Toronto Star

What makes a town quintessentially Canadian? It's a question that Toronto architect Lisa Bate has struggled with for months now. Bate is charged with the task of building Shanghai's first "Canadian Maple Town," a massive suburb outside the Chinese city that will drive home to the world's most populous nation what Canadian design, quality and values are all about. "We are absolutely thrilled to do this, but at the same time it's a great responsibility," said Bate, whose Toronto firm, Six Degrees Architecture and Design Inc., won a prestigious competition in June to design the master plan for Fengjing New Town, also known as Canadian Maple Town, an hour away from China's most cosmopolitan city.