A Toronto family commissioned a 2,000-square-foot weekend retreat outside of the city on a hilly 100 acres where they bike and hike.

Rapid population growth and a stable economy are fueling a construction boom in this Canadian metropolis. An aerial view of East Bayfront, one of several districts being redeveloped in Toronto. Click on the slide show tab to view images of a scheme by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates for the Lower Don Lands. Related Links: Toronto Waterfront Vision Focuses on Tourist Dollars The Royal Conservatory by KPMB Sherbourne Common Pavilion by Teeple Architects Toronto Public Housing Gets Green Makeover In most North American cities, active construction cranes are a rare sight these days. But in downtown Toronto, they’re ubiquitous, lifting up

This great recession is a tough time for a startup, but a group of architects and boosters in the Canadian city of Sudbury think it’s just the right moment for a new school of architecture. They’re gathering support for the planned Northern Ontario School of Architecture (NOSOA), which would be Canada’s first new architecture school in four decades. Photo courtesy NOSOA Residents of Sudbury are gathering support for the planned Northern Ontario School of Architecture, which would be Canada’s first new architecture school in four decades. Blaine Nicholls, a retired architect who chairs the school’s steering committee, argues that NOSOA—which

Project Specs Evangel Hall Toronto, Canada architectsAlliance << Return to article the People Architect architectsAlliance 317 Adelaide Street West, Suite 205 Toronto, ON M5V 1P9 +416.593.6500 x 246 +416.593.4911 Personnel: Partner in Charge: John van Nostrand, FRAIC, OAA Collaborating Partner: Rudy Wallman, OAA Project Architects: Paul Kulig, Jon van Oostveen Interior designer: architectsAlliance Engineers: Structural: Blackwell Engineering www.blackwellbowick.com Mechanical/Electrical: G&M Technical Services Inc. Kitchen: LTD Consulting www.ltdconsultinggroup.com Landscape Consultant:   Diana Gerard Landscape Architect www.gh3.ca General contractor:     Dineen Construction Corporation www.dineen.com Photographers Exteriors: Ben Rahn A-Frame Inc. +416.465.2426 Interiors: David Whittaker +416.429.0245 CAD system, project management, or other software

An energy plant that’s a showcase for sustainable and excellent design—that’s the agenda for a new project by Steven Holl Architects in Toronto. The city’s waterfront redevelopment agency announced last week that it hired Holl’s firm for the new District Energy Centre, an approximately 37,700-square-foot facility that will power a new neighborhood on the city’s lakefront. Image courtesy Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Toronto planners looked to the Whitney Water Purification Facility and Park, in New Haven, Connecticut, for a model of how urban infrastructure can integrate successfully with a natural setting. Related Links: Van Valkenburgh to Remake 2,400 AcresLandscape/Architecture Firms

Cities across North America are struggling to undo the mistakes of 20th-century public housing. Some are finding that a clean slate also presents opportunities. In Canada, the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC) is pushing the agenda on design and sustainability with a $1 billion effort to rebuild an inner city housing project. Images courtesy Diamond and Schmitt A team of architects including architectsAlliance and Diamond and Schmitt has prepared plans to redevelop Regent Park, a 1950s-era public housing complex in Toronto. Breaking apart superblocks, it will replace 2,000 townhouse and mid-rise apartments with more than 5,000 housing units in townhouses

The British architect Will Alsop doesn’t do quiet buildings, so it’s fitting that his latest North American project will be an icon for an equally bold development project: a plan to build one of the largest film studios on the continent in Toronto. Images Courtesy ALSOP/Quadrangle A view of the main entry at Will Alsop’s Filmport tower in Toronto (top). The rear elevation of Alsop’s Filmport tower features a curving facade screen (above). Unveiled last week, Alsop’s design calls for a cantilevered 280,000-square-foot building that will function as a gateway to the new Filmport complex, now being constructed in the

Remaking the mouth of a river while carving a new neighborhood and parkland out of a post-industrial landscape is challenging enough. But the winners of the Lower Don Lands design competition in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, are also taking on a job with real symbolic weight: rejuvenating a 2,400-acre swath of polluted lakefront land that was thought to be beyond repair. Courtesy The Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation The Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation announced last week that a team led by Michael van Valkenburgh Associates won the competition. The team also includes Behnisch Architects, Greenberg Consultants, and Great Eastern Ecology. They