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The City has announced the winner from a shortlist of 5 proposals for a park at 229 Richmond Street West in Toronto's Entertainment District. For years a surface parking lot, sandwiched behind buildings on John and Duncan streets, and running from Nelson Street up to Richmond, the City ran an International Design Competition for the site, and presented a shortlist of five designs in October, 2023.
The winning design is called 'Wàwàtesí,' the Anishinaabemowin word for Firefly. and comes from the team headed by West 8 Urban Design and Landscape Architecture, with contributions from hcma Architecture and Design, Native Art Department International, MinoKamik Collective, ARUP, KG&A, ERA Architects, and A.W. Hooker.
The design has two main components: a central lawn area, and an elevated platform — a 'balcony' — from which to watch and perform. The balcony functions as a raised walkway through the south part of the site, providing visitors with a view north towards the central lawn area. Elsewhere the site is paved, what the design team have called a 'riverbed playscape', acknowledging the river that used to cross the site.
Focusing on integrating landscape, light, and performance, the design team describe the design as Toronto's first park with a curator that will schedule arts events and installations. According to the team, the space under the balcony is a 'canvas' for public art, which creates a multi-level journey for visitors. On opening day it is proposed that The Canvas will debut a permanent, slowly moving projection by public artist NADI : Aki Illuminations (translated from Anishinaabemowin: Earth Illuminations).
The design incorporates a public washroom, here in the form of two cylindrical buildings with separate lockable washrooms, a communal water source, maintenance space, and storage. At night, this building lights up, as a 'lantern'. The design includes enhancements to the streetscape along both Richmond and Nelson such as a row of trees and planters, and a designated area for a TIFF screen.
The area now has 16,000 residents and a daytime workforce of 52,000 people within a half kilometre radius. The area is also popular after hours for the restaurants and clubs. While the numbers of people who live in and frequent the area have risen dramatically over the last couple decades, and more are coming, no new recreational space has been established in the area. The Wàwàtesí concept will be transformed into a more detailed site design in advance of work to turn the 2,600m² space into a park, expected to begin in 2025. More public engagement will be part of the detailed site design, including finding a permanent name for the park.
The shortlisted concepts for the space were judged by a panel of experts in the areas of landscape architecture, Indigenous placekeeping, architecture, urban design, art, and climate resilience, with the panel evaluating each proposal against various performance criteria, while also considering public feedback.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it from our Database file, linked below. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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