Willcocks Commons - Current Project

Construction Type:  

Renovation

Architect:  

DTAH

Description

The move to redesign the Common comes after the successful pedestrianization of Willcocks Street in 2012, which followed a two-year pilot project carried out by the City of Toronto’s Transportation Services, Public Realm Section in conjunction with the University’s Office of Campus and Facilities Planning. In September 2015, local firm DTAH was selected to oversee the design and implementation of a long-term vision for Willcocks Common.

The portion of the street between Spadina and Huron will either be a shared pedestrian and vehicular road or a closed pedestrian road, while the stretch between Huron and St. George will be an exclusively pedestrian zone. Accommodations would be made for drop-off zones and lay-bys for New College and the Faculty Club on the western portion of the street, while through-way traffic moving north-south on Huron Street will be maintained through the intersection.In order to differentiate the Common from its surroundings, the street will be slightly raised onto a ‘table top’, such that there will be no grade change between the designated road and the sidewalks. A series of organically-shaped landscaped islands will be interspersed throughout the Common that respond to existing and anticipated pedestrian flows along the street.

The project is still in its early stages, with no defined schedule as to when we might see these changes implemented. It is currently at the end of Phase 1, which involved initial design and community engagement that wrapped up in October, and is now paused for fundraising for an indeterminate amount of time before kicking off Phase 2, which comprises detailed design and construction.

Read More about the first phase Concept Design