More than 100 Ontario high school students stepped away from their usual weekend activities recently to wrap their minds around how to design a novel square linking a two-tower purpose-built rental project to a dynamic new public transit hub in Toronto.
Mentored by volunteer design professionals, the students aged 14 and up designed and built models of the privately-owned publicly accessible space for the rental project by Elysium Developments.
The towers share the plaza with commuters at the Mount Dennis Station on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT in Toronto.
The four-hour design charrette was part of the ninth annual edition of the 1UP conference, an event organized by Urban Minds, a Canadian non-profit aimed at creating ways for young people to help shape equitable and sustainable cities.
“We were not looking for design perfection but for thoughtful and creative ideas and having the students explain why they chose their ideas for users,” says Ryan Lo, co-executive director of Urban Minds.
He says the hope is that the development team might consider integrating some of the ideas into the project.
Grade 11 student Alice Buckley, who was on prize-winning teams in two previous years of the design competition, says this year’s theme was challenging because students had to dig deep to find creative solutions for the confined space.
She says the charrette and conference has helped open her eyes to the built environment around her.
“Now I walk through the city and I think of ways to improve it. What would make it more enjoyable for people,” she says.
The design exercise can inspire students to pursue careers to make a difference in their cities.
“I feel like we don’t have much power, so I think it is important to learn at this stage in our lives that we can hopefully make a change,” she says.
Armando Meligrana, a Grade 9 participant in the Design Jam, appreciates the exercise as part of a bigger theme of reshaping growing cities with increasing emphasis on public transit.
An advocate of city bus expansion as a budget-saving option to other public transit forms, Meligrana comes by his passion to improve cities from his upbringing. His father is a professor in urban planning at Queens University and his grandparents are involved in community development issues in their Toronto neighbourhood.
Alex Suppa, of Elysium, says creating a space or square that could serve both the public and private domains was a tall order for the students.
“It’s a different perspective than if it was just privately owned, which could be more pared back…with less implications on (pedestrian) traffic and how people would use the space.”
Suppa sees the exercise as an important one for the young people.
“They are going to be a part of the demographic that uses this space so it’s interesting to see what they see as value and hopefully we can extrapolate something from that.”
Michael Presutti of MEP Design Inc., the landscape architect for the project, sees the event also as positive because the students offered new design ideas, rather than criticized a development plan as often is the case at community engagement meetings on new developments.
“To me it is one of the biggest values of this exercise.”
This year’s 1UP Conference was themed Building Belonging, focused on creating social equity in urban development. Students participated in a variety of events and networked with urban professionals.
The annual conference has proven inspirational to many students, Lo says.
“Some of them come back to volunteer for us and some go on to pursue planning and architecture.”
The event is part of the 1UP City Builders mentorship program which connects students with professionals in fields such as urban planning, architecture and community engagement.
Through the program students either work on a design-build project in their community with a mentor in the field or they opt for an urban research challenge, competing with students from other high schools, says Lo.
1UP was held at George Brown College’s Residence and Conference Centre in downtown Toronto.
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