Waterfront Toronto held an innovative design competition in 2006 to select the best plan to convert Toronto’s Central Waterfront into a spectacular public waterfront destination. While there had been much development in the area over the past few decades, there was no coherent look or feel and it was difficult to distinguish public space from private space along the shoreline. The objective of the design competition was to connect and enhance existing public spaces like the Music Garden and to provide a distinct and uniform identity for all public spaces along Toronto’s downtown waterfront.

Thirty-eight teams from 15 countries on four continents responded to a Request for Qualifications and five teams were short-listed and asked to participate in the competition. Following an extensive public consultation process with stakeholders and a public exhibition at Toronto’s BCE Place Galleria and six other locations across the city, a five-member jury made up of prominent architecture, urban design and creative professionals unanimously selected the design team of West 8 from Rotterdam and DTAH from Toronto as the winner.
 

The following firms were selected by Waterfront Toronto to participate in the Central Waterfront Innovative Design Competition:

• Foster and Partners, UK and Atelier Dreiseitl, Germany
   

• Snøhetta, Norway, Sasaki Associates, nARCHITECTS, Weisz + Yoes Architecture, H3, Balmori Associates and Halcrow Yolles, New York
   

• Stan Allen Architects and Sarah Whiting and Ron Witte Architects, Princeton
   

• Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, New York and Martinez Lapena-Torres Architects, Barcelona
   

• West 8, Rotterdam and DTAH, Toronto
   

 All five design teams produced a remarkable amount of exemplary work responding to the broad design challenge outlined in the Competition Brief.