Rees Landing — A CoLab for Civic Experimentation · Stoss Landscape Urbanism DTAH Höweler + Yoon Daily tous les jours Fadi Massoud Bradley Cantrell PlandForm Studio Studio Jaywall

Rees LandingA CoLab for Civic Experimention

The Brief

The Toronto Waterfront

The Site + Immediate Context

The Concept

Rees Landing: The Park + its Parts

Phasing: A Collaborative Process

Public Art Strategy

Park as Seed-ing

Innovation — Adaption to Change

Appendices

Contents

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Rees Street Park

Waterfront Toronto

Prepared by

Stoss Landscape UrbanismDTAHHöweler + YoonDaily tous les joursFadi MassoudBradley CantrellPlandForm StudioStudio JaywallTMIGMoses Structural EngineeringMulvey & Banani Lighting Inc.

Date

June 26, 2018

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Waterfront Toronto and the City of Toronto Parks Forestry and Recreation Department sponsored this six-week design competition to produce bold and innovative park designs for York Street Park and Rees Street Park in the Central Waterfront. Through the competition and subsequent design development and construction, these sites will become important elements of the Toronto waterfront’s growing collection of beautiful, sustainable and popular public open spaces along Queens

Quay. The ultimate goal is that they respond creatively and sensitively to local needs while achieving seven high-level aspirations; Act as 21st century parks that can keep pace with a fast-growing downtown core, Support a diverse community of users, Integrate Public Art, Set new standards for sustainability, Complement the existing parks and experiences on the waterfront, Act as a Gateway to the waterfront, and achieve design excellence in concept, construction and operations

The Brief

3 Rees Landing — Proposal Booklet

HÖWELER+YOON ARCHITECTURE, LLP150 LINCOLN ST. 3A BOSTON, MA 02111

Rees Street Park6 11 2018

ToronTo WATErFronT, 2018

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The Toronto Waterfront has a long been a testing ground for big ideas in design. It’s rich history of innovation and public activation is evident in the open spaces surrounding the site. This history sets the stage for an exciting future through the development of these parks and the opportunity to cultivate Toronto’s relationship with it’s ever-changing waterfront. Rees Landing will be the next step in this evolution, an important new public amenity space, and an opportunity to showcase innovative design that builds on public input through a strong community engagement process.

The Toronto Waterfront — — Big Ideas


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Change is a constant along any waterfront and Toronto’s is no exception. After years of design and construction, a renewed Queens Quay has been completed and is actively being used by bicycle commuters and TTC users. The downtown core continues to build upwards, increasing its cultural diversity and population density, including a 25% increase in children and a 60% increase in 25-64 year olds in recent years. Tourism is thriving in the area as well, According to Tourism Toronto, the region hosted more than 43.7 million visitors in 2017 and more than 15 million visitors stayed overnight in Toronto, with the waterfront as a destination for many of these visitors.

Dogs are also on the rise, accompanied by their human companions, looking for great spaces to enjoy life in Downtown.

The climate is rapidly changing along with the population. The Toronto Future Weather and Climate Driver Study (2011) figures, referenced by Resilient Toronto and other city agencies, point to an increase of daily rainfall maximum of 166mm by 2040 (from 66mm). Coastal flooding from historic water levels in Lake Ontario (such as in 2017, where the lake was 100mm above average), highlights the site’s immense performative and infrastructural value in a changing climate

The Toronto Waterfront — —Big Change


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The site occupies approximately 9,500 sq. m. (2.3 acres) at a key location on the waterfront, with frontage on one of the main streets connecting the waterfront to the downtown core. The land was created through landfilling between 1924 and 1939 and served as a storage yard for railway cars and other equipment until the 1980s. It has been a parking lot since that time. The process of dredging continue to shape the harbour today and play a role in new innovative landscapes along the waterfront.

