1. Focus on the design priorities

2. Understand the projects context

3. Analyze adjacencies

4. Review the appropriate demonstration plans

5. Walk through the design process

Priority 1

Enhance and Protect

Vaughan’s Natural

Heritage Network

Priority 2

Respond to Site Context

Priority 3

A Well Scaled City as a

Livable Environment for

People

Boyd Conservation Area (Image Credit: TRCA) (Image Credit: Brook McIlroy) Clarendon Market Commons (Image Credit:

Brook McIlroy)

Priority 4

A Well-Connected

Network that is Safe,

Comfortable and

Accessible

Priority 5

Promote High Quality

Architecture

Priority 6

Frame an Active Public

Realm and Pedestrian

Environment

(Image Credit: Brook McIlroy)Canary District Condominiums and Townhomes

(Image Credit: OAA. Photo by Tom Arban)

KPMG Tower, Vaughan Metropolitan Centre

(Image Credit: Diamond Schmitt Architects)

• Building on Vaughan’s

significant natural open

space

• Mitigating the city’s

large blocks and roads

• Provide land-use

Transitions

• Identify phased

intensification

• Demonstrate building

massing and site

organization

• Consider street and

open space character

• Support innovative and

appropriate architectural

design approaches

Context Analysis & Methodology

To start identify:

• Intensification vs. Non-

Intensification Corridors

• Park and Open Spaces

• Sensitive land-use

• Transit locations

• Cycling and pedestrian

facilities

• Major streets and

highways

• Community land marks

and services

• Surrounding typologies

• Etc.

Many of the performance standards are context based

Understanding a projects surroundings will be key to identifying the relevant performance standards

• Demonstration plans are used to

articulate the vision outlined in the

Urban Design Guidelines and include:

• Implementing the Green Approach

• Mid-Rise

• High-Rise

• Mixed-Use Sites

• Land-Use Specific

• Townhouses

• Context Specific

Recommendations

• Each demonstration plan includes a

summary of the key design elements

that support the design goals and

principles outlined in the Urban Design

Guidelines

The demonstration plans are tools to understand how the design principles and performance standards are met. They include:

• Phased Intensification of a Retail Site with Mid-Rise Development

• Mid to Low-Rise Development Adjacent to a Park or School Site

• High and Mid-Rise, Mixed-Use Development with Employment and Residential

• Prestige Industrial / Employment Buildings

• Mixed Unit Type Townhouse Development

3.3 The Green Vaughan Approach (Green Approach)

There is also a focus on climate change mitigation through the introduction of

L.I.D. techniques in the front yard setbacks and open space designs.

i. Midrise and Low Buildingsii. Phased Mid-Rise Developmentiii. Tall Mixed-Use Development

5.3.1 Buildings on Intensification Corridors

6.1.2 The Green Approach on Intensification Corridors

At-grade retail uses encroach up to 50% along the building length. As an active

use at grade those retail uses and the podium above them are permitted to

encroach up to 50% into the 7m front yard setback.

5.3.9 Facade Design and Materials

The design of the site and the ground floor of buildings is welcoming to the

public with retail wrapping the buildings at grade.

Performance Standard No. 5.2.11 Mid-Block Connection/Mews

Transitioning the project into two well-scaled buildings that frame a semi-

public open space.

A transitional massing (townhouses) has been introduced to mitigate the change

in height.

• Grade related amenity

spaces can provide

unique common open

spaces for building

users. They should have

a mix of hard and soft

landscapes.

• In a condominium

townhouse

development, amenity

spaces should be

centrally located and

accessible by all units

New residential development is laid out to create a network of new public

streets. Sites that include below grade parking have private streets at grade.

Through the location of parking below

grade, two new semi public open

space are provided to animate the

central courtyards.

• Below-grade garages should be

considered as the preferred option

for parking, as a means of

maximizing areas for building

footprint, open spaces and

landscape.

Performance Standard No. 5.3.6 – Built Form Transitions

The upper parts of the mid-rise buildings are setback from the adjacent

residential areas and street to maintain an appropriately scaled development

(maintaining a 45 degree angular plane to the rear of the property).

5.3.8 Thresholds and Entrances

At-grade retail uses encroach up to 50% along the building length. As an active

use at grade those retail uses and the podium above them are permitted to

encroach up to 50% into the 10m front yard setback.

The streetscape is framed through a series of building massings that break up

the overall length of the buildings and provide a visual diversity to the

development. In some cases the High-Rise buildings sit on a Mid-Rise podium,

and in some cases they sit directly on the ground.

At the corner, a semi-

public open space

connects to the centre of

the site and is framed by

retail uses at grade.

The guidelines encourage:

• Building on Vaughan’s significant natural open

space

• Mitigating the city’s large blocks and roads with a

fine grain network of streets and walkways

• Respond to the surrounding context of the site

• Create positive land-use transitions

• Plan for phased intensification

• A diversity of architectural design approaches