The temporary community spaces known as Assembly Gardens, Assembly Plaza, and Assembly Studios optimize a site in transition to provide the local community with an outlet for creativity and gathering. Designed as a model for placemaking with a limited budget, the trio of public spaces inserts itself in the north-west quadrant of Assembly Park, a master planned, mixed-use community currently under construction. Scheduled to be completed in 2034, Assembly Park builds-in diversity and durability to ultimately house 23,000 people and includes animated pedestrian retail spaces, a network of green spaces, and areas for public gathering.

As placeholders, the interim Plaza, Gardens, and Studios strategically repurpose a large development block and existing building to take advantage of their temporary vacancy while awaiting construction. Its innovation lies in the scaled, multivalent programming with an economy of means and elements each designed for multiple functions and scenarios of public gathering and creative activity.

Assembly Gardens makes up 1.47 acres of planted, natural gathering settings for communal dining, culinary festivals, private moments, and group activities, while Assembly Plaza comprises an open, outdoor centralized space designed as a ‘blank canvas’ for a diversity of uses including beer gardens, farmer’s markets, exhibitions and art installations, cultural events, pop-up retail experiences, film screenings, etc. The experience is extended with recycled shipping containers strategically placed to act as outlets for elaborate public art installations. Finally, Assembly Studios repurposes an existing 10,000 sq.ft. industrial building to create a multi-use hub of creativity designed to inspire diverse artistic pursuits of the Assembly Park community. The simple steel frame, stucco-clad host building offered the perfect surface for Toronto artist Andre Kan’s 7,000 sq.ft. mural titled FUTURA to act as a provocative backdrop for the collection of interim public spaces at the future Assembly Park.

Architecture and Design (Assembly Plaza and Studios): Giannone Petricone Associates Inc. Architects
Landscape Architect (Assembly Gardens): NAK Design Group
Public Art Consultants: ART+PUBLIC UnLtd
Art Curation: Peter Venetas
Art: Mural titled ‘FUTURA’ (Studio Assembly Park) by artist Andre Kan
Contractor: Menkes Construction Ltd.
Client: QuadReal Property Group, Menkes Developments Ltd.