort of houses  all of a sort of working programming landscape.   00:19:38.480 --> 00:19:44.480 And as you move from the building edges and into  the park, you kind of emerge through these thicker   00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:53.120 canopies of native trees with, a you know, ground  plantings that are all about, you know, bringing a   00:19:53.120 --> 00:20:02.320 sense of texture and biodiversity to this elevated  park. And the climax experience, which we hope to   00:20:03.520 --> 00:20:09.680 see when it opens later in the year, is one  of really like borrowing the landscape of the,   00:20:09.680 --> 00:20:14.800 of the, of downtown and the skyline, to have a  place where you kind of gain your orientation   00:20:14.800 --> 00:20:20.480 from this hub of transit, that you can rise above  to this quiet place, with a survey over downtown. 00:20:24.880 --> 00:20:30.400 I want to talk about a next project, which was  really about how we imagine, kind of, new forms of   00:20:30.400 --> 00:20:39.200 nature, uh in small parcels of the city. And this  is a project at the University of Toronto. This is   00:20:40.560 --> 00:20:49.200 Spadina circle one of the exceptions to the  grid of streets in Toronto. And it has a former   00:20:50.960 --> 00:20:58.560 and an old haunted building, that was  decrepit, facing south, and then kind   00:20:58.560 --> 00:21:05.760 of like no relation to the north. And this  project was really about allowing the circle   00:21:06.640 --> 00:21:12.160 to be, to engage, its context at all sides, and  to move sort of from its historic orientation   00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:18.960 you know due south to start to embrace  the relationship to campus to the east, 00:21:22.320 --> 00:21:24.800 and then, and then create a  new kind of north and south   00:21:26.560 --> 00:21:32.640 edge. And as a circle it's a kind of, it's a,  it's a landscape that's experienced in motion   00:21:33.680 --> 00:21:40.400 which was really interesting, and also on a, on  a, on a very small site. Again, just over an acre.   00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:46.960 We were able to start try to choreograph an  experience, especially for students like,   00:21:46.960 --> 00:21:51.840 who need to get outside and think. It just, yeah,  the idea that you could kind of revolve around   00:21:51.840 --> 00:22:01.680 this landscape, and kind of have a real sense  of refreshment, and a kind of yeah, new outlook,   00:22:01.680 --> 00:22:09.200 to get away from the studio. So you know with  a very uh modest budget, we were able to sort   00:22:09.200 --> 00:22:14.960 of like almost create two strong identities  that kind of play with the historic side,   00:22:15.520 --> 00:22:20.160 and then reinforce a completely different  kind of northern, almost Jekyll and Hyde   00:22:20.160 --> 00:22:29.200 kind of situation. The systems that are, that are  introduced from a landscape perspective are all   00:22:29.200 --> 00:22:35.120 about how you can communicate that to the students  who will study landscape, and to be able to read   00:22:35.120 --> 00:22:41.440 what's happening in the landscape, but also to  create an experience that's unique in the city.   00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:48.000 So this is sort of some views from that southern,  very historic, façade, which was regenerated,   00:22:49.680 --> 00:22:56.240 of the kind of the native grasses that really have  a kind of, kind of supportive role to the arc.   00:22:58.080 --> 00:23:03.040 And as you kind of revolve, we're kind of going  around the clock of this circle. As you revolve,   00:23:03.040 --> 00:23:12.480 there's sort of these quiet more pastoral settings  for reflection that kind of build towards this new   00:23:12.480 --> 00:23:21.280 entrance plaza of the of the building, right  here. And again, with sort of the constraints   00:23:21.280 --> 00:23:27.440 of a limited budget, the use of concrete, we tried  to develop a kind of scoring pattern that would   00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:31.600 kind of try to elevate the quality  and sort of texture of this place,   00:23:31.600 --> 00:23:39.760 using an agricultural technique of barn engraving  with these diamond saws, to create, uh you know,   00:23:39.760 --> 00:23:46.160 to add enrichment and texture all around this  kind of, plate of concrete. And as you move to,   00:23:46.160 --> 00:23:50.400 from the enter, towards the entrance there's kind  of inflections in the landforms that start to get   00:23:50.400 --> 00:23:55.120 a little more dramatic, and you move from that  those historical, very supportive grounds, to   00:23:55.120 --> 00:24:01.280 actually these quite expressive landforms. So like  here you're also seeing the building designed by   00:24:01.280 --> 00:24:06.400 Nader Tehrani of NADAAA, based in Boston. And  this kind of interpretation of the architecture   00:24:06.400 --> 00:24:12.640 as a neo-gothic, moving from a neo-gothic  building, and so, then these sort of land   00:24:12.640 --> 00:24:17.840 forms, a more experimental kind of climax  happens in this corner. Where we introduce,   00:24:19.360 --> 00:24:24.480 we often call a Darwin's hill, which is  sort of like a major inflection in the land,   00:24:24.480 --> 00:24:29.920 which is actually a pure balance,  a nearly pure balance of cut/fill,   00:24:30.560 --> 00:24:37.920 excavated terrain, from a lower, northern terrace  that sunk in there, and relates to the, to the   00:24:37.920 --> 00:24:44.400 lower levels of the building, that is, becomes a  soil repository up in the north, in the northeast   00:24:44.400 --> 00:24:52.160 quadrant of the site. And this is sort of in,  in some ways a very didactic demonstration of   00:24:52.720 --> 00:25:00.880 moving land and landforming and shaping to create  drama. And so you know, in all these cases,   00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:06.960 we sort of have, we share all the working drawings  with the students. So we can start to understand   00:25:07.840 --> 00:25:17.040 cut and fill construction techniques in terms of  reinforcing slopes. And this particular landform,   00:25:19.040 --> 00:25:26.560 which uses mechanically stabilized earth,  walls and creates kind of tipped grass planes,   00:25:26.560 --> 00:25:35.120 which are south facing, and include a bleacher  was unfortunately engineered and sort of awaiting   00:25:35.120 --> 00:25:42.240 funding, but has three four distinct sides that  engage, sort of the streetscape on one side,   00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:47.280 the plaza on the other, and the inner, the  inner landscape on the other side., and   00:25:47.280 --> 00:25:52.880 here's a view of that inner slope which becomes  what was kind of imagined as an experimental,   00:25:55.440 --> 00:26:02.000 and the first experiment was simply to  plant a taxonomy of trees, native trees,   00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:04.720 that were approved by the city  of Toronto for naturalization.   