Linear Networks – The Railway

In a city that seems to still be divided into its pre-amalgamated entities, linear networks like Toronto’s rail corridors present an opportunity to forge new connections that cross geographical and political perceived boundaries. The rail …

Site Context and Analysis

The roads at Portage and Main are re-visualized in this project to grow beyond a purely topographic and monofunctional traffic corridor into a constructed artefact Winnipeg expressed as a natural element of the total environment of …

Brown + Storey Architects were part of the Public Realm Technical Advisory Team working with SvN and AECOM to provide the bid documents for the Hurontario Light Rail Transit current bidding phase for three shortlisted consultant teams. Over this phase …

The gradual dissolution of the Golden Mile as the fabled automotive golden moment along a stretch of Eglinton Avenue in Scarborough, Ontario is the latest in a number of its evolutionary stages. The compressed rapid succession of these stages – …

The dramatic potential of the Nordhavnen site for a new vibrant and ecologically sound extension of Copenhagen has shaped our proposal. We planned the city as a thick and dense longitudinal cluster along a new subway line with a direct …

Existing Conditions on Parkside Drive

Parkside Drive is rightfully the subject of serious neighbourhood concern. With its asymmetrical relationship to its two sides, Parkside Drive is highly divisive, and with its high-speed traffic, there is no safe public realm. Parkside …

Oracle Square is a receptor and transmitter, an attraction and garden, a passage and a pause, populated by a loose savannah of vertical and horizontal figures that define space and intensity, and introduce interactivity for the Entertainment District A wide …

A client in Toronto’s west end commissioned Brown and Storey Architects to create a laneway house proposal.

Rendered Views

Section, Plan and Elevations

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The Landmark on the Liffey must show a robust constructability. The new podium and tower must create a landscape for making a living – to be an organism that draws in and enables its constituent parts and inhabitants to be …

Proposed renovation

BSA is working with the L.A.M.P. Community Health Centre in Etobicoke and the Rathburn Youth Group to transform a former technology workshop at Burnhamthorpe Collegiate Institute into a new youth community room. By using modest finishes and an open plan …

The name for this project, Restless Ecologies, refers to a primary focus: anticipating a constant movement and exchange – a restlessness – of actions and reactions in an ever evolving interconnected set of ecologies: ecologies that encompass water, energy, biodiversity, …

The Frieze

The frieze is legitimate architectural and historical narrative device for telling a story visually in an abbreviated utilization of symbols. It is usually linear in nature and relies on relief and profile. In particular, it is interpreted as …

In our Dufferin Grove Community Project completed over twenty years ago, we identified Dufferin Grove as a city park in need of re-thinking. Given the last two years of the pandemic, parks and park users have become more entwined in …

Brown and Storey Architects Inc. were the lead architects and urban designers to revitalize and restore this iconic 1960’s hyperbolic paraboloid public works building into a gateway to the City of Hamilton which is highly visible from both the QEW …

Open to the outdoors but closed enough for some shelter, shade and privacy, our carport makes the most out of a driveway space. The trellis walls are able to hold sports or gardening equipment and support growing vines from the …

The various building options are meant to illustrate the flexibility of built and open space configurations for the Warden development site.  In particular the template organization promotes the open void and public spaces, while, at the same time, establishing vertical …

The idea of the new kiosk prototype is to introduce a new and unique structure to Yonge-Dundas Square that is part of the language of the public space and in particular relates to the design aesthetic of its furniture and …

The characteristics of this design are those that create and explore relationships between formerly separated elements. At its primary level, the city to waterfront break is repaired and reformatted by mixing the elements of built form and open space clearly …

Brown and Storey Architects and Richard Gilbert were engaged by the City of Toronto Department of Economic Development, Culture and Tourism to provide a Capital Works and Development Strategy for St. Clair Avenue West. This part of St. Clair extends …

