Completion Date: Phase 1: 2010
Phase 2: 2012
Square Footage: 10 acres

Awards:
Regional Honor Award for Podium Green Roof, 2011
The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects

Award of Excellence, 2008
Canadian Architect Magazine

Award of Excellence , 2007
Toronto Urban Design Awards

Since opening in 1965, Nathan Phillips Square has served as Toronto’s premier public space and civic gathering place, a leading tourist attraction and a national and provincial landmark. Every year, more than 1.5 million visitors attend a variety of community and special events hosted on the square.

In 2007 the team led by the Joint Venture Team of Perkins+Will and Plant Architect Inc. were selected from over forty-eight final submissions taking part in an international design competition.

The winning design for the Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization Project is based on the idea that Nathan Phillips Square has always acted as an agora, the ancient Athenian place of public and political exchange. The theme clearly defines the inner open space of theater and square – a theater for the city surrounded by a forested perimeter.

New program elements include a public pavilion with skating rink support facilities, food concession and an upper level roof terrace overlooking the square, a new tourist info kiosk, a versatile new outdoor theater and a new 2-story restaurant. These program elements not only activate the square, but serve as vertical connectors to the elevated walkway that defines the site.

The first phase of the revitalization project was realized with the reopening of the City Hall Podium Green Roof during Doors Open Toronto 2010, as the city’s largest, publicly accessible green roof.