Sherbourne Common

I went to Sherbourne Common (south) last month on a rainy day.  Though it’s been officially opened, not everything is complete.

Sherbourne Common

The unprogrammed field is welcome, though hopefully the geese problem will go away as development fills in around the park.

The splash pad/ice rink is unoriginal but the water channel is something new for Toronto.

The experience should be much better next summer when the waterfront promenade and the northern section are finished.

Competition Jury Gets It Right

The jury for the St. Lawrence Market North design competition has picked the right winner with the Red design by Adamson Associates Architects and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.

The jury did well to avoid the blue, green and orange bunker designs as well as the non-descript, yellow also-ran.  Special derision goes to NORR Limited for their green design, which I'd expect from a first-year architecture student -- "let's do St. Lawrence South with glass!"

The red design's exposed steel frame most closely resembles the Centre Pompidou.  Now, let's hope the render bears some resemblance to the realized building.

Democracy in name only

Waterfront Toronto has revealed the short list of submissions to rename Sherbourne Park which can be voted on by the public.

Some are painfully generic: Bayfront Village Green, Blue Edge Park, Merchant's Wharf Park, Waterside Park.

Others are simply unmarketable: Kanadario Park, Ridout Park, Tkaronto Park.

The best is probably Sherbourne Commons, which begs the question: why rename Sherbourne Park?

More Fun With Renders

I've said before that architectural renders are false-colour images. But are they false-context images too?

Check out the rendering for Lumiere.

Now look at it under construction on Bay street.