Toronto Sherbourne Common, Canada's Sugar Beach, and the Water's Edge Promenade | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto | Teeple Architects

When the put up the first of the 'water feature sculptures' in the north end of the north section of Sherbourne Common the concrete did not come out of the mold very well for the first two. (The later ones look flawless.) They have now replaced the first one and either replaced or very well repaired the second one. (They are cast on site and then installed.)
 
DSC said:
When the put up the first of the 'water feature sculptures' in the north end of the north section of Sherbourne Common the concrete did not come out of the mold very well for the first two. (The later ones look flawless.) They have now replaced the first one and either replaced or very well repaired the second one. (They are cast on site and then installed.)
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I'm glad to hear that. The first one they put up, was in really bad shape.
 
An afternoon at the wonderful Sugar Beach. I was surprised at how busy it was, which is great.

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge, then click again on the image for full size.

 
I was surprised at how busy it was
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Especially since it really is in an isolated spot -- this is not some place you stumble across, or drop by while doing other things in the neighbourhood.
 
Yeah... that's incredible, especially considering how isolated it is. I underestimated the public, and thought only urbantoronto.ca types would be seeking out this new space.

So wonderful to see it's so busy. Imagine once the whole waterfront is completed... wow.
 
I was there both Saturday and Sunday this weekend and on both days the beach and surrounding boardwalk were completely packed, on Sunday especially it was impossible to get a chair and many people were just laying in the sand or on the grass. The one thing that really surprised me was how diverse the group of people were ranging from families with young babies, to older couples, to younger people just suntanning and and relaxing with friends. All in all it is an amazing space and a great asset to the city
 
The beach is there, but it's killer not to be able cool down with a dip in the lake. There should be some sort of waterfall installation; maybe have water sprinkling under a couple of umbrellas.
 
Urban Shocker said:
Not all that isolated, with a large office building right next door.
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I doubt that everyone hanging out on Sugar Beach are Corus employees, especially on the weekend. The site is very difficult to get to without a car (a long and not terribly pleasant walk), and even via car there really isn't much else around, as it is very disconnected from the more popular parts of the lakeside -- it's not like one would stumble across it while out shopping or doing other things on the waterfront (unless one's idea of leisure activity is scouting industrial sugar production facilities).

Of course it will feel much less isolated once Sherbourne Common and the surrounding development is in place.
 
Yoshimura said:
The beach is there, but it's killer not to be able cool down with a dip in the lake. There should be some sort of waterfall installation; maybe have water sprinkling under a couple of umbrellas.
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There is a splash pad there, which when I was there on both sat. and sunday was being used consistently by both young children who spent the afternoon playing in it or periodically by adults who wished to cool down
 
Sugar Beach has been well publicized. Being next to Corus alone will get the word out, but it's also been featured in the Star and I'm sure other papers. I would consider it "quasi-isolated"... yes, you don't just stumble upon it easily, but there is a dense population in the surrounding area.

I hope that if it is really popular that there aren't enough chairs that they either bring more chairs or open more beaches like this.
 
With the big Loblaws, the LCBO, the office tower at 1 Yonge, Corus, and that nightclub nearbye I don't think Sugar Beach is particularly isolated.

The bigger picture, I think, is that the waterfront promenade is an attraction unto itself. The idea that folks must be lured down there - that without the presence of commercial "attractions" they may not go there - strikes me as a misreading of how waterfronts like ours can work. Perhaps Sugar Beach is an example of that evolving process. If Toronto is defined as a city by a lake then the point at which the city meets the lake has a strong natural attraction, is a unique experience, and being there is an end in itself. Better not to try and spin it as something it need not be - a "Queen's Quay South" for instance, or an imitation of a shopping strip like the Danforth, or wherever.
 
Urban Shocker said:
With the big Loblaws, the LCBO, the office tower at 1 Yonge, Corus, and that nightclub nearbye I don't think Sugar Beach is particularly isolated.
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It sure felt isolated when I went there couple of weeks ago -- it's a fairly long walk from the Harbourfront LRT stop, and south side of Queens Quay gets pretty industrial and construction-y very quickly (as others have noted, there isn't even a proper sidewalk along Redpath, just an abandoned railway). The north side is somewhat better, but its still (currently) a bit bleak, and not terribly pedestrian-friendly, and there really isn't any major residential immediately close by. (A lot of this will be remedied, of course, by the other waterfront projects in the area.)

The bigger picture, I think, is that the waterfront promenade is an attraction unto itself. The idea that folks must be lured down there - that without the presence of commercial "attractions" they may not go there - strikes me as a misreading of how waterfronts like ours can work. Perhaps Sugar Beach is an example of that evolving process.
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I agree, and didn't mean to imply that there was something wrong with the location of Sugar Beach -- indeed, I concur that it is precisely the kind of waterfront feature that will bring people down to it on its own. My reaction was instead intended to convey how impressively it is already doing that, since it really isn't a place people stumble across while doing something else on the waterfront. I'm sure that, when the waterfront redevelopment is finished, it will be even more of a gem, and the location as a whole will feel more integrated into the overall fabric of the city.
 
Agreed. As a linear walkway mediating between the water and the city, it'll knit together a wide range of different uses ( scarberiankhatru recently gave us a fairly comprehensive check-list of the various uses that have evolved, and are being programmed into abutting, the waterfront pedestrian promenade ).
 
not sure if this was already posted in this thread, but it just popped up in my youtube subscriptions today, from Waterfront Toronto... I was even left feeling that perhaps Jim Flaherty is human!

[video=youtube;wV-ImnJEuYE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV-ImnJEuYE&feature=sub[/video]
 
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