The Central Waterfront (West 8), a 3.5 km length of Lake Ontario in direct proximity to the downtown business district, is one of Toronto’s most valuable assets. Y et despite decades of planning and patchwork development projects, there is no coherent vision for linking the pieces into a greater whole – visually or physically. In this context, the fundamental objective of the project is to address this deficiency by creating a consistent and legible image for the Central Waterfront, in both architectural and functional terms.

HtO (Janet Rosenberg, Claude Cormier, Hariri Pontarini) is known as Toronto’s urban beach. It is a unique destination along the waterfront that provides people of all ages with a functional space for active and passive uses. The park’s design was inspired by Georges Seurat’s painting called ‘A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte’ , where people are leisurely gathered along the water’s edge, animating it with activity, colour, and energy.

Pages from the project published in The Public Chance: