Select the links below to view images and brief descriptions of the final design proposals submitted by the four short-listed design teams:
Zeidler Partnership Architects
Select an image for a larger view of the design proposal from Zeidler Partnership Architects.
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| Aerial day |
Elevated walkway |
Elevator pavilion |
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| Night lighting |
Restaurant |
Undulating gardens |
The scheme proposes to enlarge the square by removing the existing objects within the walkways. It is then extended to the extremities of the site. The floor of the square becomes the "canvas" for the site.
A garden is introduced to the west. An insert, designed into the floor of the square, it will provide a linear experience of wonderful sustainable gardens. Its undulating forms will allow support programs to be placed under it and will open onto Queen Street with a restaurant. The garden will create pedestrian access to the walkway level, and will provide a much larger and quieter location for the Peace Garden.
The notion of the "picturesque" must play a role in the new interventions. To this end the concept of a "movable garden" is introduced through a system of fixed and movable planters. These can create patterns for the various seasons and provide ambient light into the square. This system of planters will be used to green the square, the walkway levels and the podium.
Some of the planters will form pedestals for sculptures enabling the podium level to become an outdoor art gallery. Projectors mounted on the two towers will allow the projection of various artworks onto the surface of the square. The pool is extended westward. This new section will be more playful and interactive producing water columns and mist. The extension of the fountain will create two zones for the square, the first more civic and open to the north while the other more dense and active with food kiosks and planters to the south.
The grand existing trees will shelter this section during the warm months. The southern walkway will be reclad in glass on both sides. This added transparency will create better visual connection between the two sections of the square and City Hall. The tour buses will be relocated to Bay Street. The ventilation shafts along Queen Street will be reconfigured to vent into glass tubes that will become works of art. The Queen Street frontage will become once again a strong and welcoming entrance to the square.
Zeidler Partnership Architects, Toronto - Team Members
- Group Signes (landscape architects, Paris, France)
- Ferris & Associates (landscape architects, Toronto)
- Altus Helyar Consulting (cost consultant, Toronto)
- Gottschalk + Ash International (signage consultant, Toronto)
- Halcrow Yolles (structural engineers, Toronto)
- Hidi Engineering (mechanical and electrical engineers, Toronto)
- Michael Snow (artist, Toronto)
- Schick Shiner & Associates (theatre consultants, Shawnigan Lake, B.C.)
- Speirs and Major Associates (lighting architects, Edinburgh, Scotland)
- Taylor Hazell (architects, heritage consultants, Toronto)
- WET Design (water/fire features, Sun Valley, California)