00:26:05.680 --> 00:26:11.680 And this would allow students who are, you  know, focused in their studios right up here,   00:26:12.640 --> 00:26:18.080 to have a sense of, and a kind of contact with,  the growth of trees and vegetation that they just   00:26:18.080 --> 00:26:24.320 don't usually get in the city. And to see  that first experiment of how these trees,   00:26:25.360 --> 00:26:30.320 when they can follow their habit  and structure and understand the, 00:26:32.400 --> 00:26:37.840 have a kind of instant walk to kind of refer to. 00:26:38.560 --> 00:26:44.640 Every slope is sort of calibrated to  kind of also like become a kind of   00:26:45.280 --> 00:26:49.040 set of reference points for, what  does a three to one slope feel like,   00:26:49.040 --> 00:26:56.240 what does a two to one slope feel like.  And every plant, tree planted, is using   00:27:00.320 --> 00:27:04.880 different details, including structural soils,  including silver cells, including different   00:27:04.880 --> 00:27:09.840 volumes of soil. So we can, students can, track  that growth over time and monitor the landscape.   00:27:11.600 --> 00:27:16.160 And the slopes themselves become, a kind  of, points of ongoing experiments as well,   00:27:16.720 --> 00:27:24.800 between slopes that have been planted with various  techniques, including live staking, and others   00:27:24.800 --> 00:27:32.240 that have become hosts for spontaneous vegetation.  And so we're constantly allowing, almost like the   00:27:32.800 --> 00:27:38.000 working with the faculty, on kind of different  maintenance regimes. That like have this balance   00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:46.320 of care and kind of maintain, extreme maintenance,  versus really raw and almost feral conditions.   00:27:46.960 --> 00:27:54.000 And so here's at the top of the ring, where the  sunken courtyard relates to the fabrication labs,   00:27:54.000 --> 00:27:57.440 and you really sink below the city. This  experience of, kind of, you know, almost   00:27:57.440 --> 00:28:01.840 disconnect from the city, versus the experience  on the hill, where you have this huge prospect.   00:28:02.800 --> 00:28:09.680 And it's been great since, you know, in the  pandemic that this has been a space that   00:28:09.680 --> 00:28:16.560 actually has really kind of become an outdoor  learning space. It's used, and the new dean   00:28:16.560 --> 00:28:20.560 has really been embracing this as a place for  dialogue, which has been really exciting to see. 00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:30.320 Another dimension of the projects that  we, I think, has been kind of a turning   00:28:30.320 --> 00:28:36.160 point in our practice, is starting to think  about public spaces that are deliberately,   00:28:36.800 --> 00:28:44.080 in a way, not incomplete, but deliberately  left with sort of a script that's more open.   00:28:44.880 --> 00:28:51.280 To allow, to allow them to be kind of  really thoughtfully created, but not 00:28:53.360 --> 00:28:58.960 feel finished. And to allow a sort of space where  others would add to them. And we’re programming   00:28:59.760 --> 00:29:00.320 could actually 00:29:02.960 --> 00:29:09.280 So we were, this is the Bentway in Toronto, and  you're looking at the Gardner expressway, one of   00:29:09.280 --> 00:29:16.480 the like 20th century's, the kind of legacy of a  elevated highway that cuts through our downtown,   00:29:16.480 --> 00:29:21.280 separating the downtown from the lake. And  in this stretch, just under two kilometers,   00:29:22.800 --> 00:29:26.960 we were invited by Ken Greenberg,  one of our cities legendary…. 00:29:31.120 --> 00:29:38.880 Purpose to come up with ideas of how, what could  live within this and in the undercroft of this of   00:29:38.880 --> 00:29:44.960 this structure. You know, what's interesting  is this has been a symbol of division of   00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:52.320 neighborhoods, of landscape systems, and it has  the, it sits sort of within this constellation   00:29:52.320 --> 00:29:59.200 of about 30,000 people living, who actually  have quite a generous access to green space,   00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:04.400 but don't have a sense of a kind of public  center, or a kind of city life, that that   00:30:04.400 --> 00:30:09.280 that centers these various communities. So that  was the idea of the Bentway, that it, in a way,   00:30:09.280 --> 00:30:13.600 fills voids that aren't met by green spaces,  traditional green spaces, or traditional urban   00:30:14.240 --> 00:30:23.120 plazas. But that there could be a kind of public  realm of a different kind. That we, you know, when   00:30:23.120 --> 00:30:28.000 looking at the original structure of the place,  we started to really be fascinated by the cadence   00:30:28.000 --> 00:30:34.880 of these columns, which we call our we call  bents, that start to make this feel like a space,   00:30:34.880 --> 00:30:42.160 on one hand, of many, many individual rooms, but  on the other hand, have also an effect of like,   00:30:42.880 --> 00:30:48.720 in these long stretches, of feeling like  singular monumental spaces. And, you know,, in a   00:30:49.360 --> 00:30:56.000 space like this, I mean, it's like Toronto got to  a point where it had, it could start to look at   00:30:56.000 --> 00:31:00.720 spaces that were less conventional, and start to  reimagine them with the energy of the population   00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:05.520 living around them. That they actually could  become vital spaces. And it was interesting   00:31:05.520 --> 00:31:11.040 to think about the qualities of these, kind of,  today, these, the sort of, every time we go to   00:31:11.040 --> 00:31:16.080 these, the space, we kind of recognize that it had  actually a quality that defied what you might have   00:31:16.080 --> 00:31:22.240 imagined. It wasn't as dark and dank a space as  you might think. It actually had these incredible   00:31:22.960 --> 00:31:28.320 light quality. And that was, that we almost wanted  to, like, do as little as we could, to kind of   00:31:28.320 --> 00:31:34.960 maintain the rawness of this space, but also pick  up on historical narratives that had been lost.   00:31:35.520 --> 00:31:40.240 And this is at the southern end of the same  fortification that I showed in the first project.   