Stoss Landscape Urbanism + nARCHITECTS + ZAS Architects by Waterfront Toronto

CONTENTS 4. THE TORONTO WATERFRONT JACK LAYTON FERRY TERMINAL AND HARBOURFRONT PARK WATERFRONT TORONTO

14. PRINCIPLES 26. THE PLAN

Prepared by STOSS LANDSCAPE URBANISM nARCHITECTS ZAS ARCHITECTS SIMPSON GUMPERTZ & HEGER THE MUNICIPAL INFRASTRUCTURE GROUP SHOREPLAN ENGINEERING BA GROUP OMBRAGES - ECLAIRAGE PUBLIC PLANDFORM LURA ALTUS GROUP

Date MARCH 9, 2015

52. THE PARK 68. THE TERMINAL 92. THE ELEMENTS 118. PHASE 1 124. BOARDS

THE BRIEF

Cloud Park is a proposal for revitalizing Harbour Square Park and the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal. The resigned park re-established the city’s direct physical and visual linkages to Lake Ontario, the Harbour, and the Harbour Islands, while creating a compelling, ethereal, and oneof-a-kind public space for Toronto’s waterfront. It also re-works and greatly enhances the visitor experience of those using the island ferries by fully integrating the terminal buildings and functions into the verdant and active park. As inspiring as it is pragmatic, Cloud Park represents the next generation of integrated open space and infrastructure projects, and a bold and distinct complement to Sugar Beach, the Wave Decks, HTO Park, and the many other recent spaces along Toronto’s spectacular Harbourfront.

THE TORONTO WATERFRONT

THE LAKEFRONT

The northern shore of Lake Ontario is and has been an ecologically and socially rich place. Bluffs create dramatic overlooks where forest meets water, while muddy flats and life-generating marshes are among the fertile lowlands that gently fade into lake until a storm arises, or winter ice sets in. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a line of rich contrasts and slow gradients, where people and animals are subservient to the formational processes of glaciers and lake waters. The park and ferry terminal site itself was once water; its current state as apparent solid ground is pure fantasy. We want to reclaim waterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s space within the city, and to reclaim the sometimes subtle but occasionally dramatic forces that once characterized this placeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;all the while acknowledging the powerful and creative and provocative influences that humans and their technologies have had for generations.

THE TORONTO WATERFRONT

THE ISLANDS

The islands are a place like no other. Still in the city, yet a world apart. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been home to unique communities for generations, yet they have long offered Torontonians an escape from the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a place out there, fully enmeshed in the rich environment of land and water, and year-round outdoor lifestyles that this place affords. The islands are also the place of spectacle and amusement, of horses jumping into the lake, of biplanes, trains, gondolas, and roller-coasters. Our site is the gateway to this special place, and a gateway to the city for island residents and visitors. We want the richness and quirkiness of the islands to resonate in the park.

THE TORONTO WATERFRONT

THE ENVIRONMENT Because of the lake, Toronto experiences a wide range of seasonal change, and an incredible diversity of environmental phenomena. Mist, rain, sun, clouds, haze, humidity, frost, snow, ice, sleet, fogâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;an ever-changing stew of moisture and thermal gradientsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and atmospheric effects. 10

We want to engage and amplify them, and set up dramatic contrasts, in order to heighten their sensations and their collective impacts on our experiences of the park.

THE TORONTO WATERFRONT

THE CHALLENGES

Harbourfront Square Park offers some of the most expansive and dramatic views of Torontoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s harbour and harbour islands available along the waterfront. But you need to know where youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going in order to experience this: the view from Bay Street is blocked by the yawning gape of the access road to the nearby condominiums; the view of the ferries is blocked by the concrete masses of the existing terminal structures; and the view of the terminal and park from the islands is obscure, if not non-existent. The narrow pathways and queueing areas for the ferry are inadequate to serve the throngs of people getting to the islands in the summer; the waiting area feels like a cage; and island residents are pressed to have their basic goods and deliveries handled adequately or efficiently. Moreover, the design of the terminal blocks east-west connectivity along the harbourfront, and creates too many visual and physical dead-ends to make for a well-functioning open space.

The park itself is a nice, green, verdant respite from the city, but it lacks the amenities conducive to creating a lively open space for people of all ages. Together the site and terminal have great potential, but they require inspiring and transformative ideas to gently but effectively re-make the space, to fix its inadequacies, and to offer an inspiring yet pragmatic way forward.

PRINCIPLES

THE VIEWPOINT TO THE HARBOUR The first priority is to physically and visually re-connect the city to the harbour, and to fully re-establish the park as the premier portal and viewport to the islands.

Open the Bay Street view corridor, establish direct visual connections to the ferry terminal building and the ferries, in order to make way finding obvious. And create as many different places—high and low, near and far, sheltered and exposed—to see and experience the magic of Toronto’s greatest natural resource.

PRINCIPLES

PARK AS TERMINAL TERMINAL AS PARK We envision a complete immersion of terminal functions with park activities, so that the park is positively activated by passengers coming and going, and ferry arrivals and departures occur within a lush and dynamic landscape. 16

We believe the park and the land-side operations of the terminal should be wholly reconsidered and integrated with one another. The park can be designed to function both as a destination for new waterfront activities and as a ceremonial gateway for passing through to the islands or downtown. This approach allows us to immerse the architecture of the terminal into the landscape of the park, to blur distinctions between built and planted form, to civilize and make humane the terminal infrastructure. Here the park is rendered as an active waiting area for the terminal, while passenger bustle productively activates the park. Architecture and infrastructure are integrated into the landscape, the park is enlivened by pulses of energy that draw people from afar and beckon those arriving to come on in.

PRINCIPLES

ISLAND CULTURE IN THE CITY We want to bring the otherworldly nature of the harbor islands, and the looser cultural attitudes and practices it brings, directly to the edge of downtown. We see the new park as a microcosm of island life, not an extension of the bustling city. 18

The islands are a world away. Physically and psychologically separated from downtown, they are geographically and socially different. Low-lying sand bars, barely above lake level, are inhabited by dense native vegetation interspersed with European horticultural varieties—an odd and intriguing mix. A lack of cars, narrow garden streets, amusements and festivals, music and food, family BBQs, dragon boating, even a nude beach: it’s a colorful place, a place to do things you cannot do in the city. It’s a place to relax, let loose a little, shed your inhibitions, a place for urban escape. We believe the transition to island life and island culture should happen as you step off Queens Quay, as you enter the park and the terminal area. We want to import a bit of the island abandon, the color and the flavor of island life, into the terminal park. Kick off your shoes, let your hair down, unbutton another button of your shirt— or take it off altogether. Let loose.

PRINCIPLES

FOUR SEASON DESTINATION We envision a socially active park, both a citywide destination and everyday social space that functions across Toronto’s four distinct seasons.

