New Toronto park at Ontario Place is a sign of hope in a sea of dreck
Trillium Park, a delightful new space at Ontario Place, makes obvious the stinginess of the surrounding waterfront.

thestar.com
By CHRISTOPHER HUME
June 27, 2017

It didn’t take long for Trillium Park to become part of the landscape of Toronto. Barely a week after opening, the new space already feels as if it’s been around forever. The fact it sits on what was once a parking lot makes its appearance that much sweeter.

The problem now is the surrounding city. Located on the water’s edge at the east end of Ontario Place, Trillium Park throws the stinginess of the urban context into sharp relief. That includes Lake Shore Blvd., the highway that separates city and lake; the absence of decent north/south connections; the lack of pedestrian amenities and the green desert that lines Lake Ontario, designed, it seems, for the convenience of lawn mowers.

There’s nothing new about any of this, of course, but the clash between old and new Toronto has never been harder to ignore. Apparently city officials realized this and made a point of not putting up any signage to mark the entrance to the park. If you don’t know where it is, it’s hard to find. In fact, the entrance is at Lake Shore and Ontario Place Blvd., a few blocks east of where a 5-year old boy was run over and killed several weeks ago.

Chances that Official Toronto will acknowledge the challenge let alone rise to it are low; this is the mayor and council, don’t forget, that threw away a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tear down the east end of the Gardiner Expressway and opted instead to spend $1 billion to rebuild it bigger than ever. This is the mayor and council that remain committed to their discredited vision of a fully suburbanized city with a takeout chicken in every pot and two cars in every garage.

The endless talk about parks is little more than political blather. The city has neither the means nor the will even to maintain the parks it already has. Indeed, without the province, Trillium Park would still be what it was - and what many councillors would prefer - a parking lot.

But those for whom the measure of urban excellence goes beyond utility will welcome the new facility. Landscape architects Walter Kehm and Patrick Morello of LANDinc have fashioned a space that offers grassy lawns as well as beds thickly planted with indigenous trees and plants. A wide asphalt pathway winds through the site making it ideal for cyclists, rollerbladers and baby strollers. Most spectacularly, dozens of granite boulders from a Huntsville quarry serve as everything from benches and sculptures to landforms and retaining walls.

Though the park is not large, the designers created a sense of spaciousness by varying ground level. As it rises and falls, it reveals a series of unexpected twists and turns, big vistas and small episodes. The parade of delights both engages and educates. It shows off nature, but doesn’t pretend to be nature. Like the dreck visible in every direction, the park is part of the built environment. More pointedly, however, it proves that man-made can be more than cheap landscapes constructed by the lowest bidders.

“The big idea here is natural regeneration,” says Kehm. The park’s motto, carved in stone, is “Walk Gently On The Land.”

Easier said than done, especially on a landfill site that would be under water if left as it was. The ground had to be raised 1.5 metres before either regeneration or gentle walking could happen.

In addition to enticing people, the park was designed for butterflies, birds and bees. Still, one can’t help but pity any poor creature that finds itself in the vicinity. Outside the park, there’s not much to nourish the passing Lepidoptera or avian straggler.

Humans, on the other hand, will find endless possibilities. Anyone drawn to ruins will want to take advantage of its presence to tour Ontario Place where the people’s pleasure domes, now empty, await restoration. The 75-acre attraction, opened in 1971 and closed 41 years later, is ripe with potential. And although Torontonians are opposed, it’s an ideal location for residential development. But because condo has become a dirty word, politicians have sworn that won’t occur.

In the meantime, it will fall to Trillium Park to lead this part of the city into the modern age. As this small but happily radical space makes clear, Toronto could be more than the sum of its parts. It could be not just beautiful but alive.