HomeMy WebLinkAboutCSD-15-083 - Urban Design Awards Program Update Staff Report
��c t R Community Services Department wmkitchener.ca
REPORT TO: Community & Infrastructure Services Committee
DATE OF MEETING: November 2, 2015
SUBMITTED BY: Alain Pinard, Director of Planning
PREPARED BY: Janine Oosterveld, Manager, Site Development &
Customer Service, 519-741-2200 ext. 7076
WARD(S) INVOLVED: All Wards
DATE OF REPORT: Date
REPORT NO.: CSD-15-083
SUBJECT: Urban Design Awards Program Update
RECOMMENDATION:
That Council endorses the awards program as outlined in CSD-15-083
BACKGROUND:
The City of Kitchener's Urban Design Awards program recognizes development projects that
exemplify design excellence and create a built environment that enhances our quality of life. It
provides Kitchener with an opportunity to celebrate the successes in urban design that help to
support our great city.
In 1988 Council endorsed the idea of presenting Urban Design Awards in recognition of projects
which demonstrate superior design. Since then, the City of Kitchener has presented Urban
Design Awards about every two years. In 2010 Council approved an amendment to the Urban
Design Awards program to recognize specific categories of Urban Design projects with a more
rigorous evaluation process to increase the meaningfulness and prestige of the awards. There
were also changes to the judging committee composition and the format in which the awards
are presented.
The Mike Wagner Heritage Awards were established in 1997 to pay tribute to property owners
and businesses who have contributed to the conservation of cultural heritage resources. Since
2011, the Urban Design Awards and Mike Wagner Heritage Awards have been celebrated in a
joint ceremony.
With the recent adoption of the City's Official Plan, it is an appropriate time to evaluate the
awards program to ensure it aligns with the new policy framework and recognizes projects that
are achieving the City's vision.
***This information is available in accessible formats upon request. ***
Please call 519-741-2345 or TTY 1-866-969-9994 for assistance.
3 - 1
REPORT:
This report proposes that a comprehensive planning awards program be established to
celebrate a broader range of categories under one program event. This comprehensive
program would include both Urban Design and Mike Wagner Heritage awards, and add new
categories. It is proposed that the new format be initiated with the next awards program event.
Summary of proposed changes:
• Rebranding of the awards into a comprehensive program called Kitchener's Great
Places Awards that includes a number of categories including urban design, heritage
and sustainability.
• Updated names to the award categories for some of the current urban design awards.
• 3 additional award categories:
• Sustainable Kitchener Award — celebrating innovation and exceptional
sustainability measures in site design,
• People's Choice Award - recognizing a project that the community recognizes
as important in making Kitchener a great place,
• Schmalz Award for Design Leadership —celebrating the best overall project.
• Hosting of the program every four years in the third year of Council's term.
• Refinements to the eligibility requirements and judging committee composition,
addressing the broader diversity of award categories.
Current Awards Program model:
The current awards program is typically held every 2 years in a joint event celebrating both the
Urban Design Awards and the Mike Wagner Heritage Awards. There are seven categories for
the Urban Design Awards noted below:
1. Low Rise Buildings (1- 3 storeys)
2. Mid to High Rise Buildings (4 storeys and up)
3. Civic Projects
4. Urban Elements
5. Visions/ Master Plans
6. Neighbourhood Design
7. Student Projects
The Mike Wagner Heritage Award program has three award categories: Preservation /
Restoration of Cultural Heritage Resources; Rehabilitation /Adaptive Reuse of Cultural Heritage
Resources; and, Individual Contributions to the Field of Heritage Conservation. No changes are
proposed to this award other than its integration into the broader program.
