PAGE B2 – January 2011 – The GTA Construction Report


Bell Lightbox project Continued from page B1


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cultural institution, as well as leased restaurant space?” he said. “These aren’t always components you always see together in one project.”


Kuwabara said his practice worked on the design of the TIFF Bell Lightbox component of the project, which includes five floors for theatres, TIFF offices, meeting and lounge space, museum exhibits, and an open-to-the-public ground floor area.


His practice also designed the overall complex including the condominium towers, with interior fittings and services for other aspects of the development handled by other designers, who were all required to work in conjunction with the owners and KPMB, co-operating in the continuously evolving project. (KPMB worked as well with Kirkor Architects, who served as executive architects for the project and were the Architects of Record for both the Festival Tower and Bell Lightbox.)å


While arts and culture obviously dominate the project’s vision, there are more fundamental challenges in building in downtown Toronto.


The facility has 5.5


underground parking levels, for example. Designers also needed to co-ordinate commercial developments, restaurants and other site services. From TIFF’s perspective, the initiative has achieved an impressive hybrid vision.


“We’re both a museum and movie theatre,” TIFF artistic director Noah Cowan told the CBC before the building opened in September. “We’re both a multiplex and a Cinematheque. We’re both a learning centre and a great place to have a drink.” The synergy extends in other ways. Condo tower residents will have special access to the TIFF site and programming, while Bell, in exchange for its participation, gains ground floor retail space and the right to provide telecommunications and television services to residents of the 42- story condominium tower. “We made a very conscious choice that this would be a building with free entry, so you can walk in off the street, wander through the public floors of the building without a ticket, without anyone hassling you,” Cowan said of the entertainment district building. Kuwabara, meanwhile,


said the building is ideally located at the conjunction of the theatre and entertainment districts.


Kuwabara said the project traces its roots to 2003 when TIFF put out a proposal call to the development industry to develop a permanent home for the festival. “They received 14 submissions, and selected Ivan Reitman and the Daniels Corporation,” he said. “Then they won the process of


© MARIS MEZULIS


selecting an architect, bringing the list down to three firms, and we were one of them.”


Kuwabara said he had a real advantage when the owners asked him if he had a vision for the site. “My office is right across the street, and I stared out over the parking lot” – in fact his practice had been located there when the carwash occupied the site. “I know every square metre of the site. I know everyone in the neighbourhood – we’ve been around here for our entire career.” PCL Constructors Canada Inc. provided construction management services for the TIFF space. Peter Vankessell served the independent project management consultant. “The whole delivery team was great,” said Kuwabara.


He said the project succeeded because everyone involved pulled together, aligning their perspectives for the overall objective. “This project is such a remarkable story of how different people and different visions can come together to create one vision – unless there truly is a shared vision, there cannot be true success.”


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RES Precast key part of Bell Lightbox project


Congratulations to Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects.


We are proud to be associated with your team.


RES Precast Inc., part of the RES Group of Companies, had a significant role in the construction of the Bell Lightbox and the adjacent Festival Tower condominium building. RES’s website reports that “our architectural precast concrete division manufac- tures and installs building envelope solutions for high-rise residential, industrial, com- mercial and industrial buildings.”


The RES Group also has formwork and masonry contracting divisions. For further information visit http://www.resgroup.ca.


Congratulations to


Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects We are proud to be part of your success.


DOWNSVIEW DRYWALL CONTRACTING


160 Bass Pro Mills Drive, Concord, ON L4K 0A7 Tel: (905) 660-0048 Fax: (905) 738-3864 IN BUSINESS FOR OVER 25 YEARS


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