As part of ongoing research related to the Tower Renewal project, ERA’s Graeme Stewart and Michael McClelland, with project partners Evergreen Cityworks and planningAlliance, recently toured the Netherlands and Germany.

Touring built projects, construction sites, and meeting with planners, engineers, architects, city administrators, and even a Dutch Senator, the team witnessed Europe’s cutting edge in tower refurbishment and neighbourhood design. Moreover, they met with new project partner Transsolar, global experts in technical solutions for the low energy retrofit who are bringing their expertise to Toronto’s towers. Read project partner John Brodhead of Evergreen Citywork’s trip summary here.

Over the following weeks, look for posts outlining specific learnings from this trip. Since 2005, a program of travel research has been key to formulating the local opportunities of Tower Renewal. Select findings from previous trips include:

• Photos of various EU precedents can be found here.
• A brief report on EU Tower precedents produced for the Province Ontario can be found here
• The National Film Board‘s HIGHRISE produced online documentary Living Proof which can be found below:

*Feature Photo. Tour of Bijlmermeer: Project team being lead through the renewal of the Bijlmermeer by Joop de Haan, project manager (left) and Frank Wassenberg (middle), neighbourood expert and ERA collaborator.*