Sugar Beach
Sugar Beach
Toronto (Ontario), Canada

An urban beach next to the Redpath Sugar Factory

Sugar Beach is the second urban beach proposed for Toronto’s downtown waterfront, and the latest addition to the amber necklace of Toronto’s lakefront beachscape. It is a sequel to HtO, the waterfront’s first beach park. The proposal for Jarvis Slip playfully recomposes other signature elements of the city, with Toronto playing the role as its own design precedent. The omnipresent horizon of the lake and adjacent industrial buildings recalls Georges Seurat’s Bathers at Asnières (1884). Tinted by sugar spray carried on westerly breezes from the neighboring Redpath Sugar Factory, a series of hard rock candies with colored stripes and dozens of pink umbrellas are scattered across a sandy wedge of beach along the Jarvis Slip. Integrating the future Waterfront Promenade, along with a plaza for programmed and unprogrammed events, the design playfully adopts some of the most enduring elements from Toronto’s emerging landscape identity — beaches, bedrock, trees, and water — as well as the urban horizon and a trace of the city’s past industrial mood.

Client
WATERFRONT Toronto

Collaboration
The Planning Partnership, Halsall Associates Limited, The Municipal Infrastructure Group, Dillon Consulting Limited, Éclairage Public, Andrew Jones Design

Area
8500 m2 (2 acres)

Awards

2022
Hall of Fame – Waterfront Design Review Panel Awards

2017
Global Award of Excellence – Urban Land Institute

2015
Project Honor Award – The Waterfront Center – Parks/Walkway/Recreational Project Category

2014
Great Places Award – Environmental Design Research Association – Place Design Category

2012
Honour Award – American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) – General Design

Royal Architecture Institute of Canada / Canadian Institute of Planners, Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (RAIC, CIP, CSLA) – Civic Design Projects

People’s Choice Award – Azure Magazine

2011  
Award of Excellence – Toronto Urban Design Awards – Large Places and Neighbourhood Design

Regional Honour – Canadian Society of Landscape Architects

Year
2008-2010

Status
Built

Categories
Heritage
Park
Waterfront
Photo, 2017 - Industryous Photography
Plan, CC+A
Photo, 2017 - Industryous Photography
Photo, 2018 - Industryous Photography
Photo, 2013 - Guillaume Paradis (CC+A)
Photo, 2017 - Industryous Photography
Photo, 2010 - Nicola Betts
Photo, 2011 - Nicola Betts
Photo, 2010 - Nicola Betts
Photo, 2011 - Nicola Betts
Photo, 2010 - Nicola Betts
Photo, 2017 - Industryous Photography
Photo, 2011 - Jesse Colin Jackson
Photo, 2011 - Jesse Colin Jackson
Photo, 2010 - Nicola Betts
Photo, 2010 - Nicola Betts
Photo, 2011 - CC+A
Photo, 2010 - CC+A
Photo, 2017 - Industryous Photography
Photo, 2013 - Guillaume Paradis (CC+A)
Photo, 2017 - Industryous Photography
Photo, 2010 - Nicola Betts
Photo, 2011 - Jesse Colin Jackson
Photo, 2014 - Guillaume Paradis, CC+A
Photo, 2013 - Guillaume Paradis, CC+A
Photo, 2017 - Industryous Photography
Photo, 2010 - Nicola Betts
Photo, 2010 - Nicola Betts
Photo, 2010 - CC+A
Photo, 2017 - Industryous Photography
Photo, 2013 - Guillaume Paradis, CC+A
Photo, 2011 - Nicola Betts
Photo - Miles Storey
Photo, 2011 - Jesse Colin Jackson
Photo, 2011 - Jesse Colin Jackson
Photo - John Ferri (www.johnferri.com)
Photo - Martyn Weir
Photo, 2010 - Nicola Betts
Rock, St-Alexis-des-Monts, Québec - CC+A
Rock Extraction, St-Alexis-des-Monts, Québec - CC+A
Rock Assembly, Jarvis Slip, Ontario - CC+A
Photo, Under Construction - CC+A
Perspective - CC+A
Vignette – Girl on the rock - CC+A
Perspective - CC+A
Christmas Card, December 2008 - CC+A
Plan, CC+A; An Afternoon at la Grande Jatte, Georges Seurat, 1884-1886; Bathing at Asnières, Georges Seurat, 1884
East Bayfront Precinct Plan - CC+A
Candy Reference - Source Unknown
Photo of Redpath Sugar - Waterfront Toronto