Proposed Award Program Model:
Kitchener's Great Places Awards program is proposed to include a number of categories to
celebrate design excellence in the areas of urban design, sustainability and heritage
conservation in alignment with the City's Official Plan and Urban Design Manual as described
below:
1. Urban Design Excellence Award. This award may be given in various categories in
recognition of civic or private projects that demonstrate urban design excellence and
3 - 2
innovation in site and building design that is context-sensitive, functional, engaging and
memorable —adding value to Kitchener's sense of place and community pride.
a. Low Rise Development projects (1- 3 storeys)
b. Mid Rise Development projects (4-8 storeys)
c. High Rise Development projects (9 storeys and up)
d. Civic Projects
2. Neighbourhood Design Award. This award is given to exceptional approved and
substantially-built subdivisions that implement the City's neighbourhood design
objectives including walkability, variety, place-making, conservation, connectivity, transit-
supportive and safety.
3. Sustainable Kitchener Award. This award is given to civic or private development
projects that demonstrate innovation and exceptional design with respect to: sustainable
development, water conservation, energy conservation and generation, air quality, waste
reduction and management, supporting active transportation and transit-oriented
development.
4. Urban Elements Award. This award is given to a distinct feature(s) that make a project
or place outstanding. Such elements could include but are not limited to public art,
landscape features, architectural elements, streetscape elements and tactical urbanism
projects. They can range from a unique feature of a larger development project to a
neighbourhood-initiated community project.
5. Mike Wagner Heritage Awards. These awards are given to individuals and projects
that have contributed to the conservation of the City's cultural heritage resources. The
three award categories are:
a. Preservation / Restoration of Cultural Heritage Resources;
b. Rehabilitation /Adaptive Reuse of Cultural Heritage Resources; and,
c. Individual Contributions to the Field of Heritage Conservation.
6. Master Planning Award. This award is given to an exceptional plan or study of a
significant area within Kitchener that provides a development strategy for urban
transformation.
7. Future Design Leaders Award. This award is given to an exemplary secondary or
post-secondary student project that is either theoretical or studio based, focussing on
urban design, public realm or land use planning innovation with a study site located in
Kitchener.
8. People's Choice Award. This award is given to a project that receives the most number
of votes from the community through on-line polling and/or in person at select
locations/times. Projects for consideration shall be a short-listed group of up to 10
projects from those eligible in the Urban Design, Neighbourhood Design, Urban
Elements, Mike Wagner Heritage and Sustainable Kitchener categories that contribute to
making Kitchener a great city.
9. Schmalz Award for Design Leadership. This award is given to an exceptional project
that achieves overall excellence in meeting the City's objectives in two or more
categories - urban design, heritage conservation, and sustainable design. It represents
3 - 3
the best overall project of the awards program. Staff is recommending it be named after
W.H.E. Schmalz, the architect who designed Kitchener's first City Hall and clock tower
(which is now a landmark in Victoria Park) along with numerous other buildings in the
City. His father, W.H. Schmalz, was mayor when the Town of Berlin became a City.
As with the existing program, in order to maintain the integrity of the awards as honouring
excellence in the respective categories, generally, one award will be granted per category. At
the Judging Committee's discretion, there may be more than one project awarded per category
if each project warrants the honour. Awards will not be granted to projects that do not meet
the eligibility requirements (Appendix A). The Judging Committee may also choose to
reallocate a project to the most appropriate category for consideration or determine that an
award will not be given in a particular category.
Timing of the Awards Program:
Staff is recommending that the Awards program be held every four years, during the third year
of a term of Council for a number of reasons. Staff wants to ensure that an adequate group of
eligible projects are available for nomination for each awards program. Large and more
complex projects may take 2 or more years to complete. Given the resources (staff time and
financial) that go into the execution of an Awards program, it is important to have enough
candidate projects to award at least five outstanding projects in one program event. If Council
supports this recommendation, the next awards program would be held in 2017.
Should Council choose to continue with an awards program every two years, staff will host the
awards in 2016. Prior to initiating each upcoming program, staff will evaluate whether or there
appear to be enough candidate projects to potentially award in five categories. If the pool of
candidates is very limited, staff will report to Council about the option for postponing the
program for a year.
Proposed Overall Award Program Process
Staff is recommending that Kitchener's Great Places Awards program follow the process
outlined below.
• Staff initiates a call for nominations through social media, the City's website, in the local
newspaper, notifying targeted groups and providing application information to all Site
Plans approved within the nomination deadline.
• Nominations are submitted in accordance with the eligibility requirements outlined in
Appendix A.
• The staff subcommittee reviews nominated projects and short-lists projects for the
Judging Committees (refer to Appendix B) and People's Choice Award;
• The Judging Committees review the short-listed projects to determine final award
winners in the categories of: Urban Design, Neighbourhood Design, Sustainable
Kitchener, Urban Elements, Master Planning and Future Design Leaders and the
Schmalz Award for Design Leadership;
• The community votes on-line and/or in-person (at a specific event(s)/or location and
time) for the People's Choice Award.
3 - 4
• Awards are presented at a reception to be held on a day that does not conflict with
regularly scheduled Council meetings.
• Staff submits a report summarizing the award winners to Council for information.
• Award winning projects shall be displayed on the City's website and at City Hall.
ALIGNMENT WITH CITY OF KITCHENER STRATEGIC PLAN:
The recommendation of this report supports the achievement of the City's strategic vision
through the delivery of core service.
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
The awards program will be planned within the current budget allocation.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:
INFORM — This report has been posted to the City's website with the agenda in advance of the
committee meeting.
CONCLUSION:
Staff is supportive of updating the current awards program into the comprehensive Kitchener's
Great Places Awards as described in this report including:
• updated names to the award categories for some of the current urban design awards;
• 3 additional award categories: Sustainable Kitchener Award, People's Choice Award,
and the Schmalz Award for Design Leadership;
• hosting of the program every four years in the third year of Council's term; and,
• refinements to the eligibility requirements and judging committee composition for the
various award categories.
The Awards program is an excellent opportunity to celebrate projects that make Kitchener a
thriving and memorable community.
REVIEWED BY:
Brandon Sloan, Manager, Long Range and Policy Planning
ACKNOWLEDGED BY:
Michael May, Deputy CAO (Community Services)
Attachments:
Appendix A. Eligibility Requirements
Appendix B. Judging
3 - 5
Appendix A. Eligibility Requirements
All Categories:
1. Anyone can nominate a project — members of the public, property owners, consultants
etc. for Kitchener's Great Places Awards.
2. Nominated projects must with comply with Kitchener's Official Plan, Zoning By-law and
Urban Design Manual.
3. Project entries from a previous City of Kitchener awards program in the same category
are not eligible.
4. Mike Wagner Heritage Awards nominations shall follow the currently approved program
criteria.
5. Interior design projects are not eligible.
6. Nominations shall comply with detailed specifications including written application, and
material other supporting material as described in the call for nominations and application
form(s).
Urban Design, Neighbourhood Design and Urban Elements Awards:
1. Urban Design, Neighbourhood Design and Urban Elements award categories shall be
open to all publicly visible or accessible urban development projects in the City of
Kitchener. These include subdivisions, site development of a building or group of
buildings, adaptive reuse of existing buildings, building additions or exterior renovations.
Parks, open spaces, public utilities, street improvements and civic structures are also
eligible.
2. Urban Elements nominees shall be a distinct feature(s) that make a project or place
outstanding. Such elements could include but are not limited to public art, landscape
features, architectural elements, streetscape elements and tactical urbanism projects.
They can be part of a new development or a new/renovated feature in an existing
development, neighbourhood or public space.
3. The project has received all required approvals, is constructed and substantially
complete within the past four years or since the prior Awards program call for
nominations, whichever is greater.
4. Projects that do not have a public realm component (such as private gardens or
backyards) are not eligible.
Sustainable Kitchener Award:
1. The Sustainable Kitchener Award category is open to projects that have one or more
prominent sustainability component per Official Plan policies pertaining to sustainable
development, water conservation, energy conservation and generation, air quality, waste
reduction and management, and/or supporting active transportation and transit-oriented
development. These projects include new developments as well as adaptive reuse of
existing buildings, building additions or renovations. Parks, open spaces, public utilities,
street and site improvements and civic structures are also eligible.
