Love Park | |
---|---|
Type | Urban park |
Location | 96 Queens Quay West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
Coordinates | 43°38′27″N79°22′47″W / 43.6408°N 79.3798°W |
Area | 2 acres (0.81 ha) [1] |
Created | 2023 |
Designer | CCxA |
Owned by | City of Toronto |
Operated by | Toronto Parks, Forestry & Recreation |
Website | www |
Love Park is a public park located in the South Core of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Developed by Waterfront Toronto, and designed by CCxA, the park is operated by Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation. [2] [3] Construction on Love Park began in July 2021, and the park officially opened on June 23, 2023. [4]
Love Park's site is the former plot of the York-Bay-Yonge eastbound off-ramp of the Gardiner Expressway. [5] The off-ramp was removed in 2016–2017 to reclaim the space for the community by allowing for the widening of Harbour Street to improve pedestrian and cyclist access to the waterfront. [6] The allotted space is 0.81 hectares (2 acres) in the Financial District of the Toronto harbourfront. [5] The allotted budget for the construction of the park is approximately CA$7 million. The project was planned to break ground in 2019 though due to delays was not started until 2021. [7]
Love Park was designed by CCxA (formerly Claude Cormier + associes) landscape architects based in Montreal. They worked with gh3*, an architecture firm in Toronto. [8] “The park was designed to be an alter ego for its surroundings of large and reflective glass clad structures.” [9] The design of Love Park follows a classic design strategy with a central water installation surrounded by lush green spaces. [7] This strategy is reflected in parks and installations around the world and has been utilized for generations. This design strategy is also seen in Natrel Rink, Nathan Phillips Square, and Paul Quarrington Ice Rink and Splash Pad. These are three public spaces that are in close proximity to Love Park and similarly have central water features. Love Park is a continuation of Toronto's efforts to revitalize its harbourfront community and bring green spaces to areas dominated by skyscrapers.
Love Park has a number of features to augment the space. The largest such feature is the heart shaped reflecting pool in the middle of the park. [3] According to Cormier, the heart design was inspired by an image he saw on social media following the 2018 Toronto van attack, while the red tile surrounding the pool references mosaics in Park Güell. [10] “Within the reflecting pool it will have a small island with red and pink flowers as well as a large, illuminated heart that will be suspended above.” [9] The reflecting pool will be a central water feature. The park also will have a fully mirrored arcade that creates a functional pavilion that's interior houses a universal washroom and a coffee kiosk for park goers to utilize while providing shelter from the elements for a number of seating areas. [9] The pavilion will be a space for residents of the community, people who work in the commercial buildings, and tourists to have a rest, eat lunch, or have a morning coffee while experiencing the park. [9] Love Park also has several clearings and platforms for the display of public art installations and to facilitate small gatherings. [9]
The Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway, commonly known as the Gardiner Expressway or simply the Gardiner, is a partially at grade and elevated municipal expressway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Running close to the shore of Lake Ontario, it extends from the foot of the Don Valley Parkway (DVP) in the east, just past the mouth of the Don River, to the junction of Highway 427 and the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) in the west, for a total length of 18.0 kilometres (11.2 mi). East of Dufferin Street to just east of the Don River, the roadway is elevated for a length of 6.8 kilometres (4.2 mi), unofficially making it the longest bridge in Ontario, as it runs above Lake Shore Boulevard east of Spadina Avenue. The Gardiner Expressway is wholly owned and operated by the Province of Ontario.
Harbourfront is a neighbourhood on the northern shore of Lake Ontario within the downtown core of the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Part of the Toronto waterfront, Harbourfront extends from Bathurst Street in the west, along Queens Quay, with its ill-defined eastern boundary being either Yonge Street or York Street. Its northern boundary is the Gardiner Expressway. Much of the district was former water lots filled in during the early 1900s to create a larger harbour district. After shipping patterns changed and the use of the Toronto harbour declined, the area was converted from industrial uses to a mixed-use district that is mostly residential and leisure.
The Toronto waterfront is the lakeshore of Lake Ontario in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It spans 46 kilometres between the mouth of Etobicoke Creek in the west and the Rouge River in the east.
Toronto Harbour or Toronto Bay is a natural bay on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Today, the harbour is used primarily for recreational boating, including personal vessels and pleasure boats providing scenic or party cruises. Ferries travel from docks on the mainland to the Islands, and cargo ships deliver aggregates and raw sugar to industries located in the harbour. Historically, the harbour has been used for military vessels, passenger traffic and cargo traffic. Waterfront uses include residential, recreational, cultural, commercial and industrial sites.
Union is a subway station on Line 1 Yonge–University of the Toronto subway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It opened in 1954 as one of twelve original stations on the first phase of the Yonge line, the first rapid transit line in Canada. It was the southern terminus of the line until the opening of the University line in 1963, and is today the inflection point of the U-shaped line. Along with Spadina station and Queens Quay station, it is one of three stations open overnight to support late-night streetcar routes.
