Toronto Waterfront

Traditionally, in Toronto as in many other waterfront cities, the boundary between water and land is a hard line which limits the interaction between the two divergent conditions. Activities which occur on land have little relationship to the water and those in the water have little to do with the land. What if we could blur this line? What if the boundary between water and land could be a soft line? How would the activities and spaces on the land be affected by such interactions with the water and vice versa?

This masterplan proposes a waterfront urbanism which treats the boundary between water and land as a soft line; An urbanism which interlaces all the components of a neighbourhood - residences, commercial/retail spaces, public spaces, parks, streets and plazas - with one another in order to create a unified and vibrant urban space which takes maximum advantage of its waterfront location. While respecting the integrity of the proposed boardwalk and promenade, the plan calls for the penetration of large water bodies from lake Ontario into the site. These water elements create an urban condition in which every building is either adjacent to or has excellent views on to the water. As such, inhabitants and visitors to the area will never need to search for the lake through a wall of buildings. Rather the lake and the new water bodies act as orientation devices and focal points for public activities. Commercial and retail functions are framed by water bodies, residential blocks and buildings are connected to the water. Furthermore, the introduction of a public plaza along the primary retail street provides a visual and physical break along the newly created axis between the Sherbourne Park waterfeature/ ice rink and the proposed Parliament slip Wavedeck. We feel strongly that the overall strategy introduces a new waterfront urban typology to Toronto while exploiting the extremely successful and much loved neighbourhood typology present in other parts of the city. Namely, neighbourhoods such as College Street, Queen West, and Bloor Street have a central East West commercial retail street which is flanked to the North and South by residential areas. Our scheme follows the same model with the added value of the lake Ontario boardwalk which frames the development to the South.

Every element in the masterplan works in conjunction with the others to contribute to the overall urban quality of the scheme. Meaning that everything - water bodies, land formations, building and public space - exert an influence on the elements around it. Like an ecosystem, each component is inextricably linked to all those adjacent to it. Furthermore, it is the strongly held belief of our team that a vibrant and sustainable urban environment is contingent not only upon excellent planning but also upon diversity and variety of the built environment.

As such, we have assembled a team of national and international architects, planners and landscape architects to design this masterplan. We believe strongly that this combination of local and foreign design intelligence have contributed to creating a masterplan that is both respectful of the Toronto waterfront ambitions for the area while introducing unanticipated urban qualities to the site. We believe we have created a waterfront urbanism of blurred boundaries, one which seamlessly integrates lake Ontario with all the elements of a vibrant neighbourhood.