2. The project has received all required approvals, is constructed and substantially
complete within the past four years or since the prior Awards program call for
nominations, whichever is greater.
3 - 6
Master Planning Award:
1. Master planning projects may include such projects as approved urban design briefs and
development strategies such as subdivision or major infill master plans, site specific
urban design briefs or master plans, infill property master plans, and streetscape master
plans within the City of Kitchener.
2. The master plan must have received applicable approvals within the past four years or
since the prior Awards program call for nominations, whichever is greater.
3. Nominations in this category must clearly demonstrate comprehensive evaluation,
innovation in recommendations, and alignment with the City of Kitchener's policy
framework.
Future Design Leaders Award:
1. Student projects must be completed through a secondary or post-secondary school
program within four school years of the call for nominations.
2. The studio or theoretical project must pertain to a site or location within the City of
Kitchener addressing urban design, sustainability, heritage conservation and/or land use
planning.
3. Nominations for the Future Design Leaders Award must be acknowledged by and
provide contact information for a member of the school faculty.
4. Nominations in this category must clearly demonstrate comprehensive evaluation of the
project context, innovation in recommendations and/or conclusions, and alignment with
the City of Kitchener's policy framework.
People's Choice Award:
1. People's Choice Award nominees shall be selected from eligible nominees from the
Urban Design, Neighbourhood Design, Urban Elements, Mike Wagner Heritage and
Sustainable Kitchener categories.
2. Nominees for this category must have a publically visible and accessible component.
Schmalz Award for Design Leadership:
1. Nominees for the Schmalz Award for Design Leadership shall be the winning projects in
the Urban Design, Neighbourhood Design, Mike Wagner Heritage and Sustainable
Kitchener categories.
2. The selected project shall demonstrate excellence in two or more categories: urban
design, heritage conservation and sustainability but do not have to be award recipients
in more than one category.
3 - 7
Appendix C. Judging
Staff Sub-committee
A subcommittee comprised of City staff representing Planning, Transportation Services,
Building, and Engineering divisions and led by Planning staff is responsible for short-listing
projects for the Judging Committees' review and for the People's Choice Award.
Urban Design, Neighbourhood Design & Urban Elements Awards
Members of the Judging Committee should include:
• Chair of the Planning & Strategic Initiatives Committee
• Director of Planning (or designate)
• up to four professionals which would cover such expertise as urban planning, urban
design, architecture, and landscape architecture
• a representative of a local post-secondary institution
This Judging Committee is responsible for final determination of award winning projects in the
following categories: Urban Design, Neighbourhood Design, and Urban Elements.
Sustainable Kitchener Award
Members of the Judging Committee should include:
• Manager, Long Range & Policy Planning (or designate)
• Director, Transportation Planning (or designate)
• Manager, Stormwater Utility (or designate)
• Environmental Committee representative
• up to three environmental professionals which would cover such expertise as active
transportation, environmental planning and engineering.
This Judging Committee is responsible for final determination of the award winning project in the
Sustainable Kitchener Award category.
Master Planning & Future Design Leaders Awards
Members of the Judging Committee should include:
• a minimum of two staff subcommittee representatives
• a representative of a local post-secondary institution
This Judging Committee is responsible for final determination of the award winning projects in
the Master Planning & Future Design Leaders Award categories.
Mike Wagner Heritage Awards
The current selection and judging criteria are proposed to remain the same.
3 - 8
Schmalz Award for Design Leadership
Members of the Schmalz Award for Design Leadership Judging Committee should include:
• Mayor of the City of Kitchener
• a representative of a local post-secondary institution
• Executive Director, Economic Development (or designate)
• Deputy CAO, Community Services (or designate)
• a representative of Compass Kitchener
This Committee will review the award winners for Urban Design, Neighbourhood Design,
Sustainable Kitchener and Mike Wagner Heritage Awards to select the best overall project.
3 - 9