Guelph Baker District Redevelopment | ?m | 15s | WDG | DTAH

AlbertC

AlbertC

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*Mods, please feel free to move or remove this thread if necessarily. I wasn't sure if Guelph constitutes as reasonably within Toronto's sphere of influence, to have a thread in this section of the forum. We have threads for some places equally or even further away like Barrie and Niagara Falls, and I believe there's threads for Waterloo projects from the past too.

dtah.com

DTAH

DTAH is an award winning architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design firm located in Toronto.
dtah.com


Baker District Redevelopment
A new One Planet Living community

Windmill Development Group has been selected through a competitive process to partner with the City of Guelph in developing a One Planet Living community in downtown Guelph. Windmill's design team is led by DTAH (urban design, landscape architecture, south-block architecture) and Diamond Schmitt Architects (north-block architecture). This truly inclusive mixed-use community will include residential towers, the new Guelph Public Library Main Branch, as well as institutional and retail uses integrated into Guelph's historic fabric. Two distinct residential towers – one on the north side and one on the south of a new public street, will provide approximately 275 residential units with a component of the suites planned as affordable housing to support the City’s intensification goals.

The Baker District Redevelopment will transform the existing Baker Street municipal parking lot and adjacent properties into a compact district nestled in Guelph’s historic core, creating a renewed area of activity, commerce and civic space for the local community and city. The focal point of the new community will be a dramatic new public library and prominent public plaza. The landscape and public realm concept of the Baker District Redevelopment prioritizes pedestrian porosity and the development of publicly accessible open spaces that are flexible to accommodate a range of uses. Learn more about the project on the City of Guelph's website here
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guelph.ca

Baker District redevelopment

As a landmark city-building initiative, the Baker District redevelopment revitalizes our downtown and improves our city’s economic and social prosperity.
guelph.ca guelph.ca

This welcoming and publicly-accessible integrated civic hub—known as Baker District—is anchored by a new central Guelph Public Library and outdoor urban square, and features residential units, commercial and institutional space, and public parking.
As a landmark city-building initiative, the Baker District redevelopment further revitalizes our downtown and—by extension—improves our entire city’s economic and social prosperity.
This means:
  • more people living downtown and contributing to the City’s tax base to fund municipal programs and service
  • more jobs due to an increase in demand for retail and commercial services
  • an increase in retail spending for current and new businesses
  • more people visiting and learning downtown; contributing to a vibrant and healthy downtown.

The project also contributes to Guelph’s growth target: a population of 191,000 people and an employment base of 101,000 jobs by 2041. Specifically, the City’s Official Plan has Guelph’s downtown being planned to achieve a density target of 150 people and jobs combined per hectare by 2031 and to be a focus for high density employment, residential development, public infrastructure and services, and multimodal transportation.
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Guelph has a nice historic downtown core for a city of its size, and there's been gradual restoration to some of the stone buildings. Most notable was the Petrie Building in recent years.

After decades of neglect, the rebirth of a Guelph heritage building

Kirk Roberts and Peregrine Wood take on a restoration challenge – a unique 1882 Guelph building, crumbling inside and out
www.theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com

Photo from the article:

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The ornate metal facade is definitely a work of art. The type of style and grandeur that's more common among turn-of-the-century buildings in larger American cities, but a rarity in Canada.
 
Lived in Guelph for the better part of a decade, years ago now. Still have good friends there. The downtown has been changing up in recent years, but this single project is huge. As long as they don't demolish the lovely historical limestone edifices downtown, I'm good with the urbanization going on here. It's a great, decent-sized city with lots of potential for further economic potential. I hope the materials used here are nice - this is going to have quite the impact on the downtown skyline.
 
AlbertC said:
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One interesting note- I believe that this piece of land isn't quite your typical lot created by the expected urban renewal processes- part of this plot of land was actually originally Guelph's public cemetery, then a park, and finally a skating rink and parking lot. Hence, it never was truly built over like the rest of the city.

Looking at the old maps, it's also interesting to see the disappearance of urbanistic features (i.e. the small Georgian/Regency plazas, Market Square, and St. George's Square), mainly because of changes towards traffic flow, and the dissolution of the street wall. A bit of a shame that not more parkland or urban morphology is being carried forward, but oh well.

Note the trapezoid 'Burying Ground':
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www.guelphfarmersmarket.ca

Guelph Farmers’ Market

Official website of the Guelph Farmers' Market. Open Saturdays year-round from 7 a.m. to 12 noon.
www.guelphfarmersmarket.ca www.guelphfarmersmarket.ca

Some more information and maps:
 
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AlbertC said:
Guelph has a nice historic downtown core for a city of its size, and there's been gradual restoration to some of the stone buildings. Most notable was the Petrie Building in recent years.

After decades of neglect, the rebirth of a Guelph heritage building

Kirk Roberts and Peregrine Wood take on a restoration challenge – a unique 1882 Guelph building, crumbling inside and out
www.theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com

Photo from the article:

View attachment 259333
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That street is closed to traffic for the summer. It's been turned into a dining district.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1287082870864052224

https://twitter.com/x/status/1282652999240896512
 
Guelph’s Baker District Canada’s second One Planet Living site

Sep. 25, 2020

Windmill Developments and the City of Guelph have received One Planet Living endorsement for the city’s downtown Baker District development. It is the second project in Canada to receive such an endorsement, and the third in North America.

sustainablebiz.ca

Guelph’s Baker District Canada’s second One Planet Living site

Windmill Developments and the City of Guelph have received One Planet Living endorsement for the city’s downtown Baker District development. It is the second project in Canada to receive such an endorsement, and the third in North America. The One
sustainablebiz.ca sustainablebiz.ca
 
www.theglobeandmail.com

Guelph’s plan for downtown aims to unpave paradise

Baker District redevelopment based on building a sustainable community
www.theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com

The proposed Baker District development in downtown Guelph, Ont., is doing the opposite of Joni Mitchell’s lyrics in Big Yellow Taxi by replacing a paved parking lot and putting up a bit of urban paradise. The plan includes a new library, residences, commercial and institutional space and a market square designed to showcase local food producers.

The 500,000-square-foot project, budgeted at around $350-million, is a joint venture between the city and Ottawa-based Windmill Development Group, that applies sustainability principles for energy efficiency and minimal environmental impact.

About one-third of the funding is public and the rest private, says Jonathan Westeinde, Windmill’s chief executive officer. The project, which will also include about 300 housing units, is within walking distance from Guelph’s train station, which also serves Ontario’s GO commuter routes.

Construction is planned to begin in 2021 and to be completed in 2025. The project will be anchored by a 70,000- to 80,000-square-foot municipal library, designed by Toronto’s Diamond Schmitt Architects, two residential towers and additional commercial/institutional space.

“After three decades of false starts, we finally have a plan to move forward with an elegant new main library in the centre of the city,” says Scott Butler, chair of Guelph’s library board.

“As in other cities, the new library will be a driver for economic development,” Mr. Butler says. There will still be some parking, but the centrally located site will no longer be dominated by a parking lot.
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Towered said:
Great looking project. Guelph has one of the nicest downtowns of any mid-sized city in Ontario, and stuff like this will only make it even more appealing.
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I agree- if Guelph had a fast connection (+/- 45 mins) to Toronto I'd relocate there in a heartbeat.
 
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