The Site &its Context


HÖWELER+YOON ARCHITECTURE, LLP150 LINCOLN ST. 3A BOSTON, MA 02111

Rees Street Park6 11 2018

ToronTo WATErFronT, 1818

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The Site & its Context

Access + Circulation

It is surrounded by major roadways all of which contribute to daily foot traffic and the sites high level of visibility as a waterfront icon. Rees Street to the East, is one of the few N-S connectors and an important gateway to the waterfront from the arts and entertainment District to the North. The Recently completed Queens Quay is Toronto’s main waterfront street and the point of access to the site, making it a highly visible

site for residents and visitors alike. Lakeshore Boulevard and the Gardiner Expressway flank the site to the North, giving passers-by a unique high-speed view of the park. Their presence, along with the iconic skyline of Toronto’s downtown just beyond them, requires that the design for this site is special, iconic and recognizes these adjacent important elements.

DAILY FOOT TRAFFIC FLOW RUSH HOUR AM - 50-100 pedestrians/hour on Rees and Queens Quay- 600 cyclists/hour on Queens Quay

DAILY FOOT TRAFFIC FLOW RUSH HOUR PM- 50-100 pedestrians/hour on Rees and Queens Quay- 600 cyclists/hour on Queens Quay- 100-150 passive users/hour at waterfront openspace

DAILY FOOT TRAFFIC FLOW RUSH HOUR AM - 50-100 pedestrians/hour on Rees and Queens Quay- 600 cyclists/hour on Queens Quay

DAILY FOOT TRAFFIC FLOW RUSH HOUR PM- 50-100 pedestrians/hour on Rees and Queens Quay- 600 cyclists/hour on Queens Quay- 100-150 passive users/hour at waterfront openspace

Daily Foot Traffic Flow Rush Hour — AM• 50–100 Pedestrians/Hour on Rees and Queens Quay

• 600 Cyclists/Hour on Queens Quay

Daily Foot Traffic Flow Rush Hour — PM• 50–100 Pedestrians/Hour on Rees and Queens Quay

• 600 Cyclists/Hour on Queens Quay

• 100–150 Passive Users/Hour at Waterfront Open Space


SEASONAL/SPECIAL EVENTS - Redpath Waterfront Festival Toronto: 750,000 over Canada Day weekend- Nuit Blanche Toronto: Approximately 10,000 visit waterfront; 200,000 partici-pants in total- Luminato Festival- Icebreaker Festival

WEEKLY/EVENING EVENTS- Blue Jay Home Games: 35,000 attendance per game, 100-150 pedestri-an/hour on Ree and Queens Quay before/after game- Maple Leafs Home Games: 20,000 attendance per game- Concerts at Air Canada Center: 20,000 average attendance

SEASONAL/SPECIAL EVENTS - Redpath Waterfront Festival Toronto: 750,000 over Canada Day weekend- Nuit Blanche Toronto: Approximately 10,000 visit waterfront; 200,000 partici-pants in total- Luminato Festival- Icebreaker Festival

WEEKLY/EVENING EVENTS- Blue Jay Home Games: 35,000 attendance per game, 100-150 pedestri-an/hour on Ree and Queens Quay before/after game- Maple Leafs Home Games: 20,000 attendance per game- Concerts at Air Canada Center: 20,000 average attendance

WEEKEND EVENTS - Waterfront Artisan Market at HtO Park : 10,000 per day, 500,000 over summerSeasonal & Special Events

• Redpath Waterfront Festival Toronto 750,000 over Canada Day Weekend

• Nuit Blanche Toronto Approximately 10,000 visit waterfront 200,000 participants in total

• Luminato Festival

• Icebreaker Festival

Weekly / Evening Events• Blue Jays Home Games

35,000 Attendance/Game 100–150 Pedestrans/Hour on Rees and Queens Quay before and after each game

• Maple Leafs Home Games 20,000 Attendance/Game

• Concerts at Air Canada Center 20,000 Average Attendance

Weekend Events• Waterfront Artisan Market at HTO PArk

10,000 Pedestrians/Day 500,000 Over Summer

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The Site & its Context

Toronto is among the world’s most culturally diverse cities, with approximately half its population foreign born. It has also witnessed dynamic population growth on both the metropolitan and local scale. The Queens Quay neighbourhood is currently witnessing a recent shift in demographics, with a population increase in all age groups, notably, children, youth, and work age range of 24-64 yrs.

Current programming along the waterfront speaks to both the diversity and the need for a wide variety of activities for people of all types in such a dense and diverse downtown. Many of these activities are currently hosted In adjacent spaces or along the periphery of the site. The design for Rees park must be able to accommodate the many people emerging from adjacent events at Rogers Center, support anticipated BIA supported events, and create new experiences through innovative programming and integrated arts.

