Did you know that besides being home to over 2.8 million people, the City of Toronto is also home to hundreds of thousands of pets? The increasing pet population is most noticeable in the dense areas of the city where there are multi-unit, high rise apartment buildings. In these highly compact neighbourhoods, the provision and capacity of public infrastructure and facilities, particularly parks and open spaces, has struggled to keep up with the rapidly increasing needs, demands, and usage from existing and new residents, as well as their pets.
So, what can be done to address the growing need for pet facilities? Gail Shillingford shines a light on the City of Toronto’s new Pet Friendly Design Guidelines, highlighting how new developments can support pet-owners and all residents by integrating pet-friendly design when planning new buildings and the surrounding urban environment.
The City of Toronto’s Pet Friendly Design Guidelines is intended to guide development in a direction that is more supportive of a growing pet population, considering opportunities to reduce the current burden on the public realm, and provide needed pet amenities for high density residential communities. The Guidelines are geared toward the development community, to be used by applicants to inform the design of new multi-unit buildings, as well as to inform the design of renovations and improvements to existing multi-unit buildings so that they can become more pet friendly.
Some resources:
About the Speaker
Apart from being passionate about pets, Gail Shillingford is a Landscape Architecture graduate from the University of Toronto, and an Urban Design Associate at DIALOG. She has worked in the Urban Design, Planning, and Landscape Design realm for over 20 years, creating award-winning built form and open space environments. During her career, she has led the design of a variety of projects at multiple scales, ranging from city master planning to detailed streetscape design. Her focus on all projects is entrenched in building community and creating attractive high-quality places that foster socialization, inclusivity, cultural diversity, and healthy living. Her passion in each of her designs is to heighten the role of the public realm beyond creating notable destinations, to also supporting and revitalizing communities, incorporating sustainability and resiliency, and positioning open spaces as catalysts for social and economic vitality and viability.
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