REFLECTING ON THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF CORNWALL’S WATERFRONT

Posted On Thursday June 13, 2024

CORNWALL – June 12, 2024 – With commemorations of the 240th anniversary of the founding of New Johnstown and the Royal Counties a recent memory, the City of Cornwall is inviting residents to imagine the future of our city’s waterfront. 

The City today released the outcomes of a design challenge issued to architecture students at Carleton University in Ottawa. The second-year undergraduate students were given an assignment to create design ideas for housing development along the waterfront.  

Students were asked to take into account a number of factors in their design, including: heritage, business/industry, density, view corridors, time & seasons, people and diversity, the environment (water, forests, green space, biodiversity), transportation, and seasonality. Students were not bound by the existing waterfront plan. Instead, these projects bring to light new ideas that are available to us as we look to the future.

 

Redevelopment of Cornwall’s waterfront is a long-term project that will be guided by all relevant planning and zoning processes. Any future redevelopment will complement existing riverfront park spaces and preserve public access to waterfront pathways.

 

You can find the students’ design projects below.

 

Quotes:

 

“Cornwall’s waterfront is central to the past, present and future of our community,” says Cornwall Mayor Justin Towndale. “We invited budding professionals to dream for us entirely new ways of imagining these important spaces and provide more housing options for families – an exciting prospect as we continue to negotiate these lands’ transfer to the City from Transport Canada.”

 

“The waterfront is where Cornwall and Ontario began. And it will be central to the future we are building together,” adds Cornwall CAO Mathieu Fleury. “These designs are conceptual and functional – students get credit for their work while Cornwall residents get to think about our shared future.”

 

“Cornwall is an exciting location for a project because it is the right size for an undergraduate project: it has all the expected services of a city, and wonderful opportunities for design exploration,” says Associate Professor Johan Voordouw at the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism, Carleton University. “In particular we were excited about the opportunity of working along the canal and river and it was also exciting for the students to move to a new community outside of Ottawa.”

 

-30-

The City of Cornwall is a vibrant community located in Eastern Ontario, known for its rich history, natural beauty, and strong sense of community spirit. With a population of over 50,000 residents, Cornwall offers a diverse range of amenities, services, and recreational opportunities, making it an ideal place to live, work, and play. Cornwall is a diverse and progressive community where residents and partners feel safe, welcomed, and enjoy a high quality of life supported by access to financially responsible and sustainable municipal services and infrastructure.
 

For more information, please contact the City of Cornwall’s communications office at:

Communications@Cornwall.ca

 

phone icon Contact Us