Famed architect Moshe Safdie returns to Canada for Toronto waterfront project (Feature Image)

The following article by Christopher Hume was published in The Star on April 21st, 2015.

In town to celebrate his first residential project in Canada since Habitat 67, Moshe Safdie is unfazed by the familiarity of it all.

“Every city thinks its problems are unique,” says the Israeli-born, Montreal-raised, Boston-based architect. “But when you work internationally, you realize that their issues are generic issues. Cities everywhere are intensifying. That means congestion. The growing difficulties of commuting are a global phenomenon.”
Which is why Safdie would like to remind Torontonians that the one subject guaranteed to get them going — gridlock — is a Sunday drive here compared with cities such as Shanghai, Qinhuangdao and Singapore, where he has worked extensively.

Everything’s relative, of course. Density means one thing here, quite another in, say, Hong Kong. In Toronto, it’s more likely to come in the form of Monde, the 44-storey mixed-use condo tower Safdie has designed for a site directly east of Sherbourne Common on Queens Quay.

The building won’t be finished until late 2018, but it’s yet another sign that waterfront revitalization is well underway. Safdie’s scheme comprises a slab-like tower atop a two-part 10-storey podium. The latter — stone and precast concrete — is solid and opaque; the former — all steel and glass — is open and transparent.
“There’s tension between sustainability and glass,” admits Safdie, recently named winner of this year’s American Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal, its highest award. “People like transparency and my approach is to use clear glass. Outdoor space — balconies and terraces — are essential to quality of life.”

To read the full article at TheStar.com please click here.