In Novae Res Urbis, Lana Hall spotlights an winning design proposal from the OAA’s SHIFT2025 Challenge, which envisions a transformative approach to community support in Parkdale. It reimagines the future home of a local food bank as a hub for food production, social enterprise, and communal connection.

The project, "Parkdale Commons: a Living Food Bank;' is an adaptive reuse proposal that will transform a former low-rise restaurant and event space at 5 Brock Avenue into the new home of the Parkdale Community Food Bank (PCFB). The adapted space, designed by Lloydlondon Architects partners Luc Johnston and Nancy Chao, would add furnishings, community space, office space for both the food bank and its partner
organizations, kitchen facilities and a rooftop greenhouse.

When completed in the spring of 2026, the facility will welcome an estimated 15,000 food bank users annually. Earlier this year, the PFCB scraped together enough money to purchase the site at 5 Brock Avenue, marking an end to operational concerns and frequent displacement it had experienced in recent years due to rising commercial rents and expanding community needs.

Posted with permission of the publisher of NRU Publishing Inc. Original article first appeared in Novae Res Urbis GTHA, Vol. 28, No. 22, Wednesday, May 28, 2025.

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