Atop a hill overlooking the Don Valley Parkway in Toronto's suburban Don Mills is a new international destination point, 15 minutes north of the downtown core.

The 17-acre site, between Wynford and Eglinton at the Don Valley Parkway, has been transformed by the addition of two significant and nearly completed projects: the Aga Khan Museum, designed by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki of Maki & Associates, and the Ismaili Centre and Jamatkhana, a community and religious centre designed by Mumbai-based Charles Correa Associates. Local firm Moriyama + Teshima Architects are the architects of record for the Wynford Park complex of buildings, overseeing the construction of the site.

UrbanToronto Forum member 'current' recently visited the construction site and brought back this set of photos conveying the bold but uncluttered shapes and lines of the emerging complex.

Garden and Aga Khan Museum, photo by UT forum member current

The Aga Khan Museum is an initiative of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), and is dedicated to the preservation of Islamic arts and culture. It will house collections of Islamic art and heritage, including artefacts from the private collections of the Aga Khan, who has undertaken to build a variety of cultural venues around the world.

The Pritzker Prize-winning Maki conceived a simple rectilinear facility clad in white stone and set off by a dome-like metal structure on the roof. The angles of canted walls and gables mirror the geometric patterns of traditional Islamic Art. Organized around a central courtyard are a library, café, restaurant, and a state-of-the art auditorium intended to showcase traditional music of Asia and the Islamic world.

Ismaili Centre, photo by UT forum member current

Aga Khan Museum, photo by UT forum member current

Ismaili Centre from the Aga Khan Museum, photo by UT forum member current

The site is that of the former late-Modernist Bata building, which was demolished in order to expand the site to build the museum. The redevelopment represents a unique opportunity in the architectural history of the city. Fifty years ago, very few Muslims lived in the nearby communities. Today, the Ismailis represent one of the most significant Muslim populations in Canada. This project is an opportunity to build contemporary architeture that celebrates the ethnic and cultural diversity of the city.

Encompassing all of these projects are a series of landscaped gardens designed by the Beirut-based landscape architect Vladimir Djurovic. Wynford Park will comprise eastern-influenced formal gardens and over two kilometres of walking trails open to the public with five reflecting pools. Visitors will be buffered from the noisy Don Valley Parkway and Eglinton Avenue traffic with numerous places for contemplation. The Aga Khan Museum + Ismaili Centre are set to open later in 2013. 

Project rendering for the Aga Khan Museum + Ismaili Centre

For more information, see the links below for the dataBase listings pages, previous articles we've published on this project, as well as the discussion taking place in the Projects & Construction Forum thread.