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Four years after the completion of The Daniels Corporation's Cinema Tower, a major public realm enhancement has been announced for the base of the 43-storey condominium tower. Building on the success of Ireland Park on Toronto's waterfront, the Ireland Park Foundation has again teamed up with the City of Toronto and the Government of Ireland to create a new public space that pays homage to a wave of Irish immigration that nearly tripled our city's population back in 1847.
Known as Dr. George Robert Grasett Park, the project will reimagine an 80' x 20' space at the southeast corner of Adelaide Street West and Widmer Street, occupying a portion of the same plot of land as Toronto’s first brick hospital.
The park is being named in honour of the 1847 Chief Attending Surgeon at Toronto's Emigrant Hospital, who helped treat the thousands of Irish migrants suffering from a famine and typhus epidemic that were causing catastrophic loss of life in Ireland. Dr. Grasett's contribution to the treatment of these new migrants was important, though short-lived, as he himself would succumb to the epidemic less than a month after being appointed. In addition to Dr. Grasett, the park will recognize several of the individuals who perished while treating these new Torontonians, also honouring the site's heritage as a former part of the Hospital Reserve, a medical property from early Toronto history.
In response to the site's history and conditions, the Grasett Park Design Committee devised a plan that mirrors the stark aesthetic seen in Ireland Park at the foot of Eireann Quay. Using black granite as a canvas, the park's pavement will bear an etching of the 1842 Cane’s Map of the City of Toronto. A series of stone benches will be engraved with the names of Torontonians who sacrificed their lives treating starving and typhus-ridden migrants.
The centrepiece of the new public space will be a sculptural art installation, consisting of thick laminated glass panels embedded with a printed cheesecloth pattern, designed to evoke an image of the mosquito netting used for 19th century fever sheds where typhus sufferers were housed upon arriving to Toronto. The cheesecloth pattern can also be interpreted as a nod to the bandaging used to treat new migrants of other ailments.
According to a report from The Globe and Mail, the Ireland Park Foundation expects construction of the project to begin on June 21st.
We will be sure to return as construction of the new public space gets underway. In the meantime, existing images and project facts can be found by visiting our Database file, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum thread, or leave a comment using the field provided at the bottom of this page.