Diverse Programming for a Diverse City


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How can a park test news ways of seeing, making and using public space? How can a park co-evolve with citizens, to learn and adapt? How can we prime a park to generate new programs and activities; to seed new ecologies to grow and disperse throughout Toronto’s diverse communities? How can a park cultivate flexible ground for how we think about what is public and civic and shared today?

Rees Landing is a CoLaboratory: a collective testing ground for new forms of civic and ecological expression. Made from a flexible kit of parts, the park can be changed, edited, and re-arranged, adapting to how citizens engage with its spaces; how our public grows with it; and to how it might respond to known and unknown emerging changes in our

urban and environmental context. Open surfaces can be peeled up or pushed down, using a range of permeable or impermeable materials to create a diversity of specific conditions (high/low, wet/dry, sheltered/exposed, hard/soft) that instigate a variety of uses, while larger open areas, structures, and art walls allow for endless re-imagining and re-activating. Neither a blank slate nor a highly prescribed, fixed landscape, Rees Landing offers possibilities for what could be, for what might come—a collaboratory for community invention, through rich and ongoing civic experimentation.

The ConceptA CoLaboratory for Civic Experimentation


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The idea of flexibility is taken beyond the open field. The strategy advances that idea and utilizes a modular subdivision of surfaces that responds to the current configuration of the Gardiner Expressway and the slips along Queens Quay. A simple push or pull operation which creates topography, variation in scale, vertical and horizontal surfaces for art, pavillion canopy, and varied climatic conditions, high/low/wet/dry.

The process creates a park defined through formation of strips and surfaces tuned to the surrounding context which are able to support and generate program and possibilities. Each strip may be treated differently (Material, varying degrees of porosity,

art, program) and can be assembled together in multiple ways; In response to existing /pre-conditions, to community engagement processes and to on-site testing and prototyping during design and construction. As well as to future changing site conditions; installation of the stormwater pipe, lake water levels rising, increased precipitation, and varied levels of public arts programming, seasonal change, even the future removal of the Gardiner Expressway in time.

The site becomes a combination of fixed and movable parts coming together to create a dynamic place that evolves, responds and is built over time through community inputs, infrastructure, intensive arts programming and usage.

The Concept

A Flexible Strategy

Pull up: varied scales for varied program

Push down: varied scales for varied program


The site: Open Field Site Division: Gardiner Expressway

Bents

Pull up Push Down

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The push/pull strategy creates a surface which is highly adaptive, allowing for multiple kinds of program to be employed and allowing for current and future program to help define the scale and location of a given ‘peel’. Art programming, water play, open lawn, markets of all shapes and sizes, dogs, integrated seating, and a number of differently scaled pavillions are all possibilities created through this simple gesture.

The Concept

Programmatic Adaptability

PAVILION

PAVILION

PEAK

ART INSTALLATION

ART WALL

LAWN

NURSERY

ART INSTALLATION

WATER FEATURE

FOREST

POOL

FOOD TRUCKS


DEEP POOL PAVILION

PLAY ZONE FESTIVAL

MARKET ZONE SWIMMING

STORAGE SPACE/PUDDLE PAVILION

BEACH PAVILION

SEATING MARKET

SPORTS WATER FEATURE

MOVABLE TREES DECK CHAIRS

WATER FEATURE

AMPHITHEATER

CURLING

ART INSTALLATION

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Rees LandingThe Park and it’s Parts

AMPHITHEATER

BIKE RACK

BIKE PATH

BIKE PATH

GARDINER EXPRESSWAY

LAKE SHORE BOULEVARD (UNDER)

EVENT LAWN

BUS LAYBYTHE STOOP

HTO PARK

PREF

ERRE

D C

ON

STRU

CTIO

N Z

ON

E BO

UN

DARY


AMPHITHEATERTHE BIG PEEL ART SPACE

PUPPY PUDDLEDOG PLAY

THE LAUNCH PADALT SHAFTLOCATION

ALT SHAFTLOCATION ALT SHAFT

LOCATIONEXPERIMENTALMOBILE VEG.

