BLOCK 31
RESIDENTIAL & COMMUNITY CENTRE COMPLEX

Situated in the heart of the Toronto Railway Lands West Re-development, Block 31 serves as the community core for a new downtown neighbourhood. Through the provision of public amenities at street level, mid-block pedestrian access to the adjacent City park, and socially integrated housing ownership models, the project aspires to set new precedents in family-friendly urban development and innovative multi-partner building relationships.

Through its attentiveness to the Toronto Green Development Guidelines and LEED® recommendations, Block 31 also aims to serve as a didactic model for sustainable development, in particular for the students of the two schools located on-site. Within the scheme are plans for a shared geothermal mechanical system, floor-plate and elevation design conducive to day-lighting, extensive green roof coverage, and solar and wind energy harvesting, complete with pedagogical status monitors for the habitants within.

Block 31 is a rare opportunity to transcend the typical oppositions of public and private interests; indeed the challenge to accommodate the requirements of five stakeholder agencies naturally result in a gradient of negotiated social spaces. Shared courtyards, sky-lobbies, transparent façades (both phenomenal and literal), a developed park address and integrated public thoroughfares are but a few of the architectural outcomes of the project’s complex social dynamic.

TORONTO COMMUNITY HOUSING CORPORATION
TORONTO DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD
TORONTO CATHOLIC DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD
TORONTO, CANADA
2012
$100 MILLION
12,152 m2
TWO ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
COMMUNITY CENTRE
CHILDCARE CENTRE
354 RESIDENTIAL UNITS