Humber Town Redevelopment

Humber Town Redevelopment 

Toronto

Confronted with a redevelopment proposal for Humbertown Shopping Mall to be transformed to be a dense high-rise district set within the predominantly low-rise, single family residence context, the Humber Valley Village Residents Association commissioned Weiss Architecture & Urbanism Limited to assist them with in their discussions with the City Planners and Developer. Several members of the Association had been Board Members of Kingsway College School with whom Kevin Weiss had worked closely with on a major school addition a few years earlier and knew the abilities of Weiss and his firm to work effectively with project stakeholders in difficult situations.

Rather than taking a simple “NIMBY” stance, Weiss Architecture & Urbanism advocated to the community that densification and redevelopment of the aging mall was a positive act of city building. The commission objective was therefore to communicate to the City Planners and the Developer, through the proactive development of master plan which was executed through an exhaustive participatory community process, a reasonably dense redevelopment proposal that community could accept as being positive.

The resulting medium-rise master plan was unanimously accepted by the active and large community group. Having consensus in regards to the community’s urban design objective, the group effectively lobbied Council to reject the developer’s high-rise proposal.

Credits

Kevin Weiss, Leah Scherk