Redeveloped kiln building a showcase for urban innovation at Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto
TORONTO, Nov. 08, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Evergreen revealed the name of its new national hub for city building – the TD Future Cities Centre. The site of the recently redeveloped historic kiln building, the revived space at Evergreen Brick Works in Toronto has been transformed into a dynamic year-round innovation and training centre where urban thought leaders and citizen city builders from across sectors can gather to co-create, test and prototype solutions for building inclusive low carbon cities.
This morning, Evergreen CEO Geoff Cape, joined by Norie Campbell, Group Head, Customer and Colleague Experience, TD Bank Group, announced TD as the title sponsor of the redeveloped space at the opening of the Future Cities Canada Summit, the inaugural gathering of international and national urban leaders to reimagine how to create more inclusive, resilient and smarter cities.
“The TD Future Cities Centre is a global destination for urban innovation,” said Geoff Cape, Evergreen CEO. “The tremendous support from visionary partners such as the TD Bank Group helps advance the important and necessary work of investing in our urban future. The Centre further establishes Evergreen Brick Works as a leading example of where the world can gather and experience sustainable practices that make cities flourish.”
The Summit will also host the first talk of the TD Future Cities Speaker Series, an ongoing public talk featuring an international roster of leading minds in city building. Evergreen welcomes Alicia Glen, New York City’s Deputy Mayor of Housing and Economic Development on Thursday, November 8, 2018.
"Building a more inclusive and sustainable tomorrow is at the heart of TD's corporate citizenship platform, The Ready Commitment. With more people moving to urban centres, cities are increasingly becoming the heart of where we live, work and play. With collaboration across sectors we can help build more resilient and sustainable cities that people can thrive in. This is why we are proud to sponsor the TD Future Cities Centre, to help create a hub for people to connect and develop innovative solutions for some of the most pressing urban issues of our time," said Andrea Barrack, Vice President, Global Corporate Citizenship, TD Bank Group.
The TD Future Cities Centre was part of a $30 million campaign to create the new city building hub and its related programs. Launched in 2017, the ambitious redevelopment of the 53,000-square-foot kiln building became a test site to advance and accelerate the shift to more sustainable construction designs and practices, ultimately striving to create one of Canada’s carbon neutral sites. Evergreen and its partners – including construction lead EllisDon, manufacturing partner CRH Canada, and the design team led by LGA Architectural Partners in consultation with heritage design specialists ERA Architects - have worked together to offer new possibilities for developing sustainable cities while ensuring that the historic features are preserved.
The Centre is also the national hub for Future Cities Canada, the new city-building initiative created earlier this year by Evergreen, the McConnell Foundation, Community Foundations of Canada and the Maison de l’innovation sociale. The unique collaborative brings together people, ideas, platforms and innovations from across sectors to find new ways to address the challenges facing cities.
TD FUTURE CITIES CENTRE HIGHLIGHTS:
Fully-enclosed for the first time, the TD Future Cities Centre features year-round use with a new raised floor that incorporates in-floor heating and cooling (integration of solar thermal panels with the geothermal heating and cooling system is scheduled for 2019); flood mitigation with a new network of greenways to channel water away from the building and raised flooring with an innovative cavity floor system; a new service station for catering activities and a free-standing bank of washrooms, featuring 21 gender-neutral stalls making it one of the largest of its kind in Ontario; and heritage preservation with new steel inlays and sandblasted lines that trace the historic kiln car tracks, while sections of tinted concrete represent the footprint of historic kilns.
The Centre is one of the most sought-after venues for private events and home to programs and exhibit spaces. One area in the former drying kilns was meticulously altered to create an intimate exhibition space known as the City Builders Gallery. The inaugural exhibition Urban Imaginaries by Toronto artist Ferruccio Sardella with Nathan Whitford of Urban Visuals explores the complexities of cities through the relationship of city builders and the lived experience of urban spaces.
The public can explore Canada’s leading example of adaptive reuse and low carbon innovation through Evergreen’s tour program, which offers public tours on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., as well as the chance to book private guided tours for groups.
The completion of the collaboration studios and the installation and integration of solar thermal panels with the geothermal heating and cooling system are scheduled for 2019. The public opening is scheduled for spring 2019.
For more information and to share your ideas on the future of low carbon cities, please visit: www.evergreen.ca/
Renee Tratch | Senior Manager, PR & Audience Engagement | Evergreen | 416-596-1495 X 273 Evergreen Brick Works, 550 Bayview Avenue, Suite 300, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3X8
About Evergreen: Since 1991, Evergreen, a not-for-profit, has provoked bold action in transforming public landscapes into thriving community spaces. We believe that connecting people, natural and built worlds create flourishing cities for the future. For more than 25 years Evergreen has connected, collaborated, and catalyzed Canadians to do amazing things positively affecting attitudes and behaviours that lie at the core of a sustainable city. For more information visit www.evergreen.ca
TD FUTURE CITIES CENTRE SUPPORTERS:
Government of Canada, TD Bank Group, Government of Ontario, Infrastructure Canada, Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Ontario Trillium Foundation, CRH Canada Group Inc., Cisco Systems Canada Co., Brampton Brick and EllisDon.
TD Future Cities Centre Solutions Providers
Armstrong Fluid Technology, Velux Canada Inc.