Elyse Portal

“I think this is so important what you are proposing here, because at an urban scale, there’s a risk of us just continuing urbanism-as-usual, like business-as-usual, and if we really want to make a serious attempt in our country to heal, as you’ve framed it in this proposal, it needs exactly the kind of collective thinking, and respect of the language and the land that you’ve proposed. (…) I’m completely sold. What I love about it is the inclusivity of it. I feel it’s really of the place. I think that your grassroots approach to it really stands out as something unique to this competition. I really, really commend everything that you’ve done. ”

“That was extremely powerful, and I would say, even paradigm changing. I mean, globally, thinking about an Indigenous worldview or, as David (Fortin) says, how do we now shape our cities, or how should we be shaping our cities. (…) It was quite beautiful and inspiring - the amount of community engagement - over 1000 people on this. I think also even your tackling the kind of governance: the tri-cultural governance. I love the civic architecture for that. (…) A number of schemes have daylit the Junction and Nolin creeks, but I think you’re one of the teams who’ve actually architecturally engaged really, quite boldly with that. ”

“I was moved by your scheme. I was really moved by your use of the word healing as a fundamental platform for your thinking, because healing conjures up a sense of time, (…) because you’re healing from something and moving to something. Healing always involves scar tissue, whether its physical, built environment, mental, spiritual, existential. And, your approach covers all of those things, which is so important. It doesn’t just make one exclusive to another. It reminds me of how Sudbury finally understood that in order to get fish back into its lakes, it had to heal the lake first, before it started throwing fish it these lakes. So, what you’re doing here is bringing us back in time to bring us forward - it, to me, is the power of what you have here.”

“An inspiring and impressive design vision that upends conventional urban planning to prioritize, at long last, an Indigenous-led authorship and engagement of a broad grassroots community. The healing centre, set within a dynamic bridge structure over the water and grass lands surrounding an Indigenous pavilion, sets a new benchmark for Sudbury placemaking.”