Winter Stations

Winter Stations invites international architects and designers to re-imagine Toronto’s winter waterfront

Although the Beach neighbourhood of Toronto is a summer long festival of colour and pageant, this is not true of the winter months. No place is this more evident than along the boardwalk of Toronto’s east-end beaches, where vacant, utilitarian lifeguard stations standout as symbols of public space beholden to weather.

In an effort to infuse colour and vibrancy back into one of Toronto’s most underappreciated winterscapes, Winter Stations has launched an open international design competition, welcoming artists, designers, architects and landscape architects.

Competitors are asked to create temporary wintertime installations anchored to the life guard stands that inject colour, movement, humour and more into the landscape.  The theme chosen for this year’s inaugural competition is Warmth. There is no limit to the size of the installation, but the jurors will take durability and constructability into account. Judges include Toronto Star Architect and Urban Affairs critic Christopher Hume, Design Exchange President, Shauna Levy, Sputnik Architects Principal, Peter Hargraves and Toronto City Councillor, Mary-Margaret McMahon.

Registration is now open and submissions are due December 5, 2014 with winners announced in early January 2015.

This year’s competition will focus on Kew, Scarborough and Balmy Beaches in the heart of the Beach community, broadly located south of Queen Street East, between Woodbine and Victoria Park Avenues. On the beach between the Leuty Lifeguard Station and the Balmy Beach Club are five evenly spaced metal life guard stands. These utilitarian structures will be the armature, or foundation for pieces of public art. The selected pieces will be temporary installations and need to be able to withstand the rigours of Toronto winter weather. Installations will go up February 16, 2015 and say there until March 20, 2015.

Winning teams will spend time in Toronto during the last phase of construction and will participate in activities surrounding the opening. These events include an opening party at the Balmy Beach Club and a speaking engagement at Toronto’s Design Exchange in February, where the team’s entry and portfolio will be exhibited. Winter Stations sponsors include Streetcar Developments, Urban Capital, Rockport Group, City of Toronto, Waterfront Toronto and Ryerson University Faculty of Engineering and Architectural Science, which will also be leading its own team in the competition.

Winter Stations details and submission guidelines are available at http://winterstations.com