Team Presentations
CURTNER URBAN LEADERSHIP PROGRAM 2022-2023
Tackling Civic Challenges with Community Joy
Image Credit to DAILY TOUS LES JOUR
This year’s program will be a mix of in person, site specific, and virtual sessions. The commitment is for one day per month for sessions with additional time for study and presentation preparation.
Kick Off: October 21st, 2022
The program kicked off on Friday October 21st, 2022, at the BDP Quadrangle Offices. Kevin Stolarick, the Dean of this year’s program gave everyone a brief overview of this year’s program. Participants of the program were able to network and meet one another before the start of this year’s program. The session was followed by a tour of the BDP Quadrangle WELL offices and a tour of The Bentway with Ken Greenberg, Principal, Greenberg Consultants and a visit to the Confluence Experience at the Bentway.
Panelist of the Day
Speakers:
Melissa Mongiat, Co-founder and co-director of Daily tous les jour
Gelare Danaie, Founder at DEXD, We design for what matters, Human Experience
Ken Greenberg, Greenberg Consultants Inc Scott Higgins, President, HIP Developments Inc. and Co-Author, The Joy Experiments
Daniel Rotsztain, Toronto Futures + Project Manager ERA Architects Inc, plazaPops https://plazapops.ca/
Session 1: November 25th, 2022
Program Co-Design Session
The session initiated a discussion about this year’s program. The group undertook an evolutionary, co-design approach is going to be taken with this program. The participants are being asked to collectively determine the focus and priorities and then to develop a monthly session and set of related activities based on each month’s focus topic. Each team will also be assigned a specific civic challenge for which they will develop an initial solution approach or intervention.
Session 2: December 9, 2022
Panelist of the Day
PRESENTATION
This session explored the topics of storytelling and land-based relationships. Participants engaged in discussions and writing exercises about their relationships to land through memories and items like rocks, twigs, leaves etc. They also examined the impact of different stories they were told throughout their lives and the many ways that stories are able to be told and woven into their own practices.
Speakers:
Yolanda Bonnell, Gizhiiba Ma’iingan
Liz McHardy, Partner, Lura Consulting
Session 3: January 27th, 2023
Group 3’s session explored the topic of Social Capital, specifically the impact and influence on Social Capital both within the built environment and through both policy and in practice. Group 3 then reviewed the 2022 Toronto Foundation report “Toronto Social Capital Study” which attempts to assess the wellbeing of Torontonians based on their perceived levels of social networks, social trust, civic engagement and neighbourhood support. Group 3’s session also included a panel discussion with professionals who have expertise in building social capital within their various communities. The experts were engaged in a moderated panel discussion where they shared their experiences, and discussed the challenges and opportunities in their work. The day concluded with a team-based photo scavenger hunt, exploring a range of spaces – transit, recreation, commercial and professional settings – to rethink and reframe how these spaces and places promote or inhibit social capital.
Team 3
Leah Dow, Urban Planner, Arcadis | IBI Group
Shawna Ginsberg Bowen, Project Manager, Urban Designer, City Planning, City of Toronto
Joyce Lau, Development Manager, Dream Unlimited
Adam Santos, Senior Planner, Weston Consulting
Panelist of the Day
Speakers
Astrid Greaves, Senior Urban Designer, Arcadis | IBI Group
Kelsey Carriere, Senior Project Manager, Park People
Phyllis Novak, Folio Scale Strategic Initiative Lead, SKETCH Toronto
Sinead Moran, Community Ambassador, Dream Umlimited
Session 4: February 24th, 2023
Panelist of the Day
Speakers:
Gil Penalosa, Founder & Chair, 880 Cities
Team 2 focused on healthy cities with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a framework. The presenters discussed physiological to self-actualization level health needs by outlining their work and how it relates to health in cities. Topics included tower renewal, housing approaches in Halifax, active transportation, the limits of traditional zoning, parks as space of love and belonging, and inclusive design. The team capped off the day with a neighbourhood design charette where participants were asked to analyze health outcome data for a particular neighbourhood and design interventions to improve them.