CAFE PLAZA PAVILIONOVERLOOK

THE DECK CHAIRS

BLOSSOM GROVE

ENTRY GROVE

REES

STR

EET

ROG

ERS

CEN

TRE

SAILIN

G PRO

GRA

MS

SHADE GARDENBUTTERFLY HABITAT

PLAY PEEL

PLAY DECK

ART WALL

PLAY FOUNTAIN+POOL

LAWN SLOPE

EVENT LAWN STAGE

BUS LAYBY

WAVE DECK

SCRATCH + SNIFF DOG TRAIL MARKET ZONE

PREFERRED STORMWATER SHAFT LOCATION

WETLAND

TTC STREETCAR STOPS

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At the Northwestern edge of the site, a double ‘peel’ is raised high, peeking up to greet the cars passing by on the Gardiner Expressway above and giving park visitors an unrivaled view of the Rees Street Wave Decks, the harbour

islands, planes arriving at Billy Bishop airport, and the activity in the park below. A great lawn lays out over the peel, and plays host to an urban forest of Silver and Sugar maples, white pines and balsam fir.

Event Lawn & Lawn Slope


At the center of the site a flexible zone of hardscaped surface acts as dual market and art testing ground, a launch pad from which art, food and cultural entrepreneurs test ideas, many of which may find their way into permanent places in the City. The

space provides for markets of many sizes and shapes to inhabit the park temporarily; for a few hours to a few days. Integrated structures allow the size and configuration of the market to be adapted to the needs of sellers and market-goers. When not a market these

in-ground poles become the frame in which temporary art exhibts take place, used for installation of new exhibits or may themselves become he art canvas.

The Market Zone

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The Peel Pavilion at Rees Landing is part lookout to the harbor, part community activator. The slight angling upward creates both an ADA accessible elevated lookout at the South-East corner of the park above, and a fully glazed cafe or

community area with washrooms below. Its siting at the prominent pedestrian corridor is addressed with a welcoming transparent facade. Three-sided, South-facing glazing allows views from the road through to the park beyond,

provides warmth in the colder winter months, and can open up in the summer to extend the sidewalk inward, activating the interior programming year round.The Park Pavilion


Play is an integral part of the human experience. We learn through play, connect through play and re-invigorate ourselves through play. People, young and old, of all abilities, shapes, sizes and cultural backgrounds, (and our dogs of all ages, shapes and sizes!) all need

to play and play in different ways. Play spaces are therefore located throughout the park including; large flexible fields, expressive topography for open exploration, shallow pools for wading, misting water features, small play structures, interactive art. The park also

allows for temporary play opportunities such as rentable books and games on the pavilion plaza and ice-skating or curling in winter.Integrated Play

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Water takes many forms throughout the park. Two ‘pushes’ put together along the streetfront at Queens Quay create a large pool which gives way to wetland planting on one side and creates a pool for play on the other. Simple water jets embedded in the surface on the play side can allow for interactive play at the

water’s edge. Mist, emerging from the space between modules expresses the concept of the park, while creating a cooling feature on warm days. A smaller pool at the backside of the park, close to the open lawns provides dogs with a similar cooling experience. With each possible configuration of the park water

has an opportunity to be expressed in a variety of ways, both big and small as play, as climate control and as art. Water


Dogs are increasingly a part of the urban environment. They, like their human companions need places to play, to sense and to socialize. The park allows for multiple means for dogs to enjoy the space depending upon the level of inhabitation by others who may or may not want to share the space with dogs. A

pool small pool at the base of the big peel allows dogs to cool off in the water, next to that an area of decomposed granite, rocks and small-scale peels allows for free play. A ‘scratch and sniff dog trail’ winds its way through the park, with small bones inlaid into the surface that mark the trail. We envision these bones

potentially manufactured to have subtle scents of squirrel, other dogs, or food items embedded that release when dogs scratch at the surface!Dogs

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Gardiner & Lakeshore

Movement is the key activity along the North corridor between Lakeshore Drive and the park. Cars and bikes largely move past the park quickly. Acknowledging these passers-by, inviting them into the park and ensuring that park activities do not conflict with this movement is at the heart of the

strategy. The sharp upward peel at the NorthWest peeks up and nods to the commuters on the Gardiner, framing a suddenly open view of the water with a much needed moment of green along the highway. Below, the underside of the peel is canvas for art, public service announcements, light and any number

of future imagined visual delight. This under-space is constructed to allow for future inhabitation with small scale storefronts such as a coffee shop, bike shop, dog groomer, etc.. To the East, the peel creates the space for a lush, shade garden.


