Toronto Star

Until now, good news and the Toronto waterfront have had little to do with one another. That all changed last Friday when the Waterfront Design Review Panel was announced. To make the good news even better, leading Toronto architect Bruce Kuwabara will chair the panel. The job of the new body is to advise the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp. (TWRC) on matters relating to development. That means for the first time in this city's history, there will be an expert board whose task is to comment on the quality of architectural and design projects before they're constructed. As it stands, the Planning Act specifically states that no application can be refused on the basis that it's dead ugly. Though the legislation hasn't changed, the design review panel will be commenting on proposals that will be built on land that's 80 per cent publicly owned. That means its advice will be taken seriously.