(CS3.4) High Carbon Sites – Examining the Impact of Successive Development in Toronto

While demolition has been a prevalent part of city-building since the mid-century, in the last decade we’ve seen a recent increase in demolition of large-scale buildings.
In Toronto, the city is witnessing demolition proposals for increasingly large, urban buildings, and there are many more experiencing 85% demolition when considering approaches such as facadism.
While there has been intensive focus on the operational energy of the buildings proposed to replace those existing, significantly less focus has been placed on the relationship of this successive development in relation to the climate crisis, as well as concern for the concept of heritage value as we begin to lose our mid-late-century architecture before it has a chance to be called “heritage.”
This is a result of rigid and restrictive policies – the zoning of the city excludes single family home neighbourhoods from development, forcing development pressure into a relatively small and historically significant part of the city. Select large-scale demolition projects in the city will be examined in the context of the restrictive policies that influence their existence. At the same time, the impact of previous repealed regulations – such as the removal of parking minimums – is already beginning to be seen in new project proposals. This lends credence to the idea that alternative solutions are needed, which consider heritage not as a siloed field but in relation to larger policy planning and their interconnected impacts.
An example of a change in policy and their impact can be seen in the case study of the Smith Block project.
The Smith Block is a new development project in the Riverside neighbourhood of Toronto, designed by Giaimo. The project is in development, and proposed the full retention the existing 6 buildings, along with reconstruction of the destroyed central block along with the insertion of a new 9 storey residential building – without below grade parking, which allowed for more extensive heritage retention. This project, and the avoided carbon wastage will be further examined within the context of the other large scale demolitions occurring.
Reflecting on the success of this previous policy change, a high-level policy for the review of building sites in the context of their existing carbon footprint will be proposed.