Much of the lighting and seating is integrated into the surfaces of the site. The peel creates a fun and artful way to integrate light - The uplift of the pavillion is lit from inside, the backside of the peel downlit, creating both an artful element and a sense of safety beneath the expressway. At el edges light might peek out into the adjacent spaces.

Rails along the edge of peels are downlit for both safety and effect.

In the plaza adjacent to the pavillion, wooden seating elements pop up from the surface. These seats can be integrated into the stormwater strategy. Just as a boat dock rises and floats, some or all of the seats can pop up and

float above water below, expressing the climate and keeping kids and adults entertained as they ‘dock’ on their plaza lounger.

Other lighting, seating and bike parking amenities are additive; ie.. movable tables and chairs in the plaza by the pavillion, and many are pulled from

Toronto standards, in particular along Queens Quay where a lighting palette is established and will continue to be utilized. Furnishings

& Fixtures

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This collaborative process begins with the post-competition selection of the park concept, at which time a robust period of civic engagement and community input begins. Recognizing that a brief competition does not allow for significant input on design from the community, the Rees Landing team has developed the park through a series of topographic moves (pushes and pulls) laid out on a measured, striated version of the park site. This organization allows the team to change the expression and design of the park without changing the fundamental strategy employed, meaning the public can help to provide input on the location, scale and distribution of elements and can continue to provide input as the design

is underway through on site testing of program ideas, public art, and even material choices.

The competition therefore acts to set the stage, creating a framework for a park and developing the tools that allow for an evolving park that acknowledges the need for public input and change over time. The Park is therefore inherently dynamic, always changing in order to meet the changing needs of the communities that inhabit it.

Even after ‘completion’ the Design can accommodate phased insertions/removals and incremental growth. The modular system, is subdivided into smaller modules that work on multiple social and ecological levels.

PhasingA CoLaboratorative Process


EXISTING

DRAWING THE SITE (TENDER DRAWINGS EARLY 2020)

PARK UPDATES (ONGOING SITE REVISION AND PROGRAMMING)

EARLY ACTIVATION(SD/DD PHASE, 2018-SPRING 2019)

FIRST BUILD (PARK CONSTRUCTION)

POSSIBLE GARDINER REMOVAL (TBD) Z

MATERIAL AND PROGRAM TESTING(CD PHASE, SUMMER-FALL2019)

SHAFT INSTALLATION(POST-COMPLETION, 5+ YEARS)

OCCUPY THE GARDINER SITE(TBD)

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This team’s curatorial vision for Rees Park is to establish a creative commons that nurtures the free exchange of ideas, experimentation, and serendipitous connection in the public sphere. The commons will be a platform where art is integrated into its environment and made for and with the public. The ethos of the park should be self-evident through all commissioned artworks, whether temporary or permanent.

We aim for all artworks to be:

• Site specific. Artworks should respond to, integrate and collaborate with the form of the space, the use of the space, and the surrounding community. Artworks can also reveal historic or cultural significance that visitors wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to.

• Made with and for the public. This not only requires offering public invitations to participate in the artwork, but also a collaborative process between the artist, community, architects and representatives of the city. Artworks should invite active interaction, negotiation, and exchange to build a culture of collective creativity.

IDENTITY

Public art as public space.

Deep integration between landscape and art to create a unique place. Features such as dramatic forms, interesting materials and a consistent color palate can create a strong sense of identity and suggest novel modes of usage of public space.

PLATFORM

Evolving narratives.

Dedicated locations for temporary artworks that provide a variety of settings with different vantage points, surrounding materials, qualities of light, etc, can inspire artists in creating new works. Allowing different artists to overtake the same base condition can also be an opportunity to highlight different narratives of a place.

SITE

Site, people, stories.

Integrate elements of the location’s history, natural setting and traditions can contribute to both the sense

of identity of the park, and provide inspiration for in situ works. How can we provoke distinct contextual works of public art?

INFRASTRUCTURE

All the hook ups.