Team 2
Rose Barcarse, Program Manager, Park People
Micaela Butron-Gutierrez, Design Coordinator, Paradigm Transportation Solution Limited
Ryan Love, Senior Associate, ERA Architects
Evan Perlman, Senior Development Manager, Tenblock
Anna Sebert, Manager of Operations, Yonge Dundas Square
Brandon Umpherville, Planner, Halifax Regional Municipality
Lyndsy You, Project Manager, Metrolinx
Session 5: March 31, 2023
Panelist of the Day
Speakers:
Michelle Berquist, Manager, Area of Transportation, City of Toronto
Our team focus was on Processes. We briefly explored two main processes (bottom-up and top-down) and how they can be applicable to Urban Design and City Building (this can correlate respectively to the works of Jane Jacobs and Le Corbusier). We proposed that an intersection of the two processes that merges the desires of neighborhood locals and city organizations and methodology would be the ideal way to bring out the theme of ‘community joy’. We presented a historical example of this in Post-War Tokyo, and then looked into a local example that began the main focus for the day; Toronto’s Geary Avenue. We had Michelle Berquist, manager of Area Transportation Planning within Toronto’s Transportation Services Division and a professor of planning studies at U of T present her involvement in Geary Works. Finally, we capped the day with a walking tour of Geary Avenue, lead by Darren Christopher, an artist with a collective gallery and work space with other artists on Geary.
Team 4
Yasir Amr, Intermediate Architect, BDP Quadrangle
Katy Belshaw, Programming Coordinator, City of Brampton
Mark Francis, Architectural Designer, Interspatial
Beck Katz, Manager, Cycling and Pedestrian Projects, City of Toronto
Session 6: April 28, 2023
Team 5 presented on how data and measurement may be applied to the civic challenge of “ the development-community relationship”, including a discussion with Liz McHardy on working with communities and navigating change.
Next we challenged participants to investigate their own civic challenges. We asked teams to explore how data could be used to support their understanding of the problem and track progress, while also considering possible challenges, in particular, how to ensure an inclusive process and outcome.
It was important for this session to encourage discussion and self reflection, as such prompting questions and open discussion with Team 5 and guest speakers was used throughout the session.
Team 5
Derek Davies, Manager, Transit Oriented Communities, Metrolinx
Andre Chin,
Matthew Firestone, Architectural Intern, Zeidler Architecture Inc.
Alreigh Hack, Development Associate, Northcrest Development
Gagan Nijjar, Community Benefits Researcher, Toronto Community Benefits Network
Kayly Robbins, Senior Planner, Weston Consulting
Session 6: May 26, 2023
Team 1 led the ULI Curtner Program through various discussions on achieving “Joy Through Adversity”. The session was focused on providing an interactive discussion, which started off by viewing a short documentary on the Kensington Market Community Land Trust (KMCLT) and proceeding on a corresponding walking tour of Kensington Market led by the KMCLT to explore how the community/KMCLT is working to secure continuous housing and preserve the joy and cultural place-making and history of the area in a rapidly evolving part of the City. After lunch, another walking tour led by Howard Tam took the ULI group through Chinatown to examine hidden areas of joy through adversity through the lens of Toronto’s local Chinese cultural history, which was followed by a presentation by Howard on finding joy in cultural place-making and intangible heritage at a mall in Scarborough. Finally, the perspectives of the “Friends of Hanlan’s” advocacy group were shared on their work preserving Hanlan’s Point as a safe and joyful Queer space in Toronto.
Team 1
Yasmin Afshar, Associate, Urban Strategies Inc.
Tahereh GranpayehVaghei, Urban Planner, StrategyCrop Inc.
Russell Pollard, Principal, Framework Leadership
Nadine Olive, Advisor, Investment Attraction, Toronto Global
Daniel Woolfson, Manager/ Development, CreateTO
Lawrence Yip, Supervisor, Urban Design, City of Markham
Town Hall: June 14, 2023
The mid-career Curtner Urban Leadership Program Class of 2023 shared their ideas on understanding city building opportunities as something to be excited about instead of afraid of. They prioritized civic challenges and issues, investigate alternative approaches from around the world, and developed solutions that appreciate the challenge but also celebrate and engage communities with joy.
The Town Hall presented the work of the teams that have developed a community-focused, joy-enabling approach/ intervention to a selected development challenge followed by a panel discussion.