Waterfront Toronto's Lower Don Lands Wins International Best Futuristic Design Award

Toronto, June 16, 2009 –Waterfront Toronto’s Lower Don Lands plans have received the 'Best Futuristic Design Award’ in one of the world’s leading sustainability focused development industry design competitions.

The Keating Channel Precinct, the Lower Don Lands’ first planned community, was recognized in Hamburg Germany at the Building Exchange (BEX) Conference.

The fifth annual BEX International Awards, held in partnership with the World Green Building Council, promote global standards for environmentally sound buildings, large-scale developments and infrastructure. Judged by a panel of leading experts, the awards celebrate sustainability, innovation, efficiency and collaboration in the built environment and demonstrate consideration of the issues surrounding climate change, sustainable communities and future legacies.  Previous winners include WS Atkins (Bahrain World Trade Centre), Birmingham City Council (Big City Plan) and Aldar Properties (Aldar HQ).

“This award emphasizes the importance of investing in sustainable communities to help reduce carbon emissions, prioritize transit as a mode of transportation, and improve energy efficiency,” said John Campbell, President and CEO of Waterfront Toronto. “It is an honour for Waterfront Toronto to be recognized for its commitment to world class sustainable city building.”

The first community to be developed in the Lower Don Lands, the Keating Channel neighbourhood is the area that runs from East Bayfront to the Don River and from the West Don Lands to Villers Street. The community is designed to optimize the climatic effects from sun and wind and to incorporate strategies for water re-use and leading edge information technology to support sustainable living and working.
Waterfront Toronto is planning to transform the Lower Don Lands, a 125-hectare (308-acres) industrial area located south of the rail corridor in the east end of Toronto’s harbour, into new parks and communities. Plans for the area include re-naturalizing the Don River mouth, re-routing it to provide flood protection for the area, and the creation of wetland and natural green spaces. The river will be the centerpiece of new mixed-use sustainable communities.

The Lower Don Lands was recently named as one of 16 founding global projects of the newly launched Climate + Development Program, a partnership between the Clinton Climate Initiative and the US Green Building Council.  The Program will support the planning and implementation process for each real estate development and establish the standards and metrics by which the sites can measure climate positive outcomes. Along with the other projects, the Lower Don Lands will seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to below zero by implementing economically viable innovations in the generation of clean energy.

For a video outlining new development plans for Waterfront Toronto’s Lower Don Lands log on to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEQiNXXgu4g.

The Government of Canada, the Province of Ontario and the City of Toronto created Waterfront Toronto to oversee and lead the renewal of Toronto?s waterfront. Public accessibility, design excellence, sustainable development, economic development and fiscal sustainability are the key drivers of waterfront revitalization.

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Media Contact:
Sheri DeCarlo, Waterfront Toronto, (416) 214-1344 x 279 or sdecarlo@waterfrontoronto.ca