EGLINTON LRT Design Excellence Principles + Requirements Beth Kapusta Senior Manager, Design Excellence October 1, 2015

Metrolinx Design Excellence

• Board initiated mandate to integrate design excellence into all Metrolinx capital investments

• Focus on areas of architecture, landscape architecture, industrial design and urban design

• Key Strategies: • Strengthen corporate design

guidelines and standards • Effective design briefs identifying

expectations, processes and scope • Corporate design review process

and accountability • Design evaluation of capital projects

through procurement • Increasing value of design expertise

in evaluation criteria

GO Transit Train Shed Roof at Union Station - Winner of a 2012 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence

Design Excellence on Eglinton LRT

• P3/DBFM procurement model requires clearly defined specifications and evaluation criteria in advance of process

• Worked with stakeholders to include design as key element of project specific output specifications (PSOS), and bid evaluation

• Set minimum pass/fail threshold for design quality in bid evaluation • Eglinton LRT Design Excellence Principles and Requirements

document established concrete design criteria on which to assess bid compliance, evaluation, and ultimately project execution

• Document forms part of PSOS balancing aspirational vision with binding criteria, and coordinated with technical components of the specifications

• Within compulsory PSOS compliance framework, compliance assessed through a checklist distilled from the document by translating principles into measurable technical specifications

• Eglinton Design Review Panel assembled to review design compliance relative to PSOS for the life of the project

Design Excellence Principles + Requirements

• Built on previously completed and approved Crosstown Design Framework

• Collaboration with City essential to deliver on design excellence mandate, due to impact on public realm, and scope/scale of project

• March 2013 design workshop included private sector design professionals, senior City, TTC, and Metrolinx staff

• Workshop established key design criteria resulting in clear vision and strategy with realistic aspirations

• Clarified need for a system-wide design approach • Identified precedent projects in the international

peer group of Eglinton LRT, which illustrated a successful systems approach

• Compliant demonstration designs developed by gh3 as proof of concept for the underlying principles, and articulation of minimum level of design resolution expected of proponents

Principles of Design Excellence:

A strong conceptual design narrative across the system 1

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3

4

5

Design that elevates the quality of the passenger experience

Civic character, exhibited through scale, materiality and quality

Clarity and simplicity of architectural expression through integrated design of all systems and elements

Responsiveness to contextual, local and future conditions

A strong + coherent

architectural vision for the

entire line

A strong conceptual design narrative across the system 1

A clear strategy for consistent

and variable elements

Systematic use of colour/pattern

as station identifier + for

passenger experience

Demonstration Designs

Maximized flow

2 Design that elevates the quality of the passenger experience

Openness through optimal spatial penetration

Maximized transparency + daylight penetration

Demonstration Designs

Consistent, well-proportioned open space materials that harmonize

with Station buildings

3 Civic character, exhibited through scale, materiality and quality

Unified surface consistent between interior + exterior, Stations, Stops + Plazas

Scale, massing and exterior treatment informed

by civic considerations

Demonstration Designs

Integrated structural,

mechanical + electrical systems

A clear hierarchy +

plan for user-centred integrated

information

Clearly organized + integrated

hierarchy of signage, amenities

+ activities

Integrated art

4 Clarity and simplicity of architectural expression through integrated design of all systems and elements

Demonstration Designs

Integration with historical context

5 Responsiveness to contextual, local and future conditions

Massing that responds to existing + planned horizontal datum lines and setbacks

Public realm of Stations + Stops seamlessly connected to the public right of way

Demonstration Designs

A strong conceptual narrative vision across the system

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Core Station Primary Entrance

Core Station Primary Entrance

Core Station Concourse

Intermodal Station Concourse

Intermodal Station Platforms

Stops

Ancillary Structures

Elevated Guideway

Portals

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