We know winter can be challenging: cold, windy, icy. But there is a historic culture in Toronto of people coming to the lake for winter recreation—for getting out onto the iced-over lake in horse-drawn carriages, sleds, and ice-boats (!). In the same ways that people put aside sometimes uncomfortable heat and humidity in the summer to pursue a full palette of activities and events, we need to extend programming and activation through all four seasons—and render the challenges of winter as unique opportunities for developing (or re-creating) fourseason culture on the lakefront. We envision a place where you want to be, even in the most severe conditions—that takes advantage of quieter ferry operations to expand park amenities and users. And we want to offer warm places to gather in the winter, and cool places to hang out in the summer—to indulge in ice and steam and cold and heat. To be alive.

PRINCIPLES

A FANTASTICAL PLACE More than any of this, we envision a truly unique, spectacular, and fantastical placeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;otherworldly, phenomenal, and immersive. A place like no otherâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; a place for the imagination, for sensation, for abandon. A place to free ourselves from social norms, and to indulge in something luxurious and yet ethereal. 22

CLOUD PARK

VIEW OF CLOUD PARK AND JACK LAYTON FERRY TERMINAL FROM THE FERRY

THE PLAN

CLOUD PARK

Cloud Park is a fantastical place, one that celebrates Toronto’s unique connections to the lake and the islands, that plays off Toronto’s diverse and often dramatically phenomenal climate, that imports a bit of island culture to the harbourfront. It’s your first experience of island life and all its richness and quirkiness, rather than your last experience of the bustle of the city. The cloud is manifest as a dramatic new foggy gateway from Bay Street; as a full and brilliant canopy of trees illuminated by the sun and by discrete night lighting; and as an enigmatic series of misting plazas and pools that offer entirely new experiences (swimming and even floating, bubbly hot tubs!) along the harbourfront. The cloud cools when it’s hot, warms when it’s cold, and creates a dramatic but ethereal new icon at the harbor’s edge.

Otherworldly. Enigmatic. Ethereal. A place where distinctions between land and water, earth and sky dissolve. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s design with a light touch, with a pragmatic eye, but with a substantial transformative impact on how we can all re-connect to the harbour and experience the lakefront anew.

THE PLAN

SITE PLAN

The park strategy re-establishes clear physical and visual linkages from the city to the harbour by removing the tunnel and hill that block views to the islands from Bay Street. It opens additional views to the ferries and to the entire sweep of the harbour through clearings in the tree canopy and through positioning of various programmatic elements and viewpoints: the Water + Ice Plaza at harbourâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s edge, the sloping lawns, undulating mounds, and elevated bluff of the Hills; the floating walkways, platforms and pools in the Swim Basin. It also integrates the redesigned Jack Layton Ferry Terminal into the park itself, so that the entire park becomes part of the waiting experience for the ferries, and the terminal operates as much as a park pavilion (with concessions, ice skating rentals, etc) as it does a terminal and ticketing operation. It also expands the queuing area of the park as a multi-functional plazagrove, offering much additional space, generous and shaded seating clusters, and even a nearby adventure forest playground and Water Plaza to burn off excess energy.

KEY 1 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.

FLOATING WETLAND POOL HOT TUB SUN DECK SWIM PLAZA SUNNING LAWN PARKING TURN-AROUND PLAY AREA PERFORMANCE SPACE DROP-OFF JACK LAYTON SCULPTURE SEATING AND WAITING AREA ELECTRONIC TICKETING FERRY TERMINAL WATER PLAZA TICKET KIOSK HOLDING BOSQUE SERVICE BUILDING SERVICE ACCESS FISH HABITAT YONGE SLIP PROMENADE ART WALK

20 12 13

23 8

17 15

9 3 5 2 1 4

19 18

KEY

1 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.

1 3 1

2 1 4 1

20 12 22 13 21

22 7

15 9

6 5

19 18

THE PLAN

MASTER PLAN ELEMENTS

VIEWS TO THE HARBOUR 34

CANOPY

MOUND EXISTING WETLAND POOLS WOOD HARDSCAPE

LIGHTING

SURFACES 35

PRIVATE PUBLIC SERVICE

PEDESTRIAN ACCESS

VEHICULAR ACCESS

EMERGENCY

YONGE STREET SLIP

ART WALL

1:200

FERRY OPERATIONS

HOLDING BOSQUE

TERMINAL

WATER + ICE PLAZA

THE PLAN

JACK LAYTON FERRY TERMINAL

FERRY PAVILION 1. TERMINAL MAIN SPACE 2. CAFE TENANT SPACE 3. TRASH ROOM 4. TENANT STORAGE ROOM 5. PUBLIC WASHROOMS (PARK) 6. PUBLIC WASHROOMS (TERMINAL) FERRY OPERATIONS BUILDING 7. SECURITY ROOM 8. WORKSHOP 9. OFFICES 10. KITCHENETTE 11. WASHROOM 1 12. WASHROOM 2 13. MEN’S LOCKER ROOM 14. WOMEN’S LOCKER ROOM 15. STORAGE/MECH. ROOM SITE ELEMENTS 16. TICKETS KIOSKS 17. GLASS FENCE 18. REFLECTIVE WALL 19. ART WALK 20. FEDERAL AREA FENCE 21. VEHICULAR GATE

18 17 21

14 3 5

13 12 11

10 9

THE PLAN 40

THE CANADIAN LANDSCAPE WITH A TWIST Landscape is fundamental to our Canadian identity. Light, shifting and dappled by the varied tree canopy, from evergreen and leafy forests; wild terrains of rock sculpted by epochs of ice; of water, a still mirror in the lake or rushing over rapids, falls and pools. It is these essential elements—tree, rock, and water—foundations for a national spirit; inspiration for our dreams, arts and culture. TREE. Canada’s Eastern Deciduous forest, from humble conifers to lush leafy species, is re-constituted across the entire park site, forming a diverse yet all-encompassing canopy. The grove intensifies at particular moments, creating dense and shady seating areas and ethereal ferny hillsides. The grove dissipates toward the center of the park, opening the view from Bay Street to the harbour and creating

dappled shade and pockets of sunlight toward the water’s edge. The grove’s gridded organization expands and contracts to frame views and to accommodate people and bicycles and park and ferry operations. It is arranged to celebrate textures and fall color gradients from park edges to the center to create subtle but perceivable changes in spatial and atmospheric effect, and to reinforce the distinct nature of nested spaces within the park. It also gives way to clusters of existing trees that may be retained to add contrast and scale. Even the Log Benches and climbing structures of the Adventure Play Forest are designed as abstractions of the fallen log, harking to the full life cycle of Canada’s forests. ROCK. Ancient Canadian Shield rock formations, carved by glaciers long ago, are reconstituted in the continuous granite plaza beneath the trees. Igneous granite underfoot will ensure the plaza will withstand the stream of summer crowds moving to and from the ferries; the plaza expands the waiting areas into flexible spaces for other kinds of events, and includes seating groves for reading and waiting. The paving itself is adapted from the Harbourfront Promenade standard of granite sets, with maples leaves tracing the fully accessible and

continuous promenade from York to Yonge Street Slips, and then fading out toward both city and water. Tilted stone slabs at the edge of the Swim Basin evoke the limestone ledges of eastern Lake Ontario’s Prince Edward County and work as warm perches for sunbathing and people-watching. WATER. Lake Ontario is Toronto’s greatest natural resource—our primordial source of water, ecology, recreation, and economy—and a vital asset to be amplified and celebrated through the changes of our four dynamic seasons. Views of and to the harbour are created to make real and strong connections to people—and to make lasting impressions. Water in the park is made interactive and fun, through the Water + Ice Plaza (splash pool in summer, skating rink in winter); through the swimming pools and communal hot tubs floating in the lake; and through the now-protected Basin on the park’s west edge for kayaks and canoes. The ecology of water is honoured, with floating wetlands in the Basin and under-water grasses in the Yonge Street Slip edge that provide vital habitat to native Northern Pike and related fish species.

