PLAN 210 Sugar Beach Case Study

SUGAR BEACH JOE LI 20661328 KA REN HA MMO ND P L A N 210 STU D IO 101 O CTO B ER 1, 2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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PROJECT OVERVIEW

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SITE FEATURES

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ANALYSIS

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SITE IMPROVEMENTS

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REFERENCES

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Tree-Lined Promenade10

“The more successfully a city mingles everyday diversity of uses and users in its everyday streets, the more successfully, casually (and economically) its people thereby enliven and support well-located parks that can thus give back grace and delight to their neighbourhoods instead of vacuity.”

—Jane Jacobs4

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PROJECT OVERVIEW LOCATION Toronto, Ontario Intersection of Lower Jarvis Street & Queens Quay East SIZE Area: 8 500m² (2 acres)6 Dimensions: Approximately 52m x 163m, as measured on Google Maps DESIGNER Claude Cormier + AssociÊs Inc.6 PLANNER The Planning Partnership6 DEVELOPER Aldershot Landscape Contractors Ltd.1 OWNER Waterfront Toronto6 IMPORTANT DATES Sugar Beach is the result of a 2007 international design competition held by Waterfront Toronto6. The park officially opened in August 20101.

Location of Sugar Beach, taken from Google Maps

SIGNIFICANCE Located on the waterfront of Downtown Toronto, Sugar Beach is a vibrant urban beach park built on the site of a former parking lot and neighboured to a sugar refinery6. The public space was designed with the intent to welcome visitors to the emerging neighbourhood of East Bayfront7 and spur the development of new Waterfront communities, giving the water's edge back to the public2. The overall park design consists of three main areas: an urban beach, a tree-lined promenade that runs through the site, and an event space that combines both earthen and granite elements6. Since its opening, Sugar Beach has brought in crowds year-round, won awards, and has been a venue for festivals, fashion shoots, and TV shows2. Prominent colour themes include pink and charcoal, to a more neutral palette of grays5.

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SITE FEATURES USES & ACTIVITIES As aforementioned, Sugar Beach consists of an urban beach, a tree-lined promenade, and an event space. The urban beach allows for visitors of all ages to relax under the shade of pink umbrella structures, or over white Adirondack chairs and white sand. While there is no swimming at this beach, there is a small waterpark area meant for children to use. The promenade allows for peaceful strolling isolated from the surroundings of downtown Toronto, acting as an “urban escape” for its users5. The event space of Sugar Beach is a performance area that opens the site’s eastern edge to an entertainment plaza owned by Corus Entertainment, one of Toronto’s most popular radio stations, which hosts broadcasts and concerts at this location5.

Site Plan9

Tree-Lined Promenade10

Urban Beach10

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WATER FEATURES While most beaches have the opportunity for swimming, Sugar Beach is a waterfront park that is inaccessible to its Lake Ontario neighbour. Regardless, the designers of Sugar Beach drew inspiration from HtO Park, another urban beach in Toronto, which provided a small fountain for its users to wash sand off their feet5. The designers had the goal to widen this draw and provide water people could touch, which resulted in the development of a large fountain on Sugar Beach embedded in a granite maple leaf paving5. Often, kids just run back and forth through this water fountain; however, the fountain is also used to supply water for sand castles5. After sundown, this water feature lights up with bright pink LEDs to match the signature pink umbrellas of Sugar Beach.

Water Features9

Water Features9

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SITE FURNITURE The site furniture of Sugar Beach includes 150 white Adirondack beach chairs and 36 pink umbrella structures7.

The white chairs are situated on top of the “white sugar” sand in intimate pairings and larger groupings for the purpose of creating viewpoint clusters6. The industrial designer, Andrew Jones, created the 36 permanent umbrella structures to withstand high winds and intense UV rays, selecting a bright pink colour to contrast with the surrounding context of the sugar boats, refinery structure, sand, water, and sky of the location6. Furthermore, the park includes 8 hardwood benches laid across the promenade, as well as multiple flower planters placed throughout the promenade8. Overall, the furniture of Sugar Beach is well laid out and truly “pop” with character and vibrancy.

PUBLIC ART In addition to the pink umbrella structures, another signature design element of Sugar Beach are the oversized granite rock formations located on the park’s urban beach, and in the plaza space7. The rocks, which feature candy-cane stripes, are made of a flexible and durable thermoplastic paint5 and add to overall whimsical feel of the park7. The granite rocks were chosen from Autumn Brown Quarry in northern Quebec and are references to Toronto’s Village of Yorkville Park, another award-winning public space5. The granite outcropping at the beach is around 6 metres in length and width, and about 1 metre high, whereas the second rock outcropping at the plaza is about double in size7. These signature granite outcroppings have been used as informal seating, as well as play and gathering spaces for visitors7.

Site Furniture & Public Art10

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LIGHTING While Sugar Beach is well lit with sunshine throughout the day, at night it is well lit with lamp posts and LED lights. Metal lamp posts are scattered throughout the promenade, providing lighting for late-night walks, while LED lights are installed under each umbrella structure to produce a soft reflected light from the inner surface of the umbrella to the sand below8. Furthermore, programmable LED lights are also incorporated into the jet nozzles of the park’s water fountain, which cast a soft light year-round with varying colour possibilities, often pink8.

