TORONTO WATERFRONT
DESIGN INITIATIVE
CHARETTE

In 2002, the City of Toronto invited architects, landscape architects and urban designers from across Canada, the US and Europe to participate in a two-day design charette to generate new ideas for revitalizing the waterfront.

aA and landscape designer Caroline Woodland were assigned the mouth of the Don River. The team proposed a continuous, water’s edge pathway to wind around the piers, and an elevated Parliament Street pedestrian/cyclist bridge. They transformed the north end of the Parliament Slip into a public square, and proposed that industrial artifacts throughout the site be preserved as found art and interpretive elements. By realigning the Don River they were able to create a marsh park, traversed with elevated walkways and interpretive elements, under the raised Gardiner Expressway.

If acted upon, these design ideas would transform an underused and degraded site, allowing public space, cultural heritage artifacts and restored natural elements to co-exist and enrich the public realm.

CITY OF TORONTO
TORONTO, CANADA
2002