Situated on Lake Ontario south of Quen Quay, this two-acre, former parking lot is nestled between a multistory corporate office building and a rectilinear basin opposite an active sugary refinery. The site was transformed by Claude Cormier + Associés in 2010.
Inspired by the painting Bathing at Asnières (1884) by Georges Seurat, this urban beach brings visitors close to the water’s edge while providing expansive harbor views of its natural and industrial features. The waterfront park includes a sandy beach, plaza and promenade, which playfully reference the contiguous refinery and the “sugar spray” that animates the site when loading ships.
The park’s western portion features a triangular, sandy beach interspersed with movable chairs and pink umbrellas that double as light fixtures. Weeping willows and white pines shade the eastern portion of the beach, edged by a generous diagonal promenade, accessible from the north.
The Jefferson maple tree-lined promenade is carpeted with square granite pavers arranged to resemble large, irregularly spaced maple leaves, a national symbol since the nineteenth century. The promenade includes a dynamic water feature that invites children to play and is illuminated at night. Mounded berms and massive, naturalistic granite boulder outcroppings edge both sides of the walkway, providing seating and an elevated vantage point. The outcroppings, imported to the site at considerable effort, are interposed with red and white thermoplastic candy stripes, are a play on the idea of “rock candy.” To the east perimeter, a plaza abuts the park and leads to an existing east-west oriented waterfront promenade.
The project received the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects’ Regional Honor Award in 2011 and the American Society of Landscape Architects’ Honor Award in Design in 2012.
