Julianne Guevara & Adam Hollings

Waterfront Toronto Development: Museum of the Great Lakes

Situated on the edge of one of the five most significant sources of freshwater in the world, the Museum of the Great Lakes invites users to contemplate their relationship with water through a series of immersive experiences. Exhibitions will focus on advocacy for the Great Lakes ecosystem, educating about it’s destabilization due to invasive species, pollution, and climate change. The architecture acts as a didactic tool, exposing the water conservation system through stormwater retention on the roof, filtration throughout the building, and storage in an underground cistern which is then reused for the building’s grey water. At the junction of Parliament Street and Queens Quay, the site is the last opportunity of connection between the city and the waterfront moving east. This proposal aims to act as a gateway from the neighbourhoods to the north to the Portlands naturalization project to the south, maintaining a green space on the waterfront for the public.