Lake Shore Boulevard is a major arterial road running along more than half of the Lake Ontario waterfront in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Prior to 1998, two segments of Lake Shore Boulevard were designated as part of Highway 2, with the highway following the Gardiner Expressway between these two sections.
Hoggs Hollow Bridge, originally known as the Yonge Boulevard Viaduct, is a set of four separate highway bridges that span the West Branch of the Don River Valley in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and carries 14 lanes of Highway 401. The four structures are the busiest multi-span bridge crossing in North America, surpassing the Brooklyn Bridge.
Queens Quay is a prominent street in the Harbourfront neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The street was originally commercial in nature due to the many working piers along the waterfront; parts of it have been extensively rebuilt in since the 1970s with parks, condominiums, retail, as well as institutional and cultural development.
Queen's Quay Terminal is a condominium apartment, office and retail complex in the Harbourfront neighbourhood in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was originally built in 1927 as a marine terminal with office, warehouse and cold-storage facilities. When shipping to Toronto declined in the 1960s and 1970s, the building was bought by the Government of Canada to be repurposed along with a section of the industrial waterfront. The Terminal Building itself was rebuilt in the 1980s with the addition of four floors of residential above the original facility, which was converted into retail and office uses. The cold storage wing was demolished and its plant building became The Power Plant gallery and Harbourfront Centre Theatre.
Downtown Toronto is the main central business district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located entirely within the district of Old Toronto, it is approximately 16.6 square kilometres in area, bounded by Bloor Street to the northeast and Dupont Street to the northwest, Lake Ontario to the south, the Don Valley to the east, and Bathurst Street to the west. It is also the home of the municipal government of Toronto and the Government of Ontario.
HTO Park is an urban beach in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that opened in 2007. It is located west of Harbourfront Centre, on Lake Ontario.
Waterfront Toronto is an organization that oversees revitalization projects along the Toronto waterfront. Established in 2001 as a public–public partnership between the City of Toronto, Province of Ontario and Government of Canada, the organization is administering several blocks of land redevelopment projects surrounding Toronto Harbour and various other initiatives to promote the revitalization of the area, including public transit, housing developments, brownfield rehabilitation, possible removal of the Gardiner Expressway in the area, the Martin Goodman Trail and lakeshore improvements, and naturalization of the Don River. Actual development of the projects is done by other entities, primarily private corporations. The projects include a series of wavedeck walkways and gathering places designed by West 8 and DTAH.
Claude Cormier was a Canadian landscape architect from Quebec. The majority of his projects are located in Montreal and Toronto. His landscape practice was founded in 1994. In March 2022, the practice Claude Cormier + associes became CCxA in light of new partners.
Turning loops of the Toronto streetcar system serve as termini and turnback points for streetcar routes in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The single-ended streetcars require track loops in order to reverse direction. Besides short off-street track loops these can also be larger interchange points, having shelters and driver facilities, or be part of a subway station structure for convenient passenger interchange.
Sugar Beach is an urban beach park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that opened in 2010. It is located across from Redpath Sugar Refinery in Toronto's eastern East Bayfront. Like HTO Park to the west, the beach is not meant to allow wading or swimming in Lake Ontario, but rather functions as a waterfront public space for relaxation, leisure, and social activities. It cost $14 million.
East Bayfront LRT, also known as the Waterfront East LRT, is a planned Toronto streetcar line that would serve the East Bayfront and Port Lands areas in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It would run from Union station under Bay Street and along Queens Quay and Cherry Street to a new Villiers Loop along Commissioners Street east of Cherry Street on Villiers Island. It would complement the existing 509 Harbourfront service that connects Union Station to Queens Quay west of Bay Street. Longer-term plans are to extend the East Bayfront line from Cherry and Commissioners Streets to the planned East Harbour Transit Hub along GO Transit's Lakeshore East line and the planned Ontario Line.
Sherbourne Common, designed by landscape architect Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg, is a waterfront park located in a former industrial area of Toronto. It is one of the earliest parks in Canada to incorporate a neighborhood-wide storm water treatment facility into its design. Located east of Lower Sherbourne Street, the 1.47 hectare park spans two city blocks. It stretches from Lake Ontario to Lake Shore Boulevard in the north.
The Bentway, formerly Project: Under Gardiner, is a public trail and corridor space underneath the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is repurposed land that was in sections vacant, rail lines, parking lots and outdoor storage.
Pat Hanson is a Canadian architect based in Toronto and a founding principal of gh3, an architecture practice which she co-leads with Raymond Chow. The office focuses on projects that blend architecture, landscape, and urbanism. Currently gh3 -- under Hanson's leadership -- has won six Governor General's Medal in Architecture awards. This award is considered "the highest recognition for building architecture in Canada." Hanson has been inducted into the RAIC College of Fellows and has become a WLI Champion by the Urban Land Institute, which celebrate's women's leadership in building a stronger Toronto Region through responsible use of land. Hanson is also a founding member of the Women’s Architectural League.