Toronto Ontario Square and Canada Square | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto

Those are not public squares. They are really just public walkways and we already have plenty of them all over town. Paving stones, benches and trees, do not make a great public square. It takes a hell of a lot more than just that. These squares have no focus. They are completely without anything of interest, no wow factor at all. What makes this a "Canada Square"? I see nothing that pays tribute to Canada or relates to it in anyway. It's just a pointless name.
 
Opening

Canada Eve fireworks to celebrate opening of Canada Square (green square on the left with 41 dawn redwood trees) and Ontario Square
(gray and white square on the right with 500 aspen trees) last weekend as seen from Waterclub condo building ...

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Read more about the squares in this Star article
 
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I absolutely love these 2 squares. Probably the best in the city! :)

You know, for all the complaining about our waterfront, this city certainly hasn't been doing a bad job for the last decade or so. I can't wait for all the development West of Yonge.
 
Honestly though ... what is it lacking, a focal point ? Just a imagine a large fountain where the green patch of grass is, would that make you folks happy ? What would it cost, say maybe 5-10 million.

Seems like an easy fix given time, other then that, what's lacking ?



Anyway ... you can see the new paving on Queens Quay in a couple sections now ! On the north side ... its really nice, actually you can see a finished section beside the sugar factory ! (in the stretch inbetween that and sugar beach).



You know what I think, a sugar beach here would have been perfect ... was just there today the attention to detail in sugar beach is amazing ... oh and there is that focal point ... a fountain ....
 
taal:

The green area is where the low rise future development will be - the site will be considerably denser and tightly woven after that.

AoD
 
Awesome pics, udo.

The redwoods can grown about 4 or 5 feet per year, so these should look majestic in a few years (and hopefully have enough room to be really large trees)!

The aspens are an elegant choice and look amazing in clumps...exactly how they planted them.
 
Yes! As per the link/article from WT that I posted this past week, it's an "an interim landscaped area with a café, Common Goods (Muvbox) kiosks and tented activity areas".
 
That area is called Exhibition Common: An interim landscaped activity area north of Canada Square to Queens Quay.

From WT: "When financing and designs are in place, Exhibition Common is expected to become Harbourfront Centre’s Cultural Village. The Cultural Village, a Harbourfront Centre-led initiative, is a low-scale development with cafés, restaurants, shops, artist studios and architect offices located north of Canada Square to Queens Quay."
 
That's a relief. Until seeing the shot from above that Udo posted I wasn't sure where the cultural village was supposed to go. I understand the utility of fake grass, but in an area where we're trying to put some nature back, it just screams 'fake'. I can certainly live with it if it's temporary, but it's a little worrying that they seem to have treated it as a permanent solution to the area on the west side of harbourfront center. Am I the only one that doesn't like the fake grass?
 
The redwoods in particular smell great, and yes, I look forward to seeings what we have here in ten years; they could be pretty impressive by then. In the meantime, we have a nice spot to be in, just for the quality of the air alone.

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I was in Montpellier france recently and they have built what they call the Antigone district with fountains galore.
I don't see how a small size city like that can build huge gorgeous districts and fountains and us, a relatively big size, rich city, cannot build one fountain where people can congregate. A big central gathering space. So what if it costs money. Billions were poured into downtown to build those condos, which I'm totally for, the least they could do is allocate some of that money for parks and fountains and trees.
Its an investment, not a waste.
This is only one of many btw. U walk thru this strict and get to a small river. But the walk up there is gorgeous. Can we do the same thing? Choose one street and take it all the way down to the lake. And make that street pretty all the way down. Even if it goes under the gardener.
I'm off topic a little...sorry!!!
 

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Cities near the Mediterranean like Montpellier (Aix-en-Provence is another one with fountains in ever square, and for sure the list goes on…) don't have to deal with the freeze-thaw cycle that we do. It wreaks havoc on fountains, making their upkeep much more expensive here… therefore we have far fewer of them.

However, we do have them, including "one fountain where people can congregate. A big central gathering space." It's called Nathan Phillips Square, and along with the reflecting pool fountains, there are also the new ones that rise out of the square… just like at Yonge Dundas Square.

Still, I know you're looking for something more like the Trevi Fountain, and we don't have that, but there are quite a number of fountains in Toronto nevertheless, including a river at the north side of Bell Trinity Square on Bay Street. Others worth checking out include the (thankfully fixed) salmon fountain at the SkyDome and the trio of fountains at Dundee Place, and there's Berczy Park, Commerce Court, the CNE, Toronto Island, Sherbourne Common, Sugar Beach, Gov't of Canada Bldg North York, Lake Devo, and when they're working again, University Avenue…

…and more, but yes, we could use double, triple or more of what we currently have.

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