FORESIGHT & INSIGHT | DESIGN

STLC NEXT: Community Consultation for a Performing Arts Hall

Client

CreateTO and TOLive

Scope of Work

Research
Engagement Plan and Execution
Logo/Brand
Website
Strategy Report
Architectural Design Brief
Presentations

For this public consultation project to re-imagine the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts in downtown Toronto, we created detailed terms of engagement, a communications plan, website content and design, and digital surveys.

We worked closely with the client at Create TO (the city agency responsible for large scale development) and the building manager – TO Live – to build and execute a fulsome, detailed and inclusive public consultation plan that reached a wide audience.

Remote Consultation
A significant part of the first phase of the engagement was the creation of a community survey delivered electronically. We designed the survey to be fair, open minded and accessible.

Data collection also included a contextual review of the competitive Toronto environment, a review of international Performing Arts Hall exemplars and interviews with local members of the arts community.

Due to the pandemic, and the necessity for “remote” townhall meetings our website for STLC NEXT was designed to be the most important touchpoint for this project. The site published the full story, sharing background information, historic photos, a detailed site map, and listed those involved.

STLCNEXT.org shared the full terms of engagement, consultation plan, meeting notes and schedule. For the website we designed an identity with logo and graphic styles to brand and communicate the project with a distinct and memorable voice.

A stakeholder working group was formed to represent the 3 major communities involved in the consultation (arts, business and residents). Terms of membership and roles and responsibilities were outlined in a detailed planning document. We organized and facilitated 4 remote participatory townhall meetings.

We reported after each meeting, circled back regularly to the core project team and wrote final summaries for the City of Toronto Council. This project was under high public scrutiny and engaged intensively with arts groups, marginalized communities, the neighbourhood citizens group as well as the local business group and City of Toronto internal stakeholders.

Our summary work outlined strategic imperatives and articulated a design brief for the architectural competition. Our final document was not only fundamental to the building redevelopment project but also to TO Live as they rebranded.

Vancouver 2050

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KerrSmith Design
550 Queen St. East, Unit 335
Toronto, ON M5A 1V2
416-703-5377