CLOUD. Here’s the twist. The Cloud animates Toronto’s famous lake fogs that envelop the city, and the gentle mists that rise from the harbour on magical summer mornings. This natural phenomenon is manifest in new ways in the park. The Cloud is a marker and gateway at the newly opened Bay Street entrance to the park, enveloping the existing bridge between buildings in a dramatic year-round mist that can be experienced close up, at a distance, and even from within the bridge. Water mists and fog fountains oscillate between the gentle pools and skating ice of the Water + Ice Plaza, while bubbling hot tubs and warm swimming pools create ephemeral vapour in the Swim Basin. The Cloud brings a cooling respite in the humid summer, and a welcome warmth in frigid winter; it delivers thermal and experiential contrasts that are palpable: at once playful and stimulating, and even exotic, languorous, and sensual. The clouds accumulate to form a constantly changing, mystical, and ephemeral icon that embraces the drama of Toronto’s skyline yet offers a light touch at waters’ edge.

THE PLAN

MATERIAL GRADIENTS

In keeping with the parkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s light touch, elements and surfaces are considered along spatial, material, and atmospheric gradients, with few hard edges and many gradual transitions from one to the other. Lush forest plantings give way to more ordered, elegant bosques; soft lawns give way to durable granite set plazas; and still and splashing water gives way to mist and fog and vapor.

THE PLAN

GROVE GRIDS The gridded grove expands and contracts to create denser, shadier spaces at the park edges, and lighter, more open spaces at the waterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s edge. The torquing of the grid reinforces specific views to the ferries and terminal, and out to the harbour and islands. 48

The spacing of the grove is dense where individuals may wander alone or in small groups, like in the seating grove and atop the hills. The spacing between the trees opens up in the queuing areas for the terminal and ferries, where larger crowds, bicycles, and carts need extra space. In instances where existing trees can be retained, the grid of the grove simply stops and re-starts, creating micro-spaces within the bigger forest. Tree species and sizes are varied, so that fall color is dramatized in the middle of the park, while larger species along the edge give way to small, more compact species in the middleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;again reinforcing the spatial and qualitative gradients as you move closer to the water.

QUEUING GROVE

GROVE GRID EXCEPTIONS

TREE SPECIES GRADIENT

TREE SIZE GRADIENT

THE PLAN

MAPLE LEAF PROMENADE

The water’s edge promenade paving of granite sets and maple leafs is extended from York Quay, along the backside of the existing naturalized shoreline, then along the harbourwall, around the Water + Ice Plaza and new terminal building, through to and then along Yonge Quay—fully establishing the promenade from east to west. The maple leaf patterning traces this through path, but then dissolves to the north and south in order to reinforce the clarity of the promenade path. The patterning reemerges near the Cloud Gate to re-connect to the paving along Queen’s Quay Boulevard West.

THE PARK

CLOUD GATE

Cloud gate is a spectacular new entry to the park and the harbourfront directly from downtown. The existing tunnel and condominium access road are re-made and relocated to the east, which open up dramatic views out to the harbour and the islands from the Bay Street corridor, a view reinforced by the framing of the new terminal building to the east and the rolling hills to the west. Hovering above this gateway is an extraordinary and ethereal cloud of cool mist in the summer and warm fog in the winter, fully enveloping the overhead pedestrian bridge that connects the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel to the 33 Harbour Square Condominiums. In this way the cloud becomes a signature beacon for the park and the harbour from a distance; a constantly changing and unearthly phenomenon for those passing beneath it; and an extraordinary experience for those walking through it, across the bridge. The new entry space itself is a planted plaza that extends the Queens Quay Boulevard paving into the park and opens up circulation space for the throngs of people passing through and along the gateway. The re-positioning of the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal building creates a direct and clear visual connection to it for people finding their way to the ferries.

THE PARK

THE GROVE

Moving into the park from Bay Street, visitors are fully enveloped in a mixed hardwood grove, growing from the expanded plaza paving and the lawn of the Hills. To the east, the grove provides a shaded queuing and waiting area for those heading for the island ferries, with plenty of space between trees for carriages, carts, and bicycles. The Jack Layton sculpture is repositioned here, as the grove intensifies closer to the hotel building, where an array of Log Benches create a comfortable and quieter area for waiting, reading, eating, or just hanging out. To the west, the grove climbs the undulating lawn hills, providing luminous cover for the picnic slopes and small play and informal performance areas tucked in between. The Grove dissipates toward the Water + Ice Plaza at lakeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s edge, gradually opening views to the spectacular panorama of the harbour.

THE PARK

THE TERMINAL

T in Cloud Park, the terminal pavilion unites the iconic with the functional, seamlessly combining the way the park and ferry operations are experienced and the way they work. Firmly rooted in the design of the landscape, the pavilion is accessible to both ferry and park users, thereby expanding and integrating the life of each. With its carefully considered siting, scale, form and amenities, the new building enhances visitorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experiences in all seasons, and provides an important new addition to Torontoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s civic realm.

THE PARK

THE TERMINAL

The one story pavilion gently increases in height from land to water, forging strong connections between them. Its unique diagonally stepping roof will create varying perceptions from different vantage points in the park, while incorporating clerestory glazing that illuminates the interior with a special light. Upon entering the building, visitors will be rewarded with a soaring and luminous space. Beneath an undulating ceiling of maple wood slats, passengers and park users will be drawn to expansive views of the Toronto Islands beyond, unless they are drawn to the cafĂŠ and others amenities first. Once outside again in the park, they might notice subtly distorted reflections of themselves and their environment in the terminalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s slightly concave facades. And they will almost surely come to see their new Jack Layton Ferry Terminal and Cloud Park as both a real and fantastical place.

THE PARK

WATER + ICE PLAZA

At the lakeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s edge, the gently sloping plaza gives way to two joined pools of water that visually and virtually extend the harbour waters (and ice!) back into the park, reclaiming their former place in the site. The shallow pools including dancing jets and intense mists that beckon people in, cooling them off during hot spells. In the winter, the pools are converted to ice skating rinks, rightly placing the national pastime at the center of the park and park experience. The nearby Adventure Play Forest creates an expanded multi-use play zone in combination with the pools so that kids and adults have numerous opportunities for letting loose. The public portions of the adjacent terminal building provide concessions and support facilities to the plaza and park in general for all four seasons. These services are expanded in the winter, when the terminal also serves as a warming hut for skaters and park visitors alike.

