Vaughan City Hall

Civic exemplar for environmentally responsible development

Originally a rural township located at the northern edge of Toronto, the City of Vaughan is one of the region’s fast-growing suburban municipalities. The new Civic Centre, the winning scheme in an invited design competition, is an exemplar for cultivating civic landscapes and environmentally responsible development for the 21^st century.

Rather than a singular building, a campus of low-rise buildings defines a public terrain of open space. It is organized according to a series of bands, referencing both the clarity of Ontario town planning and the north-south concession grid of the rural agrarian landscape.

The City Hall and Civic Tower anchor the composition. The exterior cladding incorporates terracotta and double- and triple-glazed glass curtain wall. Canadian “Kodiak” granite is used for the exterior landscape and interior floor finishes. Interior spaces are finished in exposed concrete, oak panels, terrazzo and oak floors, and carpet tile.

The plan is organized around interconnected, centrally located atria to maximize access to daylight and fresh air. The orientation and optimum amounts of glazing greatly reduce solar heat gain and reliance on large HVAC systems and artificial lighting. Offices have raised floors and flexible workstations. The overall structure is concrete slab with a concrete framework of circular columns and flared capitals. The project is LEED Gold certified.