Alphabet's urban innovation company Sidewalk Labs will soon present new details for it's Quayside smart city development on Toronto’s east waterfront.
Curbed's Patrick Sisson writes:
The updated plan enshrines the idea of a Civic Data Trust for all urban data, guaranteeing that “no one has a right to own information collected from Quayside including Sidewalk Labs.” It also provides more details on the systems and structures that will form the backbone of the neighborhood, which will fill in an 800-acre tract on Lake Ontario.
“Torontonians want more affordable housing, faster ways to get around the city, safer streets for pedestrians and cyclists, [and] a cleaner and healthier environment,” said Jesse Shapins, Sidewalk Labs’s director of public realm, in a statement released yesterday.
The mixed-income, mixed-use development will be anchored by a series of 12 buildings, ranging from three to 30 stories, all built utilizing mass timber construction and powered in part by a system of photovoltaic panels, battery storage, geothermal wells, and sewer heat recovery.
Not only will this be a more sustainable project—Sidewalk estimates carbon emissions from construction will be cut by 75 to 85 percent—but it’ll be the biggest collection of mass timber structures in the world, a massive bet on this new construction method and the Canadian timber industry.
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