Plan the support infrastructure for all types of artworks - including performance art, new media arts, interactive installations, etc, to allow for more seamless integration into the park design, and more flexibility and range of arts programming. Anchoring points for structures, electrical and ethernet connection points, and weatherproof technical spaces for fragile electronics can all be designed into the park early in the process.

Public Art Strategy —— Curatorial Vision


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SUSTAINED CREATIVE PARTNERSHIPS

We propose a partnership model between artists and local community partners that naturally creates a community of site specific, socially engaged creative relationships for the park. The goal is to draw in the diverse partners through the process of creating the artworks, and cultivate local relationships and talent that bring communities back to the park.

In order to support an active creative commons, we imagine three types of commissioned artworks:

• Permanent Artworks: These establish the ethos of the park.

• Rotating Activations: These thematic explorations are provocations that bring new ideas, and spark dialogue.

• Flexible Tools: These are areas in the park designed as everyday canvases where public creative expression is fostered.

PUBLIC ART TYPOLOGIES

The design of the park provides several typologies that are conducive to artworks. Each typology has different considerations for site specific, publicly engaged works.

PEEL

In these areas, artists can take advantage of:

• Site specific characteristics: The vertical surface, visible from afar, ideal surface for projecting, location at junctions between surfaces and functional areas.

• Unique behaviours: Selfie culture (against high-opportunity backdrops), readiness for something different. (diagram DTLJ)

LAWN

In these areas, artists can take advantage of

• Site specific characteristics: The dramatic elevation change, its

unique perspective and vantage points, live greenery, and function as a wide-open gathering place.

• Unique behaviours: The long dwell time of park visitors, and wide range of free movement.

WATER

In these areas, artists can take advantage of

• Site specific characteristics: Varying water properties, trickling, misting, splashing, pooling, reflecting, high impact of seasonal change.

• Unique behaviours: Strong emotional reactions for play and contemplation across ages, long dwell time, group participation.

Public Art Strategy —— Curatorial Vision


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Public Art Typologies

The design of the park provides several typologies that are conducive to artworks. Each typology has different considerations for site specific, publicly engaged works.

PEEL

• Site specific characteristics: The vertical surface, visible from afar, ideal surface for projecting, location at junctions between surfaces and functional areas.

• Unique behaviours: Selfie culture (against high-opportunity backdrops), readiness for something different. (diagram DTLJ)

WATER

• Site specific characteristics: Varying water properties, trickling, misting, splashing, pooling, reflecting, high impact of seasonal change.

• Unique behaviours: Strong emotional reactions for play and contemplation across ages, long In these areas, artists can take advantage of

DAILY TOUS LES JOURS 7

CONVERSATION WALL, DAILY TOUS LES JOURS

ACOUSTIC SHELLS, LAWRENCE FLANAGAN SAVONLINNA CITY LIBRARY, AIMO KATAJAMAKI

Platform for congregation, an impromptu stage

Platform for active, ongoing, collective dialogue

Platform for multiple layers, multiple purposes


APPEARING ROOMS, JEPPE HEIN

VARIATION, PISCINES, CÉLESTE BOURSIER-MOUGENOT BEAUTY, OLAFUR ELIASSON

Platform for group play

Platform to sound and reflection Platform for walking through



Typologies - LawnIn these areas, artists can take advantage of

Site specific characteristics:- The dramatic elevation change, its unique perspective and vantage points, live greenery, and function as a wide-open gathering place.

Unique behaviours:- The long dwell time of park visitors, and wide range of free movement.


BRUTALIST PLAYGROUND, ASSEMBLE + SIMON TERRILL

SUPERKLEIN, BIG PLAZA DEL TORICO, B720 FERMÍN VÁZQUEZ ARQUITECTOS

Platform for transforming over the day

Platform for building together

Platform for highlighting how we move


VIEWING MACHINE, OLAFUR ELIASSON

JOYFUL TREES, DILLER SCOFIDIO + RENFRO ELEVEN HEAVY THINGS, MIRANDA JULY

Platforms for meeting someone new, or feeling powerful

Platform for seeing familiar views in a new way

Platform for choreographing people and nature

PAVEMENT

• Site specific characteristics: Robust materials, textures, no obstructions, open-ended, urban furniture.

