The New City Hall of Vaughan

Four separate projects are on the table for the redesign of the city's old Civic Centre

What will the new Vaughan City Hall look like? This question has been tickling the imagination of the city residents, but now imagination can make way for reality: last week at the Civic Centre the four architecture studios chosen as finalists for the new administrative complex presented their models, the fruit of their fantasy and professionalism.
Now the projects by ZAS (Zawadzki Armin Stevens Architects) and Zeidler Partnership (from Toronto), Adamson Associates Architects (from Mississauga), Hotson Bakker and Montgomery Sisam Associated Architects Inc. (from Toronto) and KPMB (also from Toronto) will be evaluated by the adjudicating committee, which includes mayor Michael Di Biase, regional councillors Mario Ferri, Linda Jackson, and Joyce Frustaglio, and three architects of fame: Peggy Deamer (PhD in Architecture at Princeton University and partner of Deamer and Phillips), Roger Du Toit (winner of many professional awards and members of numerous adjudicationg committees), and Barry Sampson (Assistant Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Landscaping and Design of the University of Toronto).
Alongside the professional models (depicting a service centre that would accommodate the offices of the city administration, a public library, and Hydro Vaughan, with a covered surface of about 325,000 square feet), third graders from St. Clemens School, in Woodbridge, also exhibited their own ideas.

Dealing with the Trash
Hamilton and Niagara region look for ideas

The City of Hamilton and the Niagara Region have been at the international forefront of the treatment of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) for years. The two administrations, after managing to prevent almost 65 percent of their MSW from reaching a landfill through recycling programmes, have now launched a campaign to look for a smart way to dispose of the remaining 35 percent.
In order to do this, new waste management techniques are being studied, such as the recovery of energy from MSW.
According to a study conducted by the two administrations, the landfill in current use will be full by 2024 if the 65 percent recycling of MSW is achieved and maintained, otherwise it could run out of space as early as 2014. That's why Hamilton and the Niagara Region decided to act in concert and on time by launching a public consultation campaign to draw a long-term plan.
A series of public meetings has begun and will continue until next April. These meetings should generate the plan that will undergo an Environmental Impact Assessment, as per Provincial rules.
The first meetings took place on January 13 and 14. Other meetings are foreseen in Hamilton (Council Chamber - 71 Main St. West) on February 3 and 24, March 23 and April 20; and in the Niagara Region offices (2201 St. David's Road - Thorold) on February 4 and 25, March 24, and April 21.

Further information can be obtained at www.wasteplan.ca.

Publication Date: 2004-02-01
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=3601