Formation 2014 Website www.nxtcity.ca | Headquarters Toronto, Canada | |
Type Non-profit organization promoting youth engagement and improvements to public space Founders Christine Caruso, Mackenzie Keast, Justin Leclair | ||
NXT City is a non-profit organization based in Toronto that connects young leaders with city builders to create, activate and program public spaces. NXT City host the annual NXT City Prize competition that invites people under the age of 35 to submit ideas for new public spaces in Toronto. Since 2014, NXT City has received over 200 public space ideas and brought together over 1,200 people for the annual NXT City Night party.
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NXT City was founded in 2014 by Christine Caruso, Mackenzie Keast, and Justin Leclair.
NXT City Prize
The NXT City Prize is a competition held in Toronto by NXT City to gather innovative new ideas for public spaces. The competition invites young people under the age of 35 to submit ideas their proposals for public spaces based around a number of category and thematic areas, and selects a panel of experts to review and judge the winning entries. Past jury members have included Jennifer Keesmaat, Chief Planner for the City of Toronto, Hunter Tura, CEO of Bruce Mau Design, Parts and Labour head Matty Matheson and Dragon's Den's Joseph Mimran.
Winners of the yearly competition receive $5,000 together with mentorship and connection to civic leaders for potential implementation of their idea.
2014
The winner of NXT City Prize 2014 was Richard Valenzona, whose winning idea was the reduction of car lanes and increased pedestrian comfort along a downtown stretch of Toronto's Yonge Street. On the winning idea, Jennifer Keesmaat, chief planner for the City of Toronto, stated that "This is an idea that would actually work in this location in part because it's an area where there are vastly more pedestrians than cars".
Since winning the NXT City Prize, the idea has made its way through Toronto City Council and is currently being studied for implementation with strong support from both the Ward Councillor Krysten Wong-Tam and the Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area.
2015
The winners of NXT City Prize 2015 were Clint Langevin and Ya'el Santopinto, whose idea was to install a series of new floating docks along Toronto's waterfront.