July 30, 2009

WATERFRONT TORONTO

Downtown urban renewal

Ground broken on Sherbourne Park in Toronto

TORONTO

Waterfront Toronto has broken ground on Sherbourne Park, a new $28.7 million project that will transform a former industrial area into public green space on the lake.

Located just east of Lower Sherbourne Street, the 1.5 hectare park spans more than two city blocks, from Lake Ontario in the south to Lakeshore Blvd. in the north, on both sides of Queens Quay.

Designed by landscape architects Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg in association with The Planning Partnership and inspired by the Canadian lakeside experience, the year-round park is scheduled to open next summer.

Eastern Construction Co. Ltd. has been appointed construction manager. Subtrade contracts have been awarded to Anchor Shoring & Caissons Ltd., Atlas Dewatering Corp., Coreydale Contracting Co., and Alliance Forming Ltd.

Waterfront Toronto said Sherbourne Park will become the new heart of East Bayfront “bringing a feeling of life at the lake” to the area. The park features three key elements in its design — woods, water and wide-open green space.

The north part of the park features a grove of Pacific sunset maple trees, benches and play structures creating “an outdoor living room” for East Bayfront residents. Green space on the south side of the park provides ample space for festivals, concerts and other city-wide events. In total, the park includes 182 new trees, 26 play structures and 49 benches.

Sustainability plays an important role in Sherbourne Park, Waterfront Toronto said. Key components of East Bayfront’s stormwater management system are integrated into the park’s design, allowing this infrastructure to be both beautiful and functional.

A 240-metre-long water channel running along the east side of the park is part of the community’s innovative stormwater management system.

The water channel features three dramatic art sculptures that rise almost nine metres from the ground, “elegantly lifting water toward the sky and back down as a textured veil of water.” Clean water is discharged from the base of the channel back into Lake Ontario.

Park construction is beginning on the south side of Queens Quay where the Sherbourne Park pavilion will be located. This 144-square-metre, zinc-clad and glass structure will house a café and facilities designed to animate the park year-round.

Surrounding the pavilion is a 920-square-metre pond that will be frozen in the winter for a skating rink and act as a splash pad in the summer for water play.

WATERFRONT TORONTO

The federal government is providing $20.8 million in funding for Sherbourne Park, with the rest coming from the province and the city of Toronto.

The pavilion is also an integral part of the stormwater management system. The UV purification facility is located in its basement.

The budget for Sherbourne Park including site preparation costs as well as design and construction costs for the park, water channel and UV purification facility is $28.7 million.

The federal government is providing $20.8 million in funding. The remainder is being contributed by the province and the city of Toronto.

“This is the waterfront park that everyone has been waiting for,” said John Campbell, president and CEO of Waterfront Toronto. “It transforms an under-used, mostly industrial site into a sustainable neighbourhood park for those living and working in East Bayfront and it creates a must-see destination for the rest of the city.”

In addition to Sherbourne Park, construction is underway throughout East Bayfront, the new waterfront community which runs from Jarvis to Parliament streets and from the rail corridor to the lake.

Work is nearing completion on East Bayfront’s first commercial building, the new headquarters for Corus Entertainment. Municipal servicing infrastructure work for the area is ongoing. George Brown College plans to open its new Health Sciences Centre on the waterfront in 2012.

Construction of Canada’s Sugar Beach, Toronto’s second urban beach will also begin later this summer at the Jarvis Slip.

-DCN News Services

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