Ontario Construction News staff writer
Waterfront Toronto and the City of Toronto in collaboration with Host Nation and Treaty Holder, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation has selected a shortlist of teams to submit designs for the accessible Keating Channel Pedestrian Bridge.
A Request for Qualifications (RFQ) was released in May and received 13 submissions from local, national and international teams. Five were selected to participate in the design competition:
Lead Firm: Entuitive
- Engineer: Schlaich Bergermann Partner
- Architect: Grimshaw Architects
- Architect & Indigenous Consultant: Two Row Architect
- Landscape Architect: O2 Planning + Design with Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
Lead Firm: EXP
- Engineer: Buro Happold
- Architect: INFORM Studio
- Indigenous Consultant: 4 Directions
- Landscape Architect: Sprucelab
Lead Firm: Henning Larsen
- Engineer: Ramboll
- Architect: Henning Larsen
- Indigenous Consultant: Two Row Architect
- Landscape Architect: Henning Larsen
Lead Firm: RJC Engineers
- Engineer: Anta Ingeneria Civil
- Architect: Smoke Architecture Inc.
- Indigenous Consultant: MinoKamik
- Landscape Architect: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
Lead Firm: Zeidler Architecture Inc.
- Engineer: Arup
- Architect: WilkinsonEyre
- Indigenous Consultant: Two Row Architect
- Landscape Architect: PLANT Architect Inc.
Submissions will be reviewed by an evaluation committee incuding Waterfront Toronto, City of Toronto and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation staff. Waterfront Toronto anticipates that the successful team will be announced in fall 2023.
The Keating Channel Pedestrian Bridge will link the Quayside neighbourhood and Toronto’s downtown to an expanded regional park system along the Don River and the emergent Villiers Island. It will contribute to the creation of a continuous and publicly accessible water’s edge along the harbour and play a critical role in providing safe, direct, and equitable access across the Keating Channel.
Incorporating Indigenous design principles is a key part of the project.
The bridge will “meaningfully celebrates local Indigenous arts, cultures, storytelling, histories, and traditions. This initiative also seeks to support Indigenous place-making and place-keeping as a part of a collective re-imagining of public spaces to strengthen the connection between place, community, values, culture, past, present and future”.
