Toronto Sherbourne Common, Canada's Sugar Beach, and the Water's Edge Promenade | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto | Teeple Architects

There will be a very large park in the West Donlands. This area will be pretty well served with parks once everything is complete.
 
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They've covered some of the tracks leading west from outside Sugar Beach and I'm hoping they cover the rest. Right now there's no pdestrian walkway on the south side of QQ from Sugar Beach to almost Yonge St.

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Sherbourne Common is pretty cool but I don't like all the concrete. It never ages well. They could have went with a prettier material. Maybe a bluish toned tile on the stream bed would have made the water stand out more, but it's still pretty nice as is. The silver beads on the planters are a nice touch.
 
I like how they're covering over the tracks and not removing them. Some future generation is going to find them buried there. A relic of the industrial path of the waterfront.
 
MetroMan said:
I like how they're covering over the tracks and not removing them. Some future generation is going to find them buried there. A relic of the industrial path of the waterfront.
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The tracks east of Jarvis have been removed (to Small Street) and the short stretch west of Jarvis will doubtless go as soon as they do the reconstruction of Queen's Quay. Actually the area is littered with old bits of old track, see on Lower Market Street @ Wilton, Small Street and QQ itself at Parliament. All will go as the roads are reconstructed.
 
I'm really surprised the architects didn't think of this potential problem during the design process.
 
But how high will the water actually go? So far the water in the channel only seems to cover the black rock "streambed", leaving plenty of space on the edge to skate.
 
Tulse said:
But how high will the water actually go? So far the water in the channel only seems to cover the black rock "streambed", leaving plenty of space on the edge to skate.
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I was there on Friday and they were laying out "bumpers" that they intend to fasten to the concrete. Not sure if these were test pieces or if they have actually fastened any there today but the Skater Boys will soon be out of luck. (They announced this would be happening during their public meeting at St Lawrence Hall a few weeks ago. It is surprising it was not thought of originally.)
 
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There are now metal 'anti-skater things' on the concrete around the water feature in Sherbourne Common South and they have put up 5 or 6 of the new light-standards south of the Corus Building. (Not sure I like them but have yet to see them lit and they are better than the temporary 'steeetlights".)
 
The anti-skater metal flanges are only on the concrete "benches" that surround the splash pad, and not in the water channel itself where the skaters have apparently been doing their thing. (The flanges are also very narrow and look rather sharp and unfriendly if one were to accidentally sit on them.)

Overall the park looks like it has actually moved backwards from where it was at launch -- the southern end of the grassy portion is being dug up, the cladding on the building is missing on almost the entire north side, and there is no water running in the channel. I presume this actually counts as progress, and that the opening day appearance was deceptive, but it is still a bit disheartening.
 
The city really needs to build some more facilities for skaters, and then enforce anti-skateboarding in areas like this much more vigilantly. There's no doubt many of them are jackasses who like the skate in inappropriate places anyway, but if there were some more options downtown, the impact would definitely be lessened. I've been saying for ages that the underutilized spaces beneath the Gardiner would be perfect.
 
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