April 12, 2007
University of Toronto, Friends of Planning, Spring Social, Hart House Great Hall, 6 - 9 PM Please find below information on the Annual Friends of Planning Spring Social which supports the University of Toronto's Friends of Planning Fund. This is a major networking event and more than 300 professionals from the public, private and not-for-profit sectors are expected to attend. This year's event will take place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on April 12th in the Great Hall at Hart House. We are very pleased to have Daniel Biederman as our feature speaker. He is a winner of the Urban Land Institute's Nichols Prize and a highly regarded professional. He is President of Bryant Park Corporation which is the organization responsible for this 9-acre park in the heart of New York City. The redevelopment and ongoing operation of this site is a real success story. It is one of the largest efforts in the States to apply private management backed by private funding to a public park. Bryant Park, once a dangerous and depressing place, reopened in 1991, and now has virtually no crime, a budget 20 times the level under prior city management, and has been a huge success with public, press, and nearby institutions. The redevelopment of the park has also been credited with substantially increasing the real estate values adjacent to this space. The park has many amenities and innovative programming. To say that it is simply a park does not do it any justice. Daily attendance counts often exceed 1,000 people per acre even on non-event days, which makes Bryant Park the most densely occupied urban park in the world and a real asset to the City of New York. Further information on the park can be found at: www.bryantpark.org We are really pleased to have such an interesting speaker and topic. Planning for this event has been underway for some time and we are expecting a very successful evening. I am pleased to tell you that the Toronto Economic Development Corporation (TEDCO) and the City of Toronto are this year's Speaker Sponsors. NRU Publishing Inc. has signed on once again to be our media sponsor and we are grateful for their support. In addition, the owner of Grano Restaurant, Roberto Martella (the recent winner of the Jane Jacobs Award) and Urban Strategies Inc. are the co-sponsors of the luncheon for the speaker. We also have a number of Platinum, Gold and Silver Sponsors who will receive recognition at the event. I would like to extend a special thank you to the members of the GTTC whose respective organizations are sponsors (the list below is partial and only includes organizations which employ GTTC Members): Speaker Sponsors: City of Toronto Platinum Sponsors: BA Consulting, LEA Consulting Limited, Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal, Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario and Wittington Properties Limited, Gold Sponsors: Giffels Associates Limited, IBI Group, and Marshall Macklin Monaghan Limited Silver Sponsors: ENTRA Consultants Inc. Many thanks to all of these organizations for their support. I encourage you to attend. Whether or not you graduated from UofT, I am sure that you will enjoy the evening. Many GTTC members have attended this event in the past and I have received a lot of positive feedback. For your convenience, I have attached a copy of the flyer which includes a registration form. The cost for the event is quite reasonable ($45) and there will be ample snacks available. Please note: The registration deadline is March 30th.

For more information contact jeynes@geog.utoronto.ca or call 416-978-3375. Loretta Ryan, MCIP, RPP, CAE Chair Planning Alumni Committee University of Toronto