Recognizing the connectivity between heritage conservation and urban design, Homestead Land Holdings engaged TRACE architectures to analyze the heritage and urban design concerns for its multi-block planned development in downtown Kingston. To highlight Trace’s role, Homestead retained our team ahead of selecting an architect for the project.
Situated between Kingston’s historic downtown and its large event centre is the North Block, an area with multiple former industrial blocks, two of which were the subject of these studies. The site is well-connected with easy access to the waterfront, downtown commercial offices, and transportation hubs making it one of the more important redevelopment sites in Kingston.
To honour our longstanding relationship with Homestead, Kingston North Block is a testament for a legacy project with an intertest to push the design and urban analysis beyond their typical comfort zone.
From the start of the project to its current state, a significantly positive evolution was achieved.
Working with urban design and heritage objectives provided an opportunity to exercise our multidisciplinary approach, appropriate for a historically rich context as downtown Kingston. Over the multiple iterations, our dual foci was on the relationship between the buildings and the streets within the immediate context, building profile and the broader environment.
Promoting a contextually appropriate response within the lower portion of the blocks was important, especially with the established urban patterns within the area. Solutions included wrapping the above-ground parking with residential units, including ground floor commercial uses and community amenities all while being mindful of the primary nature of the adjacent Princess Street commercial core.
