With construction wrapping up over the next few months on Oxford PropertiesWaterPark Place III, some final aesthetic and functional touches are being applied to the 30-storey, 930,000 square foot office tower. The project now has multiple green roofs, occupying the rooftop of the two-storey podium as well as the 8th and 32nd penthouse floors, to help it achieve the development's goal of LEED Platinum designation.

Green roof atop RBC WaterPark Place's podium, image courtesy of DTAH

Designed by the landscape architects at DTAH, the accessible green roofs will have a high graphic impact in the area through striped patterns created by differing plant varieties. The partially completed green roof shots used in this article were taken on July 16 and August 15, 2014. Other environmentally conscious features of RBC WaterPark Place III green roofs' are high-albedo paving, a water cistern, and trench drains. 

Green roof atop RBC WaterPark Place's podium, image courtesy of DTAH

Down at street level, landscaping and paving work is now under way. The streetscape pavers extend across the property line, seamlessly integrating the private and public realms, while creating a forecourt with granite seating and raised planters with the same palette of colours and textures used in the reconstruction of Queens Quay West.

Landscaping along the north and west façades at WaterPark Place III has been designed to embrace the existing condition, facing two off-ramps of the Gardiner Expressway, while still allowing flexibility for future developments on these adjacent parcels when the ramps come down in the future. Toronto's City Planning Department is pursuing the replacement the York-Bay-Yonge off ramps with a Simcoe Street ramp so that a new central park for the area can be established immediately west of this development.

Ground level paving and landscaping at RBC WaterPark Place III, image by Craig White

RBC WaterPark Place III will be connected to nearby complexes via a new PATH pedestrian network extension, designed by WZMH Architects as is the office tower itself. The PATH extension will bridge over Harbour Street and Lake Shore Boulevard but under the Gardiner Expressway, and through the retail podium of the neighbouring Sun Life Financial Center and on to the Air Canada Centre, Union Station, and the bulk of Downtown. The connection is expected to be open in late October.

RBC WaterPark Place III, image by Marcus Mitanis

For additional information including building facts and renderings of RBC Waterpark Place III, please visit our dataBase file, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum thread, or leave a comment in the section provided at the bottom of this page.

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