THE PARK

THE BLUFF + SWIM PLAZA

The western portion of the Hills rise dramatically toward the existing basin, creating a 15m high shaded bluff and overlook and a sunny sloping lawn down to the lakeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a spectacular and emphatic lookout and promontory to the sweep of harbour and islands. At the toe of lawn and bluff, the space opens up to a sunny and casual plaza for hanging out near to the Swim Basin, with tilted slabs and lounge chairs for sunbathing and people-watching, and rolling palm trees that lend an air of the exotic. The underside of the bluff houses a small concessions operations and changing rooms to serve this west end of the park. Here families can gather to picnic, visitors can come to take in the views, and everyone can simply enjoy being Torontonians, whether native, adopted, or visiting.

THE PARK

SWIM BASIN

The existing basin is transformed via floating walkways, a large swimming pool, steamy public hots tubs, and floating wetlands. A hole new world is introduced here, where everything is finely tuned to the waves and gentle fluctuations of the lake. Lake water is filtered for the pools and tubs and allow for the re-introduction of swimming in the harbourâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;yet amplified and dramatized through their year-round presence and foggy ambience. Floating wetlands provide fish feeding habitat, and the accumulation of floating islands offer kayakers a safe a protectedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and unparalleled!--new environment for exploration.

THE TERMINAL

JACK LAYTON FERRY TERMINAL

THE TERMINAL

PROGRAM DISTRIBUTION

One of the challenges of the site is to untangle the parallel and overlapping activities of embarking and disembarking ferry passengers, park visitors and ferry maintenance and operations. We propose to bring clarity to these functions and optimize the site by splitting the program in two. The new Terminal Pavilion, centrally located within the park to conveniently serve all publics (park goers, passengers, cafĂŠ patrons, ice skaters, wedding parties, etc) through all seasons, would house public amenities. At its core, it provides public washrooms, a restaurant/cafĂŠ tenant space and amenities such as skating equipment rental in the winter. The majority of the pavilion is defined by a soaring, luminous, flexible hall for gathering, waiting and eating. On the eastern end, across from the Holding Bosque, the Ferry Operations Building will host all administrative and operational functions related to the park and ferries, ensuring safety and quiet for the general public and functionality and comfort for staff. Workshops and security functions are privileged on the ground floor, within close proximity to the boats and facility vehicles arriving from Queens Quay, while a second floor level with offices, meeting rooms and terrace will provide an overview of ferry operations.

PUBLIC AMENITIES

FERRY OPERATIONS

QUEUING PLAZA

TICKET KIOSKS (5)

AUTOMATED TICKET VENDING MACHINES (5)

VEHICUALR ACCESS GATE

PRE-PURCHASED TICKET ACCESS LANE

YONGE SLIP

PASSENGER EXIT GATE

HOLDING BOSQUE PASSENGER ENTRANCE GATES WINTER ENTRANCE GATE

FEDERAL SECURITY AREA

THE TERMINAL

VISUAL CONNECTIONS

Visitors to the new park will be drawn in by views clearly framing the islands, the new terminal and its ticketing and holding zones. How can we balance a desire to integrate terminal activities into a cohesive park experience while also improving their functionality? We propose a campus-like organization by splitting the Terminal into two smaller buildings â&#x20AC;&#x201C; public amenities and ferry operations. Located on either side of the holding bosque, their siting provides a direct visual connection between the point of arrival from the city and the point of departure to the islands. It will now be possible to simply walk directly from Queenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Quay to the ferries, with an optional detour through the terminal building depending on weather or need for its services. The journey to the Toronto Islands will therefore begin as it ends, with a continuous engagement of the outdoors.

IES

NAL

TERMI

ISLA ND

THE TERMINAL

TERMINAL AS PARK

Located at an important hinge point between park and ferry functions, the Terminal Pavilion provides us the opportunity to present multiple fronts to its surroundings. The pavilionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s five facets frame and engage activities related to the arrival from the city, ticketing, the ferries, and the view towards the island and the new park. With careful considerations for access, and by varying opaque and transparent portions of each facet, the building orchestrates a diverse range of functions in and around it without turning its back on city or park.

TIC

TIN

FERRI

K PAR

ISLANDS

THE TERMINAL

TRANSFORMING THE PASSENGER EXPERIENCE

We began the design of the Terminal with the simple goal of drastically improving the ferry passenger experience, from the moment of arrival, through the queuing, ticketing and waiting sequence, to boarding. The current journey from city to island and back is an alienating experience. Described by many as a cattle enclosure, the security requirements of the holding area disconnects passengers from their surroundings and stands as a barrier between the city and the islands. We believe it is possible to integrate security and operational logistics into a significantly more lush and calm environment, while maintaining the directness of the current approach. The journey from city to island is therefore re-envisioned as a seamless walk through the park, beginning with a dispersed field of trees in a more generous queuing plaza and ending in a bosque of trees near the lake. Torontonians may even look forward to waiting for their summer ferry, either under the bosqueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cool shade or inside the secured zone of their beautiful new pavilion.

PARK AS TERMINAL / TERMINAL AS PARK

Fusce dignissim magna vitae tortor pretium, a vestibulum libero feugiat. Nulla ac mi ac metus dignissim tristique. Pellentesque tincidunt mollis neque, at iaculis tellus cursus blandit. Proin in metus eu erat accumsan consequat. Morbi at sapien eu tellus ultricies ullamcorper. Aliquam fringilla lectus sed augue consectetur pretium. In a arcu at quam vulputate dignissim. Cras ullamcorper id tortor sit amet pellentesque. Etiam facilisis varius ex, et eleifend est facilisis ut. Mauris commodo mollis justo sagittis convallis. In condimentum elementum orci quis eleifend. Fusce sed tincidunt enim. Sed lobortis tortor augue, nec egestas orci semper in. Vestibulum cursus sem a auctor egestas. Donec placerat, massa ut tristique condimentum, erat lacus suscipit nunc, nec consequat lectus leo in felis. Donec scelerisque nisi at lacus facilisis fermentum. Nam scelerisque, mauris et porttitor dictum, lectus ipsum pellentesque urna, in maximus felis neque eget augue. Curabitur non purus nec arcu vestibulum aliquet et ut urna.

