RENFORTH COMMONS
Renforth Commons is a proposal by Michelle Gao, Juanyan Liu and Grace Wong in collaboration with a team of landscape architecture students as part of an integrated landscape and urbanism studio. The project engages with issues of justice and equity, housing unaffordability, and environmentalism and resilience and strives to transform the fragmented region around Pearson Airport into an arrival neighbourhood. Focusing on a site adjacent to Renforth Station, the project aspires to become a model for a complete community.
Site Context
The project is sited at Renforth Station, the western terminal station to the current Eglinton LRT line with a possible extension towards Pearson Airport in the future. The DAZ (Design Action Zone) surrounding Renforth Station is extremely fragmented. It is split up and disconnected by the highways, ravine systems, and hydro corridors, creating very different urban, economic, and demographic conditions in each of the sectors.
Painting in broad strokes, there are five fragments each with their own unique characteristics:
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Pearson Airport
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Industrial Area
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Residential (with Single-Family Homes Only)
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Residential (with More Demographic Diversity)
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SKID (Suburban Knowledge Intensive District, an Employment Megazone with High Tech and Manufacturing Industries)
After conducting analysis and proposing an overall urbanism strategy for the DAZ, a site was chosen directly adjacent to Renforth Station. The proposal strives to transform this fragmented area into a complete community, with Renforth Commons being the first mixed-use development to form the epicentre of this area’s transformation.
DAZ Vision Strategy
The vision diagram proposes the transformation of the DAZ into a place of arrival. The diagram to the right outlines 6 strategies for the transformation of different fragments of the DAZ. It maps the journey of a newcomer from landing at Pearson Airport, staying at the Hotel Corridor in the first few days, living at the Transitional Community for the first few months, before settling in other communities whether it be new immigrant communities within the DAZ or other neighbourhoods and municipalities.
SKID Transformation Strategy
The focused site is located at the apex of the SKID (Suburban Knowledge Intensive Districts), an employment only high tech and industrial zone. The airport employment megazone is the largest of all the SKIDs in the GTA, and is home to 300,000 jobs. Due to single-use zoning policy, poor walkability, and inadequate public transit, 93% of workers commute into the SKID by car. We propose a change in zoning to the SKID to allow for the introduction of new mixed-uses and pedestrian-friendly communities, beginning with our intervention at Renforth Station.
The vision for this community is for it to become an area of social integration - where not only tech workers can find housing in the same area that they work in, but newcomers can find affordable housing, employment and support all within one live-work-play community.
Constituents
Within Renforth Commons, we want to create a community for our 3 constituent groups through our design code strategies.
Design Code
Our 3 design codes make up our urbanism, architecture, and landscape strategies.
In order to build a more walkable neighbourhood, parking structures are placed at main entries into the site to encourage drivers to drop off their vehicle. A pedestrian friendly main street with protect bike lanes and retail corridors reduces car dependency and makes for a more walkable community. New mixed-use typologies aim to challenge the fragmented single-use characteristic of the surrounding site. The community co-locates housing and employment as well as a number of amenities and social services. A variety of activated public realms will serve as spaces of interaction. Renforth Station spills out onto a food market and plaza - which will act as a place for local and international cultural and culinary exchange.
Tower Design
Our design is comprised of four towers that share a common podium. Focusing on Tower A at the apex of the site, shared linkages are created between the residential and commercial tower to create a new mixed-use tower and podium typology. The podium levels have a variety of community programs such as retail, commerical offices, entrepreneurial hub, daycare, 24hr grocery store, community centre and public library. These community services not only serve our 3 main constituent groups but will bring together people across the larger DAZ. Renforth Commons is a community that serves families of all sizes. There is a mix of different unit types from studio to 4-bedroom units.
A Complete Community
To bring the design of Renforth Commons back to the vision for the overall DAZ, this diagram showcases our vision for how the new mixed-use typology and housing strategy can become a place of social interaction and social mobility. We aspire for Renforth Commons to not only become a place of arrival, but also a place to set down roots.
The diagram maps the journey of a newcomer moving into a studio unit in Renforth Commons and starting their own small business out of their home, expanding their business overtime with community support, becoming an established member of the community and growing their business and family. In this way, we hope our project can become a model for building a complete community.