Located at the water’s edge just east of Jarvis St., across the slip from the Redpath Sugar Factory, Canada’s Sugar Beach is the first park to open in the new East Bayfront neighbourhood.  Waterfront Toronto decided to open the park in time for the July long weekend to give the public a chance to enjoy the whimsical new space while finishing touches are being completed.  Over the next few weeks, temporary lights will be replaced, benches installed and the splash pad hooked up to hydro. Reaction from the public has already been overwhelming positive. Please join Waterfront Toronto and our government partners on August 9 at 10:30am for the official opening.

Underpass Park before and after showing a rendering of the center block in the evening.

A derelict area beneath a series of overpasses in the West Don Lands is going to be transformed into an urban jewel.  Today Waterfront Toronto unveiled plans for Underpass Park, the most extensive park to ever be built under an overpass in Canada, and the first in Toronto.

Located within the West Don Lands – home to the 2015 Pan American Games Athletes’ Village – Underpass Park will cover a total of 1.05 hectares (2.5 acres) under and around the Eastern Avenue and Richmond/Adelaide overpasses, between Cherry Street and Bayview Avenue.

The overpasses transect the West Don Lands; the park will remove a psychological barrier by converting the derelict space beneath the ramps into a bright, new neighbourhood destination.  Residents of the soon-to-be-built housing developments in the north eastern section of the West Don Lands will have park space and safe beautiful connections to the rest of the neighbourhood.

“Underpass Park is a crucial step in delivering on our promise to revitalize the West Don Lands into Toronto’s next great neighbourhood.” said John Campbell, President and CEO of Waterfront Toronto. “Influenced by the massive overpass structures, the park’s design transforms the derelict and underused space into a bright, fully accessible urban neighbourhood amenity that will contribute to the success of the developments being built in the community.”

Designed by renowned landscape architects Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg in association with The Planning Partnership, Underpass Park embodies design excellence and is the epitome of innovative urban park design.  The design creates a socially-engaging park for community members of all ages and abilities by incorporating public art, recreational space, playful climbing structures and play areas, flexible community space, community gardens, and public gathering places.   

Underpass Park before and after showing a rendering of the western edge of the park featuring community gardens.

“Underpass Park is all about the community, the everyday, and creating ‘place’,” said Greg Smallenberg, Partner, Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg.  “The design takes full advantage of the existing site’s eccentricities and its free-for-the-taking weather protection, transforming something that might otherwise be incidental into a delightful urban patch.”

Public art will play a critical role in the design of Underpass Park.  When planning the overarching public art strategy for the West Don Lands, Underpass Park was identified as a high priority public art opportunity.  Late in 2009, Waterfront Toronto launched its first open artist competition.  The selected artist, Paul Raff of Toronto, is an award-winning artist and architect.

In keeping with Waterfront Toronto’s sustainable development approach, Underpass Park incorporates many sustainability best practices into the design.  The organization’s goal is to ensure that everything built on Toronto’s waterfront sets new standards for architecture and public space.

Some of the innovative and sustainable features include: repurposing reclaimed granite cobblestones excavated from Eastern Avenue into the community garden structures; using recycled rubber materials for the recreational court surfaces; planting more than 50 trees to beautify and naturalize the space, including between the existing ramps; utilizing energy efficient LED lighting and drought, salt and shade tolerant plantings for minimal maintenance and irrigation.

Construction of Underpass Park is slated to start in May 2010 and is another sign of the momentum and progress being made in the West Don Lands.  Construction of the area’s flood protection landform is nearing completion and work has begun on municipal servicing and preparing for new street construction.  Construction of the first affordable rental housing building by Toronto Community Housing is expected to start later this year.  The initial sales launch for River City – a LEED Gold, carbon-neutral development and the first private sector initiative in the West Don Lands – was hugely successful.  Construction is slated to begin this fall.  Don River Park, the seven hectare (17-acre) centrepiece of the community, is scheduled to break ground this summer.

The Pan Am Games Athletes’ Village in the West Don Lands means a significant increase in the pace of transformation of the area.  Underpass Park, while outside of the Village, is a significant start to turning the former industrial lands into a beautiful, sustainable, mix-use neighborhood.  The original timelines for build out of the 32 hectare (80 acres) West Don Lands was planned for 10-12 years, in three strategic phases, subject to market conditions.  With the acceleration for the Pan Am Games, more than half of the community will be in place for June 2015.

The Governments of Canada and Ontario and the City of Toronto created Waterfront Toronto to oversee and lead the renewal of Toronto’s waterfront. Public accessibility, design excellence, sustainable development, economic development and fiscal sustainability are the key drivers of waterfront revitalization.

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Media Contact:

Tari Stork, Waterfront Toronto 416-214-1344 / tstork@waterfrontoronto.ca

Sam Gileno, Waterfront Toronto 416-214-1344 / sgileno@waterfrontoronto.ca

Media Kit: 

Large images

Fact Sheet (PDF 109 KB)

West Don Lands Backgrounder (PDF 93 KB)

West Don Lands Image Gallery

Underpass Park Context Map

Sherbourne Park Water Channel

Crews have begun construction of the 240-metre long water channel that runs the entire length of Sherbourne Park. Work on the water channel, which is made of concrete with a light, sandblasted finish, began on the south side of the park and is now about 50 per cent complete. Over the next month, crews will continue pouring concrete into the wooden formwork which acts as a mold for the channel. Work will take place under a large white tent to allow the concrete to set protected from the winter elements. The south side water channel is expected to be fully formed by the end of March.

