Toronto Spadina Pier Revitalization | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto

bowen

bowen

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Shifting focus slightly east to planning work actively underway at Spadina Pier:

An important milestone this week as local stakeholders were advised of the permanent closure of the derelict parking garage beneath this property. While our July 2022 City Council-approved work plan for this site didn’t anticipate the garage’s closure and decommissioning until Fall 2024, recent public safety concerns in the garage have accelerated this decision by the City.

Technical and environmental investigations have already been underway here since late last year, and in light of the earlier than planned garage closure, we are now exploring options for expediting the public realm design and delivery.

More details on next steps will be available later this summer, including some exciting planned temporary activations to start testing and demonstrating the potential of this extraordinary site.


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UtakataNoAnnex said:
Er...there was a parking garage there?
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Two levels, in fact. 300 spaces. Managed by Harbourfront Centre since it was built in the 1980’s. But the entire P2 level has been closed since flooding damage from high lake levels. And a recent condition assessment estimated the cost of a needed SOGR overhaul at up to $20M to keep the parking operation open to the public.

Instead, last year our team made the case to Council (via then-Mayor Tory, who saw the value and really championed this effort) that we ought close the parking operation, and transfer the property to PFR to commence a planning process for a new waterfront pier park. It’s the equivalent of a $150M+ parkland acquisition of a fully serviced site at zero cost to the City besides standard decommissioning and abatement work. And since there’s no soil we don’t even need a risk assessment, greatly simplifying our record of site condition process.

If you haven’t walked the site, I encourage you to check it out. Excellent skyline and harbour views. Water’s edge on three sides. Located at the nexus of the silo property, Music Garden, the community centre, and Dan Leckie Way. So much potential here.

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bowen said:
Two levels, in fact. 300 spaces. Managed by Harbourfront Centre since it was built in the 1980’s. But the entire P2 level has been closed since flooding damage from high lake levels. And a recent condition assessment estimated the cost of a needed SOGR overhaul at up to $20M to keep the parking operation open to the public.

Instead, last year our team made the case to Council (via then-Mayor Tory, who saw the value and really championed this effort) that we ought close the parking operation, and transfer the property to PFR to commence a planning process for a new waterfront pier park. It’s the equivalent of a $150M+ parkland acquisition of a fully serviced site at zero cost to the City besides standard decommissioning and abatement work. And since there’s no soil we don’t even need a risk assessment, greatly simplifying our record of site condition process.

If you haven’t walked the site, I encourage you to check it out. Excellent skyline and harbour views. Water’s edge on three sides. Located at the nexus of the silo property, Music Garden, the community centre, and Dan Leckie Way. So much potential here.

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Bowen,

I'm curious as to what options are being looked at for de-commissioning here, in light of any structural risks, and also the thought that PF&R ideally would like un-encumbered park space (meaning, in this context, that they can plant large shade trees without worrying about the need scrape all the vegetation off every 30-40 years to re-do a parking garage roof membrane)

I assume backfilling the space in some fashion (soil/construction fill/concrete?) is being considered, but perhaps you add add some colour on that.

Thank you for your insights, as always.
 
Northern Light said:
Bowen,

I'm curious as to what options are being looked at for de-commissioning here, in light of any structural risks, and also the thought that PF&R ideally would like un-encumbered park space (meaning, in this context, that they can plant large shade trees without worrying about the need scrape all the vegetation off every 30-40 years to re-do a parking garage roof membrane)

I assume backfilling the space in some fashion (soil/construction fill/concrete?) is being considered, but perhaps you add add some colour on that.

Thank you for your insights, as always.
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This is precisely the investigative work and strategizing we’re doing right now, so I’ll have to come back to you in a few months with more precise details!

But I can tell you that our emerging approach at this stage, below grade, is to potentially fill P2 with clean shale sourced from downtown construction sites, and to repurpose P1 as a parks staging area and maintenance depot. We have to maintain access to the many utilities and vaults on P1 anyways, so there is good sense in capturing its inherent value in support of back of house parks maintenance uses that are today located at surface level. Basically a park with a basement, not unlike the ‘utili-dors’ at Disney World. LOL.

Above grade approaches will depend on a number of factors, including of course, available funding. We’re looking at a number of interesting precedents in NYC, where decommissioned piers often undergo light touch improvements that allow a multitude of cultural and community uses to experiment with these spaces for several years before committing to a full and more permanent park design and build-out. Given the City’s financial position, that approach may have a lot of merit here. But again, we’re exploring that now in light of the earlier-than-planned garage closure. More to follow soon!
 
