In the Daniels Faculty's Integrated Urbanism Studio, students picked "design action zones" — areas of the city of Toronto where environmental, economic, and social pressures demand some form of design intervention. Working within those zones, student groups produced master plans that responded to the requirements of the international Green New Deal Superstudio. Pinhan, Jiayu, Yutong, and Kaylee chose Scarborough Town Centre, a dense area in Toronto's northeast that is undergoing rapid change.

The neighbourhood's central feature is Scarborough Centre station, one of six stops on the Scarborough RT, a light rapid transit line that has served Scarborough since 1985. The RT is now nearing the end of its service life, and the Toronto Transit Commission recently approved a plan to shut it down in 2023. Scarborough transit riders will instead be served by a fleet of express buses, while they wait for the completion of the Scarborough subway extension. The Scarborough RT's elevated guideway will be decommissioned and demolished.

Pinhan, Jiayu, Yutong, and Kaylee's project imagines in a world in which, rather than being demolished, the RT's guideway is renovated into a new, multipurpose neighbourhood amenity.

The group's renovated Scarborough RT would be a three-layer structure. The uppermost layer would be a "sky garden" — an elevated walkway that would provide new pedestrian connectivity in the car-oriented neighbourhood. Below the sky garden would be a new and improved light rapid transit line, which would work in tandem with the new subway line to provide train service to neighbourhood residents. Beneath the guideway would be a renewed landscape and a new network of bike paths.

The landscape underneath the guideway would consist of a system of permeable natural surfaces, including a network of retention ponds, to mitigate flood risk from the nearby Highland Creek. "The ponds make the whole area like a sponge," Pinhan says.

An axonometric view of the renovated guideway near Markham Road and Progress Avenue.

A view of the proposed flood protection system near Markham Road and Progress Avenue.

A section view of the site near Markham Road and Progress Avenue.

The group's plan calls for the addition of a new transit hub, where the new subway line and the new light rapid transit line would intersect. "The most important thing was figuring out how to improve density," Yutong says. Some existing parking lots would be removed, along with a YMCA and a movie theatre. New additions would include small-scale retail spaces (serviced by a new system of pedestrian walkways), new office space, a new cluster of residential high-rises, and a new cultural-centre building.

A plan of the area around the new transit hub at Scarborough Town Centre.

Section view of a residential complex near the new transit hub along McCowan Road.

Perspective view of the area near the transit hub at Scarborough Town Centre.

To the east of Scarborough Town Centre, where a cluster of residential towers would be located, the group ensured that the guideway would not divide the neighbourhood in two. "I wanted to make sure the two sides had a good connection with each other," Jiayu says. A rental apartment complex for low-income residents would straddle the guideway. The complex's elevated main body would create room for green space throughout the area, which would both provide recreational areas for residents and allow rainwater to permeate the ground, mitigating flood risk. The centrepiece of the site would be an artificial wetland.

A perspective rendering of the residential area near Bellamy Road and Progress Avenue.

An explanation of the residential area's flood protection systems.

A section view of the area's flood protection systems.

The group's plan would also create more built connections between the two sides of the elevated guideway, and would add a series of different types of outdoor spaces for recreational use by local residents. The new guideway would serve as a central spine that connects the neighbourhood's many built and landscape amenities.

Guideway connections near Midland Avenue and Ellesmere Road.

Instructor: Sneha Mandhan