Six Points Interchange wins Urban Design award

OTTAWA — Toronto’s reconfiguration of the 1960s-era “spaghetti junction” interchange in Etobicoke was one of 12 projects announced as National Urban Design Award winners recently.

The awards are given out by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, the Canadian Institute of Planners and the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects to showcase excellence in urban design and raise public awareness of the role of urban design in sustainability and quality of life in Canadian cities, said a recent statement.

Construction of the Six Points Interchange in Etobicoke began last year after more than 10 years of planning and design.

Designers have created a plan to replace an archaic roadway interchange with an at-grade pedestrian-friendly intersection, boulevards, trees, bike lanes and space for patios as part of the development of Etobicoke Centre, said the release.

There will also be a district energy system built consisting of a heating and cooling centre and a thermal network of pipes connecting groups of buildings.

The awards jury praised the plan as providing “an excellent template for other cities and towns to repair their own spaghetti junctions.”

The City of Toronto is the owner and the lead design firm was SvN.

Other winners included the TOcore Downtown Parks and Public Realm Plan from the firm Public Work and the City of Toronto, for a project completed this year that established a new vision and framework for the public realm in downtown Toronto, in the category urban design plans; Montreal’s Discovery Halts (Escales decouvertes), completed in 2018, a heritage awareness plan designed by civiliti and julie margot design to commemorate Montreal’s 375th anniversary in 2017, in the urban fragments category; and Aecom’s waterfront rehabilitation project in the Anse-du-Sud community of Perce, in Quebec, completed in 2018 and recognized for sustainable development.

NATIONAL URBAN DESIGN AWARDS — Montreal’s Place Vauquelin, winner of a National Urban Design Award, was designed by Lemay for the City of Montreal and Province of Quebec. It was one of 12 projects honoured during a recent event. The project, completed in June 2017, restored Place Vauquelin in Old Montreal’s administrative district and maximized its natural and historic features. The jury described it as a “respectful restoration that heightens awareness of its surrounding buildings and urban spaces.”

Other winners were the Kuujjuaq Hackathon project, reassembling the North Northern Village of Kuujjuaq, Que., from McGill University and Hackathon Group; the Urban Beehive Project in Charlottetown, P.E.I., with Nine Yards Studio as the lead firm; a “tactical” winter infrastructure project for Edmonton from Bryce Clayton of the University of Waterloo; the Place des Canotiers Parkade, Artifact Wall and Public Realm project for the National Capital Commission of Quebec, with Daoust Lestage and ABCP as the lead firms; Montreal’s Place Vauquelin, designed by Lemay for the City of Montreal and the Province of Quebec; the Domestic Insurgency affordable housing project for Vancouver with James Banks of the University of Waterloo as the lead designer; the More Awesome Now Laneway Activations project in Vancouver with HCMA Architecture + Design as the design lead; and Calgary’s 4th Ave. Flyover project undertaken with Tawab Hlimi of the University of Calgary as project lead.

The awards will be presented on Jan. 7 at the Ottawa Art Gallery.