PARK AS TERMINAL / TERMINAL AS PARK

1390 QUEUING PASSENGERS

2600 QUEUING PASSENGERS

11 m

21 m

1390 QUEUING PASSENGERS

30 M

29 M

QUEUING ZONE 1390 M2

10 M

11.5 M

ADDITIONAL KIOSK

HOLDING ZONE 1600 M2

FEDERAL SECURITY AREA 2700 M2

EXISTING TERMINAL ZONES

QUEUING PLAZA 2600 M2

HOLDING ZONE 2100 M2

FEDERAL SECURITY AREA 2700 M2

PROPOSED TERMINAL ZONES

THE TERMINAL

TERMINAL AS PORTAL

We approached the design of the Terminal Pavilion by carefully considering how to highlight the siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spectacular views. Shaped by multiple sitelines and panoramic views in every direction, the Terminal Pavilion acts as a portal between the city and the islands. From under the diaphanous ceiling canopy, visitors will be oriented towards their various destinations, visible through the clear expanses of glass. The Toronto Islands will appear dramatically as an unfolding horizon as soon as one enters the Pavilion. As an important destination within the park, the Terminal Pavilion building will feel more like a park pavilion that provides amenities to passengers than an accessible ferry building. Its interior design will feel simple and uncluttered, emphasizing its connection to the outdoors, and balancing the intimate feeling of being under a forest canopy with the uplifting feeling of its sculptural form. Carefully chosen materials will continue the natural and elemental feeling of the immediate outdoors, and broader connections between architecture and landscape.

ORIGIN: TORONTO

DESTINATION: TORONTO ISLANDS

MEANS OF TRANSPORT: FERRIES

POINT OF CONTROL 1

PARTITION POINT OF CONTROL 2

THE TERMINAL

SEASONAL AND OPERATIONAL FLEXIBILITY

During high season, passengers can either make their way to the automated kiosks located on the face of the terminal or to express or regular manned ticket booths, depending on whether they need to purchase tickets. They can visit the terminal either before purchasing tickets, or after - these groups of non-ticketed and ticketed passengers can be separated within the terminal by a removable screen along the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s central axis. The terminal contains indoor waiting areas, bathroom facilities, food concessions and other amenities for both groups of users. Passengers heading directly to the ferries will gather in the calming environment of the Holding Bosque - a secure zone that feels like a park, with benches and small amenities that can be flexibly changed.

SUMMER

POINT OF CONTROL 1

WINTER

In winter the terminal can function as a single, undivided space, wit ticketing control either within the building or at the federal security zone perimeter fence. In the future, with the adoption of new more seamless technologies for ticketing and security, we imagine the eventual removal of the Holding Bosque and ticket booths, allowing the park and terminal to complete its union into a singular and world class public space.

POINT OF CONTROL 1

WAITING AREA

POSSIBLE FUTURE

FEDERAL SECURITY AREA

AUTOMATED TICKET HOLDER PASSENGER QUEUING PASSENGER DEPARTING PARK USER PASSENGER ARRIVING

SUMMER FLOWS 1:500

AUTOMATED TICKET HOLDER PASSENGER QUEUING PASSENGER DEPARTING PARK USER PASSENGER ARRIVING

WINTER FLOWS 1:500

AUTOMATED TICKET HOLDER PASSENGER DEPARTING PARK USER/PASSENGER WAITING PASSENGER ARRIVING

POSSIBLE FUTURE FLOWS 1:500

CHAPTER

THE PARK

18 17

3 5

4 2

PLANS 1:200

19 24

22 8

10 25

27 9 26

2ND FLOOR FERRY PAVILION 1. TERMINAL MAIN SPACE 2. CAFE TENANT SPACE 3. TRASH ROOM 4. TENANT STORAGE ROOM 5. PUBLIC WASHROOMS 6. PUBLIC WASHROOMS

9. OFFICES 10. KITCHENETTE 11. WASHROOM 1 12. WASHROOM 2 13. MEN’S LOCKER ROOM 14. WOMEN’S LOCKER ROOM 15. STORAGE/MECH. ROOM

FERRY OPERATIONS BLDG/ GROUND FLOOR: 7. SECURITY ROOM 8. WORKSHOP

SITE ELEMENTS: 16. TICKETS KIOSKS 17. GLASS FENCE 18. REFLECTIVE WALL

19. MOSAIC WALL 20. FEDERAL AREA FENCE 21. VEHICULAR GATE FERRY OPERATIONS BLDG/ 2ND FLOOR: 22. OFFICES 23. MECH. ROOM 24. WASHROOMS 25. STORAGE 26. CONFERENCE ROOM 27. TERRACE

THE TERMINAL

FORM AND LIGHT

MINERAL

FLOOR TILES

Part extension of the Cloud Park hardscape and part homage to the beautiful frozen ice sheets drifting in the Toronto harbour in winter, the terminal’s floor combines various finishes of locally sourced stone in a pattern reminiscent of the building’s footprint.

CANOPY

WOOD CEILING

A luminous and undulating ceiling comprised of maple wood slats ripples like a wave and filters light like a lush tree canopy, extending the vibrant environment of the park into the terminal. The slats’ orientation can be optimized to shade the interior in summer months and allow a maximum amount of natural light to enter the space in winter.

TRUNK

GLULAM STRUCTURE

Branching out like the structure of a tree or a leaf, the soaring glu-lam timber framework of the terminal arches above the central space, creating an airy volume and allowing for large openings on all sides.

FOLIAGE

METAL LEAVES

Using an array of polychromatic pearlescent tiles, the reflective cladding of the pavilion shimmers in the sunlight and captures the vibrancy of its park and city surroundings. Dynamic and colorful, the terminalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s envelope connects with the ever-changing foliage of the Canadian landscape.

LIGHT

SKYLIGHTS

In addition to clerestory glazing, skylights can be added.

YONGE STREET SLIP

ART WALL

FERRY OPERATIONS

HOLDING BOSQUE

TERMINAL

WATER + ICE PLAZA

ADVENTURE FOREST

THE ELEMENTS 93

THE HILLS

CHANGING ROOMS + BLUFF

SWIM PLAZA

FLOATING HOT TUBS

FLOATING WETLANDS

KAYAK BASIN

THE OCULUS

THE PARK

ADVENTURE FOREST

Tucked into a crevice of the hills, the adventure play forest is a place for kids to let looseâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;to run, climb, jump, swing, and hang among fallen and sculpted logs, bouncy rubber surfaces, even a slide tucked into a lawn slope. The play forest is located immediately adjacent to the Water + Ice Plaza, where kids can also run and splash in the cooling jets or skate in winter. Conceptually the play area extends the forest and log and water imagery of the park, while pragmatically it gives kids waiting for the ferry (and their parents!) a great release from long queues at the terminal.

THE ELEMENTS

JACK

The Layton Memorial is such an important part of the existing park, and the bicycle sculpture with Jack’s likeness is friendly and interactive—a great and popular way to have memorialized the man. In the proposed park, the memorial will be re-situated very close to its current location, between the new Cloud Gate and the new Terminal, in a new Memorial Grove accessible and visible to all park users and ferry riders entering and leaving the park through the Bay Street corridor. We propose amplifying the sculpture’s presence and meaning via a translation of “JACK’S GOT YOUR BACK” into the dozens and dozens of languages spoken in Toronto—alluding to the true openness of Jack’s character, and to the hundreds of people native and foreign-born whose lives he touched. The various translations of this signature phrase would be embedded into the paving of the Memorial Grove, essentially tracing a pathway of languages and cultures from the Cloud Gate entrance to the Terminal named in Jack’s honor—and touching on the incredibly wide impact he had on all Torontonians, old and new alike.