The water channel will play a key role in the stormwater management system for East Bayfront. Stormwater will be treated with strong UV light in the Sherbourne Park UV Purification Facility located in the basement of the park’s pavilion. After the UV treatment is complete, the water will enter the park’s water channel through one of three dramatic sculptures that rise almost nine metres from the ground. After traveling the full length of the channel, the clean water will be discharged into Lake Ontario.

The water channel is raised on the north side of the park and includes a biofiltration bed for further stormwater treatment. As the channel moves south of Queens Quay toward the pavilion it becomes recessed until it reaches ground level.

Illustration by Brett Lamb (Courtesy of Torontoist)

The votes are in and ‘Waterfront Development’ was named a semi-finalist in Torontoist’s Heroes and Villains of 2009 competition. Launched by popular website Torontoist in late December, the contest asked readers to vote for the very best and worst people, places and things in Toronto during 2009. The ‘Waterfront Development’ category, which featured a wonderful illustration of the Simcoe WaveDeck, was nominated thanks to what Torontoist called the “palpable turning point” in waterfront development during 2009. Torontoist highlighted the opening of the Simcoe and Rees wavedecks, groundbreakings at Sherbourne Park and Canada’s Sugar Beach, and Toronto’s winning PanAm bid as evidence of momentum on the waterfront.

Of the twenty four Heroes selected by Torontoist for the competition, Waterfront Development easily moved on to the second round of voting after earning more votes than The Power Plant Gallery in the first round of voting. In the second round, Waterfront Development surpassed Scramble Intersections to make it to the semi-finalist round where after a close battle, Wildlife triumphed and moved on to the finals. More than 30,000 votes were cast during the competition whose ultimate winner was the Toronto Public Library.

2010 promises even more activity on the waterfront with groundbreakings for Don River Park and Underpass Park in the West Don Lands planned for this spring. Canada’s Sugar Beach and Sherbourne Park will open later this summer and both parks will be connected by a new 19 metre wide stretch of water’s edge promenade. Construction is also about to start in the Central Waterfront where Waterfront Toronto and Harbourfront Centre are replacing a 1.4 hectare surface parking lot with an underground parking garage — this will free up the surface area for future public space and a thriving cultural/retail village.

Waterfront Toronto’s selection of the proposal by Great Gulf Group for the Moshe Safdie designed mixed-use development project on the waterfront was based on a rigorous and conscientious process that fully considered price as well as the city building aspects of the project.

The competitive two-stage process was guided by a Steering Committee composed of senior Waterfront Toronto staff, a Waterfront Toronto board member,  a representative of the City of Toronto, and independent subject matter experts in design, sustainability, and real estate.  The process was overseen by a Fairness Advisor, The Honourable Justice Coulter A. Osbourne.

The evaluation criteria were developed to ensure the selected proposal met the objectives previously approved by City Council for the area.

The quality of the submissions for Parkside was extremely high.  While all submissions offered a very high caliber of design, sustainability and creativity, the deciding factor in this instance was price.

Waterfront Toronto also undertook two independent appraisals to ensure that the price offered by Great Gulf was fair market value for the development site.

This process led to Waterfront Toronto’s recommendation to the City that the Parkside development site be sold to Great Gulf.  Ultimately, it will be Toronto City Council’s decision whether or not to approve the project.

Waterfront Toronto will officially present the technically recommended alternative and two options for the traffic lanes, one which would have two-way traffic and the other one-way traffic, for public discussion and input tonight. While Waterfront Toronto has a slight preference for the two-way option at this time, further analysis and public input are required before a final option is presented to City Council.“Today we are one step closer to our goal of revitalizing Toronto’s central waterfront area,” said John Campbell, President and CEO of Waterfront Toronto. “From east to west, Queens Quay is the backbone of our waterfront and it will soon become a revered destination not only for Torontonians but the world.”

Transforming Queens Quay by creating a beautiful linear park on the south side of the street that would include a generous new pedestrian promenade and an expanded Martin Goodman Trail was part of the winning design for revitalizing the central waterfront selected by Waterfront Toronto in 2006 after an international design competition.

Prior to making any changes to Queens Quay, Waterfront Toronto and the City of Toronto began a Class Environmental Assessment (EA) process to study the feasibility, impact, and alternatives to the idea. In fact, Queens Quay has been subject to two EAs, one on the revitalization itself and another, done in conjunction with Toronto Transit Committee and the City of Toronto, focusing on planning transit services for the new waterfront development underway in East Bayfront and future communities in the West Don Lands and Port Lands.

The EA process, which has been ongoing for the past two years, has included the examination of several alternative planning solutions for Queens Quay. Each alternative presents a different configuration for a revitalized Queens Quay that has been analyzed and rated against a series of city planning and environmental criteria.

