Engineering firms busy in downtown Toronto

Scheduled to open with much pizzazz in July on what are known as the Port Lands in Toronto’s eastern waterfront is the Filmport Studio Lot Phase 1.
The film and television production studio has the world’s largest purpose-built sound stage. The architects are Quadrangle in cooperation with Will Alsop, the U.K. star architect who recently designed the controversial Ontario College of Art “rectangle on stilts,” downtown. Jablonsky Ast and Partners are structural engineers, Merber Corporation are mechanical engineers, Mulvey + Banani are electrical engineers, and MBTW Group is the landscape architect.
Consulting Engineering firm Gartner Lee in cooperation with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority is leading a project to transform the abandoned industrial area around the mouth of the Don River in Toronto, which includes the Port Lands. The project, which is undergoing an environmental assessment, will provide flood protection for up to 230 hectares of land.
NORR Limited are doing the architecture, structural, mechanical, electrical and interior design for a $46-million conference centre at Exhibition Place. The new facilities are being constructed inside the footprint of the existing Automotive Building, whose historic facade will be restored. Sub-consultants are Enermodal Engineering (LEED), Engineering Harmonics (audio/visual), Swallow Acoustics (acoustics), Leber Rubes (building code), Andre Scheinman (heritage) and CFMS (commissioning). The project broke ground in April.
Halcrow Yolles were the structural engineers on the revitalization of the interior of the Museum subway station in Toronto by Diamond and Schmitt Architects. Opened in early April, the station close to the Royal Ontario Museum has been remodelled using motifs from various ancient civilizations. Columns in the station now resemble figures from Egyptian tombs, Greek Doric columns, columns from the Chinese Forbidden City, and First Nations totems.