One of Teeple Architects' latest projects, 60 Richmond Street East Housing Co-operative, was completed March 2010. This 11-story, 85-unit mixed use building is among the first new housing co-ops to be built in Toronto in recent years. It won the Ontario Association of Architects Design Excellence Award (2010), the Canadian Architect Award of Excellence (2007) and the Toronto Urban Design Awards - Award of Excellence (2011) along with many other prestigious awards. It has achieved LEED Gold certification for environmental stewardship (2011).
The project results from collaboration between the local city
councilor, the hospitality workers’ union ‘UNITE HERE’, and Toronto Community
Housing. Many of the tenants are being relocated here as part of the
revitalization of the Regent
Park social housing
project. The new residents are primarily employed in the hospitality and
restaurant industry.
The client program – a housing co-op for hospitality workers that
would be economical to build and maintain – was a key inspiration for the
design which incorporates social spaces dedicated to food and its production.
The result is a small-scale, but nevertheless full-cycle ecosystem described as
“urban permaculture”; the resident-owned and operated restaurant and training
kitchen on the ground floor is supplied with vegetables, fruit and herbs grown
on the sixth floor terrace. The kitchen garden is irrigated by storm water from
the roofs. Organic waste generated by the kitchens serves as compost for the
garden.

Unlike the myriad of condominiums that populate the downtown
landscape, 60 Richmond
was conceived a solid mass that was carved-into to create openings and terraces
at various levels. The deconstructed volume creates interlocking and
contrasting spaces stepping out and back from the street. This visually dynamic
solution was instrumental in achieving several key objectives: Creating the
kitchen garden, drawing light into the building interior and providing outdoor
green space. The garden terraces created in this process also help cool and
cleanse the air thus limiting heat island effect in the urban core.
The client’s requirement for low maintenance costs also inspired many
of the design and sustainable innovations. Durable materials were combined with
energy saving strategies such as insulating fibre cement panel cladding, high
performance windows, a sophisticated mechanical system, heat recovery, as well
as drain water heat recovery from the common laundry facilities. A reduced
carbon footprint is further achieved with a low maintenance green roof and
rainwater collection for the terrace gardens.

With 60 Richmond,
Teeple Architects sought to create an innovative, sculptural and spatial
composition in a manner that defines and animates a dynamic public realm. The
result is a building that wraps around its corner site while it is
simultaneously perforated by a courtyard that reaches outward to the street,
connecting this semi-public outdoor amenity space to the public space of the
city. This solution creates outdoor amenity spaces including the 6th floor
garden and also provides daylighting to both residential units and hall ways.
With the design of 60 Richmond,
Teeple Architects has created a dynamic urban form that brings a green
environment into the city without dismantling the urban form. This project
demonstrates the firm’s dedication to creating a dynamic and inventive urbanism
where sustainable design considerations are integrated into the conception of
the project. It is also an example of ‘urban permaculture’ and an exploration
of the potential of the co-op as a social organization appropriate for the
provision of affordable housing. 60 Richmond is an iconic design that showcases an innovative approach to urban infill.