Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) has been selected to develop the design guidelines for the transformation of the former 2.1-kilometre (1.3-mile) runway at the heart of YZD, a 149-hectare redevelopment project on the former Downsview Airport lands in Toronto. The selection follows an international competition organised by Northcrest Developments, attracting 47 submissions from more than 150 firms across 20 countries.

YZD, named after the site’s former airport code, occupies a decommissioned airfield in North Toronto. Aviation operations ceased in 2024, marking the closure of a site originally developed for de Havilland aircraft manufacturing and later used as a military air base. The area is now undergoing long-term transformation into a mixed-use urban district composed of seven new neighbourhoods.

At the centre of the project is the former runway. The corridor is being reimagined as a linear civic space connecting future neighbourhoods while supporting mobility, ecological functions, and public use. The brief calls for a set of strategic design guidelines rather than a fixed masterplan. These guidelines will ensure consistency of intent while allowing the runway to evolve incrementally over time.

MVVA’s proposal was selected by a jury chaired by urban designer Ken Greenberg.

The firm leads a multidisciplinary team that includes international and local designers and consultants, such as Henning Larsen, HR&A Advisors, Bruce Mau Design, Trophic Design, Lord Cultural Resources, and Urban Strategies. Together, they will develop the Runway Design Guidelines, establishing principles for hydrology, planting, material systems, access, and long-term programming.

The team will join a growing list of acclaimed local and international design firms already involved in the transformation of the former airport lands. The multiple award-winning Downsview Framework Plan, which established the overarching vision for YZD and the surrounding lands, was led by Henning Larsen Architects, KPMB Architects, and SLA, further including offices like Field Operations working on specific parts of this development.

MVVA brings experience from major civic landscapes, including the Port Lands Flood Protection and Biidaasige Park in Toronto. Their work is recognised for combining ecological systems thinking with socially responsive design approaches at multiple scales.

The runway is already functioning as a platform for public engagement. Temporary events such as Play on the Runway have offered a space for cycling, performances, and informal gathering, serving as a test bed for future uses and confirming the spatial potential of the site beyond its former logistical function.

Airfields as Urban Landscapes

The conversion of decommissioned large infrastructures and industrial areas into civic landscapes is a structural task. Often previously enclosed, fenced-off and “out-of-sight” landscapes become engulfed by urbanisation and in need of integration. Aifields have the specificity of a vast clearance, flatness and unobstructed view, an “empty space” hard to find elsewhere in such a scale. How to integrate these voids with urbanisation, while keeping the looming open feeling. The YZD transforms this “historic landmark into an iconic pedestrian space”.

Examples demonstrate the diversity of approaches. Tempelhofer Feld in Berlin represents a preservation-led model, where the site has been retained largely in its open, unbuilt form, reflecting strong civic resistance to intensification. Parco della Pace in Vicenza, by PAN Associati and EMF, illustrates a more interventionist but still landscape-centred transformation, integrating stormwater infrastructure, topographical manipulation, and memory of past uses into a new public ecology. In this context, YZD reflects a model of structured decommissioning followed by phased redevelopment, including intensification and hybridisation of uses.