THE ELEMENTS

SWIM PLAZA

The plaza occupies the space between the Bluff and the Basin. Tilting stone ledges offer a great place for sunbathing looking out to the harbor and islands, with movable palm trees that provide some shade and texture. The cut face of the bluff doubles as an entrance to changing spaces and a small snack concession. The sloping lawn rises from the plaza, offering a sloping and soft surface for people-watching, sunning, and viewing the activity in the harbour.

PLAN OF CHANGING ROOMS UNDER THE BLUFF

THE ELEMENTS

THE BASIN

100

The slightly sheltered existing basin is animated with floating walkways, a large swimming pool, smaller communal hots tubs, and floating wetlands. It is an entirely new kind of waterfront space that offers people a chance to get into the water (filtered lake water) and swim, or lounge in bubbly pools. In the winter, the pools’ steamy effects are amplified, creating fog and mist clouds and creating provocative juxtapositions— bare skin against ice, swimming in a frozen lake. The floating wetlands create fish habitat in a place devoid of such places; the light sticks change color and intensity as the quality and cleanliness of the water changes—both and educational device and intriguing environmental register. Together the pods also calm the waves and create an intriguing calm area for kayaks— and a sensorial and technological contrast to the existing naturalized shoreline. Fuzzy, frozen, steamy, splashy, sweaty—just a few of the off-kilter textures and sensations to be had in this watery place.

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THE ELEMENTS

FLOATING PODS The Basin is dotted with floating infrastructure that facilitates a dynamic sensory experience of Lake Ontario, in any season. Each element forms part of an integrated composition bringing ecology, recreation, socialization and relaxation together. 102

FLOATING BOARDWALK

FLOATING HOT TUB

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FLOATING WETLAND

FLOATING POOL

THE ELEMENTS

ART WALK

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As a vital pedestrian link in Torontoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s continuous waterfront, the east-west promenade and double row of trees continues between the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel and the Ferry Operations building, connecting the park to Yonge Street Slip. Conceived as an Art Walk, the path is defined by an interactive reflective wall on its north side, transforming the southern edge of the hotel, and reflecting the Holding Bosque, ferries and lake. Across from it, on the facing (north) faĂ§ade of the Ferry Operations Building, we are suggesting a possible location for relocating the existing mosaic wall. In addition, the glass screen to the Holding Bosque could be a site for art, either through the transformation of the glass screens themselves, or their further development as an armature for curated works. The path has been designed for pedestrian comfort and safety, while also accommodating emergency and maintenance vehicles. Conceived as an important connective element for the waterfront at large, the Art Walk will become a unique place in its own right, at once intimate and expansive through its physical and visual connections to its broader context.

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THE ELEMENTS

YONGE QUAY

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The Yonge Street Quay is remade as a multifunctional infrastructure to accommodate dynamic water movement and a thriving fish ecology, as well as re-establishing a fully accessible through-path for the Harbourfront Promenade. It engages a vibrant social life of the park simultaneously between the watersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; edge and the upland portion of the quay, with the tree-lined granite promenade and a new wooden deck for sitting, walking, and closer interactions with the harbour environment. The Quay is reworked into an extended pedestrian promenade of mapleleaf paving, following a common planting language featuring the signature double row of trees. The eastern portion of the site is dedicated to ferry operations and passenger loading, while the western portion is designed to accommodate employee parking and pedestrian circulation. A new elevated boardwalk provides expansive harbour views, extending out and over the edge of the dock wall, emphasizing the primacy of the water as visitors move through and over the site. Improved habitat for native northern pike and other fish is created by rock piles under the wooden docks that provide sheltered feeding and spawning in the underwater grasses.

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YONGE STREET SLIP BOARDWALK

THE ELEMENTS

LOG BENCH

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The custom-designed Log Bench is a signature seating element for the park that evokes its origins in the Canadian wilderness. The idea starts with a fallen tree, cut into a log, and then transformed by contemporary cutting and shaping tools and technology into a sensuous, undulating bench. The individual contour sections of the bench are calibrated to specific sitting and lounging positions, then smoothed in between to make for elegant transitions. The family of benches acknowledges and are designed to different body types, and that offer an array of sitting and lounging possibilities that cater to peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s whims and desiresâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; which likely change from day to day. A large cluster of these benches is dispersed among the trees in the sitting grove, between the new terminal building and the Jack Layton Memorial, offering both park users and folks waiting for the ferry to buy tickets a quiter, more comfortable place to sit, wait, hang out, or read a bookâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;or even for kids to run around and jump on and over the benches as an informal play element. Other benches are distributed around the park in places people are likely to gather or want to sit: at the harbor edge; in the Waiting Grove; in the Adventure Playground; atop the Bluff; and along the Yonge Street Slip boardwalk.

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THE ELEMENTS

CANOPY LIGHTING LED downlighting in the Bosque canopy brings a moonlit ambience to the space by night. From within the ‘moonlighting’ gives a warm, dappled atmosphere to the holding space, while from without all that can be seen is a subtle glow. 110

ILLUMINATED CANOPY

THE ELEMENTS

MAPLE LEDS LED lights trace the edge of the signature maple leaf pavers along the Promenade found throughout the site to bring a temporal accent to the ground plane.

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ILLUMINATED EDGE

THE ELEMENTS

LIGHTING IN POOLS The floating pool and hot tub will be illuminated by submerged lighting bringing an iridescent glow to the body of water itself, while giving a touch of light to suspended mists hovering by.

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ILLUMINATED EFFERVESCENCE

THE ELEMENTS

FLOATING LIGHTS Floating wetlands become a feature of the night-time waterscape through integrated environmental lighting. The movement of both water beneath and air above will be registered through a gentle sway of light fixtures and the coloured light they cast on wetland vegetation and the lake surface. 113

ILLUMINATED VEGETATION

THE ELEMENTS

FOG / MIST SYSTEMS A range of water effects will articulate the site and controlled to create a variety of atmospheric qualities. From splash to mist to fog, the site will express its unique identity in discrete moments as one travels through, the overall effect will being one of a diverse sensory relationship to water and atmosphere.

PLAZA FOG

114

From the threshold of the fog bridge, people will be given an immediate sense of arriving at Cloud Park. Through the interactions that follow the different fog and mist systems begin to play a part in articulating and shaping the experience of the terminal, of the park and of the lake. The Water Plaza passively collects water and splashes and sprays it into the air as a stream, a fog or a mist. The floating hot tub produces steam, warming the spaces on its periphery. The pool, when in use, gives off a fine effervescent mist that becomes lightly visible from near and far.

