Winners of Toronto Urban Design Awards 2009

The winners of the 2009 Toronto Urban Design Awards, the 6th since amalgamation, were recently announced. The award program celebrates the best urban design in Toronto. Unlike other design awards programs that highlight individual projects, the Urban Design Awards honor the improvements to urban life made by designers who are focusing on context—the way their designs fit into the surrounding environment and contribute to the creation of great public spaces.

“To create a successful ‘place,’ each new building, open space and streetscape element has to follow a similar set of rules—some written, some unwritten—so that the sum of parts works as a coherent, well-proportioned whole, despite being built by many individuals and over a long period of time,” said Robert Freedman, Director of Urban Design at the City of Toronto. “We have worked hard over the years to refine the submission requirements to emphasize place-making and context and we have observed an enthusiastic response from the design community and noticeable improvements in the urban design quality of submissions.”

The 2009 jury was composed of Ian Chodikoff, Editor - Canadian Architect; Jack Diamond, Principal – Diamond + Schmitt Architects Inc.; Eha Naylor, Principal – ENVision – The Hough Group Limited; and Michael Van Valkenburgh, Principal – Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc.

The winning projects are on view at Toronto Metro Hall until tomorrow, October 2, and will further be exhibited at Etobicoke CC (October 5 - 9), Scarborough CC (October 19 - 23), and North York CC (October 27 - November 2).

These are the 2009 prize winners sorted by award categories:

Images: Toronto Urban Design Awards