Architecture students work with City of Cornwall to imagine the city’s future

A collaboration between the City of Cornwall and the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism has given second-year undergraduate students an opportunity to imagine how architecture could contribute to the future of Cornwall.

During the winter 2024 term, 73 students in the Bachelor of Architectural Studies program worked on two projects to revitalize the city. The partnership is an example of how Carleton University shares knowledge that can benefit local communities.

The first assignment was an urban design project, with designs that included new housing, commercial uses, and open space on several former industrial sites. One aspect was connecting to the waterfront. Cornwall Mayor Justin Towndale observes that students were invited “to dream for us entirely new ways of imagining these important spaces and provide more housing options.”

The main studio project was the design of a city hall, which added spaces for organized and spontaneous activities to the administrative functions typical of a city hall.

See examples of student projects below.

Associate Professor Johan Voordouw coordinated the second-year studio and taught with Professor Stephen Fai, Associate Professor Janine Debanné, Adjunct Professor John Cook, and Instructor Ali Navidbakhsh.

“For the students, it gives them an opportunity to work on projects that have an immediate and tangible need in a city,” says Voordouw.

The Cornwall community, he adds, is “using it as a thought exercise of what a future city might look like and how to deal with questions of environmental resilience, medium-density environments, and mixed use.”

The students visited Cornwall to see the potential sites. They met with Mathieu Fleury, the city’s chief administrative officer, and several of his colleagues from the municipal government. Through their discussions and research, the students were able to learn first-hand about the city, its current situation, and ambitions.

As much as pragmatic requirements, the two projects invited thinking about nature, history, and future residents.

For example:

• What should happen with rainwater in a city designed to be more sustainable? 
• How can the disused land and fragments of former industries be part of a new Cornwall? 
• How can being beside the Saint Lawrence River provide active and passive recreation for residents?
• Will new forms of work using information technology revitalize this formerly industrial town? 

• How to acknowledge Indigenous history and contribution and address reconciliation?
• Can a city hall be a centre for diverse community activities as well as provide municipal services?

“The first project — to get them to understand the city, its history, its environment — was to take one of the many post-industrial sites that they have around the waterfront and to reconsider them as 21^st-century, medium-density, family neighbourhoods,” explains Voordouw.

For the city hall project, students had a choice of four sites. One site was set in the existing colonial grid; another replaced a defunct shopping centre; the third was adjacent to a marina, while the fourth shared land with a post-secondary college. Responses to these varied contexts demonstrated potential different ways for a new building to engage the city and shape the opportunities available to residents.

“The project brief for the city hall building was sophisticated and incredibly thorough,” says Voordouw. “The city could use that as a template for their own thinking about what a city hall is, how people have access to such a public place, and how it might interact with the larger city, and the common good that it might foster.”

Fleury proposed the city hall project, noting the current facility is aging. He has engaged with Carleton University’s school of architecture several times in the past and appreciates that the students delve deeply into the sites and contexts for their projects. When he was a city councillor in Ottawa, he was invited by Associate Professor Janine Debanné and, also, Associate Professor Benjamin Gianni to bring “client” knowledge and perspective to their studios.

Fleury says that student visualizations of design approaches demonstrate possibilities, which can be shared with residents, politicians, and city staff without being binding.

“The types of visuals that students create are very helpful for community groups and the city to start to float ideas,” he says. “It brings an awareness of potential.”

The city issued a news release about the student work and is showcasing some of the projects on its website.

“We’re approaching the 2025 city budget and as part of the budget we’re doing an entire exercise on heights and density study for the city,” says Fleury.

“Part of the background documents will be some of the reflections of students and we’ll be leveraging some of those designs to say we want you to consider this and that,” he says.

“So, there’s a lot of good public policy work that the students do through the engagement offered by the school,” he adds.

Urban Design Project

The Canals of Cornwall

Students: Liam Bergeron, Griffen Bowers, Leo Moon, Emma Yau

The Canals of Cornwall residential project aims to integrate offshoots of the town’s bordering canal into a neighbourhood and commercial space on the water’s edge.  Integrating the canals within the neighbourhood generates new living conditions and experiences for the residents of Cornwall in many age groups.

Cornwall Housing Project

Students: Tia Dang, Bella Fiorelli, Amalia McCarthy, Nikki Sond

The design along the St. Lawrence River emphasizes transition by integrating curved elements into the existing grid to create a seamless flow toward the river, highlighting gathering areas, heritage buildings, and social event spaces.  The Hub, a central, all-seasons community space, connects neighbourhoods, commercial buildings, and green spaces, encouraging biking, walking, and skating.

The Urban Canal

Students: Kylie Cozad, Ryan Hollander, Amelie Murphy, Gabriel Normandeau 

In supporting the growing city of Cornwall, the Urban Canal neighborhood project is designed to foster social connection and create a pedestrian-friendly environment. The design is characterized by a large pedestrian road dissecting across the civic grid to offer a range of public services. The idea of a canal as an urban intervention stems from the desire to create an environment where an individual or group can spend their day engaged in activities along the path.

City Hall Project

Student: Bella Fiorelli

This project introduces a strategically designed City Hall complex along the St. Lawrence River. The complex comprises two interconnected buildings — one for private functions and the other for public services — linked by a glass bridge and grand central staircase that offers scenic views. The design employs exposed mass timber and distinctive exterior cladding to create a warm, natural ambiance, clearly delineating public and private spaces and enhancing the building’s connection to its surroundings.

Ascent – A Celebration of Movement
Student: Nikki Sond

Ascent, Cornwall’s proposed city hall, celebrates all forms of human movement through a grand, open staircase that brings citizens together, while assisting in the division of public and semi-private spaces. While the city hall is grand in scale, there are scattered moments for privacy or pause, creating a sense of intimate immensity.

Student: Amelie Murphy

The project features a long urban mews that runs between downtown Cornwall’s mall and the new proposed city hall to serve as a place for community interaction and gathering. The aim is for the city hall to be a building that the public interacted with not only when they needed to, but also as a place they could return to.

Student: Abdul-Rahman Gasali

The proposed council chamber for Cornwall’s newly imagined City Hall employs an open, inviting, and textured volume to create visual and symbolic connections of transparency to the city’s historical heritage and its main artery, Pitt Street. It also fosters public interactions through large gatherings as a medium for Cornwall’s aspirations for a revitalized urban landscape focused on community engagement.

Student: Amalia McCarthy

The image displays a physical model of the council chamber at the heart of the city hall. The chamber is wrapped by claw-like forms acting as a screen.

Student: Ruiqi Ge

Vignette from the city hall project showing the council chamber in — “the most important room in this building.”

Student: Evan Wang

Student: Nashia Williams

Student: Liam Bergeron

Student: Emma Little