Project Sidewalk - Quayside
Toronto
Waterfront Toronto issued a proposal call for an ‘innovations partner’ to develop Quayside a 12 acre site at the Parliament Slip on the Toronto Waterfront. Sidewalk Labs a subsidiary of Alphabet (Google) was selected. Ken Greenberg is serving as an urban design and strategic advisor to the Sidewalk Team in developing plans for the new Quayside neighbourhood based on the integration of innovation and the latest technology with human-centred urban design. The 12 acre site sits at a critical juncture on Toronto Harbour linking to the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood, the Distillery District and Bayside and is the gateway to the larger Port Lands to the southeast. It will serve as a ‘test bed’ for a range of innovations including:
Radical mixed-use combining housing for all ages, incomes and capacities, employment including, offices, workshops, studios, stores, cultural spaces in a more malleable, fungible building fabric underpinned by cutting-edge technology;
A GREATER RANGE OF MOBILITY OPTIONS supporting current transit plans, walking and cycling, including self-driving “taxi-bots” controlled by app services, with self-driving buses to follow;
ALTERNATIVE MEANS OF COLLECTING AND SORTING WASTE utilizing new technologies and removing the need for city garbage trucks rumbling through streets;
WEATHER MITIGATION FEATURES including wind shields and possibly heated surfaces could double the time people spend outside and encourage cycling and walking;
WOOD-COMPOSITE MODULAR BUILDINGS, able to be quickly modified for a variety of uses which could be fabricated in the area prototyping the use of new materials;
INNOVATIONS IN REGULATION AND FINANCING identifying areas that need to be changed or modified to allow for desirable outcomes that in place rules never anticipated.