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

Coool:

None of the planning reports suggested any of these projects will be completed in the next 5 years - more like 15+ years timeframe. I think they might be referring to some of the public works within these projects. Now a substantial portion of developments WDL will have to be completed in 5 years or so since the site is slated to be the Pan Am Village.

AoD
 
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It's hard to say with parks. I walked by the site last week and I saw nothing but dug up dirt and lots of machinery.
 
Really? I was in the neighbourhood over the week-end and what I saw didn't make me feel very optimistic. I definitely couldn't conceive of them being ahead of schedule, that's for sure. Glad to hear it though. The earlier in the summer they're done, the better, say I! (I'm really excited for the redevelopment of this whole area. It'll make the walks to Cherry Beach quite the adventure!)
 
From the Star:

Hume: New waterfront park does double duty
Published On Sat Mar 13 2010

By Christopher Hume
Urban Issues, Architecture

When is a park not just a park? When it's also a water treatment facility.

The best example in this city is taking shape at Sherbourne and Queens Quay. These days, the site doesn't look especially park-like; in fact, it's a sea of mud as work crews pour concrete on the enormous channel that will run the full length of the site carrying clean water to Lake Ontario.

The as-yet-unnamed park, which actually extends north from the shore almost to Lake Shore Blvd., is one of 14 public spaces already constructed under the aegis of Waterfront Toronto, the agency created in 2001 by the three levels of government to oversee revitalization of Toronto's old harbour lands. From the start a decade ago, the organization's strategy has been based on the proposition that if you build the infrastructure, they will come.

But Waterfront Toronto has taken the concept an important step further. As Sherbourne Park – its temporary name – will illustrate so dramatically, in this case, infrastructure won't just make the area inhabitable, it will itself be inhabitable. This notion of using design to transform a public utility into a public amenity has never made more sense than now. It's not new, of course, but the idea that everything we build in a city should do double- (even triple-) duty is one whose time has come.

"The days of the singular perspective are over," argues Vancouver landscape architect Greg Smallenberg. "We're getting more collaborative. I would say that as a profession, landscape architecture has become much more aware of these issues of rationalization of capital costs. This is becoming more popular now. The truth is we've been thinking along these lines a long time. You see this in the blurring of roles; it's an indication that the professions realize we have to rely on each other. We now have road engineers calling us to collaborate on road design. Twenty years ago that would have been unthinkable. That's happening more and more.

"We are in a new world of collaboration. Today the feeling is that if we have to build something anyhow, why not build something worthwhile. Waterfront Toronto really gets that. The politicians are also getting it, which from my perspective is probably the biggest advancement of the last few years."

Smallenberg's firm, Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg, a world leader, won an international competition to design the innovative Sherbourne St. facility. But when the park was first announced last summer, it was something other than innovation that raised eyebrows – the $28.7 million price tag. That's a lot of cash, but keep in mind the bulk of it will be spent on water treatment equipment, not trees and benches.

"These days," he explains, "we take an interdisciplinary approach. The Sherbourne Park team included landscape architects, architects, engineers and an artist, Jill Anholt."

The intention was not simply to incorporate an industrial process – storm water purification – into the park, but also to reveal, even celebrate, that process. At a time when Canada's infrastructure deficit stands at $123 billion, such exposure couldn't be more welcome. These are the systems, usually out of sight and out of mind, that provide the basic urban functions we take for granted but can no longer afford to do so.

And so Sherbourne Park is also the Sherbourne Park UV Purification Facility. Beneath a pavilion designed by Toronto architect Stephen Teeple, water will undergo ultra-violet treatment. It then flows into the channel through three sculptures that rise nine metres above ground. The channel, which will figure prominently in the stormwater management system for the entire East Bayfront stretching from Yonge to Parliament Sts., also includes a biofiltration bed for further cleansing.

Meanwhile, a bit farther east, where the Don River veers to the west, another major waterfront green space, Don River Park, is also unfolding. Designed by leading New York-based landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh, this is a neighbourhood park set atop a massive berm, a "flood protection landform" created to eliminate the kind of devastating flooding that occurred when Hurricane Hazel swept through the city in 1954.

Turning a landform such as this into a park may not be a wholly novel idea, but involving landscape architects and other designers in the process right from the start, even putting them in lead positions, has the potential to be transformative and to remake the merely useful into something beautiful.

The public remains understandably skeptical about the prospect of a revitalized waterfront, but contrary to expectations, it's taking shape now. Sherbourne Park, new name and all, will be completed this fall. Don River Park is expected to be underway by May.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/778688--hume-new-waterfront-park-does-double-duty

AoD
 
A really nice concept and great addition to the waterfront. A few questions. Based on the runoff in the ponds at Bluffers Park, the water is going to be pretty filthy with solids. Will UV treatment really clean it up that much? And, where will the water come from when there is no storm water runoff? Will they be pumping lake water into the system?
 
toto:

The runoff is going to flow through a settling tank that runs the length of the EBF boardwalk, terminating at the giant wavedeck at the foot of Parliament - the water will then be pumped to the treatment station, up the 3 art pieces and flow down the channel at the park to discharge into the lake.

More info here:

http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/dbdocs//4b151fb5daed3.pdf

AoD
 
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I really love the waterfalls. So awesome looking. And this is all supposed to be finished by the end of the summer? Wow!
 
Yeah, those waterfalls are pretty fantastic. Fingers crossed the renders bear some resemblance to reality. But this summer seems overly optimistic...
 
They are making really fast progress, about to put the water pipes under Queens Quay and thus linking the north and south parts of the park. I would not be surprised at a September opening, just before the municipal elections.
 

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