This past November, the City of Toronto announced the Little Jamaica Master Plan as part of a broader Cultural Districts Program. This announcement follows a years-long public outcry over the closure of Black-owned businesses and concerns about the erasure of Black and Jamaican culture that may result from the construction of a transit line and new development. The city reports that the program “will honour the Indigeneity of the planning area; centre the contributions of the Jamaican community, while embracing a pan-Africanism lens that will recognize Black placemaking contributions more broadly; and create space for all Little Jamaica residents, businesses and organizations to participate in the process.”

We recognize that the Little Jamaica Master Plan is a response to the ideas and concerns of community members and are pleased to welcome our three panelists who have amplified their voices through a set of influential reports and design visions. Politicians have cited these reports as foundational to political action that was first brought forward in 2020 and many of our guests continue to do work in Little Jamaica, furthering the interests of business owners and leading initiatives around issues such as business preservation, public space, and affordable housing. This event will explore potential futures for Little Jamaica by asking our panelists to share their contributions to these reports and to reflect on current work.

Romain Baker (Black Urbanism TO) 
Cheryll Case (CP Planning) 
Tura Cousins Wilson (Studio of Contemporary Architecture)
Samuel Ganton (Intern Architect at LGA Architectural Partners)
 

Co-moderated by Otto Ojo and Michael Piper with Black Students in Design (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 

References:

A Black Business Conversation: On planning for the future of black businesses and residents on Eglinton Avenue West.

• Romain Baker, BUTO Dane Gardener-Williams, BUTO Anyika Mark, BUTO Elizabeth Antczak, OACC Mona Dai, OACC Samuel Ganton, OACC Tura Wilson, SOCA July 2020

Black Futures on Eglinton: This study implemented creative approaches to identifying, celebrating, and supporting the cultural strength within Eglinton Avenue West area, lovingly known as “Little Jamaica” to many. As part of this study, locals and community allies of a wide variety of ages, ethnicities, and lived experienced engaged in solidarity to exchange thoughts that together make up their vision for Black futures on Eglinton.

Little Jamaica Master Plan: City of Toronto moves forward with creation of Cultural Districts Program and working with equitable placemaking practice November 26, 2021.

Black Urbanism Toronto
Studio of Contemporary Architecture
CP Planning

Speakers

Romain Baker is co-founder and acting executive director of Black Urbanism TO. He is a descendant of many West African peoples by way of Jamaica. He is a musician, student of history, and a believer of pan-Africanism.

Cheryll Case is an Early Career Canadian Urban Leader with the School of Cities, an adjunct professor at the University of Waterloo, and is founder, and principal urban planner of CP Planning, a planning firm that nurtures relationships between the government, charity, private, and community sectors to develop programs that reflect housing as a human right. In partnership with community, she implemented the Black Futures on Eglinton community research project that is now living through the Tenant Solidarity Program (TSP) where she and community organize for affordable housing in Little Jamaica, Toronto.

Tura Cousins Wilson is a co-founder of the Studio of Contemporary Architecture and is a licensed architect in both Ontario and the Netherlands. He holds an undergraduate degree in architecture from Ryerson University and a Master’s degree in architecture from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Wilson’s professional experience spans a variety of scales including multi-unit residential, large-scale mixed-use developments, libraries, community spaces, and urban design. He is equally passionate about the impact of small-scale architecture and exploring the craft and intimacy of private residential design. Outside SOCA, Wilson has undertaken community based projects and been invited to speak at lectures and panel discussions regarding Toronto’s housing affordability.

Samuel Ganton (they/them) is an Intern Architect at LGA Architectural Partners in Toronto, and a graduate of the University of Waterloo MArch program. During their time at Waterloo, Samuel co-founded a group called Treaty Lands, Global Stories to advocate for the inclusion of Indigenous and non-Western culture & histories in the architecture curriculum. Currently active in the housing working group of Architecture Lobby in Tkaronto, Samuel has also volunteered with Open Architecture Collaborative Canada, and provided research & writing support to Black Urbanism Toronto in preparing the Report: A Black Business Conversation for Little Jamaica.

Moderators

Otto Ojo is a Toronto based architect and sessional lecturer at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. He holds a Bachelor of Environmental Studies with a specialization in urban design from the University of Waterloo’s School of Planning, and a Master of Architecture from the University of Toronto, where he focused on the provision of housing through the embodiment of biomimetic principles whilst leveraging vernacular construction methodologies. He has practised at a number of award-winning architecture firms in Canada and Spain.

Ojo is a co-founder of studiovol, an architecture and design firm focused on producing alternative and environmentally resilient constructs that utilize site specific authentic materials that contextually ground buildings and evoke phenomenological resonance.

His current research interests are at the confluence of design agency and equity; the conscious effort through the sculpting of the shared built environment to address and realign, perspectives, social injustice, and the proliferation of cultural bias.

Michael Piper is an assistant professor of urban design and architecture and director of the Master of Urban Design program at the University of Toronto. His research and teaching focus on the relationship between design, equity, and political-economic contexts with particular attention on the social and formal transformation of North American suburbs. He is a co-founder and director of tuf lab, a research group that brings together urban design and urban planning faculty at the U of T to explore wicked (tough) problems of contemporary urbanization. The group’s research contributes analysis of built form to social, political, and economic knowledge about cities. Piper is also a founding partner of >dub studios, a design studio with offices in Toronto and Los Angeles where he manages urban design projects. Current projects and coursework focus on imagining more just and equitable housing scenarios for North American single-family suburbs and cultural spaces of citizens underrepresented in mainstream design and planning.