Barrie Harmony Village Lake Simcoe | ?m | 25s | City Core | RAW Design

[interchange42]

This is a huge new project in Barrie by City Core Developments that has started with a design competition, and even though the winners have just been announced, I'll start the thread with all of the four participating entries for the sake of preserving the proposals for history. This is going to be a big deal for the centre of Barrie, and will likely take quite a few years, but this project is likely the one the city needs to bring everything together by filling a major gap on the Kempenfelt Bay shore.

From the Competition Briefing:

Harmony Village Lake Simcoe will be an approximate 1.3 million SF mixed-use Resort Lifestyle Community on the beautiful waterfront in Barrie, Ontario. Residents may include retired individuals, commuters looking for a relaxing home or individuals retreating from a nearby metropolis in a weekend get-a-way. Harmony Village - Lake Simcoe will offer a large selection of residential choices and amenities in a holistic setting that encourages a continued healthy and socially fufilling lifestyle for all residents. The development will feature state of the art renewable energy and energy efficient designs. These residences will feature the latest in leading edge environmentally friendly, LEED Gold design and construction techniques.

 

[interchange42]

Here are 5 images from Hariri Pontarini's entry:

 

[interchange42]

Here are five images from Core Architects' entry:

 

[interchange42]

Here are five images from Diamond Schmitt Architects' entry:

 

[interchange42]

Here are five images from the RAW Design/The Planning Partnership entry:

 

[interchange42]

There were two methods chosen to determine a winner:

1) A (rather blue ribbon) panel of judges evaluated the design. The panel was made up of

· Ian Chodikoff, Editor of Canadian Architect;
· Christopher Hume, Urban Issues and Architecture Reporter, Toronto Star;
· Paul Goldberger, Architecture critic, author of 'Why Architecture Matters;
· Dr. Ian McBurnie, Professor, Ryerson University;
· Lisa Rochon, Architecture Critic, The Globe and Mail;
· Jack Pong, President and CEO City Core Development

2) People were encouraged to vote.

The panel chose the RAW/Planning Partnership design, while the public chose the Diamond Schmitt design. All three firms were asked to participate in joint venture to create a final design.

There will be a front page story shortly with more news from the announcement of the winners.

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[urbandreamer]

I love the Core podium the best, but the point towers need to be trashed as they don't relate to the podium language at all. So I would say go with Core & allow them to build one giant slab on top with funky cutouts/interior courtyards/etc.

The HP towers are great but wrong context--they have a very Humber Bay Shores vibe about them, not a small city Barrie feel.

The RAW towers aren't bad but don't feel cohesive--too much going on here.

The D+S towers...well they continue the conservatism that D+S are known for. Not awful like G+C etc, but still very blah.

Overall it shows what's wrong with Toronto architecture--the idea that the podium must be separate from the tower has created an almost tower-in-the-park feel where the podium is like the park & the tower doesn't really relate.

Thus, it's time to trash the podium+point tower concept as an urban planning failure.

 

[innsertnamehere]

so which one won? I hope Core's won. It was my favorite.

 

[borgo100]

RAW
http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/20...winners-of-harmony-village-design-competition

 

[ProjectEnd]

interchange's post makes it clear that RAW / PP and DS would work together to create the final scheme. Word on the street is that RAW was asked to take the lead with DS in a supporting capacity.

 

[interchange42]

The front page story is up now with all the details.

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[M.R.Victor]

Am I the only one who thinks that none of these proposals is actually worthy of being built? They all have those master-planned qualities which made St. Jamestown (or roughly all mega-projects of the modern era) seem cool and futuristic at first then cold and barren in subsequent decades. Maybe the images don't show it, but I can't see the attention to detail or the provision of fine-grained public spaces, or a well-thought out hierarchy of small, medium and large spaces, or any provision of human-scaled publicly accessible shelter. Hell, aside from the Pontarini entry, there aren't even any interesting exercises in geometry which made modernist mega-projects at least interesting, if not functional.

 

[interchange42]

M.R. - have you read the story on the front page? Roland Rom Colthoff's comment is encouraging in regard to your concerns about master-planning: "There's lots to go around, it will be no problem sharing it. It may come down to drawing a line. Cities build themselves through a chaotic mélange of things. To have a homogenous thing is kind of dangerous; you can't think of all the exigencies that could arise."

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[Xray_Crystal_Junkie]

How are people not more taken aback by the HP design? They look incredible and would stand out in any skyline. I would love to have something in Toronto as daring. I'm guessing they would be incredibly expensive to build though with what must be hundreds of floor plans. Oh well, lets hope they recycle the tower portion into a future proposal in the downtown area.

 

[ShonTron]

As much as I like to trash talk Diamond and Schmitt sometimes, I like their site plan the best. HP has a really interesting design, but the site plan is soooo Towers in a Park.

The best compromise is RAW.

Can we get D&S to do the site, and HP to do the architecture? RAW would be a solid second choice for me.