Select the links below to view images and brief descriptions of the final design proposals submitted by the four short-listed design teams:

• Baird Sampson Neuert Architects
• Plant Architect & Shore Tilbe Irwin
• Rogers Marvel Architects, Ken Smith Landscape Architect, duToit Allsopp Hillier
• Zeidler Partnership Architects

Baird Sampson Neuert Architects

Select an image for a larger view of the design proposal from Baird Sampson Neuert Architects.

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Entering into a Dialogue with a Masterpiece of Modernist Civic Design

The clarity of Viljo Revell's vision seized the imagination of Nathan Phillips and his generation of Torontonians who transformed it into the very heart and symbol of our city. The Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization Design Competition has offered us, a new generation of designers, a unique opportunity to enter into a dialogue across time with them. To do so, it has been our intention to be attentive to the square's strengths, as well as honest about its deficiencies, by finding "common ground" in six key design principles:

1. building on the original genius of the square
   • responding to the elegant simplicity of the original design
   • retaining and retuning the elevated walkway system to enhance views, accessibility and use
   • opening the centre of the square to accommodate major events and improve views
2. reinforcing its essential beauty and clarity
   • extending the spatial reach of the Square westward to embrace a relocated Peace Garden
   • using restaurant and public facilities within new pavilions to invigorate activity
   • opening views westward with a new pool that realizes Revell's original design intent
3. integrating paths, places and strata into a civic terrain
   • taking advantage of Revell's conception of a constructed landscape for civic enjoyment
   • improving connections and the variety of routes between levels with barrier free pathways
   • transforming the below grade Path system into a positive understandable experience
4. expanding the peace garden as a contemplative landscape
   • forming a new garden dedicated to Peace by "peeling up" the landscape over the garage
   • creating a visually prominent new Peace Pavilion as its focus
5. interweaving bioclimatic design with landscape vision
   • creating a model of civic sustainability in which culture and nature flourish symbiotically
   • designing holistically from first principles of bioclimatic design and systems ecology
6. supporting event and quotidian use with responsive infrastructure
   • maximizing attractiveness and efficiency with integrated furnishing, service and storage systems
   • projecting civic events and vitality out to urbane landscaped frontages on Queen and Bay

Baird Sampson Neuert Architects, Toronto - Team Members

• VLAN Paysages (landscape architecture, Montreal)
• Scott Torrance Landscape Architect Inc. (landscape architect, Toronto)
• Cobalt Engineering (mechanical engineering, Toronto)
• Halcrow Yolles Ltd. (structural engineering, Toronto)
• Margaret Priest (public artist, Toronto)
• Mulvey & Banani International Inc. (electrical engineering, Toronto)
• Dr. Ted Kesik (sustainability and building science, Toronto)
• Vermeulens Cost Consultants (quantity surveyor, Richmond Hill, Ontario)