Sidewalk Labs releases its Master Plan for Toronto’s Quayside
June 25, 2019
By
CCE
The draft Master Innovation and Development Plan is over 1,500 pages and divided into three volumes.
Rendering of Sidewalk Labs Quayside neighbourhood development.
Waterfront Toronto has released the draft Master Innovation and Development Plan (MIDP) proposed by Sidewalk Labs for the Quayside neighbourhood along the shores of Lake Ontario.
Chairman of the Board of Waterfront Toronto, Stephen Diamond, shared an open letter with insights from Waterfront Toronto’s initial review of the 1,500-plus page three-volume Plan.
Volume 1 – focuses on the planning concepts and proposed operational systems.
Volume 2 – outlines their proposed innovations for mobility, public realm, buildings and housing, sustainability, and digital innovation.
Volume 3 – describes the commercial proposal including governance, roles and responsibilities, transaction economics and implementation plans.
In a separate Overview document, Sidewalk Labs outlines a few interesting facts, including:
- it will be the first neighbourhood built entirely of mass timber, with dynamic streets that can adapt to a neighbourhood’s changing needs, weather mitigation systems, and a thermal grid for heating and cooling
- a new factory-based construction process will lead to faster and more predictable projects
- new mobility initiatives — combined with expansions to public transit and cycling infrastructure — would eliminate the need to own a car
- advanced energy systems would help create the largest climate-positive community in North America while keeping costs the same, or lower
- the development would include a new innovation campus, featuring a new Google Canadian headquarters and Urban Innovation Institute
- in aggregate, Sidewalk Labs and its partners propose to provide up to $1.3 billion in funding and financing, which would catalyze $38 billion in investment, primarily by third parties.
The entire MIDP is available on Waterfront Toronto’s QuaysideTO.ca website, physical copies will be available at Toronto Public Library branches across the city, and public consultations are set to begin on July 15th.