00:31:40.240 --> 00:31:43.760 But how we could, like, build out  textures born out of this place,   00:31:45.120 --> 00:31:51.600 both the historic, the historic landscapes  of the fort and cribbing walls that had been   00:31:51.600 --> 00:31:57.200 uncovered here. But also the structure, but  can think about how it becomes human again.   00:31:59.360 --> 00:32:05.680 And how we could evoke systems of the shoreline  through vegetative swaths, native grasses.   00:32:06.320 --> 00:32:11.120 And in way, above all, to think about  how it becomes a connective element   00:32:11.120 --> 00:32:16.480 between neighborhoods, a way to move, and  a way of kind of bringing systems together. 00:32:18.560 --> 00:32:21.520 Here's that overlay of the  shoreline, which existed 00:32:23.600 --> 00:32:30.720 before all that infill. And it's, and so the  trail, and the movement systems follow that,   00:32:30.720 --> 00:32:36.880 follow that shoreline. And to materialize that  shoreline, we wanted to bring sort of an idea   00:32:36.880 --> 00:32:48.000 of salvage and reuse in working with materials  of the shoreline. And we were able to harvest   00:32:49.120 --> 00:32:55.280 all these aggregates from a very special place in  Toronto. This is the spit, this is a place where   00:32:55.280 --> 00:33:03.360 a lot of the detritus of construction in the city  over the last 60 years has been processed, and is   00:33:03.360 --> 00:33:11.840 actually kind of, mixed on the shoreline. We were  able to harvest the last shipping load from that   00:33:11.840 --> 00:33:20.560 place to use as mixes in making the aggregate of  the floors, sort of work against the, kind of,   00:33:20.560 --> 00:33:26.240 coldness of the, of the concrete that existed  in the, in the expressway structure, and bring   00:33:26.240 --> 00:33:31.840 kind of, in a way, a sense of the history  of the city and a kind of warmth in the… 00:33:34.480 --> 00:33:42.240 Place needed. And so these become porous grounds.  Also start to reflect a kind of way finding idea   00:33:42.240 --> 00:33:48.240 and thinking about these bents as a kind of  system of organization, and as wayfinding., 00:33:50.640 --> 00:33:56.800 You know with ideas of light and signage, and  thing, and things that were all around the,   00:33:56.800 --> 00:34:07.920 kind of palette, of robust sim and where possible  reflective of this two kilometers stretch,   00:34:07.920 --> 00:34:13.760 you have a real diversity of experiences.  And that's sort of, you know, one of the   00:34:13.760 --> 00:34:18.640 most important ideas. To think about how to  activate this place, not just in terms of like,   00:34:18.640 --> 00:34:24.720 what it physically looks like, but actually  how it performs. And how it could support life.   00:34:26.480 --> 00:34:31.360 And in this, in some of the original ideas were  actually to think about the pulse of the place,   00:34:31.360 --> 00:34:36.880 and how programming could take advantage of  these different adjacent conditions next to,   00:34:36.880 --> 00:34:41.600 through the, through the areas where  there's direct adjacency neighborhoods,   00:34:41.600 --> 00:34:47.280 and through areas bounded by park and green  space, and through other areas that face the   00:34:47.280 --> 00:34:53.200 tracks and other tough places. And in each case,  sort of cater to welcoming community groups, while   00:34:54.720 --> 00:35:02.160 new active programs, pathways double as skating  trails in winter. So the injection of a, of a   00:35:02.160 --> 00:35:09.120 strong winter seasonal program has been huge for  this place. It immediately activated it and became   00:35:09.120 --> 00:35:14.960 one of the destinations in the city, which has  been really exciting. And the fleet of furniture   00:35:14.960 --> 00:35:20.560 that is really about, you know, reconfiguring,  allowing people to kind of move and situate,   00:35:23.040 --> 00:35:28.400 you know, where, wherever they like, to host  sort of different configurations of gathering, 00:35:31.040 --> 00:35:34.000 just to, sort of, keep an  informal quality to the place. 00:35:39.040 --> 00:35:44.880 Wherever possible, to start to layer public  realm, along with the kind of supportive   00:35:44.880 --> 00:35:51.520 community infrastructure necessary. Under here  is our community meeting room storage facilities   00:35:51.520 --> 00:35:57.840 for programming and events, green rooms  for performers, and public washrooms. 00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:03.360 Some of the spaces that welcome  and interface with the streetscape.   00:36:05.920 --> 00:36:11.520 And I think one of the kind of central ideas  has been also how the structure itself could   00:36:11.520 --> 00:36:18.240 be leveraged. How, you know, this infrastructure  built in the 20th century to support nothing but   00:36:18.240 --> 00:36:26.560 cars above, could start to be leveraged for public  life and programming below. And conceptually,   00:36:26.560 --> 00:36:34.000 it was an idea that that roof was almost, became  a kind of almost theatrical rigging apparatus.   00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:39.120 It was this sort of civic-scaled equipment  that could help foster, kind of life below.   00:36:39.760 --> 00:36:46.720 And so we, you know, we developed almost a  system of fixation points, and how we would   00:36:46.720 --> 00:36:51.840 interface with the structure. And one of the most  interesting elements was these kind of friction   00:36:51.840 --> 00:36:58.960 hangers that would allow us to not penetrate the  columns. So based on all this sort of stripped   00:36:58.960 --> 00:37:05.360 transportation rules but to allow us to hang, kind  of, significant elements. And in thinking about   00:37:05.360 --> 00:37:10.160 that we're working with our, these incredible  local structural engineers called Blackwell   00:37:10.160 --> 00:37:14.800 Engineering to develop this friction hanger  that could actually support a pedestrian bridge   00:37:16.320 --> 00:37:23.760 for a future phase. So these are some of the some  of the images of that, which is still in progress. 