/ Citymakers - Communities Shaped by Transport: Toronto
Beyond access to transport and a critical mass of people, what are the ingredients of a good place?
For its sixth year, Citymakers returned with a pair of events; one in London, one in Toronto, to explore the role of transport in catalysing sustainable development in creating meaningful communities.
For the second event, we took the debate to Toronto as one of the fastest growing cities in North America. Chairing the event, Alfredo Caraballo noted that transport, or transit as it is known in North America, has shaped the formation of our cities for millennia, from Roman roads, to Victorian railways, to car use in 20th century North America. But just because a new development today might have access to a public transit hub, in many cases it is just the beginning, just a catalyst. He asked, what are the ingredients beyond transit and critical mass, for a good place?
Drawing on his extensive experience of delivering community-sized new projects across Canada, urban designer at Urban Strategies Craig Lametti was well placed to give us a Torontonian perspective on development around transit sites. He suggested there were four key measures of success for a new Transit Oriented Community (TOC), with a particular emphasis on the ‘C’.
Vice President of Development and Transit Oriented Communities at Infrastructure Ontario Yvonne Yeung gave a useful overview of the ambitions of the Transport Oriented Communities programme, for which she leads the implementation along Ontario’s new subway lines. These new developments represent an entirely new approach to urban living in a city where currently 87% drive to work.
By way of a contrast Robert Evans presented his experience as former CEO of Argent, on two of London’s largest developments with the practice, King’s Cross and Brent Cross Town and reflected on the undeniable role transport infrastructure, its over and under provision had had to play on both.
Angie Jim Osman’s presentation touched on some similar projects but this time from the architect’s perspective. And she contrasted these experiences with a handful of projects the practice is now bringing forward in and around Toronto, such as Beltline Yards, applying lessons learnt from London in a North American context.
Our speakers were joined by three panellists for a lively debate. Jon Love of Kingsett Capital commented on how the public private sector relationship delivering Ontario’s TOCs might be improved, expressing enthusiasm and frustration in equal measure. Shonda Wang of SvN was more positive. Although progress has been slow she felt that Ontario now does have a working model that helps public and private sector navigate and mitigate the risks of time and certainty. Naama Blonder noted a lack of ambition in terms of projected numbers of new homes around transit hubs and was a personal advocate for high-rise living. In the discussion that followed a member of the audience cautioned the assembled built environment professionals with a timely reminder that wider public and expedient political opinion wasn’t always headed in the same direction.