The EA process also includes a thorough and continuing public consultation component and extensive in-depth technical analysis.

Furthermore, rigorous traffic and transit modeling were undertaken to test the feasibility of all of the alternative design solutions.

Results of the EA show that the technically recommended alternative provides the greatest opportunity for creating a world-class waterfront street. Traffic analysis confirms that reducing traffic to two lanes on the north side of Queens Quay is not only feasible in the short term but can also accommodate future traffic demands.

The Class Environmental Assessment process is ongoing and public input is still being sought. The recommended plan incorporating the Preferred Alternative will be identified after we have taken into account public and stakeholder input. It will go to City Council for approval in July.

The revitalization of Queens Quay is budgeted at approximately $192 million which includes all new services and public realm improvements and $150 million for new transit along Queens Quay in the new East Bayfront area.

The first phase of construction from York to Spadina is expected to begin about one year after the completion of the EA. Waterfront Toronto’s goal is to finish construction along Queens Quay by 2012.

The Government of Canada, the Province of Ontario and the City of Toronto created Waterfront Toronto to oversee and lead the renewal of Toronto’s waterfront. Public accessibility, design excellence, sustainable development, economic development and fiscal sustainability are the key drivers of waterfront revitalization.

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Media Contact:

Samantha Gileno, Waterfront Toronto 416-214-1344 x264

Media Kit

News Release (pdf)
Queens Quay Backgrounder (pdf)
Central Waterfront Backgrounder (pdf)
Image – Aerial View at Simcoe Slip (jpg)
Image – Winter Aerial View at Simcoe Slip (jpg)
Image – Queens Quay Winter Night Festival (jpg)
Image – Queens Quay Vendors (jpg)
Image – View of Martin Goodman Trail (jpg)
Image – TTC Stop (jpg)

June 12, 2008 – Luminato guests can cruise in style to major Festival attractions on the waterfront on the Luminato Link boat shuttle, presented by Waterfront Toronto, June 13-15. The Luminato Link is a free waterside boat shuttle where passengers can view diverse artwork by visual artists and also get a glimpse of a future revitalized waterfront.

While waiting for the Luminato Link boat shuttle at the Parliament Street slip (near the Distillery District attractions), festival-goers can enjoy the sand and sun at Waterfront Toronto’s temporary urban beach. This vibrant public space features beach chairs and cabana-style umbrellas and a full television display of Waterfront Toronto’s revitalization plans for the future East Bayfront.

Luminato, Toronto’s Festival of Arts and Creativity (June 6-15) is Toronto’s premier multidisciplinary celebration of theatre, dance, classical and contemporary music, film, literature, visual arts, design and more.

“Luminato is even bigger and better for 2008. We are thrilled to participate again this year and to partner with Luminato in animating our waterfront,” said John Campbell, CEO & President, Waterfront Toronto. “The Luminato Link boat shuttle is the best way for Festival goers to experience firsthand the exciting progress on Toronto’s revitalized waterfront.”

“We invite all Festival participants to hop aboard the Luminato Link boat shuttle to enjoy the visual, musical, theatrical and culinary treats offered at Harbourfront Centre and the Distillery District this weekend,” said Janice Price, CEO of Luminato. “Our fantastic arts partners at the Distillery District and Harbourfront Centre have created a spectacular closing weekend line-up, and we are thrilled that Waterfront Toronto is presenting, for our second season, a care-free travel alternative between the two sites.”

Departing every hour from Harbourfront Centre and the Distillery District during the Festival’s closing weekend beginning Friday, June 13 at 4:00 p.m., the official three-day Luminato Link boat shuttle will provide exclusive views of Festival art installations visible only from the water.

As part of this year’s Festival, Waterfront Toronto is also sponsoring “Housepaint” at Parliament Street Slip, part of Luminato’s StreetScape program, where some of the best street artists and multimedia creators will re-imagine the city’s post-industrial waterfront, housing communities, and urban spaces in the midst of revitalization.

ABOUT WATERFRONT TORONTO

The Government of Canada, the Province of Ontario and the City of Toronto created Waterfront Toronto to oversee and lead the renewal of Toronto’s waterfront. Public accessibility, design excellence, sustainable development, economic development and fiscal sustainability are the key drivers of waterfront revitalization.

ABOUT LUMINATO

For 10 extraordinary days in June, the vibrant city of Toronto’s stages, streets and public spaces are illuminated with arts and creativity. Luminato is an annual multidisciplinary celebration of theatre, dance, classical and contemporary music, film, literature, visual arts, design and more. Luminato 2008 is June 6-15.

For more information on both free and ticketed Luminato events, including dates, locations and schedules, visit www.luminato.com. Tickets are available through all Ticketmaster outlets (call 416-872-1111 or visit www.ticketmaster.ca).
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Media Contact:
Marisa Piattelli, Waterfront Toronto
416-214-1476
mpiattelli@waterfrontoronto.ca

For media inquiries about Luminato, please contact:
Laura Barron, Luminato
416-368-3100 ext. 242
lbarron@luminato.com