Located in Toronto’s Canary District, the Indigenous Hub is a mixed-use development with a four-storey community health centre topped with a green roof designed by Stantec.BDP Quadrangle/Supplied
On a summer afternoon, the ramp leading up to the roof of Toronto City Hall delivers a sweet surprise: grass underfoot, insects humming and the skyline rising in the background.
Toronto’s green roofs were once radical experiments. Today, they’re civic shorthand for a city that chose to build with climate in mind.
Now, with provincial changes making them voluntary, the architects who helped shape that legacy are pointing to built and in-progress projects they hope will keep the momentum of green development alive.
Two of the clearest examples are the Canary District’s Indigenous Hub and a net-zero aquatic centre in North York – projects approved when the Toronto Green Standard (TGS) was pushing teams to test new ideas and raise performance targets.
A turning point
Introduced in 2010, the TGS set performance targets for energy, stormwater, biodiversity and public-realm design.
Toronto was among the first Canadian cities to adopt a comprehensive framework. Similar standards now exist in municipalities such as Vancouver and Montreal, though the scope and enforcement mechanisms vary.
Between 2010 and 2025, the city installed more than 1,200 green roofs. This helped turn once-niche features – such as bird-friendly glass and cycling infrastructure – into mainstream practices, while also supporting the growth of a local industry around them.
The conversation arrives at a moment of uncertainty and as questions are raised about how far Ontario municipalities can push environmental performance going forward.
For Michelle Xuereb, innovation director at BDP Quadrangle, that’s a significant shift. “When [Ontario] repealed the green roof bylaw, it showed us how quickly these environmental protections can vanish,” she says.
The 440,000-square-foot Indigenous Hub brings together housing, health care, education, child care and employment services within a single, culturally-grounded campus. Sustainability is embedded in the site’s energy and water strategies, as well as those for cultural expression and long-term community well-being.BDP Quadrangle/Supplied
The Indigenous Hub
Rising in Toronto’s Canary District, the Indigenous Hub is a 440,000-square-foot mixed-use development that brings together housing, health care, education, child care and employment services within a single, culturally-grounded campus.
The project is the result of a broad collaboration between developers Dream, Kilmer Group and Tricon, alongside Indigenous organizations such as Anishnawbe Health Toronto and Miziwe Biik, as well as design firms including Two Row Architect, Stantec, ERA Architects and BDP Quadrangle, the latter of which oversaw the block’s master plan.
The property’s site also has a layered history. Long used by Indigenous communities, it later became industrial land in the Don River floodplain and remained mostly undeveloped until flood protection and remediation efforts tied to the 2015 Pan American Games made construction possible.
At the centre of the development is a four-storey Indigenous community health centre with a green roof. Designed by Stantec, it integrates Western medical services with traditional healing practices in a culturally-safe environment.
What makes the project unique is the holistic perspective with which it was designed. Sustainability is embedded not only in its energy and water strategies but also in those for cultural expression and long-term community well-being.
Municipal lessons
“Public buildings often serve as testing grounds for innovation,” says Jeanne Ng, partner at MJMA Architecture and Design, the firm behind one of Canada’s first net-zero-energy, zero-carbon aquatic centres.
In practice, public buildings function as pilot projects for energy-efficient and sustainable design, demonstrating what’s possible at scale.
The Western North York Community Recreation & Child Care Centre is one such example, with the aquatic facility slated to open in 2028.
Aquatic centres are typically among the most energy-intensive building types, yet this project targets roughly an 80-per-cent reduction in energy use and a 40-per-cent reduction in emissions, compared with conventional community centres.
Its innovation lies in rethinking core systems – from alternative water-heating strategies to high-efficiency mechanical systems – to dramatically reduce energy use without compromising the precise comfort and humidity control that pools require.
Given the small site, the high energy demand of indoor swimming pools and the lack of space available for a boundless photovoltaic system, this was no small effort, says Ms. Ng.
“It will also be the city’s first recreation centre to incorporate low-carbon requirements in material procurement,” she says.
The Western North York Community Recreation & Child Care Centre’s aquatic facility is one of Canada’s first net-zero locations of its kind. It’s slated to open in 2028 and will target a roughly an 80-per-cent reduction in energy use and a 40-per-cent reduction in emissions.”MJMA Architecture + Design/Supplied
Proven by design
For Lisa Prime, director of sustainability at Diamond Schmitt Architects, green standards result in measurable societal outcomes.
“They shape how people feel in their city – comfort, access to nature, cycling, pedestrian life,” she says. “But they’re also about infrastructure.”
That thinking is built into the structure of Waterworks, a recent redevelopment designed by Diamond Schmitt at Toronto’s Richmond and Brant streets. The project transforms a 1932 industrial building into a mixed-use hub with a food hall, YMCA, housing and social services.
Above it, stepped residential terraces are layered with green roofs and deep-planted balconies – built-in planting zones – that absorb rainwater, reduce heat and give residents usable outdoor space overlooking the adjacent St. Andrew’s Playground.
Multiply that approach across the city, and the environmental impact adds up quickly.
The City of Toronto estimates the TGS has cut about 169,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year – roughly the equivalent of taking 52,000 cars off the road. By 2050, that number could reach 30.6 megatonnes, which the city compares to removing about 250,000 cars annually.
Green roofs have also delivered measurable infrastructure benefits in Toronto. More than 600 roofs covering approximately 12.9 million square feet have been installed, diverting over 18-million litres of stormwater each year.
And for architects, the real test is how buildings perform over time: how they respond to heat, manage water and support the people who use them.
These priorities come amid rising stakes. The city’s climate projections point to a future with daily maximum temperatures climbing by as much as seven degrees Celsius, three times as many extreme heat days and triple the daily maximum rainfall at 166 millimetres by 2040-2050.
With enforcement tools evolving, the projects already under way may serve as the clearest evidence that sustainable design can deliver both performance and livability.
“Building for our future isn’t an add-on,” Ms. Xuereb says. “It’s part of what makes the city great.”