This past Saturday I had the opportunity to partake in the City Building Expo Conference hosted by Ryerson Association of Planning Students and the University of Toronto John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design.
It provided a lot of insight into the consideration for public health and our ageing population in city building, which is a facet of planning that can easily be overlooked.
What I particularly enjoyed most from Saturday’s conference was our ability to take part in a design charette for Etobicoke’s Cloverdale Mall. My newfound friends and teammates Emily Cameron, Charesma Biaspal, Helia Mahdavian, and Michelle Ng were given one hour to re-design and present a development pitch to the site developer himself, Ben Gilbank from QuadReal Property Group.
We made a concerted effort to consider sustainability, land-use, transportation, and community development in our proposal, and it truly proved to be an insightful experience of what the on-the-ground aspect of a city builder’s job looks like.
A big thank you to all those who put in the hard work to execute this event well, definitely looking forward to the next! Naeem Lakhani, Alexander Hardy, Zack Bradley
Lubna Alli 
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