Existing Conditions: Wilson Avenue from Keele Street to Dufferin Street

Wilson Avenue from Keele to Dufferin possesses a diverse pattern of different building types. There are large strips of commercial retail space, lengths of compact walk-up apartments, drive in restaurants, …

Expanded Context

The Dupont Triangle and the Surrounding Precinct

The Dupont Triangle is a proposed developed precinct centered on a new vehicular and pedestrian roundabout. The roundabout is the coming-together of six different streets: Dupont Street, that passes down the rail corridor, …

The CN Tower is the premier tourist destination for Toronto, and certainly one of the most well-known sites in Canada. In turn, the site of the CN Tower addresses many of Toronto’s key urban conditions, presenting substantial opportunities to form …

Floor plan for TCH building at 40 Asquith Ave

Toronto Community Housing commissioned Brown + Storey Architects to find space on existing residential buildings to retrofit new Tenant Service Hubs, office spaces where tenants can access services and support. We created floor plans for several TCH locations, including the …

Brown and Storey Architects perform many different types of architectural and urban design initiatives in which there are no client or commission; we work with a range of community groups and organizations that enable us to create solutions aimed at

Introduction

Our approach to the challenge of public electric car charging infrastructure along major highways treats the travelers as agential activators, engaging with technology, media, culture, and landscape. As much as the structures are architectural, they are apparatuses and instruments …

This Project introduces new spatial models for living together that offers direct involvement by the residents in the production and control of their space. The urban narratives of cultural and physical landforms come together in a shared landscape of garden …

Between 1932 and 1933, Ukraine suffered a famine affecting the major grain-producing areas in the region. The famine, known as the Holodomor, was a result of forced collectivization, a policy that was deliberately planned and executed by the Soviet regime …

This study proposes a re-imagining of Avenue Road to return to its prominent role in the city’s public realm by reducing six lanes of speeding traffic to four and creating new public space. This new space would increase the area …

Christie Street Building Frontage 

The new ‘pandemic reality’ has produced a condition that has a substantial impact to the function and expanded role of the grocery store – both inside and outside. On the exterior, the careful control of access …

Brown + Storey Architects prepared the South Humber Park Pavilion Heritage Evaluation Report for the City of Toronto Planning Department in 2019.

The South Humber Park Pavilion is a unique shelter and washroom building built in 1959 in ravine parkland …

2018 Exhibition Place Plan

The Exhibition Place Mapping series contains 24 different maps illustrating the Exhibition Place grounds. These maps illustrate a range of site conditions, including spatial and compositional organization, building and landscape types, and historical transformation. These maps were developed as a …

Brown + Storey Architects Inc. worked with CreateTO to create a comprehensive plan for the redevelopment of Leslie Street. The redevelopment includes a proposal for the ‘Look-out Park’, a park at the end of the Lehigh Shipping Channel on the …

This prototype for a bicycle storage room proposes a new innovation for cycling infrastructure facilities. The idea of the structure is to retain openness without overly defining inside and outside space as in a container. This anti-container approach utilizes framed …

A conceptual rendering of upcoming streetscape improvements for Belleville's historic Front Street.

The City of Belleville has embarked on a forward-looking project to update the infrastructure of their historic downtown core. The project, which is upgrading and replacing both sub-surface utilities and the public infrastructure of the city’s downtown streets and open …

The possibilities of Main Square is a beginning point for the Danforth community to look at a broader set of linkages and a constellation of elements – local retail, employment, housing, transit / mobility connections, parks access, reactivation of public …

The Ashbridges Perimeter Landscape will add public space and improve the Martin Goodman Trail, seen here looking north on Leslie St. towards Lake Shore Blvd.