MIST BRIDGE

PLAZA MIST

HOT TUB STEAM 115

PLAZA SPLASH

POOL EFFERVESCENCE

THE ELEMENTS

SERVICES

116

The existing tunnel access to the condominium towers and the leased parking lot would both be removed in order to open the views to the harbour from Bay Street and to give more uninterrupted space to the park. A two-way automobile access from Bay Street would be retained but integrated into the plaza under the Cloud Gate, then would turn and run at the backside of the new hills against the face of 33 Harbour Square, to connect to the existing turn-around at the entrance to that building. A public drop-off area would be integrated into the road near the entry plaza, with additional shared drop-off / condominium parking spaces lining the access road. A new gate and turn-around would restrict access to the condominium entrance while allowing other vehicles convenient access back out to Bay Street. Additional condominium-only parking spaces would be provided inside the gate, for a total of 41 parking spaces and 6 drop-off spaces.

Ferry vehicular loading and unloading (and island resident goods delivery) would continue to operate along Yonge Street Slip, adjacent to the Westin hotel. The promenade paving would extend across the service drives so the area reads like a shared use woonerf but is reserved primary for ferry service operations. Twenty-four parking spaces for staff and employees would be included along the service drive, while a turn-around area for trucks and vehicles would occupy the space current at the head of the slip for the Trillumâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;either in its current or re-configured form. Emergency access to the park would be possible from Bay Street and along both the Yonge Street and York Street Slips. Primary emergency access would connect through the entire park along the Maple Leaf Promenade, along the waterfront, and through the plaza to Bay Street, giving access to all major areas of the park and terminal. Emergency vehicles could also utilize the service drive to the condominiums.

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PHASE 1

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PHASE 1

THE CLOUD GATE Phase 1 of the projects needs to make a distinct a and strong impression, in order to give hints about the bigger project to come. But it can’t be something that later needs to be re-done—we want the investment made here to be both permanent and fun.

120

We propose implementing the cloud feature at the Bay Street entrance, on the existing bridge that connects 33 Harbour Square to the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel. This is the most visible piece of the new park, and it will surely attract much attention from people on the street and instantly create the image and public presence the existing park lacks. It also embeds the fundamental essence and excitement of Cloud Park as a living, breathing entity that interacts with both city and environment. Within the park proper, we propose a small fleet of inflatable hot-tubs, tethered to one another in the future Swim Basin of the park. The floating hot tubs capture the fun and sensuality of the proposed park, and they give people an entirely new activity to participate in—again doing it in a way that is fun, slightly provocative, and pragmatic (in that it would not interfere with future construction). Both interventions effectively signal the culture change that will come with the new park—and will offer people direct immersion in the mistiness and sensuality of the Cloud.

FLOATING HOT TUB KIELDER ART & ARCHITECTURE

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PHASE 1

CLOUD GATE MISTERS 103 nozzles per row across four rows will create a static cloud of mist above the entrance to Cloud Park, creating a dramatic entrance to the future park.

122

A tank fed via the pump through a reclamation pond and rain-water collector would feed nozzles, secured to the main supply pipe via a t-branch. To support that main branch, clamps secured to the top and bottom truss chords at each vertical mullion and their mid-point, approximate 1612mm O.C.. Nozzles are tested for arrangement through field tests, accounting for wind and the impact on a standing cloud.

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THE BOARDS

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CLOUD PARK VIEWPORT TO THE HARBOUR

PARK AS TERMINAL TERMINAL AS PARK

ISLAND CULTURE IN THE CITY

FOUR SEASON DESTINATION

The cloud is manifest as a dramatic new foggy gateway from Bay Street; as a full and brilliant canopy of trees illuminated by the sun and by discrete night lighting; and as an enigmatic series of misting plazas and pools that offer entirely new experiences (swimming and even floating, bubbly hot tubs!) along the harbourfront. The cloud cools when it’s hot, warms when it’s cold, and creates a dramatic but ethereal new icon at the harbor’s edge. The park strategy re-establishes clear physical and visual linkages from the city to the harbour by removing the tunnel and hill that block views to the islands from Bay Street. It opens additional views to the ferries and to the entire sweep of the harbour through clearings in the tree canopy and through positioning of various programmatic elements and viewpoints: the Water + Ice Plaza at harbour’s edge, the sloping lawns, undulating mounds, and elevated bluff of the Hills; the floating walkways, platforms and pools in the Swim Basin. It also integrates the redesigned Jack Layton Ferry Terminal into the park itself, so that the entire park becomes part of the waiting experience for the ferries, and the terminal operates as much as a park pavilion (with concessions, ice skating rentals, etc) as it does a terminal and ticketing operation. It also expands the queuing area of the park as a multi-functional plaza-grove, offering much additional space, generous and shaded seating clusters, and even a nearby adventure forest playground and Water Plaza to burn off excess energy. Otherworldly. Enigmatic. Ethereal. It’s design with a light touch, with a pragmatic eye, but with a substantial transformative impact on how we can all re-connect to the harbour and experience the lakefront anew.

A FANTASTICAL PLACE

FERRY SLIPS FROM THE HOLDING BOSQUE

ADVENTURE PLAY FOREST

KAYAKING IN THE BASIN

YONGE STREET

BAY STREET

CLOUD PARK AT DUSK

FLOATING HOT TUBS

YORK STREET SLIP

12 13 21

YONGE STREET SLIP

19 15

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9 1 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.

FLOATING WETLAND AND FISH HABITAT POOL HOT TUB SUN DECK SWIM PLAZA SUNNING LAWN PARKING TURN-AROUND ADVENTURE PLAY FOREST PERFORMANCE SPACE DROP-OFF JACK LAYTON SCULPTURE SEATING AND WAITING AREA ELECTRONIC TICKETING FERRY TERMINAL WATER PLAZA TICKET KIOSK HOLDING BOSQUE SERVICE BUILDING SERVICE ACCESS FISH HABITAT YONGE SLIP PROMENADE

CANOPY MASTER PLAN 1:500

3 1

5 2

2 1 4 1

VIEWS

SURFACES

MOUND EXISTING WETLAND POOLS WOOD HARDSCAPE

LIGHTING

PEDESTRIAN

VEHICULAR

PRIVATE PUBLIC SERVICE EMERGENCY

CLOUD GATE VIEW FROM BAY STREET

THE CANADIAN LANDSCAPE WITH A TWIST

THE HILLS, THE GROVE, THE PLAY FOREST

Landscape is fundamental to our Canadian identity. Light, shifting and dappled by the varied tree canopy, from evergreen and leafy forests; wild terrains of rock sculpted by epochs of ice; of water, a still mirror in the lake or rushing over rapids, falls and pools. It is these essential elements—tree, rock, and water—foundations for a national spirit; inspiration for our dreams, arts and culture.

