Water’s Edge Promenade Named One of Canada’s Best Landscape Architecture Projects

Since its completion in 2010, the Water's Edge Promenade in East Bayfront has been bustling with activity all year round.

POSTED: MARCH 6, 2014
BY: HEATHER GLICKSMAN

Recently, the Water’s Edge Promenade in East Bayfront received a National Merit Award from the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA).

The CSLA Awards of Excellence recognize the best in Canadian landscape architecture. According to the CSLA, this year’s award-winning projects are “a reminder that great design helps build great communities.”

Stretching from Canada’s Sugar Beach to Sherbourne Common, the Water’s Edge Promenade provides more than nine-metre wide (30-foot) continuous open space along the lakefront for public use. Since it opened in July 2010, pedestrians, cyclists and a variety of festivals and public events have been using the promenade all year-round.

Designed by West 8 + DTAH, the Water’s Edge Promenade includes a granite mosaic paving design, park benches and light poles inspired by the iconic Canadian maple leaf. Extensive underground work, including the installation of soil cells, passive irrigation, and a root aeration technology is helping the promenade’s double row of trees mature and remain healthy.

An overhead view of the Water's Edge Promenade clearly shows the maple leaf mosaic pattern in red and white granite.

The first phase of the promenade which opened in July 2010 is 925 metres long and 9.4 metres wide. An additional 9-metre wide pedestrian zone of concrete unit pavers runs parallel to the promenade giving a total of 18.4 metres of public space between buildings and the Lake. Patio seating spills across the pedestrian zone from George Brown College with commercial activity transitioning onto the promenade.

Work is currently underway on dockwall reinforcement for the next phase of the Water’s Edge Promenade which will extend east from Sherbourne Common to the mid-point of the Bayside development. In the future, the Water’s Edge Promenade will stretch all the way to the Parliament Slip.

This is the ninth time a Waterfront Toronto project has received a CSLA Award. Previous award-winning projects include Canada’s Sugar Beach, Sherbourne Common, the Spadina WaveDeck and Martin Goodman Trail improvements at Marilyn Bell Park.

Check out the project page to learn more about the Water’s Edge Promenade.