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bowen said:
This is precisely the investigative work and strategizing we’re doing right now, so I’ll have to come back to you in a few months with more precise details!

But I can tell you that our emerging approach at this stage, below grade, is to potentially fill P2 with clean shale sourced from downtown construction sites, and to repurpose P1 as a parks staging area and maintenance depot. We have to maintain access to the many utilities and vaults on P1 anyways, so there is good sense in capturing its inherent value in support of back of house parks maintenance uses that are today located at surface level. Basically a park with a basement, not unlike the ‘utili-dors’ at Disney World. LOL.

Above grade approaches will depend on a number of factors, including of course, available funding. We’re looking at a number of interesting precedents in NYC, where decommissioned piers often undergo light touch improvements that allow a multitude of cultural and community uses to experiment with these spaces for several years before committing to a full and more permanent park design and build-out. Given the City’s financial position, that approach may have a lot of merit here. But again, we’re exploring that now in light of the earlier-than-planned garage closure. More to follow soon!
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Excellent, thank you for the timely and thorough response. FWIW, I'll put in early for exploring whether there is an option for limited fill of the P1 level in strategic spots, such that those could be directly under any shade tree plantings, and that the latter would then not need to be removed during any future maintenance of the P1 roof.

Strategic fill away from key utilities, maybe 20% of the area? Just a thought.
 
Northern Light said:
Excellent, thank you for the timely and thorough response. FWIW, I'll put in early for exploring whether there is an option for limited fill of the P1 level in strategic spots, such that those could be directly under any shade tree plantings, and that the latter would then not need to be removed during any future maintenance of the P1 roof.

Strategic fill away from key utilities, maybe 20% of the area? Just a thought.
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Absolutely agreed. In particular, at the southern terminus of the pier, which will naturally be the anchor of this space. It’s really the northern half of P1 that houses the vaults, and we definitely don’t need the whole footprint for storing mulch, etc. So this is definitely an option we’re looking at.
 
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PinkLucy said:
Used to park there frequently when we lived in the area. Always creepy!
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I specifically chose the park there back in the day, especially if friends were with me who hadn't known about it or done it before, as I always thought it was cool that we had an underwater garage, at least one surrounded by water for all intents and purposes. Yes, it was creepy, but the cool factor outweighed that for me!

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With the finish line in sight (Fall 2024) for the silo property’s revitalization, our team has today launched the project web page for the next chapter in Bathurst Quay’s revitalization: Spadina Pier.

We’ll be hosting a pop-up consultation event on the pier this Saturday night (7pm-midnight) in tandem with The Bentway’s projection on the silos.

www.toronto.ca

New Park at Spadina Pier

A new 6,500 m2 (about the size of two soccer fields) community space is coming to Spadina Pier, located at 539 Queens Quay W. in the Bathurst Quay neighbourhood. The improvements are happening in two stages, which include an interim community space with a range of public uses and programming...
www.toronto.ca www.toronto.ca

The two-stage approach we’ve landed on for Spadina Pier is a strategic model we’re importing from NYC’s Hudson River Park. Links below to Piers 76 and 95 - both great examples of how decommissioned piers can be improved and activated with public uses and programming in the near-term, while also securing the site, and allowing for consultation and experimentation, for a longer-term opportunity.

hudsonriverpark.org

Pier 76

Pier 76 offers outdoor flexible space, benches for people to relax and enjoy the waterfront views, and interpretive plaques of the pier area's history.
hudsonriverpark.org hudsonriverpark.org

hudsonriverpark.org

Pier 95

The design for Pier 95 includes a "get-down", or steps down from the bulkhead putting Park users in close proximity to the water.
hudsonriverpark.org hudsonriverpark.org

If you’re out for Nuit Blanche Saturday night, please drop by to learn more.
 
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As always, thanks @bowen for your wonderful updates.

I've been in love with that conceptual design for Spadina Pier, with its huge boardwalk-style gathering place, from the first time I saw it.

If I had a magic wand (and millions to fund it)... I'd fast-track site remediation, community engagement (sorry ;-), any proposed time-consuming design competitions... and build this pretty much as drawn. Wake me from this day-dream when complete 🙃.
 
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