Toronto Rees Park Playground and Pavillion | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto

bgobgo said:
I'm still holding out hope that the Rees Street park incorporates a footbridge that leads over the Gardiner and into the newly redesigned and elevated park above the Clare Copeland transformer and next to roundhouse park. That bridge would have unbelievable views south to the water, north to the CN Tower along with a fantastic bird's eye view east and west of the Gardiner.
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I’ve always imagined walking past here that a bridge would fit under the Gardiner and above Lake Shore traffic and then wind down into the future Rees park. The space in front of the SkyDome is about level with where a bridge could go without interfering with traffic on Lake Shore. Going over the Gardiner would involve a much longer landing into the Rees park.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Note in the display boards that the park serves another purpose - being the site of another stormwater storage tank.

AoD
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I hadn’t seen this. It fits perfectly with my wish for this park: a water feature.

Seriously man, for a waterfront organization, Waterfront Toronto has done very little to enable people to interact with actual water. HTO Park has a little beach. But no water for you! The dock cuts you off from the water and prohibits any interaction with the water. Sugar Beach? Don’t touch the water! It’s all tease and no action.

There’s an opportunity here to build something really special with a central focus on water.

Cover the Gardiner with a long wall of glass bricks facing south towards those walking on Queens Quay. Have water splash down that wall on to a granite plaza with about a half inch of water. I’m of course inspired by Crown Fountain at Millennium Park in Chicago. And like Crown Fountain, those glass bricks could have embedded screens to display art at passers by, viewable from HTO Park.

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The water would have another function: quieting down the buzz of cars driving along Lake Shore and on the Gardiner. Behind the wall would be a ramp leading from a bridge crossing over Lake Shore and under the Gardiner to a new park in front of the SkyDome.
 

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Details from this week's public meeting and Cressy's latest newsletter:

- This will have a budget of $11M
- Completion target is 2021, with construction slated to begin in 2020.

There's also now an online survey that'll ostensibly inform the design of both this and the York St. park, which you can see here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/york-rees-cressy
 
MetroMan said:
Seriously man, for a waterfront organization, Waterfront Toronto has done very little to enable people to interact with actual water. HTO Park has a little beach. But no water for you! The dock cuts you off from the water and prohibits any interaction with the water. Sugar Beach? Don’t touch the water! It’s all tease and no action.
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Sugar Beach has a splash pad, and Sherbourne common next door has an even larger splash pad, fountains and ponds, as well as a stream. Corktown Common also has a large splash pad, and a large pond.

HtO is really the only Waterfront Toronto project that doesn't have a water element (unless you include it's name)
 
Tuscani01 said:
Sugar Beach has a splash pad, and Sherbourne common next door has an even larger splash pad, fountains and ponds, as well as a stream. Corktown Common also has a large splash pad, and a large pond.

HtO is really the only Waterfront Toronto project that doesn't have a water element (unless you include it's name)
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HtO predated wholesale WT involvement (and it showed).

AoD
 
ADRM said:
Details from this week's public meeting and Cressy's latest newsletter:

- This will have a budget of $11M
- Completion target is 2021, with construction slated to begin in 2020.

There's also now an online survey that'll ostensibly inform the design of both this and the York St. park, which you can see here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/york-rees-cressy
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When you have 17 choices for one question, it's a clear indicator you should be moving to qualitative, open-ended surveys instead.

AoD
 
Tuscani01 said:
Sugar Beach has a splash pad, and Sherbourne common next door has an even larger splash pad, fountains and ponds, as well as a stream. Corktown Common also has a large splash pad, and a large pond.

HtO is really the only Waterfront Toronto project that doesn't have a water element (unless you include it's name)
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It's funny because WT said the same thing at the meeting this week. Comparing the little splash pad at Sugar Beach to something like Crown Fountain in Millennium Park, is kind of insulting. A little squirts of water is no substitution for really interacting with water.

Whenever Waterfront Toronto makes a presentation at community meetings or to the press, they often say that they want to build a place where Torontonians who don't have cottages can experience cottage life in the city on the waterfront. People want to jump off a pier into the water. They want to get wet. A few squirting jets is so Toronto. Luckily, that Toronto is changing and we're starting to think big. I just hope that Waterfront Toronto doesn't miss the final two opportunities to build something with a central focus on water.
 
I want to see more urban parks, not something like Muskoka! I also want to see some major water features, not just water jests like in Dundas Square. In Canada, we have long, cold winters, yet we build our parks just like they do in Miami. What's up with that? Why not build our parks differently, taking our climate into consideration? I want to see more indoor spaces so people will have places to go to get warm, thereby extending the time people can spend in parks. Why not put more city buildings in parks, like libraries or community centres and also restaurants/cafes? These buildings should have public spaces where people can relax and enjoy a warm public space between walks in the park, ice skating or tobogganing. That's what I want to see in our larger sized parks.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Experiencing cottage life on a waterfront lined up towers and throngs of people is ludicrous. Leave that to Muskoka - people want a big city waterfront experience where the urban context fits.
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And that can't include interacting with water in an interesting, dynamic, splash-in kind of way? A "big-city waterfront experience" has to mean a basic poured-concrete splashpad or tiny fountains?
 
MetroMan said:
It's funny because WT said the same thing at the meeting this week. Comparing the little splash pad at Sugar Beach to something like Crown Fountain in Millennium Park, is kind of insulting. A little squirts of water is no substitution for really interacting with water.

Whenever Waterfront Toronto makes a presentation at community meetings or to the press, they often say that they want to build a place where Torontonians who don't have cottages can experience cottage life in the city on the waterfront. People want to jump off a pier into the water. They want to get wet. A few squirting jets is so Toronto. Luckily, that Toronto is changing and we're starting to think big. I just hope that Waterfront Toronto doesn't miss the final two opportunities to build something with a central focus on water.
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I've not seen references to a "cottage experience" and getting in the water in the inner harbor in the WT documentation I've read. My interpretation of the WT approach for the inner harbor is we are building a waterfront experience similar to NYC on the Hudson or Paris on the Siene. No one swims in those rivers but there is a connection to the water. Same thing here, the urban fabric is being built to the shoreline. A public space is available at the shore and there are many parks interspersed. It is the right vision for the inner harbor. For those wanting a cottage experience, swimming is available at nearby beaches where the area is safe.
 
modernizt said:
And that can't include interacting with water in an interesting, dynamic, splash-in kind of way? A "big-city waterfront experience" has to mean a basic poured-concrete splashpad or tiny fountains?
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Of course not, but I don't think acknowledging the urban context of central waterfront does not preclude any of what you have said, and achieving it does not require resorting to some idyllic rural ideal that it isn't.

AoD
 
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