• Unique behaviours: High people traffic, different modes of passing-by (walking, running, cycling, rolling, strolling). dwell time, group participation.

LAWN

• Site specific characteristics: The dramatic elevation change, its unique perspective and vantage points, live greenery, and function as a wide-open gathering place.

• Unique behaviours: The long dwell time of park visitors, and wide range of free movement.

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We propose that a permanent integrated technical system be installed within the landscape architecture, to allow sustained support of short and long term artistic interventions.

This would include the ability for creative take-overs, pop-ups and special events requiring electricity, distributed audio, projection and lighting.

Much of this infrastructure can be more or less invisible, yet provide support for events and artworks that could otherwise be impractical due to budgetary constraints and unmet technical requirements.

Slab: Small concrete surfaces with Electrical and Ethernet hookups, plus LAN connecting to all other slab sites.

Anchor Points for semi-permanently mounting dry, secure tech enclosures, Projector enclosures, truss systems, etc.

Conduit Network: Pre-buried conduit system for running cables to various areas around Tech Spaces. Access points could be small manholes in concrete areas, and capped and buried in turf areas.

Main Technical Space: Technical control room in pavilion with central server and computer equipment, plus small storage/working space for artists.

General Tech Documents: The other support that will be indispensable for all artists and the support staff will be clear, accurate documentation.

This would include: Precise locations of tech spaces, hookups, anchoring points,

conduit grid access points.

Precise locations of underground infrastructure such as irrigation/electrical/, etc. So artists know where they can and can’t dig or put screw piles.

List of electrical/UL/engineer’s certification requirements for artworks that:

• Use High voltage electricity outside of tech spaces (lights)

• Use Low voltage electricity outside of tech spaces (speakers, sensors, etc)

• Requires non-permanent physical anchoring

• Requires permanent physical anchoring

• Can be touched/moved/climbed

Technical Infrastructure


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Permanent Artwork —— The Peel

Paul Ramírez Jonas

PRECEDENT OF SITE SPECIFIC MURAL ARTWORK

A site specific mural of promises, creating a catalogue of public trust.

PRECEDENT OF PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

Participants declared a promise that was recorded in a notarized drawing they could keep. That same promise was then published on a 16 x 16’ marquee and seen in context with promises made by politicians, scientists, economists, and weather forecasters, all chosen from the daily headline news. Thirteen local artists helped facilitate the process.


Precedent of site specific mural artworkA site specific mural of promises, creating a catalogue of public trust.

Precedent of public engagementParticipants declared a promise that was recorded in a notarized drawing they could keep. That same promise was then published on a 16 x 16’ marquee and seen in context with promises made by politicians, scientists, economists, and weather forecasters, all chosen from the daily headline news. Thirteen local artists helped facilitate the process.

Permanent Artwork - Large Peel

Paul Ramírez Jonas



Phasing

Phase 5: Shaft (4 years)

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Phase 6: Gardiner Removal


?



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PERMANENT 1 YEAR

6 MONTHS

3 MONTHS(SEASONAL)

ROTATING ACTIVATIONS

FLEXIBLE TOOLS

Program Phasing



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?



?


Phasing

PERMANENTLARGE PEEL

LAWN: NATURE/ECOLOGY/SUSTAINABILITY

WINTER

PHASE 1: FALL 2018-SPRING 2019 PHASE 2: SUMMER-FALL 2019 PHASE 3: WINTER-SPRING 2020 PHASE 4: SUMMER 2020 - X

SPRING SUMMER FALL ...

PAVEMENT: LIGHTING/BODIES IN SPACE

WATER: MICROCLIMATES/MUSICAL

PEELS: PLAY/PROJECTION/ CONTENT DRIVEN

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A PARK THAT LEARNS, RESPONDS AND DISPERSES

Rees Landing is conceived of ecologically, as a REFUGE for forage and shelter adapted to pollinators, migratory birds, butterflies, bats, etc.. It is a place of rest and refueling until they disperse into the ravines, meadoway and greenbelt to breed. Toronto’s adjacent “Eco - districts” are represented on site in a way that is performative. Plants were chosen based on multiple parameters. All plants are Ontario natives, and possess one or more of the following traits, visual charisma, strong relationships with fauna, providing shade or providing interest in off peak seasons. They are low-maintenance yet high-yield from an impact perspective. Planting modules coincide with the striated surface of the park creating ephemeral and seasonal swaths of monocultures in single colors that change; attract a diversity of pollinators and disperse their seeds through wind, wing and water, to unknown, unplanned parts of the City, seeding new, unexpected elements where they land.