00:37:27.040 --> 00:37:29.760 And with the ability, yeah, but  the ability to hang a bridge,   00:37:30.880 --> 00:37:38.480 it kind of opens up the possibility of hanging  all kinds of other artistic sculptural features   00:37:40.080 --> 00:37:46.240 and in a way inviting culture into the space.  The skating rink, which follows the shoreline,   00:37:48.320 --> 00:37:52.880 is also planned to expand, so that you  can skate that entire historic shoreline,   00:37:53.920 --> 00:38:01.440 culminating at the library and the park. And  these are the donors that made it happen.   00:38:01.440 --> 00:38:07.280 This was a big step in Toronto in terms of  how philanthropy can engage public realm.   00:38:08.880 --> 00:38:13.920 This more common I think in the US, but in  Canada this was the first. And this was this   00:38:13.920 --> 00:38:18.880 couple who donated 25 million dollars to create  this park, with no strings attached whatsoever,   00:38:18.880 --> 00:38:27.040 no naming rights, you know, nothing.  And one of the big contributions was   00:38:27.040 --> 00:38:33.200 not only making the place, but also using  some of that money to seed a conservancy,   00:38:34.400 --> 00:38:40.720 not unlike the central park conservancy that would  be responsible for the continuing programming and   00:38:40.720 --> 00:38:45.280 life of the space. And that was important in the  dialogue in Toronto in terms of public space,   00:38:45.280 --> 00:38:50.880 to sort of overcome the expectations that a park  was delivered and activated simply by a parks   00:38:50.880 --> 00:38:57.200 department. And, you know, in again this is, these  are models that are more common in the US, but   00:38:58.400 --> 00:39:03.760 this was a sort of a first for Toronto.  And the conservancy has done, uh,   00:39:04.480 --> 00:39:08.640 you know, amazing things. There's a constant  kind of like array of things happening here,   00:39:10.320 --> 00:39:17.680 this museum of the moon is sort of like, hanging  moon, which is just incredible. So it was really,   00:39:17.680 --> 00:39:23.280 uh, like the spirit of also this place, hosting  things that couldn't necessarily be hosted in   00:39:23.280 --> 00:39:28.320 other environments, was, is something sort of  that that the conservancy is being really true to.   00:39:30.640 --> 00:39:36.240 And it's exciting to see sort of how that schedule  of engagements is, it continues to evolve.   00:39:37.680 --> 00:39:42.480 And uh, tight relationships with community  groups in the city, all across the city,   00:39:42.480 --> 00:39:49.040 who are invited to kind of, use this space,  take it over and kind of share that sense of   00:39:49.040 --> 00:39:57.520 authorship about how this place continues  to live and breathe. And there was a real,   00:39:57.520 --> 00:40:04.160 like, a real emphasis on how the everyday pulse of  the place could be sustained. So there's sort of,   00:40:04.160 --> 00:40:08.720 there's this kind of constant sense that,  like, there's you know, you see the community   00:40:08.720 --> 00:40:12.800 yoga that's happening there on a regular basis.  This sort of, all this kind of everyday mode,   00:40:14.720 --> 00:40:18.800 and there have been some really wonderful, kind  of spectacular moments, and this is a former   00:40:18.800 --> 00:40:24.960 classmate of mine from the Netherlands, who's  a, uh, a light artist who did the spectacular   00:40:24.960 --> 00:40:29.520 Dan Rose Garden, who did this spectacular light  installation across a kilometer of the space. 00:40:33.440 --> 00:40:40.720 A big, a big turning point in our practice was  when we were so fortunate to get a chance to,   00:40:40.720 --> 00:40:46.320 kind of, look at this, this formally look  at this condition in Toronto. This sort of   00:40:47.360 --> 00:40:52.800 deficit of public space amidst major growth.  To take a look, for at a plan or a vision,   00:40:53.760 --> 00:40:59.440 for the whole downtown core. And in  terms of its public, uh, public space   00:41:00.480 --> 00:41:09.040 at parks. And so with this kind of, like in a way  impossibility of making a Central Park, or like a   00:41:09.040 --> 00:41:15.600 formal public space of that nature. We tried to  really look again at the relationship between   00:41:15.600 --> 00:41:24.320 the core, of the built central city, and it's kind  of, green edges. And we see a sharp kind of almost   00:41:25.440 --> 00:41:34.560 collision between the towers of the downtown core  and our ravines. It's almost the task of the next,   00:41:34.560 --> 00:41:42.320 the next 50 years, is to start to, you know,  re-articulate these interfaces. And so we kind   00:41:42.320 --> 00:41:47.680 of began in thinking about how the morphologies  of the glacial landscape in Toronto and then   00:41:47.680 --> 00:41:56.000 the colonial grid intersect and relate. And so  this this diagram of these two systems started   00:41:56.000 --> 00:42:06.080 to inform a way of looking at the city, almost  squinting, and starting to see the landscapes,   00:42:06.080 --> 00:42:13.280 green spaces that do exist along this this almost  circle around downtown. And think about the 60   00:42:13.280 --> 00:42:20.400 or so projects that could start to weave those  into one coherent network. And that network is   00:42:20.400 --> 00:42:25.280 interesting because it's really a mosaic of  almost every landscape and ecological type,   00:42:27.040 --> 00:42:33.920 from, uh, you know, from already established  public parks, to sort of very near wild,   00:42:34.960 --> 00:42:40.880 uh, ecological settings in the ravine that, in  the lower valley. But they also start to break   00:42:40.880 --> 00:42:45.680 out in this sort of interesting symbolic way,  in terms of the our relationship to our river,   00:42:46.480 --> 00:42:52.800 the peninsula, and islands that, which surround  the bay completely. The lost creek system of   00:42:52.800 --> 00:42:57.200 Garrison Creek, which I talked about it, the  mouth of the Garrison, with our first project,   00:42:57.200 --> 00:43:02.960 and how that stretches up to our the  shores of a ancient glacial lake Iroquois,   00:43:02.960 --> 00:43:07.760 uh, along the northern bluff. And that  in our minds, that we can almost like,   00:43:07.760 --> 00:43:11.840 instead of imagining a Central Park or kind  of core green space, that we could imagine   00:43:12.480 --> 00:43:18.480 actually a perimeter of green, at a scale  actually, you know, vastly larger than any   00:43:18.480 --> 00:43:29.120 park we ever had in the city. But maybe not one  that is experienced at once, but in fact in many   00:43:29.120 --> 00:43:37.280 different ways. And the kind of counterpoint  to that green system was, uh, a rethinking of   00:43:37.280 --> 00:43:43.440 the streets and the key streets within downtown.  