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The design is rooted in TRCA’s mission to build safe, resilient communities and lead in natural resource management for sustainable development. The approach is people-centered, enhancing the site’s key natural features water, forest, and topography by integrating the building into a restored nature. The project creates a collaborative hub with open, unified spaces that foster interaction. It sets a new standard for development by maximizing passive design strategies and using primarily wood construction. Every design element was evaluated to meet multiple performance criteria, ensuring a smart investment. The building is regenerative, maximizing daylight and natural ventilation to reduce energy use, while offering flexible, healthy workspaces with direct views of nature and natural light
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The building is set back from the stable top of Black Creek Ravine respecting the existing woodland and urban edge. Rain gardens and enhanced planting define a new urban-nature realm, with an arcing footpath linking the building to the city, ravine Jane Street, and York University. The buidling geometry shapes the landscape, creating new internal and external spaces the alongside the woodlands and Shoreham Drive. Sheltered outdoor spaces step from urban to ravine woodland, offering vantage points and public meeting areas from the foyer, terraces, and atria. The ground floor features active public “rooms” for community engagement, embedded in the ravine’s natural setting. Large timber foyer spaces connect public and workplace areas, encouraging engagement and exploration.
The project is Net Zero Carbon Certified by the Canadian Green Building Council and targets LEED Platinum, WELL V2.0, and the Toronto Green Building Standard. Its sustainability approach enables Toronto to reimagine its relationship with the Black Creek Ravine, part of the city’s unique ravine system. The site will serve as a “living laboratory” for the public and developers to explore sustainable building practices. Key features include four solar chimneys, four water wall reverse osmosis systems, an open-loop geothermal heating/cooling system, and extensive rain gardens to manage runoff. The building is fully accessible and designed to minimize its carbon footprint throughout its lifecycle.
Located along Toronto’s Black Creek Ravine, the new TRCA administrative building houses over 400 staff in 8,300 m2 of open plan office space in a building made from and clad in timber that steps up to 4 stories from the top of the ravine. Designed as a leading example of green building and new natural-urban realm along the ravine, the watershed decision-makers and visitors are metaphorically placed into “the heart of the watershed” by providing a tangible platform for reimagining urban design for the communities that live in the Greater Toronto Area. The crystalline geometry of the design is intended to unlock the presence of the natural environment externally and internally, and enhance the character and quality of the interaction between urban realm, nature, and human activity.
Our vision for the new head office was to lead by example—to bring together nearly every sustainable design strategy available into a single, integrated facility that demonstrates what's possible in low-carbon, high-performance building design. More than just a workplace, the building is a living showcase—designed not only for TRCA’s own staff, but also to inspire developers, industry professionals, and the broader public to embrace sustainable practices.
Bucholz McEvoy Architects was founded in Dublin, Ireland, in1996 and has gained a reputation for high-quality sustainable design in numerous internationally award-winning projects for public and private sector clients. The practice provides architectural services together with urban design, masterplanning, interior design, conservation architecture and landscape design. With an emphasis on enhancing the civic realm of projects, the studio aims to stitch projects into their particular context, whilst integrating landscape into holistic design solutions.
ZAS Architects is one of Canada’s leading designers of architecture, interior space and sustainable urban places. Our work is notable for solving complex program challenges with results that are innovative, user-friendly and enduring. It’s our ability to take on multi-scale, multi-stakeholder projects that has resulted in our growth and a significant portfolio of award-winning projects across all sectors.
