rdaner
Senior Member
Hto
When is HTO opening?
When is HTO opening?
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maestro
Senior Member
is the 2nd phase on the north side of QQ still planned?
mettle
Active Member
FutureMayor
Active Member
Disappointing Already
I visited the park this weekend with a friend and we were surprised to see that the "beach" was separated by a boardwalk.
This is nothing like the original proposal where the beach gradually stepped down into the water. I suspect some planner somewhere demanded that the boardwalk be built in the name of safety.
Furthermore, I realized that there are no amenities pavilion at this new park. Where is someone to change into their thong or bathing suit? Hold about a drink to cool you down? Kids need to go to the bathroom?
The Eastern Side (side with the Fire Station) has been completed for a while now, its the Western side beside the condos that is still under major construction. The sod hasn't even been laid down yet at that end.
There is suppose to be a second phase to this project, the parking lot north of Queen's Quay is also owned by the city/WT. However, I doubt there is any money budgeted for that anywhere in the near future.
As someone posted above the park should have its official opening should be next week, when the park will be one of the celebration sites of the Carnivalissima Festival during LuminaTO.
Louroz
I visited the park this weekend with a friend and we were surprised to see that the "beach" was separated by a boardwalk.
This is nothing like the original proposal where the beach gradually stepped down into the water. I suspect some planner somewhere demanded that the boardwalk be built in the name of safety.
Furthermore, I realized that there are no amenities pavilion at this new park. Where is someone to change into their thong or bathing suit? Hold about a drink to cool you down? Kids need to go to the bathroom?
The Eastern Side (side with the Fire Station) has been completed for a while now, its the Western side beside the condos that is still under major construction. The sod hasn't even been laid down yet at that end.
There is suppose to be a second phase to this project, the parking lot north of Queen's Quay is also owned by the city/WT. However, I doubt there is any money budgeted for that anywhere in the near future.
As someone posted above the park should have its official opening should be next week, when the park will be one of the celebration sites of the Carnivalissima Festival during LuminaTO.
Louroz
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
Yes, I noticed that HtO wasn't quite as pictured on the box - and posted to that effect as a side note in the Project Symphony thread right at the end of March. It appears that small children and aged relatives won't be permitted to wander off and slowly disappear into the lake after all.
adma
Superstar
Thong?
maestro
Senior Member
I think you're taking the 'beach' reference to literally unless the plan is to add a second storey to the fire station to house a branch office of disease control
ShonTron
Moderator
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Doesn't the fire station have public washrooms?
H
Hydrogen
Guest
Maybe its a nudie beach? Or maybe they don't expect anyone to actually go swimming.
CDL.TO
Moderator
Swimming in the Toronto Inner Harbour is both illegal and highly dangerous as it's an active boating area. It's as wise as trying to play street hockey on Bay Street.
Sir Novelty Fashion
Senior Member
Then maybe constructing a "beach" there makes as much sense as building ball hockey-watching grandstands on either side of Bay Street.
Do people swim at the Paris urban beach?
Do people swim at the Paris urban beach?
mettle
Active Member
i read/heard (i forget where though) that the design of hto was changed in light of the west 8 plans for the central waterfront.
i don't think change rooms are a big issue; washrooms are though. the only public washrooms i know of are in qq terminal and little norway park.
the sod on the western side is almost all laid down now. they still have some lighting and brick work to do.
i don't think change rooms are a big issue; washrooms are though. the only public washrooms i know of are in qq terminal and little norway park.
the sod on the western side is almost all laid down now. they still have some lighting and brick work to do.
Maybe this will one of the sites to benefit first from the new contract with Astral for street furniture. It makes sense to put a couple of public washrooms in here.
42
42
ShonTron
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Hume gives HTO praise.
I look forward to it, even if some cynics can't be satisfied.
Reclaiming the lake with new HtO waterfront park
Jun 07, 2007 04:30 AM
Christopher Hume
Except for the fact that Lake Ontario is too dirty for swimming, HtO, Toronto's new "urban beach" is the best thing to happen to the waterfront in decades.
