Last night, in the rotunda of Revell's admired Toronto City Hall, the winners of the Nathan Phillips Square redesign got their due. PLANT Architects, with partner Shore Tilbe Irwin, received the design jury's nod for their urban, upbeat proposal.

Competition Chair, Eric Haldenby, said that "The team has imaginatively re-invented elements of the Square, enhanced the experience of the public realm and integrated exemplary new sustainable design approaches."

We weren't surprised by the selection. Yesterday, on Spacing.ca, Reading Toronto predicted the winner:

PREDICTION: While the schemes were compelling, to us the PLANT Architect proposal is enthusiastically and unashamedly urban — worthy of Revell’s endorsement. More than that, it is youthfully optimistic, well-considered in its detailing, and rids the square of clutter. The Baird Sampson Neuert scheme is a very close second and we won’t be disappointed if it is selected.

But a competition win as significant as this is not about the firm names, it is about a team of highly-educated, passionate people who come together to envision a better city for the rest of us. They have to be congratulated for their optimism and tireless desire to improve the public realm. Here are their names:

The Team

PLANT Architect Inc.

Chris Pommer, Lisa Rapoport, Mary Tremain, Heather Asquith, Jane Hutton, Renée Kuehnle, Lisa Moffitt, Elise Shelley, Olivia Mapué

Shore Tilbe Irwin & Partners

Andrew Frontini, D’Arcy Arthurs, Aaron Cheng, Aimee Drmic, Emily Maclennan, Talal Rameh

Peter Lindsay Schaudt Landscape Architecture, Inc.

Peter Schaudt, Jessica Ortega, Lybra Lindke, Geoffrey Valentino

Adrian Blackwell

Geoffrey Turnbull, Alan Kwan, Marcin Kedzior


Blanche Lemko van Ginkel

Enermodal Engineering Limited

Stephen Carpenter, Braden Kurczak

Theatre Projects Consultants

Brian Hall

Blackwell Bowick Partnership Limited

Christian Bellini, David Bowick

Crossey Engineering Ltd.

Wallace Eley, Ion Luh, Andrew Pratt

Vermeulens Inc.

James Vermeulen, Anthony Lizzi

Urban Trees + Soil

Jim Urban

CMS Collaborative Inc.

BusyBee Services

ICON Landscape Architecture

Michael Bartosik