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AlvinofDiaspar
Guest
From the Star, by Hume:
Park along shoreline could be `spectacular'
Sep. 21, 2006. 01:00 AM
CHRISTOPHER HUME
Though it doesn't occupy much space in the public consciousness, when Lake Ontario Park is completed it will be largest place of its kind in the city.
At just less than 1,000 acres, it will stretch from the magnificent R.C. Harris Filtration Plant in the east all the way to Cherry Beach and the tip of the Leslie Street Spit in the west.
But as landscape architect James Corner points out, "It's all edge. It doesn't really have an interior."
In fact, from one end to the other, the park will extend 37 kilometres in and out along the shoreline. And, Corner adds, if you include the Inner Harbour, the size of the park will be 1,670 acres. That's twice the size of Central Park in New York City.
Corner's firm, Field Operations, won the competition to design Lake Ontario Park earlier this year. Organized by the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp., the idea was to create a place that will be one of the big attractions of the city's rebuilt harbourlands. Indeed, it is intended to draw people from around the world, let alone the rest of Canada.
Field Operations, a highly regarded landscape architectural practice based in Manhattan, has come to international prominence for a series of projects in locales as diverse as Singapore and New York.
"This is a great time for public space," says Corner. "We're building large parks in post-industrial cities everywhere. They bring new utility and new identity to the city."
Toronto is a perfect example; like so many other communities, it is trying to figure out what to do with vast tracts of land once dedicated to shipping, manufacturing and warehousing. Though the amount of land available here is larger than in most cities, the same process is unfolding on our waterfront. Though we have been slower off the mark than some, regeneration has definitely started.
The road has not been smooth, and understandably there's widespread cynicism. Just this week, the government of Ontario made it official the wildly ill-conceived Portlands Energy Station will be built next to the abandoned Hearn Generating Station, on land set aside for a mixed-use neighbourhood. This flies in the face of five years of planning and demonstrates why Torontonians are so skeptical both about waterfront redevelopment and civic government, which is powerless to stop Premier Dalton McGuinty's panic-driven scheme.
Lake Ontario Park on the other hand is all good news.
"The challenge," Corner explains, "is to connect the disparate elements that make up the existing landscape. It has a mystical and poetic quality, but it's a depositional landscape. You can never quite define it. Certainly you don't want a Battery Park esplanade running along the water's edge. That would be exactly the wrong thing. We want to bring a light touch to the project but make bold moves."
As project designer Ellen Neises points out, "It's an amazing site. Our desire is to create a signature park for Canada, not just Toronto. We have to determine which are the areas to leave alone and which should be intensified. Already it accommodates a huge range of uses."
Unbeknownst to many Torontonians, the land that will become Lake Ontario Park is home to three globally significant bird nesting sites, as well as countless joggers, boaters, birders, bathers and bikers.
"The potential is here to have a spectacular park," Corner insists, "a park unlike any other. Many of the ingredients are already in place, so it's not just a pipe dream. It offers a feeling of wilderness and a sense of discovery. We don't want to sanitize or anesthetize any of these qualities."
According to Neises, who has visited the site many times, usually at 5 a.m. when it's coming to life, the first plan won't be ready until November or early December. "We have a concept," she says, "but it has to be vetted by the stakeholders."
Though both she and Corner marvel at the number of agencies, organizations, bodies and bureaucrats involved in the process, they are impressed by the level of debate.
"This discussion here is more sophisticated than other cities," she says. "Torontonians are talking about the kinds of things that designers talk about. It's impressive."
If all goes according to plan, work could begin next year.
AoD
Park along shoreline could be `spectacular'
Sep. 21, 2006. 01:00 AM
CHRISTOPHER HUME
Though it doesn't occupy much space in the public consciousness, when Lake Ontario Park is completed it will be largest place of its kind in the city.
At just less than 1,000 acres, it will stretch from the magnificent R.C. Harris Filtration Plant in the east all the way to Cherry Beach and the tip of the Leslie Street Spit in the west.
But as landscape architect James Corner points out, "It's all edge. It doesn't really have an interior."
In fact, from one end to the other, the park will extend 37 kilometres in and out along the shoreline. And, Corner adds, if you include the Inner Harbour, the size of the park will be 1,670 acres. That's twice the size of Central Park in New York City.
Corner's firm, Field Operations, won the competition to design Lake Ontario Park earlier this year. Organized by the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp., the idea was to create a place that will be one of the big attractions of the city's rebuilt harbourlands. Indeed, it is intended to draw people from around the world, let alone the rest of Canada.
Field Operations, a highly regarded landscape architectural practice based in Manhattan, has come to international prominence for a series of projects in locales as diverse as Singapore and New York.
"This is a great time for public space," says Corner. "We're building large parks in post-industrial cities everywhere. They bring new utility and new identity to the city."
Toronto is a perfect example; like so many other communities, it is trying to figure out what to do with vast tracts of land once dedicated to shipping, manufacturing and warehousing. Though the amount of land available here is larger than in most cities, the same process is unfolding on our waterfront. Though we have been slower off the mark than some, regeneration has definitely started.
The road has not been smooth, and understandably there's widespread cynicism. Just this week, the government of Ontario made it official the wildly ill-conceived Portlands Energy Station will be built next to the abandoned Hearn Generating Station, on land set aside for a mixed-use neighbourhood. This flies in the face of five years of planning and demonstrates why Torontonians are so skeptical both about waterfront redevelopment and civic government, which is powerless to stop Premier Dalton McGuinty's panic-driven scheme.
Lake Ontario Park on the other hand is all good news.
"The challenge," Corner explains, "is to connect the disparate elements that make up the existing landscape. It has a mystical and poetic quality, but it's a depositional landscape. You can never quite define it. Certainly you don't want a Battery Park esplanade running along the water's edge. That would be exactly the wrong thing. We want to bring a light touch to the project but make bold moves."
As project designer Ellen Neises points out, "It's an amazing site. Our desire is to create a signature park for Canada, not just Toronto. We have to determine which are the areas to leave alone and which should be intensified. Already it accommodates a huge range of uses."
Unbeknownst to many Torontonians, the land that will become Lake Ontario Park is home to three globally significant bird nesting sites, as well as countless joggers, boaters, birders, bathers and bikers.
"The potential is here to have a spectacular park," Corner insists, "a park unlike any other. Many of the ingredients are already in place, so it's not just a pipe dream. It offers a feeling of wilderness and a sense of discovery. We don't want to sanitize or anesthetize any of these qualities."
According to Neises, who has visited the site many times, usually at 5 a.m. when it's coming to life, the first plan won't be ready until November or early December. "We have a concept," she says, "but it has to be vetted by the stakeholders."
Though both she and Corner marvel at the number of agencies, organizations, bodies and bureaucrats involved in the process, they are impressed by the level of debate.
"This discussion here is more sophisticated than other cities," she says. "Torontonians are talking about the kinds of things that designers talk about. It's impressive."
If all goes according to plan, work could begin next year.
AoD