Brown + Storey Architects Inc. was the winner of a 2010 competition to design a perimeter landscape and linear park to surround the new TTC Streetcar Maintenance and Storage Facility near Leslie Street and Lake Shore Boulevard, opening in 2015. …

The City of Toronto’s Ashbridges Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant, Canada’s largest municipal wastewater facility, is undergoing a continuing series of upgrades, retrofits and expansions. Brown + Storey Architects are involved in a number of projects at Ashbridges, including refurbishment of …

The Humber Wastewater Treatment Plant, is the City of Toronto’s second-largest wastewater facility, serving much of Etobicoke, York and North York from its site near the mouth of the Humber River. The Humber plant opened in 1960, and like the …

The Toronto Transit Commission is undertaking key improvements to the streetscapes of Queen Street East and Leslie Street as part of construction of its Leslie Barns streetcar storage facility, which will rely upon connecting track on those streets to bring …

Mississauga’s Cooksville neighbourhood stands on the cusp of an important period of redevelopment, as planned rapid transit improvements spur reinvestment in areas beyond the Mississauga City Centre precinct. Cooksville is an excellent candidate for new developments that combine density with …

Rendering of B+SA's alternative proposal for the boundaries of Metrolinx's Georgetown South Corridor Expansion, promoting the use of new trees, living walls, and new trails and linear parks to soften the corridor's impact on neighbourhoods.

Metrolinx is expanding its commuter rail corridor through West Toronto in order to provide capacity for the Union-Pearson Express air-rail link and expanded GO Transit service to Georgetown, Guelph and Kitchener. The corridor passes through mature neighbourhoods and present-day brownfield …

View of the Brown+Storey Architects' proposed Public Scaffold.
Our winning Green Line Competition B entry proposed a two-level bridge crossing for underpasses along Toronto's crosstown freight line, partially enclosed in an ephemeral glass scaffold suitable for mounting public art and announcements.

Our proposal envisions sequences of semi-enclosed rooms created by structured hedges. Safe views to the adjacent rail corridor are maintained in the gaps between sections of green wall.
Our Green Line Competition A entry proposed a sequence of structured open spaces along the linear corridor created by Toronto's crosstown freight lines.

Morrow Park is Peterborough’s large agricultural fairground, hosting an annual summer horticultural fair. This large 27 acre park is located on the main approach to the city and forms a prominent entrance to the downtown core. It is home to …

Brown + Storey Architects Inc., working on a team led by Stevens Group Architect, produced an innovative and award-winning urban design for the public spaces and bus terminal that surround a revitalized Victoria Park subway station in Toronto.  The project, …

The site for the new City of Barrie Surface Water Treatment Plant and the Low Lift Pumping Station and Rain Water Intake is divided between two areas that are north of Big Bay Point Road, accessible from Royal Parkside Drive. …

The CCA publication, ‘The Singularities of a Metropolitan Archetype’, shows a series of figures prepared in 1966 by the City of Montreal Planning Department modeling hypothetical plans for 10 million inhabitants: the star-shaped metropolis, the galactic metropolis, and the concentrated

The West Brampton Pumping Station provides municipal water service to Northwest Brampton, an area of rapid expansion in the Region of Peel. When fully built-out, the pumping station will supply as many as 250,000 new residents, as was built as …

Brown + Storey Architects Inc. worked as part of a team hired by Terrasan Environmental Solutions to prepare a master plan-level development proposal for Brantford’s Greenwich Mohawk brownfield site, a 50-acre former industrial district that once hosted factories operated by …

The West Toronto Railpath has transformed two kilometres of railway spur line that served Toronto’s west end industries during the 19th and 20th centuries, with a new linear open space supporting a cycling and pedestrian multi-trail. The path is punctuated …

Conceptual Streetscape Design for Richmond Street (2008)

In 2008, our office was commissioned to produce a conceptual design for the improvement of the streetscape on Richmond Street West, just east of Spadina Avenue. This section of one-way street had evolved from an industrial access road -turned- commuter …

The Maple Pumping Station expansion took place in the context of York Region’s continuing growth and need to expand its water system. The situation of the Maple Pumping Station within an existing residential community required a design that responded to …

Client:
Waterfront Toronto

Team:
Brown + Storey Architects
ZAS Architects
Nina-Marie Lister
Brookner Studio
Kidd Consulting
Applied Ecological Services
Moffatt + Nichol
Arup
Pine + Swallow Associates
Nitsch Engineering
ConsultEcon

The mouth of the Don River is both a spectacular …

Rendered Master Plan for a revitalized King's Navy Yard Park.