So there's sort of 12 key streets that we look,   00:43:43.440 --> 00:43:48.080 we started to look at. And the terrain that they  take up in the public right-of-way is significant,   00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:57.280 and by thinking about like we, you know, we  created kind of conceptual ideas for each street,   00:43:57.280 --> 00:44:02.240 and how they could transform their identity and  the way they performed actually as public spaces   00:44:02.240 --> 00:44:08.160 rather than just transportation arteries, and then  how they deliver you to this edge, became key. 00:44:10.560 --> 00:44:15.360 A series of those streets also started to be  elevated in terms of the role they could play as   00:44:15.360 --> 00:44:22.240 absorptive infrastructure processing water. And  one of those key streets was University Avenue,   00:44:22.240 --> 00:44:29.760 which is one of our most ceremonial historic  streets. It has a kind of iconic central   00:44:29.760 --> 00:44:37.760 boulevard and landscape in its center which is,  uh, absolutely vacant, unfortunately. And when   00:44:37.760 --> 00:44:44.480 we worked with Gail Studio to do public life  surveys, it was kind of proven, these instincts   00:44:44.480 --> 00:44:50.640 that actually, you know, even at peak times, only  two out of 100 people ever stopped in the space.   00:44:53.840 --> 00:45:00.480 So in looking at that thin line, this three acre  uh line, of this central boulevard, we started to   00:45:00.480 --> 00:45:05.680 think about how we could actually reconfigure  some of the lanes of transportation movement,   00:45:06.320 --> 00:45:12.400 grow them, and connect the civic city hall  and the civic district to the north with our   00:45:12.400 --> 00:45:18.720 provincial legislature building and the University  of Toronto, original historic campus, and how that   00:45:18.720 --> 00:45:26.080 street could actually play a role in creating a  kind of ensemble of green, of green spaces that   00:45:26.080 --> 00:45:33.920 included a linear park as a street. And, uh, that  just in the public right-of-way we could create   00:45:33.920 --> 00:45:40.320 a nine-acre park sort of, that never existed. And  this kind of generated a conversation in the city   00:45:40.320 --> 00:45:45.760 which, you know, it's, is nothing new, but it  was just in Toronto, it was really important to   00:45:45.760 --> 00:45:51.280 start to think differently about the role  of streets. And not only streets themselves,   00:45:51.280 --> 00:45:57.520 but how streets start to join forces with  rethinking the open space resources that we have,   00:46:00.480 --> 00:46:06.080 and that dialogue around university became  a case that we started to develop with other   00:46:06.080 --> 00:46:10.800 neighborhoods and their associated green  spaces. So we started to think about a   00:46:10.800 --> 00:46:15.840 series of almost park districts of existing  neighborhoods and their, and their open spaces,   00:46:15.840 --> 00:46:19.680 and how they could be woven closer together,  and how they could perform differently,   00:46:20.400 --> 00:46:26.080 using streets as conduits that would, in this  case, connect two revitalized existing spaces,   00:46:26.080 --> 00:46:30.000 but start to create a kind of larger halo or  effect or experience in the neighborhoods.   00:46:30.800 --> 00:46:36.480 And so there was ,you know, there was about 10 of  these districts, and that, and that included also,   00:46:36.480 --> 00:46:44.400 then starting to think about some of the real high  density districts in the core, and how we could   00:46:44.400 --> 00:46:50.160 start to think about new kinds of infrastructure  that would bridge in this case our sunken rail   00:46:50.880 --> 00:46:57.600 yards, and create what was called Rail Deck Park,  you know, which is again, not something that we   00:46:57.600 --> 00:47:02.080 intended to be a near-term solution, but also to  think about some of the long-term solutions when 00:47:06.640 --> 00:47:10.160 When the real estate climate  would allow this to happen,   00:47:10.880 --> 00:47:15.360 not unlike Hudson Yards. But there's potential  here at the very core to create a 21-acre   00:47:16.080 --> 00:47:23.680 green space, something that the mayor got very  excited about. And you know, has been kind of an   00:47:23.680 --> 00:47:30.480 ongoing debate in the city about how a project  of this magnitude and cost could be justified,   00:47:30.480 --> 00:47:39.440 or be thought about. And you know, the project  sort of also got down to a layer of the finest   00:47:39.440 --> 00:47:48.640 grain almost the confetti of laneways and other  sort of, small public, parkettes, they're called   00:47:48.640 --> 00:47:55.600 in Toronto, these little neighborhood layers, as a  kind of also counterpoint to the larger moves. But   00:47:55.600 --> 00:48:03.200 something interesting happened when the Raptors  won their championship. The celebration sort of,   00:48:03.200 --> 00:48:08.080 ended up on University Avenue that, one of these  streets that we, you know, had been talking about.   00:48:09.360 --> 00:48:15.440 And it rekindled the conversation about you know,  like, where do we celebrate, where do we gather,   00:48:15.440 --> 00:48:20.560 where is our you know, because these kinds of  celebrations, they kind of almost suggest where   00:48:21.600 --> 00:48:30.720 your most important public spaces are or could be.  And in a sort of similar set up to the Bentway,   00:48:30.720 --> 00:48:35.680 we had a, we were approached by a donor, who  was again a very kind of engaged citizen.   00:48:36.240 --> 00:48:42.800 Who was fascinated by the University Avenue  proposal that had been discussed, but was not,   00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:48.000 but we were, but we're not seeing any action  on that, on that front. As I said, the mayor   00:48:48.000 --> 00:48:53.840 got really interested in Rail Deck Park, a one  and a half billion dollar enterprise, but sort of,   00:48:53.840 --> 00:49:01.120 it had, had not clued into the potential impact  of University Avenue in a much swifter kind of,   00:49:01.120 --> 00:49:10.960 uh, delivery potential. So we were able, he helped  to support a further investigation of University   00:49:10.960 --> 00:49:17.040 Avenue as a corridor and to start to think in the  context, this happened during the pandemic, as we   00:49:17.040 --> 00:49:23.040 all you know, like, kind of raise the dialogue  about, and the public, the public interest and   00:49:23.040 --> 00:49:30.160 need for access to nature and cities, you know.  