HIGH CARBON SITES RESEARCH AT NTC

National Trust for Canada 2024

Giaimo Associate Mitchell May will be presenting research on “High Carbon Sites: Examining the Impact of Successive Development in Toronto” at the upcoming National Trust for Canada and Association of Preservation Technology Conference on November 16, 2024, in Montreal, as part of session CS3.4: Urban Resilience.

While demolition has been a prevalent part of North American city-building since the mid-century, in the last decade we’ve seen a significant increase in the demolition of large-scale buildings. In Toronto, the city is witnessing demolition proposals for numerous 10+ storey urban towers, and the amount of buildings in general going to landfill increases when including the building’s experiencing 85% demolition when considering the rise of facadism. This premature loss of towers results in “high-carbon sites”, raising significant environmental sustainability concerns, as well as concern for the concept of heritage value as we begin to lose our mid-late-century architecture before it has a chance to be called “heritage”.

While there has been a focus on improving the operational energy of the new buildings replacing those demolished, significantly less focus has been placed on embodied carbon, landfill waste, and the relationship of this successive demolition-development cycle in relation to the climate crisis. What has led to this creation of the “high-carbon site”? One significant factor is rigid and restrictive land use policies – the “yellowbelt” zoning of the city excludes single family home neighbourhoods from new higher-density development, forcing housing development pressure into a relatively small and historically significant part of the city.

In this presentation, select large-scale demolition projects in the city will be examined in the context of the restrictive policies that influence their existence. At the same time, the impact of repealed regulations – such as the recent removal of parking minimums – is already beginning to allow for greater heritage conservation in the city, despite not being a heritage-specific policy. This lends credence to the idea that alternative solutions to encourage retrofit and conservation are needed, ones that view heritage not as a siloed field but in relation to larger urban planning policy.

An example of policy change impacts can be seen in the case study of The Smith Block in Riverside, Toronto, by Giaimo Architects and Streetcar Development. The project proposes the full retention the existing 6 heritage buildings, reconstruction of the central historic block which was previously lost to a fire, and addition of a new 9-storey residential building. No below grade parking is included in the development, allowing for full heritage retention of the main street commercial buildings. This case study, and the avoided carbon wastage will be further examined within the context of the other large scale demolitions occurring.

Through case studies and analysis, this presentation will highlight the impact of previous policy change both carbon and heritage. A high-level policy for the review of building sites in the context of their existing carbon footprint will be proposed.

Explore More