Design work is commencing this summer on the infrastructure and streetscapes for a mixed-use community on Toronto’s new 98-acre island, Ookwemin Minising, formerly Villiers Island, which will eventually contain 9,000 homes for 15,000 people.
It is “a key milestone” for Waterfront Toronto in its plan to transform 800 hectares of former industrial land on the waterfront just east of downtown.
The aim is to “create a 10-minute neighbourhood” on the island where residents can access retail and other amenities that make up a community, says Aaron Barter, vice-president, program integration and sustainability, Waterfront Toronto, a public agency created in 2001.
Plans call for non-residential space for 3,000 jobs on the island which was created from old industrial lands when a new south channel for the Don River was carved south of the Keating Channel for the river to flow into Toronto harbour. It is part of the Port Lands Flood Protection Project.
The first residents are expected in 2031 but public park space will open sooner.
GHD, a global engineering firm, and Danish design studio SLA were selected in June to lead design fundamentals, including public spaces, streets, stormwater, sanitary pipes and utility ducts.
“This is a great team with lots of experience doing similar projects around the world and around Toronto,” says Barter.
According to a GHD spokesperson, the technical systems being designed are climate-adaptive, including stormwater infrastructure that works with natural systems and utility networks that can handle changing demand patterns.
Wetlands will be built at different elevations, ensuring areas for wildlife as water levels naturally go up and down. The streetscape design will take an equally nature-based approach to managing rainwater, according to a GHD spokesperson.
The adaptive and resilient infrastructure will “prevent some of the worst impacts of climate change, whether it be around stormwater…or extreme heat” says Barter.
Flood risks to the island and its surroundings have been eliminated because of the work by the Port Lands Flood Protection Project.
That green infrastructure agenda will consist of “a naturalization” process comprised of plantings, bioswales and other green features.
“We anticipate the design and implementation of that infrastructure will have an important sustainability component to it, not only in what we are building but how we are building it,” Barter says.
“There are different solutions for finding ways to reduce the embodied carbon on these large civil projects and we will be working closely with the design team and future construction partners to identify ways to reduce those emissions.”
The “concept design” for infrastructure and streets is expected to wrap up later this year.
Schematic design will start next year, with the goal of the site being ready for construction in the next few years, says Barter.
The island is ringed with wetlands surrounding a new park, named Biidaasige Park, strategically designed to survive extremes of high or low water levels.
Other consultants include: Allies and Morrison, a design firm based in England; Trophic Design, an Indigenous-owned landscape architecture company in southern Ontario; Transsolar, an international climate engineering firm with extensive experience in sustainable urban design; accessible design consultants Level Playing Field; and community outreach and public engagement led by Monumental Projects.
