Vaughan’s downtown will span 27 acres at the southwest corner of Highway 7 and Jane Street, just south of the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre TTC subway station. Plans for the project call for at least 17 towers, including two that would be 69 and 74 storeys.Supplied/WZMH Architects
Planners and developers are determined to build a new, towering downtown in Vaughan, Ont., that’s both walkable and accessible by transit – a tall order for the city just north of Toronto that’s looking to grow its density, bring in more residents and offer more jobs.
The development’s master plan – envisioned by Toromont Industries Ltd., a construction equipment supplier that owns the land – calls for at least 17 towers on the property, including two that would be a whopping 69 and 74 storeys. Once built, these two structures would be the tallest in Vaughan, rivalling buildings in Toronto’s financial district, including the 68-storey Scotia Plaza.
A vision for Vaughan’s downtown
While the project is still awaiting approval from municipal planners and city council, sign-off may happen later this year, says Emma West, partner at Bousfields Inc., the planning consultant for the development.
If approved, the mixed-use, metropolitan development – spanning 27 acres at the southwest corner of Highway 7 and Jane Street, just south of the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre TTC subway station – will take between 10 to 25 years to complete over five project phases.
When creating the master plan, the project’s architects and planners worked to be consistent with city officials’ and planners’ vision to create a walkable, livable downtown amid tall buildings.
The plans for Vaughan’s downtown site call for as many as 10,000 housing units in the area’s various towers. Because of this, the project’s architects say it’s vital to build commercial, retail and office space that will be accessible to residents on foot. “We’re creating a large, linear park, something with human scale that people can walk along and be close to retail and to outdoor amenities all the way along,” says Nicola Casciato, principal at WZMH Architects, the project’s designer.
The plans for Vaughan’s metropolitan centre include as many as 10,000 housing units, a supermarket, daycare space, a hotel, retail businesses, restaurants and offices.Supplied/WZMH Architects
Once built, the housing will be a mixture of one-, two- and three-bedroom units to accommodate individuals, couples and families, with some affordable units. The downtown development will also include a 38,254-square-foot supermarket, daycare space, a hotel, retail businesses, restaurants and offices. “We’re still not sure about how much office space will go in because the market for office space is still soft and uncertain,” Mr. Casciato says.
Building an ‘apple basket’ city centre
When conceptualizing Vaughan’s downtown, the planning and design factored in the concept of an “apple basket,” a nod to Vaughan’s roots as a farming community, Ms. West says.
Similar to how a basket is made of woven reeds, the project’s design plan is to weave in parkland, paths and cycling trails. The trees located in the downtown centre are intended to evoke the vibe of an orchard, and the towers will be situated so they don’t create wind tunnels.
“We’d like the design to create ‘smaller moments’ for people within a large park space, so they can weave in and out – the feeling of being in a basket,” Ms. West says.
Importantly, Vaughan’s downtown will also be directly connected to pedestrian entrances that lead to the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre TTC station, allowing people to quickly hop on and off the subway without having to cross busy Highway 7.
Tackling environmental challenges
Tall buildings don’t have a great reputation for being environmentally friendly. A 2021 study found tall neighbourhoods have higher lifetime greenhouse gas emissions, while low-rise neighbourhoods use up more land.
However, experts are ambivalent about highrises, says Tim Gray, executive director at Environmental Defence, a non-profit advocacy group. Building tall means less urban sprawl and less pressure for farmland to be gobbled up for development, though it still can have a significant environmental footprint, he says.
“High-rise buildings generally consume more energy during construction, and they’re bad for birds,” he says. On the other hand, “they use less land per person. And once built, for residential units at least, they are generally more energy-efficient than lower-height units.”
The design for Vaughan’s downtown factored in the concept of an ‘apple basket,’ where pedestrians and cyclists are able to weave in and out by way of parklands, paths and trails.Supplied/WZMH Architects
To mitigate downtown Vaughan’s environmental footprint, Mr. Casciato says the planners and designers aim to use less glass and as much electric, heat-exchanging ventilation systems as possible. “These won’t be glass towers, they’ll be more facades with strong insulation,” he says.
Importantly, the designers are also paying close attention to the downtown’s landscaping. “We’re not just planting trees and leaving them there,” Mr. Casciato says “We have detailed requirements for the soil volumes – there has to be enough soil to support these trees over their natural lives.”
Pedestrian-centred design
The point of detailed, continuing attention to landscaping is to gear the entire site toward pedestrians. “There’s a Dutch word called woonerf – it means something like ‘living space,’” Mr. Casciato says.
The concept of a woonerf promotes mixed-use streets that are designed to ensure pedestrians and cyclists can be on the roads safely without the risk of getting run over. Neighbourhoods in Western Canada and Toronto have worked with landscape planners to create woonerf-friendly streets. The Vaughan project’s “linear” park, where people can walk or cycle and be sidetracked into shops and cafés, is supposed to be woonerf-y, Mr. Casciato says.
The biggest driver for development on both sides of Highway 7 has been the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre TTC Line 1 subway station, which opened in 2017. According to TTC data, more than 20,000 people use the station daily, a small number compared with the 156,000 who use the city’s central Bloor-Yonge station, but somewhere in the middle-range of most stations along Line 1.
“At first we wondered if the buildings are too tall, but this is the centre of the City of Vaughan. We want it to be transit-oriented so people don’t have to drive, and if you build a community that relies on transit, you need density, and you end up creating higher buildings,” Mr. Casciato says.
“It’s going to be a downtown with tall buildings and the tallest ones at the peak of the city centre. That’s where the action is.”