Of course, like, continuing the conversation   00:49:30.160 --> 00:49:34.560 about climate change and resilience, and how  this streetscape could perform in a totally   00:49:34.560 --> 00:49:43.840 different way. And again, highlighting as now the  central, the central need to think about equity,   00:49:43.840 --> 00:49:49.200 inclusion in our, in our cities. And this is you  know, this is the place of protest, and so the   00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:56.240 idea that at the top at the top of this  street is our provincial legislature, and then   00:49:56.240 --> 00:50:01.680 at the base is city hall. That this could be a new  system that would connect the two and be you know,   00:50:01.680 --> 00:50:08.480 one of our, kind of most important symbolic  landscapes. And the value proposition which is in,   00:50:08.480 --> 00:50:15.360 you know, where there was sort of political  attention on a 1.6 billion dollar initiative,   00:50:15.360 --> 00:50:22.720 versus what relatively a lot cheaper and more  accessible, became a politically, sort of,   00:50:22.720 --> 00:50:30.160 good timing. And we've been continuing to now work  with the task force with the mayor's office and   00:50:30.160 --> 00:50:36.560 the department heads to explore how we can make  this happen, to really like think about just the   00:50:36.560 --> 00:50:44.240 simple transformation of nine and a half acres of  publicly owned asphalt, into a 90 acre park. And   00:50:45.280 --> 00:50:51.280 the you know, it's so interesting how the pandemic  took the existing condition that we had before,   00:50:52.000 --> 00:50:57.760 into a new condition, that was created  just spontaneously, during pandemic time,   00:50:57.760 --> 00:51:04.560 when traffic was reduced and bike lanes were  added, the traffic flow was, it was reduced   00:51:04.560 --> 00:51:10.320 to two lanes in each direction, and that opened  up the possibility to really think about how we   00:51:10.320 --> 00:51:16.080 could continue at coming out of the pandemic, and  how to, a as an economic development scheme, and   00:51:16.080 --> 00:51:19.040 to think differently about how the  regeneration of this could happen,   00:51:19.760 --> 00:51:27.680 without adding those extra lanes back. And so  we've gotten you know, into detail about how   00:51:27.680 --> 00:51:34.080 now this interface with our provincial legislature  there on the left, and the campus on the right,   00:51:34.080 --> 00:51:39.920 could actually be a kind of regeneration of an,  in, the indigenous landscape. This is the lost,   00:51:40.720 --> 00:51:46.000 another lost creek in the city that has  been kind of, that is sort of, lost in this,   00:51:46.000 --> 00:51:53.200 in this maze of transportation infrastructure.  And the idea of like regenerating this system,   00:51:54.720 --> 00:52:01.360 and expressing its performance as an ecological  landscape and water management amenity.   00:52:02.400 --> 00:52:08.480 And so this is sort of before, and this is  after. And then as it move, as the street moves   00:52:09.040 --> 00:52:16.800 south, it lands in our hospital district, which  sort of, is conceptually being repositioned as a   00:52:16.800 --> 00:52:22.320 wellness district. And this is where sort of, four  of our major hospitals have addresses, but don't   00:52:22.320 --> 00:52:29.040 have any interaction or common ground. And I’m  moving further south towards our courthouse and   00:52:29.040 --> 00:52:34.240 opera house. These again there are lost landscapes  that no one visits that are actually significant   00:52:34.960 --> 00:52:43.280 in size, and the proposal simply reconfigures  the lanes into the west side and opens up   00:52:44.640 --> 00:52:49.600 these new, these new green spaces as public  terrain. And here's our opera house currently   00:52:49.600 --> 00:52:58.000 sitting with a street sidewalk, and this  is the potential new square plaza. All the   00:52:58.000 --> 00:53:05.360 while continuing movement flow just off the screen  here in four lanes consolidated to the west side.   00:53:06.160 --> 00:53:13.840 So this is now, this is now sort of, part of  our template of projects that would develop   00:53:16.400 --> 00:53:21.440 for TO core. This project for thinking about the  sort of, next 50 years of the city. And but for us   00:53:22.320 --> 00:53:26.960 as a studio, this is in a way, this is our  framework for our practice. We think of this   00:53:26.960 --> 00:53:32.560 sort of as, how we can continue to engage  with our city, our home, our hometown,   00:53:34.160 --> 00:53:39.920 and start to think about how you know deeply,  how every project that we work on now has a,   00:53:39.920 --> 00:53:46.560 has an aim that's larger than its own site, which  was really important, like I think like important,   00:53:46.560 --> 00:53:53.920 to our uh, our thinking and to the kind of  situation Toronto's in, where it's not about   00:53:54.480 --> 00:53:58.080 creating things from scratch, it's  about actually kind of a second reading   00:53:58.080 --> 00:54:02.800 of the things we have, and thinking about  those resources connected to others,   00:54:04.080 --> 00:54:10.960 and facilitating kind of new relationships  across the city. So this is now kind of,   00:54:12.640 --> 00:54:16.160 what we're trying to work on, and  it embodies sort of, a, I think,   00:54:16.160 --> 00:54:21.520 a theme that is essential in our office, that we  look at the city as a landscape, we look at how   00:54:21.520 --> 00:54:28.480 the dynamics of the landscape can inform thinking  about the city, and we really try to kind of,   00:54:28.480 --> 00:54:33.200 operate as a holistic practice that embraces,  you know, the human and natural dimensions.   00:54:35.520 --> 00:54:41.280 That's where, that's why I wanted to  stop and thank you for, thank you. 00:54:50.040 --> 00:54:51.040 [Sam]  00:54:51.040 --> 00:55:05.840 Can you hear me on here? 00:55:29.440 --> 00:55:33.840 I’m happy to start too, yes, brent? 