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For any design firm, building a legacy requires many things. Of course, a spectacular portfolio of projects is the most visible way to be remembered, leaving a permanent mark on a city or a community, but legacies are also built upon less tangible things as well, like relationships and values. For NAK Design Strategies, the landscape architecture and urban design firm has spent over three decades working on solution-focused projects in the public and private sectors, and now, on the year of their 35th anniversary, the company is reflecting on how far they have come, and what their legacy looks like.
“The real purpose behind NAK’s foundation was really to treat people well,” said Silvano Tardella, one of the founding Principals at NAK Design Strategies, in a video interview discussing the mandate of the company. “Our perspective is understanding people. What we do is create spaces and places for them to live.” Investing in this approach since the company’s inception in 1987 has had positive results for NAK, who have grown to become the largest landscape architecture firm in the country, with offices in Toronto, Ottawa, and Calgary. Their role as leaders in the field is reflected in the projects they have taken on in the last decade, presiding over designs for significant public spaces as well as large scale projects like community master plans.
One of their most recognizable projects in North America, arguably, is a public space that enjoys special significance in the hearts of millions of Canadians, and is featured prominently on National TV in both Canada and the US every April (depending on how well our local sports teams are doing). Maple Leaf Square, also referred to as Jurassic Park, is a unique project that exists at the intersection of private development, entertainment and cultural industries, and urban infrastructure.
Designed collaboratively with consultants from developers, Cadillac Fairview, as well as the City of Toronto and the Air Canada Centre (now Scotiabank Arena), the project had to fit within the context of a major mixed-use development while simultaneously creating a public space that enables sports fans to be involved in the culture of the game; and on top of all of that, the project was also tasked with creating new and improved connections that help to integrate both the development and the arena with TTC and GO Transit services at Union Station.
Completed in 2010, the project has exceeded the expectations of its programming capabilities. Over 15 years, the built components of Maple Leaf Square remain in excellent condition even after intensive use, and the layout has proven itself as a safe, manageable, and highly flexible gathering place that has become a pillar of Toronto’s sports culture, and during the Toronto Raptors’ 2019 Championship run, the square proved it was capable of accommodating well over 10,000 observers.
In more recent years, NAK Design Strategies has been retained as landscape architects and urban designers for what will be one of their most significant projects to date, providing designs for the outdoor spaces of the master-planned Lakeview Village community in Mississauga. The 177-acre site presents a wealth of opportunities for NAK to innovate with spaces that facilitate active lifestyles, seamless connections, and in an area that has become key within the sector, the revitalization of the native ecology.
NAK’s goal for their contributions to the project, which encompass the development of designs for a number of parks and waterfront spaces, is to deliver a network of parks that each thrive on their functionality — offering flexibility in terms of the programming opportunities — but also work together to create a continuous system of open space that makes connectivity throughout the community a convenient and pedestrian-friendly process. Establishing the Waterfront Trail alongside the lake is a major initiative, reinforcing a continuous open space link with existing waterfront park systems to the east and west and fully integrating the surrounding community with Lakeview Village.
After 35 active years of involvement in development in Canada’s public and private sectors, NAK Design Strategies has evolved into a firm that is not only established in terms of their expertise, but also leaders in their field. Because of this, their legacy can be described in a number of ways; delivering people-focused design solutions, creating iconic spaces of great public significance, and being involved in the next generation of city-building. With hundred of projects completed in the last 35 years, the firm has left a mark on the development industry in this country, and with many more still to come, that legacy continues to be written.
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