After several years of theme-based programming, Doors Open Toronto goes back to its roots May 29 & 30 with a simple focus on exciting new and heritage architecture. Each Wednesday in May, livewithculture.ca will profile a prominent local architect and project being featured during the weekend-long celebration of Toronto’s built form.
Last week, I had the pleasure of touring City Hall’s soon-to-be-completed green roof, essentially a massive, public garden that literally breathes new life into a significant part of the square that’s been closed to the public for years.
Accessed from a long, curving ramp on the east side of Viljo Revell’s famous twin towers, the new green roof has transformed what was a desolate expanse of sun-baked concrete. Spreading out beneath the council chamber and wrapping around the iconic, modernist structure, the green roof is part of a much larger, $40-million revitalization of Nathan Phillips Square, scheduled to be completed in 2012.
Chris Pommer, a principal of PLANT Architect Inc., graciously agreed to show me around what will be the largest publicly accessible green roof in Toronto. Looking up from the square, you have no idea that anything out of the ordinary is taking place behind the concrete balustrades, aside from the hints of construction gear.
The affable Pommer, above, agrees to pose for a picture but takes pains to stress that he is but “one tiny player on a giant team.” In fact, the Toronto-based PLANT teamed with Shore Tilbe Irwin & Partners, Architects in Joint Venture, as well as with Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architecture and Adrian Blackwell Urban Projects. Construction of the City Hall podium has been led by Mary Tremain (partner, PLANT), Vanessa Eickhoff (PLANT), and Perry Edwards (STIP), in addition to the overall design team, which includes Pommer and many others.
“It’s exciting, for sure,” agrees Pommer, “but there’s also a tremendous responsibility to get it right. We know there will be some elements that some people may not like but you’re always going to have that. Architecture and landscape architecture are, by their very nature, public works. We’re putting it out there with the hope that most people will like most of the design.”
Dubbed Agora•Theatre – a reference to the public squares of ancient Athens – the overall square revitalization project has already won a 2007 Toronto Urban Design Award and a Canadian Architect Award of Excellence.
“It’s a real honour to be able to work on this place,” says Pommer. “I’ve been looking at this building since I was a little kid and it may have even influenced my decision to go into architecture. It’s a building that has always represented the future, certainly it represents a time in Canada’s history when optimism was the number one emotion in the country; anything was possible in the mid-60s with Expo ’67 and buildings like this.”
Pommer is confident that the green roof will be ready for its close up ahead of Doors Open Toronto. Members of the design and construction team will be on hand that weekend to act as tour guides and give additional insight into the space.
Pommer confirms that it’s a good time to be an architect in Toronto: “There’s been a lot of provocative change,” he acknowledges. “We all have our likes and dislikes but whether you love or hate the ROM Crystal or the new AGO, it’s fantastic that they’ve been built, that people are talking about design. When people from somewhere else come into your city and build provocative buildings it fosters a conversation where we then have to step up and produce things that can engage in that dialogue. The Nathan Phillips Square revitalization will definitely add to the conversation.”
Photos by Christopher Jones, design rendering courtesy of PLANT Architect Inc.
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That is the amazing post and help to the safe environment of our home and office the green roof is very useful technique and their are the both conservatives are need to want an attaractive and beautiful city.