00:55:33.840 --> 00:55:37.360 [Brent Chamberlain]  00:55:37.360 --> 00:55:43.840 Awesome, lovely to see so many different  designs and uses of cities, and it brought   00:55:43.840 --> 00:55:50.000 back some nostalgia for me, with some similar  elements in Vancouver. One of the things I   00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:57.920 wanted to ask about the pictures you've shown,  you had one that really represented winter, and   00:55:59.520 --> 00:56:03.120 in a country that is predominantly  frozen for at least half of the year,   00:56:04.400 --> 00:56:08.640 and knowing that that's also, you know, to some  extent, even for a lot of our students that are   00:56:08.640 --> 00:56:13.040 working in our Mountain West areas, that are  cold for an extensive amount of time, how   00:56:13.760 --> 00:56:20.160 do you guys develop formally with the  organizations you're working with,   00:56:20.160 --> 00:56:25.120 alternative seasonal plans, outside of just the  renderings that certainly need to be sold and   00:56:25.120 --> 00:56:30.560 discussed and you know, are at the peak of use.  But there's so much other space that people need   00:56:30.560 --> 00:56:35.200 to explore in the winter as well instead of just  their rooms. So I’m curious how you approach that. 00:56:40.040 --> 00:56:41.040 [Marc]  00:56:41.040 --> 00:56:46.000 Thanks. Yeah, that's it's always on our minds,  winter's always on our minds in some ways.   00:56:46.880 --> 00:56:53.520 We've had an interesting experience where we've  been thinking a lot about outdoor comfort, in   00:56:53.520 --> 00:57:01.360 terms of streetscape, approaches to streetscapes,  and actually we were able to do some interesting   00:57:01.360 --> 00:57:06.400 research in a collaboration with sidewalk labs,  when they were doing a kind of experiment in   00:57:06.400 --> 00:57:13.440 Toronto, where we worked on developing a kind  of, almost like a forestry strategy, to a   00:57:13.440 --> 00:57:20.080 section of streetscape, that was then tested, you  know, in a more detailed way through wind tunnels,   00:57:20.080 --> 00:57:26.880 and in terms of you know, slowing down wind,  mitigating microclimate, and working together   00:57:28.320 --> 00:57:34.960 with, then thinking about the edges of buildings,  and thinking about less, like in this case,   00:57:34.960 --> 00:57:40.640 less about winter, but more about extending  shoulder seasons. Like for Canadians,   00:57:40.640 --> 00:57:46.240 winter is like something we just take on.  And partly it's about getting a good coat.   00:57:48.400 --> 00:57:52.400 So it's almost like we don't have that sense.  It's like how Dutch people are happy to go out   00:57:52.400 --> 00:57:59.760 in the rain. So winter, in a way, we're pretty  good at. It's actually the, it's those edges,   00:57:59.760 --> 00:58:05.440 that I think we need to improve. So that's  been a topic that we've been actually quite   00:58:05.440 --> 00:58:14.800 working a lot with, and I think is it has a lot  of potential. And that goes along with sort of,   00:58:14.800 --> 00:58:18.640 the theme of biodiversity because in thinking  about some of those microclimates, and how   00:58:19.200 --> 00:58:25.440 you know we get away from just sort of singular  lines of monocultures, where we actually start   00:58:25.440 --> 00:58:30.320 to have swaths of different plantings, and this  isn't necessarily for the core of the city, but   00:58:30.320 --> 00:58:35.840 this is sort of, as we, we're working currently on  a street that basically delivers you to the river,   00:58:36.480 --> 00:58:40.480 and that's where we're actually starting  to play out some of these ideas.   00:58:40.480 --> 00:58:49.840 So yeah it's on our minds, but particularly the  shoulder season ideas in terms of microclimate. 00:58:49.840 --> 00:58:52.560 [Mike Timmons]  00:58:52.560 --> 00:58:59.920 I was really impressed with the Bentway. All  of your images showed lots of activation,   00:58:59.920 --> 00:59:05.760 lots of happy people, and very well utilized.  And you mentioned that you had worked really   00:59:05.760 --> 00:59:12.160 hard on programming for that, but what, are there  any downsides? You know, one usually thinks of,   00:59:12.720 --> 00:59:18.320 under those highways, lacing through  various cities as being the creepiest,   00:59:18.320 --> 00:59:24.800 scariest places to go. It's where crime happens,  where homeless encampments crop up, have there   00:59:24.800 --> 00:59:31.840 been issues like that in the Bentway, and how  has that maybe been addressed or mitigated? 00:59:35.800 --> 00:59:36.800 [Marc]  00:59:36.800 --> 00:59:41.120 Thanks, yeah, that's a great question.  And I guess the conservancy, and I guess   00:59:41.120 --> 00:59:45.840 everyone involved kind of went in, eyes  wide open, in terms of that, that kind of   00:59:47.680 --> 00:59:52.480 perception of space, and the reality  of what happens in urban conditions,   00:59:52.480 --> 00:59:58.480 harsh urban conditions. And it's become,  yeah, it's become almost an ongoing dialogue,   00:59:58.480 --> 01:00:04.400 and that's sort of partly about how the outreach  with the community takes place. We're actually,   01:00:04.400 --> 01:00:09.760 you know, there are, there are populations who  continue to live under the Gardner expressway. And   01:00:09.760 --> 01:00:16.080 actually as part of the, we continue to work with  the Bentway, I’m thinking beyond just the sort of,   01:00:16.080 --> 01:00:21.920 two kilometers stretch that we did in phase one,  but thinking about the whole corridor, we're   01:00:21.920 --> 01:00:28.800 currently working on a kind of corridor-wide plan  where, again, with the lens of equity, inclusion,   01:00:28.800 --> 01:00:36.480 and I think compassion, really we start to think  about the city services, the support services   01:00:36.480 --> 01:00:42.560 for these communities and the you know, people  experiencing homelessness in in these areas. So   01:00:42.560 --> 01:00:50.880 that, that's becoming almost like a like a kind of  role for the Bentway conservancy and facilitating,   01:00:50.880 --> 01:00:56.240 because they facilitate partnerships, essentially  community partnerships, and so as we think about   01:00:56.240 --> 01:01:01.440 the larger corridor that's top of mind, and  actually sort of, solving in the next phase. But   01:01:01.440 --> 01:01:08.480 yeah, it continues to be kind of an urban reality.  I can't say to you it's solved. But certainly   01:01:10.080 --> 01:01:16.720 the mentality of the Bentway conservancy is  about like embracing and kind of navigating these   01:01:16.720 --> 01:01:26.720 urban realities. So yeah, I mean it's almost  like, it's not about just, it's not about moving   01:01:26.720 --> 01:01:33.120 that problem, it's actually about engaging that  problem. And I think now the city sees, you know,   01:01:33.120 --> 01:01:40.080 sees that like, if it, it's almost like a, it  becomes a, like if you can, if this can be solved   01:01:40.080 --> 01:01:44.720 because we have shelters we have city shelters  that actually are kind of being pop-up shelters   01:01:44.720 --> 01:01:53.360 that are actually happening along this stretch.  