The town of Amherstburg and its historic fort Malden are located on the Detroit River at the extreme western edge of Ontario in the county of Essex. They long history of Amherstburg, with its involvement in the war of 1812, …

Occupying a small site between condominiums in a rapidly changing downtown neighbourhood, Massey Harris Park was built to be a local gathering spot for young and old as well as a way to get from one point to another.

The Tecumseh Park Facility Master Plan has been prepared to develop strategies and ideas for the revitalization of one of Chatham-Kent’s most significant public spaces. Tecumseh Park remains the heart of Chatham by virtue of its central physical position, its …

In 2006, the City of Stratford held an initial international design competition for the redesign of Market Square, a historically-significant public open space behind Stratford City Hall that over the course of the twentieth century had become an asphalt parking …

Jean Sibelius Park is a modest and compact park located in an older neighbourhood of Toronto. Over time, the recreational uses of the park and its current spatial allocations became a source of conflict among a greater diversity of users. …

BROWN+STOREY were key contributors to the now-completed Bloor Street Transformation that has revitalized and improved the pedestrian realm of one of Toronto's signature retail avenues.

Waterfront Ideas Competition (2000)

Brown + Storey Architects have played a major role in conceptual, visioning and feasibility studies and competitions that have contributed to the ongoing redefinition of Toronto’s waterfront since the 1990s. First commissioned by the Waterfront Regeneration Trust (for the Garrison

Brown + Storey Architects were commissioned with Rodger Todhunter Associates to produce a Capital Design Strategy for the area around the intersection of Carlaw Avenue and Dundas Street in Toronto. Wedged between more conventional residential neighbourhoods and a historic railway …

Mimico-by-the-Lake Concept (2003)

Brown + Storey Architects Inc. were engaged by the local city councilor to work with the Mimico-by-the-Lake BIA to provide a concept plan for the renewal of Lakeshore Boulevard and an improved series of connections and public spaces linking the …

Yonge + Dundas Square was conceived as a new civic space in the centre of downtown Toronto.  It is located at the crossroads of Yonge Street and Dundas Street, one of the most prominent intersections in the city.  The project …

Titled “A Creative Landscape for Making a Living,” Brown + Storey Architects’ Master Plan for upgrading the pedestrian realm along a key stretch of Toronto’s College Street transformed a city plan for status quo replacement into a successful enhancement program. …

Brown and Storey Architects were one of five finalist teams chosen from 180 international submissions to design a new metropolitan park for the 320 acre site that was formerly the Canadian Forces Base Downsview.

Trinity-Bellwoods Park is one of Toronto’s most beloved and heavily used open spaces, accommodating thousands of daily visitors in all seasons. With St. Hilda’s Walk, Brown + Storey Architects Inc. with City of Toronto Parks and community stakeholders to convert

The revitalization of St. George Street, a main thoroughfare of the University of Toronto and a major traffic artery in the City of Toronto, was commissioned by the University and the City to bring improvements to what had once been …

Coronation Park Pavilion, Toronto (1995)

Coronation Park Pavilion was developed as a node to an extensive but unelaborated waterfront trail along Toronto’s shoreline. The pavilion provides public facilities of washrooms, shelter and rest, with lockers and showers for the baseball diamonds in the park. The …

Brown + Storey Architects Inc. were commissioned by the City of Toronto in 1991 to produce a typological classification of public open spaces in the downtown core. ‘The Open Spaces of Toronto – A Classification’ encompasses:

  1. developing definitions and criteria