As demolition and heritage preservation work prepare the Downtown Toronto site of YSL Residences for shoring and excavation, an updated planning submission is revealing new details about a park being planned near the Yonge and Gerrard construction site as part of the project's park contribution. The new public space, referred to as Park 357 for its address at 357A and 357.5 Yonge Street—currently home to a pair of low-rise commercial buildings a short distance south of the construction site—would feature a design by landscape architects Janet Rosenberg + Studio that pays homage to Yonge Street's 56-kilometre path from Lake Ontario to Barrie.

Park 357 and surrounding context on Yonge, image via submission to City of Toronto

The 338.5 m² space i proposed to take the form of a linear park carved between buildings from the actual Yonge Street to the west, through to O’Keefe Lane on the east. The park’s design features a footpath that references the route of Yonge Street, with the path passing through seven areas named for the municipalities that Yonge Street traverses. Each of these areas will feature its own uniquely coloured pavement, each area programmable for a range of activities to appeal to local residents, Ryerson students, and visitors to the area, including such things as ping pong events and space for food trucks

Park 357 diagram, image via submission to City of Toronto

Landscape plans offer more details about the park, to include features such as shade tolerant planting beds and Silva Cell technology to support vigorous tree growth. Ample seating will be included, ranging from seat walls to picnic benches. 

The park's location three and four doors down from the development site has a complicated backstory. KingSett Capital originally bought property south of the land assembly where YSL is now rising to prevent another land assembly being formed between KingSett's site and Ryerson's Student Learning Centre. In the years since, Cresford purchased the properties from KingSett, and the City now prefers that parkland for larger projects be taken from the site, instead of accepting cash-in-lieu of park space; these cash contributions haven't translated to the expected increase in park land. The City has since negotiated with Cresford to use these buffer properties for a new park, resulting in the new plan. The image below shows the site of the park as it exists now, with the roughly 7.6-metre frontage on Yonge currently home to a vacant retail space for lease and a payday loan service, immediately south of the Zanzibar. Ali Baba and Ginger are not part of the future park space.

Site of the park today, image by Edward Skira

Additional information and images can be found in our database file for the project, linked below. Want to get involved in the discussion? Check out the associated Forum thread, or leave a comment in the field provided at the bottom of this page.

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