SvN created a customized, highly graphical Urban Design Guidelines playbook for the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre. It outlines performance standards and includes detailed design guidelines that augment the built form policies of the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Secondary Plan. The guidelines help shape the relationship between built form, land use and the public realm. The Urban Design Guidelines are a leading and innovative toolkit for the City of Vaughan to help shape private realm development in the new downtown and promote high quality design excellence, connectivity and placemaking.

The Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (VMC) is the City of Vaughan’s new downtown, which is evolving from an employment and light industrial zone into an Urban Growth Centre with a diverse mix of uses, pedestrianized and transit-supportive environments and dynamic qualities of place. With development in the VMC advancing quickly, there is a need to provide more comprehensive design guidance for the private realm to ensure that a unified development context is created. Ensuring integration between public and private projects is a critical component in achieving success for the area’s transformation and development, as well as in establishing a socially, environmentally and economically sustainable urban framework.

More information, including the full report and consultation materials, can be found here.