127

TREE

ROCK

WATER

CLOUD

Canada’s Eastern Deciduous forest, from humble conifers to lush leafy species, is re-constituted across the entire park site, forming a diverse yet all-encompassing canopy. The grove intensifies at particular moments, creating dense and shady seating areas and ethereal ferny hillsides. The grove dissipates toward the center of the park, opening the view from Bay Street to the harbour and creating dappled shade and pockets of sunlight toward the water’s edge. The grove’s gridded organization expands and contracts to frame views and to accommodate people and bicycles and park and ferry operations. It is arranged to celebrate textures and fall color gradients from park edges to the center to create subtle but perceivable changes in spatial and atmospheric effect, and to reinforce the distinct nature of nested spaces within the park. It also gives way to clusters of existing trees that may be retained to add contrast and scale. Even the Log Benches and climbing structures of the Adventure Play Forest are designed as abstractions of the fallen log, harking to the full life cycle of Canada’s forests.

Ancient Canadian Shield rock formations, carved by glaciers long ago, are reconstituted in the continuous granite plaza beneath the trees. Igneous granite underfoot will ensure the plaza will withstand the stream of summer crowds moving to and from the ferries; the plaza expands the waiting areas into flexible spaces for other kinds of events, and includes seating groves for reading and waiting. The paving itself is adapted from the Harbourfront Promenade standard of granite sets, with maples leaves tracing the fully accessible and continuous promenade from York to Yonge Street Slips, and then fading out toward both city and water. Tilted stone slabs at the edge of the Swim Basin evoke the limestone ledges of eastern Lake Ontario’s Prince Edward County and work as warm perches for sunbathing and people-watching.

Lake Ontario is Toronto’s greatest natural resource—our primordial source of water, ecology, recreation, and economy—and a vital asset to be amplified and celebrated through the changes of our four dynamic seasons. Views of and to the harbour are created to make real and strong connections to people—and to make lasting impressions. Water in the park is made interactive and fun, through the Water + Ice Plaza (splash pool in summer, skating rink in winter); through the swimming pools and communal hot tubs floating in the lake; and through the nowprotected Basin on the park’s west edge for kayaks and canoes. The ecology of water is honoured, with floating wetlands in the Basin and under-water grasses in the Yonge Street Slip edge that provide vital habitat to native Northern Pike and related fish species.

Here’s the twist. The Cloud animates Toronto’s famous lake fogs that envelop the city, and the gentle mists that rise from the harbour on magical summer mornings. This natural phenomenon is manifest in new ways in the park. The Cloud is a marker and gateway at the newly opened Bay Street entrance to the park, enveloping the existing bridge between buildings in a dramatic year-round mist that can be experienced close up, at a distance, and even from within the bridge. Water mists and fog fountains oscillate between the gentle pools and skating ice of the Water + Ice Plaza, while bubbling hot tubs and warm swimming pools create ephemeral vapour in the Swim Basin. The Cloud brings a cooling respite in the humid summer, and a welcome warmth in frigid winter; it delivers thermal and experiential contrasts that are palpable: at once playful and stimulating, and even exotic, languorous, and sensual. The clouds accumulate to form a constantly changing, mystical, and ephemeral icon that embraces the drama of Toronto’s skyline yet offers a light touch at waters’ edge.

JACK LAYTON TERMINAL INTERIOR

SWIM PLAZA AND SWIM BASIN FROM THE BLUFF

128

18 17 21

1 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

FERRY PAVILION TERMINAL MAIN SPACE CAFE TENANT SPACE TRASH ROOM TENANT STORAGE ROOM PUBLIC WASHROOMS PUBLIC WASHROOMS

7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

FERRY OPERATIONS BUILDING SECURITY ROOM WORKSHOP OFFICES KITCHENETTE WASHROOM 1 WASHROOM 2 MEN’S LOCKER ROOM WOMEN’S LOCKER ROOM STORAGE/MECH. ROOM

16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.

SITE ELEMENTS TICKETS KIOSKS GLASS FENCE REFLECTIVE WALL MOSAIC WALL FEDERAL AREA FENCE VEHICULAR GATE

12 11

3 5

10 9

TERMINAL PLAN 1:200

JACK LAYTON TERMINAL

MINERAL

CANOPY

TRUNK

FOLIAGE

Using an array of polychromatic pearlescent tiles, the reflective cladding of the pavilion shimmers in the sunlight and captures the vibrancy of its park and city surroundings. Dynamic and colorful, the terminal’s envelope connects with the ever-changing foliage of the Canadian landscape.

Whether approaching from Queens Quay through a cooling veil of fog in summer, or from the Toronto Islands in winter, with expanses of frozen lake before you as the ferry churns the ice, the new Jack Layton Ferry Terminal will first appear as a multifaceted jewel-like pavilion. Framed by trees in various states of seasonal change, the new terminal will embrace you with its five sculpturally curved and pearlescent facades: one each for the five orientations it addresses: the city, the Holding Bosque, the ferries, the islands and the park. Sited carefully between these, the building will no longer block the views that matter, but enhance them, redefining your relationship to the lake and the Toronto Islands. As an integral moment in Cloud Park, the terminal pavilion unites the iconic with the functional, seamlessly combining the way the park and ferry operations are experienced and the way they work. Firmly rooted in the design of the landscape, the pavilion is accessible to both ferry and park users, thereby expanding and integrating the life of each. With its carefully considered siting, scale, form and amenities, the new building enhances visitors’ experiences in all seasons, and provides an important new addition to Toronto’s civic realm. The one story pavilion gently increases in height from land to water, forging strong connections between them. Its unique diagonally stepping roof will create varying perceptions from different vantage points in the park, while incorporating clerestory glazing that illuminates the interior with a special light. Upon entering the building, visitors will be rewarded with a soaring and luminous space. Beneath an undulating ceiling of maple wood slats, passengers and park users will be drawn to expansive views of the Toronto Islands beyond, unless they are drawn to the café and others amenities first. Once outside again in the park, they might notice subtly distorted reflections of themselves and their environment in the terminal’s slightly concave facades. And they will almost surely come to see their new Jack Layton Ferry Terminal and Cloud Park as both a real and fantastical place.

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LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE STOSS LANDSCAPE URBANISM ARCHITECTURE nARCHITECTS ARCHITECTURE ZAS ARCHITECTS STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING SIMPSON GUMPERTZ & HEGER CIVIL ENGINEERING THE MUNICIPAL INFRASTRUCTURE GROUP MARINE ENGINEERING SHOREPLAN ENGINEERING TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING BA GROUP LIGHTING OMBRAGES - ECLAIRAGE PUBLIC ECOLOGY PLANDFORM PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT LURA COST ESTIMATING ALTUS GROUP

CREDITS LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE STOSS LANDSCAPE URBANISM ARCHITECTURE nARCHITECTS ARCHITECTURE ZAS ARCHITECTS STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING SIMPSON GUMPERTZ & HEGER 132

CIVIL ENGINEERING THE MUNICIPAL INFRASTRUCTURE GROUP MARINE ENGINEERING SHOREPLAN ENGINEERING TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING BA GROUP LIGHTING OMBRAGES - ECLAIRAGE PUBLIC ECOLOGY PLANDFORM PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT LURA COST ESTIMATING ALTUS GROUP

133

n ARCHITECTS