This unabashedly man-made facility provides downtown access to the greatest asset this city never had – its location on the edge of one of the largest lakes in the world.
The new space, which opens tomorrow morning at 10, was conceived as an amphitheatre; on one side is the water, on the other, the city. The views of both are dramatic and endlessly fascinating.
Even the Gardiner Expressway becomes strangely engaging as one sits under a yellow umbrella in HtO's enormous sand pit. So near and yet so far, the city carries on its mad routine, while visitors on the beach relax in the middle of it all.
That's the beautiful thing about this place; it doesn't pretend it's something apart from the urban condition in which it exists. Indeed, it revels in the drama of contrasts. The beach, with its boardwalks, benches, berms, trees and lawns, is all about relaxing, enjoying the sunshine, maybe eating a meal and watching kids play in the sand.
Simple in its layout and elegant in design, it is intended to delight.
That's easier said than done, of course, but in this case the creative team – Toronto landscape architect Janet Rosenberg, Montreal paysagiste Claude Cormier and architect Siamak Hariri –has kept things to a minimum. The paving, concrete and brick, weaves around hillocks planted with red maples and willows. The trees aren't as tall as one would like, but they're unusually large by Toronto standards, and fast growing so those of us in middle age may live long enough to see HtO as it was meant to be.
More subtly, the berms shield the beach from the worst excesses of the downtown core and more immediately from Queen's Quay. Located directly south of Rogers Stadium, and the Gardiner, it could have been a noisy and oppressive place . In fact, it's the opposite. The trees are already a factor, and an effective way to soften the harsh features of the metropolis.
Though Lake Ontario remains out of bounds, HtO has an interesting relationship with the water. It brings us to its very edge and functions as a kind of viewing area with the lake as stage. The movements of harbour traffic become positively theatrical in such as setting.
Perhaps the best aspect of HtO, however, is its ability to create the potential for new relationships between the city and its residents. These range from the obvious facts of the vistas to the very idea of Toronto as a waterfront community. This was a fact of urban life back in the days of Sunnyside Amusement Park, but then we forgot where we were. Cars and cottages made the lake irrelevant, and there were so many barriers – the railway, the expressway, industry, condos...
HtO marks a major step in the reclamation of lake, and the possibilities of waterfront living. It also reaffirms the notion of the city as an entity that exists within nature.
No, this is not what a beach looks like in the natural world, but all the elements are here. All it needs now to be complete is people. They will arrive soon enough; by the end of the week, HtO will be a fixed part of Toronto life.
I look forward to it, even if some cynics can't be satisfied.
Reclaiming the lake with new HtO waterfront park
Jun 07, 2007 04:30 AM
Christopher Hume
Except for the fact that Lake Ontario is too dirty for swimming, HtO, Toronto's new "urban beach" is the best thing to happen to the waterfront in decades.
This unabashedly man-made facility provides downtown access to the greatest asset this city never had – its location on the edge of one of the largest lakes in the world.
The new space, which opens tomorrow morning at 10, was conceived as an amphitheatre; on one side is the water, on the other, the city. The views of both are dramatic and endlessly fascinating.
Even the Gardiner Expressway becomes strangely engaging as one sits under a yellow umbrella in HtO's enormous sand pit. So near and yet so far, the city carries on its mad routine, while visitors on the beach relax in the middle of it all.
That's the beautiful thing about this place; it doesn't pretend it's something apart from the urban condition in which it exists. Indeed, it revels in the drama of contrasts. The beach, with its boardwalks, benches, berms, trees and lawns, is all about relaxing, enjoying the sunshine, maybe eating a meal and watching kids play in the sand.
Simple in its layout and elegant in design, it is intended to delight.
That's easier said than done, of course, but in this case the creative team – Toronto landscape architect Janet Rosenberg, Montreal paysagiste Claude Cormier and architect Siamak Hariri –has kept things to a minimum. The paving, concrete and brick, weaves around hillocks planted with red maples and willows. The trees aren't as tall as one would like, but they're unusually large by Toronto standards, and fast growing so those of us in middle age may live long enough to see HtO as it was meant to be.
