Brampton hosts provincial gathering of Municipal Urban Designers
Brampton hosted the 12th session of the Municipal Urban Designers’ Roundtable (MUDR) at the Mount Pleasant Village Community Centre on May 31st, 2013. MUDR is a professional gathering of municipal urban designers and planners from across the province. Brampton was proud to organize this event for the second time since 2008, bringing together a record number of public sector Urban Designers and Planners from across Ontario.
The reconstructed CPR Station at the award-winning Mount Pleasant Village provided an excellent venue for this session with more than 50 professionals attending as far away as Windsor and Kingston. Opening remarks were provided by Acting Planning Commissioner Dan Kraszewski, followed by a presentation by Alex Taranu on ‘Planning and Design for Sustainable and Healthy Development’ with a spotlight on Brampton’s achievements.
The theme of this year’s event was ‘Development, Design, and the Bottom Line’ and was highlighted by an interactive panel discussion with Marvin Green (River Oaks Group), Mark Guslits (Mark Guslits & Assoc. Inc), Adam Sparks (Rescon Financial Corp.) and Alex Speigel (Windmill Development Group). The session was very informative and emphasized the importance of understanding finance, real estate and development economics in achieving successful urban design.
The highlight of the afternoon session was an hour-long walking tour of the Mount Pleasant Village led by Alex Taranu. Alex outlined the numerous innovative aspects of this transit-oriented, walkable, sustainable, complete neighborhood, with a strong character and identity in terms of the overall planning and design, built form, open space, and placemaking. He also emphasized the coordinated efforts of City staff, developers, and external stakeholders, including Federal, Provincial, and Municipal Governments and landowners. The significance of complex funding, project management, and tight timelines in realizing this highly successful new urbanist community was underscored.
This event, organized by Planning, Design, and Development staff, was very much appreciated by the participants and will be subject to upcoming articles in professional publications. The Roundtable was a great success that provided an opportunity for Brampton to showcase one of its finest achievements in planning and urban design in recent years. The Mount Pleasant Village neighborhood was much admired, indicating Brampton’s commitment to planning and design of sustainable, healthy, livable, and beautiful developments.
Brampton Planning Commissioner Dan Kraszewski welcomes the participants
Prominent panelists talked to the participants about economic issues related to urban design
The participants toured the award-winning Mount Pleasant Village transit-oriented neighbourhood
