City Square to be named after city builder Pecaut

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is asking council to rename a city square in honour of the late David Pecaut, a renowned civic booster and a co-founder of the Luminato arts festival.

Ford made the announcement Friday morning at Metro Square, located between Metro Hall and Roy Thomson Hall just south of King Street West.

"David Pecaut was a visionary who gave freely of his time his energy and his great ideas to the City of Toronto," said Ford, who was joined at the announcement by members of Pecaut's family, arts advisor Jeff Melanson and area councillor Adam Vaughan.

"He represented the very best in volunteerism and leadership qualities that I would like everybody, all citizens, to learn from," the mayor said.

Ford will present a formal request to council on Tuesday to rename the square.

"Thank you for honouring his life and his work and his love of Toronto by renaming his square after him," said his wife, Helen Burstyn on Thursday. "This is a place where business, culture and government all come together and that's just the way David would have liked it."

Pecaut worked on projects that ranged from the City Summit Alliance (now known as the Greater Toronto Civic Action Alliance) to the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council and then Luminato. He also volunteered his time to fundraise for the Toronto International Film Festival's new home, TIFF Bell Lightbox.

But he had to stop a few months after he started his work due to his deteriorating health. He died of colorectal cancer in Dec. 2009 at the age of 54.

Pecaut worked as a senior partner with the Boston Consulting Group, a management consulting company, but worked pro bono for all of his Toronto organizations. He was also the chief executive of the venture capital firm iFormation Group when he died.

Photograpy by Mulugeta Zergaber

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