Project Statistics

• Kickoff – 2024
• Status – Ongoing
• The Toolkit Working Group Members – 6 Toolkit Captains (membership from each JRS practice area)
• External Partners – The University of Toronto via DRIP Program
• Projects Utilizing the Toolkit – 10+

The SRL Toolkit is a dynamic set of studio-wide digital tools and workflows developed by JRS to transform the way we design, evaluate, and communicate landscape architecture. What began in 2024 as a tool to automate the modeling and analysis of existing conditions has evolved into a core research initiative, one that is reshaping our workflows, deepening our design thinking, and aligning our projects with both regulatory and sustainability goals.

At its heart, the Toolkit is a suite of custom tools and integrated processes that support design teams from early concept through to refined technical design. It is continuously developed and maintained by a dedicated internal team with representatives from each of JRS’s core practice areas, the Toolkit Captains. This group leads development, deployment, training, feedback collection, and tool revisions, ensuring the Toolkit grows with the studio, aspiring to enable it to be accessible to all teams and all design staff.

The SRL Toolkit enables:

• The automation of existing conditions models.
• Visual + spatial + human + environmental analyses.
• An environment to rapidly translate sketch to 3D.
• Visual (qualitative) and metric (quantitative) understandings of conceptual ideas.
• More depth to evaluate options, without slowing down a fluid design process.
• The production of clear + legible graphics for design coordination, and engagement with clients and wider audiences.
• The generation of assets for technical drawings, allowing more time designing and less spent on documenting.
• Infinite potential for scope expansion
• New opportunities for more robust internal design staff training.

As the Toolkit evolves, it continues to respond to new benchmarks and priorities. Most recently, its scope has expanded to include alignments with the City of Toronto’s 2021 Pedestrian Level Wind Guidelines and 2025 Thermal Comfort Guidelines. Looking forward, it is being adapted to directly support the metrics and performance goals outlined in the JRS Sustainability Action Plan (SAP), making it an essential engine for exploring the environmental and sustainability agenda within the studio.

The SRL Toolkit is not a finished product; it is an evolving system. It represents our commitment to innovation, design rigor, and collective learning, and signals a future in which digital workflows are leveraged not to replace creativity, but to deepen and amplify it.