Tour of Waterfront Parks

July 8, 2007 - As part of Toronto's ongoing waterfront revitalization, two new parks that are part of this urban revival opened earlier this year to much fanfare and appraisal. So on a bright warm sunny Saturday afternoon, B and I trekked downtown to check out the new HTO Park and Ireland Park.

Years in the making, HTO Park opened to the public in June as one of the showcase parks along the waterfront. Designed to be Toronto's "urban beach", the park features a long sand pit that stretches along the water's edge, with yellow umbrellas and lounge chairs in the sand. It certainly feels like a beach - though you just couldn't get into the water.

The concrete boardwalk along the sand pit would probably look better if it's a wooden boardwalk and better shaded with trees (though to be fair, there is one along the water edge). At least we now have a fairly good trail going along the central part of the waterfront. I also like the grassy area - which provides a nice contrast to the hard concrete.

The sand pit (or the beach) was fairly well used when we were there - though we did see a few broken lounge chairs already. My guess is either someone was too heavy for the chairs or it was caused by vandalism (more likely the latter). For the record, Bernard and I DID NOT break any chairs due to our weight. =)

After visiting HTO, B and I walked west and went through the Spadina Wetland and the Toronto Music Garden (he has never been there apparently) on our way to find the Ireland Park.

Ireland Park is a tiny park located just behind the Canada Malting Silos, off Bathurst Street. Finding it proved to be quite difficult - there were no signs posted anywhere. To get there, you also have to walk right through the Porter Airlines terminal and parking lot. Anyway, opened just a couple of weeks ago, the park was designed for the 160th anniversary of Irish immigrants arriving in Toronto. The rough concrete slab on the west side of the park features names of 675 known immigrants (of the 1,100) who died on the journey to Toronto.

The park also has 5 bronze figures, called the "Arrival", that illustrate the mixed emotions and experience of the immigrants. Apparently a similar park in Ireland has 7 bronze figures called the "Departure" - the 2 missing figures signify the loss of many immigrants who didn't survive the trans-Atlantic voyage. There's also a glass silo in the park, with computer screens that you could touch to learn more about the park (I found that out after I got home!).

The park was very quiet when we visited, though it offers a spectacular view of the Toronto skyline and the rest of the Toronto waterfront. Though the Island Airport is so close to the park (B liked their terminal building), it surprisingly didn't bug me that much (though better signage to the park would be helpful). The park feels different though - definitely more somber and serious, than say, HTO.

I really like how Toronto is experimenting with these different type of parklands (your regular neighbourhood park just doesn't cut it anymore) - and there's more coming soon too (like the massive Lake Ontario Park). Sure, we're not going to be like Chicago overnight, but at least we're making an effort.

Speaking of parks, I already have a list of parks that I want to see in NYC, including, finally, Central Park - after all these years!