SUSTAINABILITY FEATURES Sugar Beach was designed with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) principles in mind8. Sustainability practices that have been incorporated into the park’s construction include the use of recycled content in construction materials, easy access to Toronto’s public transportation system, bike storage, and the revitalization of a high priority brownfield site8. Furthermore, Sugar Beach also collects stormwater in catch basins beneath the plaza, which moves stormwater through the integrated treatment system for East Bayfront to eventually be released into Lake Ontario8.

Sugar Beach at Night9

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ANALYSIS Despite its name, visitors of Sugar Beach may find it surprising that one cannot actually swim in this public space5.

Regardless, Sugar Beach brings in visitors year-round with its impeccable urban design and unique surroundings that have ultimately transformed the industrial space before it3. The success of the urban space is largely attributed to the vibrancy of the park’s elements that draw people towards it, most notably the large pink umbrella structures that uniquely contrast with the surroundings around it6. Thanks to Sugar Beach’s success, alongside other Waterfront Toronto projects, people are flocking to live in parts of the city they once drove through without noticing, as well as more investing has gone into similar projects3.

Collectively, the scale, location, and context of Sugar Beach make it difficult to transfer many similar features onto an open space next to the University of Waterloo’s Davis Centre. Sugar Beach’s large waterfront location is a leading factor that gives the urban park a sense of place that would otherwise not make sense on a university campus like Waterloo’s. The park’s urban beach directly connects to the location’s surroundings and give it context, whereas constructing a smaller urban beach and event space next to the Davis Centre would be misrepresentative of the location around it. The Davis Centre area is simply too small and unequipped to accommodate such a project; however, other components that make Sugar Beach successful could be reasonably transferred to Waterloo.

Transferrable elements include Sugar Beach’s tree-lined promenade that runs through the site, as well as the umbrella structures and white Adirondack chairs placed throughout the beach. The promenade works to create a walkable urban space that makes users forget about the surroundings around them and focus on nature, which would work effectively on the pathways around the Davis Centre. The Adirondack chairs and umbrellas would be effective placed around the Davis Centre, as they would be inviting to students who are either looking for an outdoor study space, or to relax. These two aforementioned elements have been proven successful, given the popularity of the University of Waterloo’s Arts Quad which boasts similar features.

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SITE IMPROVEMENTS - BEFORE

Before11

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SITE IMPROVEMENTS - AFTER

Site improvements include additional trees, flowerbeds, modern flower planters, and additional streetlights. Sugar Beach is already world-renowned for its unique design and has won architectural awards; however, these small site improvements would work to improve quality of life on the site. The added vegetation would enrich the beauty of the park, while the modern flower planters will conform to the modern aesthetic of the site. Meanwhile, the extra lighting will work to instill a safer atmosphere on site after sundown.

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REFERENCES

PHOTO REFERENCES

1. American Society of Landscape Architects. (n.d.). Honor Award Canada's Sugar Beach. Retrieved October 2, 2017, from https://www.asla.org/2012awards/036.html

9. Claude Cormier AssociĂŠs. (n.d.). Sugar Beach Photo Gallery. Retrieved October 2, 2017, from http://www.claudecormier.com/en/projet/sugar-beach/

2. Gileno, S. (2014, June 26). It’s More Than Just Umbrellas at Sugar Beach. Retrieved October 2, 2017, from http://blog.waterfrontoronto.ca/nbe/ portal/wt/home/blog-home/posts/more+than+just ubmrellas+01+sugar+beach

10. Li, J. (2017, September 24). Joe Li's Photos of Sugar Beach.

Toronto.

3. Hume, C. (2014, June 27). Sugar Beach a sweet deal for the city: Hume. Retrieved October 2, 2017, from https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/06/27/ sugar_beach_a_sweet_deal_for_the_city_hume.html 4. Jacobs, J. (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York, NY: Vintage Books.

5. Jost, D. (2013, January 28). How Sweet. Landscape Architecture Magazine, 103(1), 62-75.

6. Roche, J. (2014). Lure of the Water's Edge. Topos Magazine, (89), 30-35.

7. Waterfront Toronto. (n.d.). Canada's Sugar Beach Fact Sheet. Retrieved October 2, 2017, from http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/nbe/wcm/connect/water front/c35cf5b2-7b0f-4e2c-a38b-3bccff82be46/csb___ fact_sheet_july_2010_final_1.pdf? MOD=AJPERES& CACHEID=c35cf5b2-7b0f-4e2c-a38b-3bccff82be46 8. Waterfront Toronto. (n.d.). Canada's Sugar Beach. Retrieved October 2, 2017, from http://www.waterfrontoronto.ca/nbe/portal/water front/Home/waterfronthome/projects/canadas+sugar+beach 9

11. Waterfront Toronto. (n.d.). Canadas Sugar Beach Gallery.

Retrieved October 2, 2017, from http://www.waterfron toronto.ca/nbe/portal/waterfront/Home/waterfronth ome/newsroom/image%20galleries/galleries/cana das+sugar+beach/

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