And so to actually find a way to include that   01:01:53.360 --> 01:02:05.840 community as part of this and not displace it, is  completely the goal, so it's a work in progress. 01:02:05.840 --> 01:02:08.400 [Caroline] Thank you, that was a great presentation.   01:02:09.760 --> 01:02:14.240 I wanted to ask you the relationship  that you had with the architects   01:02:14.800 --> 01:02:19.840 when you work for the University of Toronto  because you had a lot of landfill that was   01:02:20.400 --> 01:02:26.880 going right against the architecture and all  that. I presume that you had a lot of, that   01:02:26.880 --> 01:02:33.840 you were involved in the sharing and relationship  early in the process. Could you elaborate on that? 01:02:37.480 --> 01:02:38.480 [Marc]  01:02:38.480 --> 01:02:46.560 Yeah, that was, that was really exciting  to be, from the start the architects were,   01:02:48.160 --> 01:02:54.400 in his office were, really interested in how  the landscape and the building could be fused,   01:02:54.400 --> 01:02:59.600 so that was almost a starting point, I think.  This is a school, a faculty, which is a school   01:02:59.600 --> 01:03:05.360 of architecture, a school of landscape, a school  of urban design, and so the dean at the time,   01:03:05.360 --> 01:03:12.160 who was, this really was the dean's big,  kind of, legacy project, was intent on the   01:03:12.800 --> 01:03:20.160 transformation being a you know, an emblem,  for a way that doesn't just, it doesn't just   01:03:20.160 --> 01:03:24.720 only communicate architecture but communicates,  I think urban design. The dean is from the   01:03:24.720 --> 01:03:29.840 background of urban design, so I think that  that set a tone for an idea that a project would   01:03:32.640 --> 01:03:37.440 be would be blending,, and would you know, would  be working urbanistically, would be kind of   01:03:37.440 --> 01:03:43.840 interfacing with its context, and so that I think,  was on the agenda from the start. And yeah we   01:03:44.880 --> 01:03:50.720 had a very good, very good collaborative  working relationship and sculpting, extending,   01:03:50.720 --> 01:03:55.040 and thinking dramatically differently. One thing  I would say that's quite interesting is, I don't   01:03:55.040 --> 01:04:04.160 think anyone totally, from the architectural side,  maybe totally imagine the magnitude of the scale.   01:04:04.160 --> 01:04:08.800 And I think that that surprise is, continues to  surprise people. And one of my favorite moments   01:04:08.800 --> 01:04:16.000 is when you go on the tram, the streetcar, like  around and you're just faced with a you know   01:04:16.000 --> 01:04:27.600 25 foot high wild, feral expression of kind, of  nature, it’s a bit surprising. And so it's a, it's   01:04:27.600 --> 01:04:33.280 an interest, the architects were very open to the  idea that this isn't a neutral, a neutral ground   01:04:33.280 --> 01:04:41.360 for their building, that this is actually an  interrelated experience. That was special. Yeah. 01:04:43.800 --> 01:04:46.960 [Sam] All right we'll do one more, uh oh,   01:04:48.320 --> 01:04:55.200 look behind you, look behind you,  that's seniority right there. 01:04:55.200 --> 01:05:00.800 [Craig Johnson.  01:05:00.800 --> 01:05:05.760 I agree with Caroline, that it's really  inspiring to see because so many cities   01:05:05.760 --> 01:05:14.640 are just headed the other way. One of the  question I, questions I have, I think relates to   01:05:15.680 --> 01:05:21.920 a lot of the innovative things you're doing to  introduce plants. You know, excessive grading,   01:05:21.920 --> 01:05:27.120 which normally you couldn't do a whole  variety of techniques, and I’m wondering,   01:05:28.400 --> 01:05:36.160 because it's so important to what you're doing, if  somebody at Guelph or some other place, you've got   01:05:36.160 --> 01:05:41.760 a group of folks that are actually saying here's  the base data, here's what's happened over year   01:05:41.760 --> 01:05:47.920 one, year two, year three, they're keeping score  of what's going on. Because so much of this is   01:05:47.920 --> 01:05:54.480 so innovative and is so enlightening, or could  be, for other communities that are headed the   01:05:54.480 --> 01:06:01.120 wrong way. That the more we know about it and  the more you share it, I think the better off   01:06:01.120 --> 01:06:08.560 we're all going to be. So we've gone from Toronto,  to Saskatchewan and Alberta, and everywhere else   01:06:08.560 --> 01:06:13.120 to share that, what's going on. I just wondered  if there was anything like that, you talked about   01:06:13.120 --> 01:06:21.040 the wind tunnels and some of those studies, which  I think are great, but a) you have on the biology   01:06:21.040 --> 01:06:29.760 and how things are doing and b) what good are they  doing in terms of reducing heat, taking up carbon,   01:06:29.760 --> 01:06:33.840 you know you really start to put  together some numbers that justify   01:06:34.400 --> 01:06:40.000 doing the kinds of things you're doing. Not just  for people and places, but for planet earth, so. 01:06:43.880 --> 01:06:44.880 [Marc]  01:06:44.880 --> 01:06:51.120 Thanks Craig. Yeah, I mean the fortunate, it's  kind of a very special to have a client who is a   01:06:51.840 --> 01:06:56.800 school of design, right. Because  they are engaging this landscape,   01:06:56.800 --> 01:07:02.480 it's almost like they're embracing  the kind of pedagogy of the space. And   01:07:02.480 --> 01:07:07.440 they do continue to analyze and document. They  use it as their grounds for experimentation,   01:07:08.560 --> 01:07:14.880 so we hope to see some maybe, formalization of  that, but you're absolutely right. We have to, we   01:07:14.880 --> 01:07:20.480 have to be, we have to be looking at those metrics  because yeah, absolutely it's the only way. 01:07:22.440 --> 01:07:26.214 [inaudible comment from the audience] 01:07:26.214 --> 01:07:41.840 [Craig] Let's think how it works. 01:07:43.440 --> 01:07:50.880 And then the benefits as well, so I just, I just  want to say thanks for doing what you're doing,   01:07:50.880 --> 01:07:55.360 and for sharing. This is, this is  pretty innovative, that's great. 01:07:58.640 --> 01:08:03.680 Thank you so much. Let's give  them another round of applause.