The site also presents a particular opportunity for the integration of green, blue, and grey infrastructures that can hold, filter, and accommodate urban runoff. Large urban spaces surrounded by highly developed and impermeable surfaces are rare, and as such will be identified by the city’s future Climate Resilience Framework and adaptation plan as key locations for public / civic open space that couple as water storage, treatment, and release.The push/ pull /peel strategy, via topographic, surface, and temporal physical and programmatic potentials will help achieve some of the goals related to climate adaptation. This can range from vegetation palettes that change in time (to maybe accommodate species that can handle longer periods of inundation, or the sunken depressions that double as water features / jets for aeration and play). Canopies (physical and vegetal) may help alleviate future extreme heat where the (2011) report also predicts an increase of daily temperature maximum of 44 degrees Celsius by 2040.

Park as Seed-ing

S F W SP.

POLLINATOR BIRD WIND NUT


PROGRAMMATIC CHANGE AND CITY-SEEDING

In early phases and upon ‘completion’ the park acts as a testing ground for new program and new entrepreneurial ideas. This process may take many forms; new program tested here takes hold in other parts of the City, artists make their name through rotating small scale exhibits and begin commissions on larger scales elsewhere or entrepreneurial businesses develop through the market or other small scale retail opportunities such as pop-up shops at the back of the peel or within the pavillion. Ideas begin in the park and find their home in the City.

PEEL - MURAL ARTWORK

LAWN - PUBLIC PLATFORM

WATER - INTERACTIVE PLAY

PAVEMENT - EXPERIMENT, LIGHTING

46 Stoss + DTAH

The site is built to adapt to change. The design of the park through a strategy of interchangeable modules allows for future contingencies to be taken into account and to be updated through the flexibility of each of the spaces. Its surfaces are conceived of as resilient, changeable modules that are able to be exchanged through time based on future flows of people both through and across this site which may over time suggest need for more or less hardscape, for instance, in any given area. And through the deployment of new materials that can be tested on site and retained or replaced as needed. It can also adapt via lessons learned through responsive, smart strategies deployed in connection with the infrastructure network created through the public art strategy.

The dynamic nature of contemporary cities calls for new methods to understand, evolve, and maintain urban systems. The deployment of environmental sensing technologies to monitor patterns of use, shifts in micro-climates, and concentrations of pollution is a new layer of data that functions in real-time and is hyper local. The site is set up to play host to any level of sensing network deemed appropriate. The data from the sensing network can be used to develop new strategies for the tuning of urban environments, an adaptive management protocol that is continually reexamining the performance of urban systems. Not only does this provide a way to optimize scarce resources in an urban environment but it also creates new knowledge that may be hidden within

highly complex physical and socio-cultural relationships.

Tools may be set up that allow for adaptive learning for management, for instance, integrating higher level ecological monitoring technologies linked back into university labs perhaps and/or city parks management through real time and collected data feedback. These might include for example heat and light sensors linked to monitoring heat island effect and albedo; water collection and measurement of both quality and quantity from runoff and precipitation wherever possible with some visible communications to site users; or seasonal migration and movement monitoring of especially birds, nesting WebCams, etc.

The technologies to sense and monitor urban phenomena are constantly changing and the sensing lab provides a way to not only deploy and use the latest technology but to also be introspective about issues of privacy and security of citizens. It can provide a model for transparency that elucidates the process of data collection and use. The lab can also help to illustrate best practices to engage and educate the population on environmental sensing through public programs and outreach.

Innovation —— Adaptive to Change


Stoss + DTAH

Appendix A — — The Exhibition Boards

Rees Landing — Proposal Booklet

Appendix B — — The Team

Stoss + DTAH

Appendix C — — The Inspiration

Rees Landing — Proposal Booklet

Boston

54 Old Colony Avenue Third Floor Boston, MA 02127 USA T 617 464 1140

Los Angeles

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