Sidewalk Labs unveils plans for timber towers, raincoats for buildings in Quayside, but Torontonians must wait for data details

Thestar.com
August 14, 2018
David Rider

Torontonians are learning more from a Google sister company about heated, illuminated roadways, wooden skyscrapers and other innovations proposed for the Quayside district.

What Sidewalk Labs won’t shine more light on, at least for now, are protections for data security, privacy and ownership -- concerns that have dogged internationally watched plans to build a sensor-laden, 12-acre live-work-shop “Smart City” district on Toronto’s waterfront.

“We’re really not going to tell anything new on that topic,” Rit Aggarwala, Sidewalk Labs’ head of urban systems, told reporters Tuesday at a briefing ahead of the latest public round tables, held that night with another planned Wednesday night, to update Torontonians and solicit feedback on the project.

Previously, Sidewalk Labs has said the data could be collected via sensors triggered by people who live, work or merely pass through the district. Privacy experts are calling for safeguards to ensure people can opt out of the commodification of information they generate.

“There’s no question data and privacy are part of the work we’re doing -- they’re very important to this project -- but frankly there are a lot of other things that are also very important to this project and tonight we want to focus very much on this built environment aspect where there’s a ton of work and creativity being put into it.”

Waterfront Toronto, the tri-governmental Quayside partner which recently signed a “professional development agreement” with Manhattan-based Sidewalk Labs, and saw a board member resign in protest, noted the project’s digital advisory panel will meet in public Thursday and data issues will be the subject of public meetings planned for October.

This week, they said, is to highlight urban innovation ideas not updated since last October when the executive chairman of Google’s parent company was congratulated by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at an event to announce Sidewalk Labs as winner of the Quayside partner competition.

Among developments revealed Tuesday:

• Curbless streets made of a new type of concrete in modular hexagonal tiles that can be removed and replaced, eliminating the need for paving crews to fix potholes. Parts of the roadway would be heated, meaning no snow or salt in winter, and illuminated from within to show where pedestrians, cyclists and possible driverless automated vehicles would go. Uses, and illumination, could change to reconfigure the street, potentially changing it to a pedestrian-only plaza and then back to a roadway.

 

• A “building raincoat” made of lightweight materials would be affixed to structures to shield people below from rain and snow. Sensors could slide the shield into place when rain is approaching and make it virtually disappear when sun returns. The raincoats would be meant to help reach the goal of doubling the amount of time residents can comfortably spend outside, and add “animation” to public spaces.

• Laneways connecting common areas and buildings would be modelled on “stoa” from ancient Greece -- covered walkways used for public markets and informal gatherings. The new way to use ground floor space on lowrise buildings would see sliding walls and even changing floors to modify space for retailers or community groups, and connect to office space or green roofs above.

 

• Quayside could become a world centre for innovation in the emerging field of tall buildings made out of specially treated wood. Sidewalk Labs believes a 30-storey building could be made mostly of timber, with warm, calming interiors and other benefits including affordability. Karim Khalifa, the firm’s director of building innovations, said: “Quayside would be the biggest project in the world for timber today and the demands on that industry are not available in Canada.”

• Lake Ontario, now unwelcoming at the Lake Shore Blvd. E. and Parliament St. Quayside site, would become a neighbourhood centrepiece. Rather than landfill a water slip now carved into the property, Sidewalk Labs wants to adorn it with a wave deck, a series of bridges and potentially even expand it. “We’ve also thought about whether we can bring water all the way up to Lake Shore so that it greets you the moment you come down from Parliament,” said Jesse Shapins, Sidewalk Labs’ director of public realm.

 

• The visionaries, however, could not answer questions about Sidewalk Labs’s business model, how it will welcome other companies into the project, land ownership and more. That will come later, they said, as the partners work toward a final agreement expected to be ready for approvals next spring.

Bianca Wylie, an open government advocate and co-founder of Tech Reset Canada, argued in an article published Monday that the process has left Torontonians in the dark.

“How does the Internet of Things work?” she wrote. “How is it kept secure? How does surveillance work? How will data be shared with law enforcement? Which laws will govern smart city data -- regardless of their vintage or readiness? How might the residents’ data contribute to intellectual property? Will consumer protection laws protect smart city residents?

“Right now, residents don’t have a fighting chance of exerting their opinion on the smart city through public consultation, because these questions haven’t been answered, and the issues haven’t been explained or taught.”