More subtly, the berms shield the beach from the worst excesses of the downtown core and more immediately from Queen's Quay. Located directly south of Rogers Stadium, and the Gardiner, it could have been a noisy and oppressive place . In fact, it's the opposite. The trees are already a factor, and an effective way to soften the harsh features of the metropolis.
Though Lake Ontario remains out of bounds, HtO has an interesting relationship with the water. It brings us to its very edge and functions as a kind of viewing area with the lake as stage. The movements of harbour traffic become positively theatrical in such as setting.
Perhaps the best aspect of HtO, however, is its ability to create the potential for new relationships between the city and its residents. These range from the obvious facts of the vistas to the very idea of Toronto as a waterfront community. This was a fact of urban life back in the days of Sunnyside Amusement Park, but then we forgot where we were. Cars and cottages made the lake irrelevant, and there were so many barriers – the railway, the expressway, industry, condos...
HtO marks a major step in the reclamation of lake, and the possibilities of waterfront living. It also reaffirms the notion of the city as an entity that exists within nature.
No, this is not what a beach looks like in the natural world, but all the elements are here. All it needs now to be complete is people. They will arrive soon enough; by the end of the week, HtO will be a fixed part of Toronto life.
Jdot
Active Member
This was never meant to be a place for people to go swimming in Lake Ontario. Noone is that foolish (lets hope). It will be a place for the public to sit and relax in the summer sun. Bathing suits are not required.
Washrooms/Changerooms = portable washroom units provided by Astral as part of the street furniture program would suffice here. There are going to be so few people wanting to change here that building something permanent wasnt really necessary.
This is Toronto's version of Berlin's sand "beach" along the Spree River. There is no possibility of anyone going swimming on that beach as the water is about a 5 - 10 foot drop from the man-made beach, and there is a railing dividing the people from the water. PLUS, there is a large stone building (Boda Museum) directly on the other side of the river - probably only 20 feet away. You are essentially looking at a stone wall while sitting on that beach in Berlin, but it works. Tonnes of people flock to the man-made sand beach. There are sling-back chairs, a cabana where one can buy drinks. If planners of HTO are wise, they will install such a refreshment stand along the water.
I walked past HTO last night returning home from Pulse Front (amazing... everyone should see/take part in it). I liked how the entire park was flooded in coloured lights. My only concern is that the grass will likely soon die in patches, get overgrown in others, weed infested in some areas. Right now the lawns are perfectly manicured, giving the park a really smooth look. Next year it likely wont fare so well unless it receives a lot of attention, which isnt likely.
BUT still, I am confident that this will be a much-used part of our waterfront during the nice, warm, sunny days of summer.
Washrooms/Changerooms = portable washroom units provided by Astral as part of the street furniture program would suffice here. There are going to be so few people wanting to change here that building something permanent wasnt really necessary.
This is Toronto's version of Berlin's sand "beach" along the Spree River. There is no possibility of anyone going swimming on that beach as the water is about a 5 - 10 foot drop from the man-made beach, and there is a railing dividing the people from the water. PLUS, there is a large stone building (Boda Museum) directly on the other side of the river - probably only 20 feet away. You are essentially looking at a stone wall while sitting on that beach in Berlin, but it works. Tonnes of people flock to the man-made sand beach. There are sling-back chairs, a cabana where one can buy drinks. If planners of HTO are wise, they will install such a refreshment stand along the water.
I walked past HTO last night returning home from Pulse Front (amazing... everyone should see/take part in it). I liked how the entire park was flooded in coloured lights. My only concern is that the grass will likely soon die in patches, get overgrown in others, weed infested in some areas. Right now the lawns are perfectly manicured, giving the park a really smooth look. Next year it likely wont fare so well unless it receives a lot of attention, which isnt likely.
BUT still, I am confident that this will be a much-used part of our waterfront during the nice, warm, sunny days of summer.