Waterfront Toronto (incorporated as the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation) is an organization that oversees revitalization projects along the

Toronto waterfront The Toronto waterfront is the lakeshore of Lake Ontario in the city of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It spans 46 kilometres between the mouth of Etobicoke Creek in the west and the Rouge River (Ontario), Rouge River in the east. History L ...

. Established in 2001 as a public–public partnership between the

City of Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Province of Ontario Ontario is the southernmost province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it is home to 38.5% of the country's population, and is the second-largest province by ...

and

Government of Canada The Government of Canada (), formally His Majesty's Government (), is the body responsible for the federation, federal administration of Canada. The term ''Government of Canada'' refers specifically to the executive, which includes Minister of t ...

, the organization is administering several blocks of land redevelopment projects surrounding

Toronto Harbour Toronto Harbour or Toronto Bay is a natural bay on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Today, the harbour is used primarily for recreational boating, including personal vessels and pleasure boats providing scenic or p ...

and various other initiatives to promote the revitalization of the area, including

public transit Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of wh ...

, housing developments, brownfield rehabilitation, possible removal of the

Gardiner Expressway The Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway, commonly known as the Gardiner Expressway or simply the Gardiner, is a partially at grade and elevated municipal expressway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Running close to the shore of Lake Ontario, it exten ...

in the area, the

Martin Goodman Trail The Martin Goodman Trail is a Don River. Actual development of the projects is done by other entities, primarily private corporations. The projects include a series of wavedeck walkways and gathering places designed by

West 8 West 8 is an urban planning and landscape architecture firm founded by Adriaan Geuze and Paul van Beek in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 1987. It is known for its contemporary designs and innovative solutions to urban planning problems using lighting, m ...

and DTAH.

Overview

The Waterfront Revitalization Task Force, a

task force A task force (TF) is a unit or formation established to work on a single defined task or activity. Originally introduced by the United States Navy, the term has now caught on for general usage and is a standard part of NATO terminology. Many ...

of the municipal, provincial and federal governments, was established in November 1999 to study the future of the Toronto waterfront. The task force, headed by financier Robert Fung, reported in March 2000. It estimated the total cost of revitalization at billion in public investment and a further billion in private-sector investment. It proposed the following general recommendations for the Toronto waterfront: * Make the water's edge an accessible, public amenity from Etobicoke through the Central Waterfront to Scarborough; * Remove the elevated Gardiner Expressway in the Central Waterfront and provide a new road and transportation network to better serve Toronto's downtown and revitalized waterfront; *Create in the core of the City major new neighbourhoods for working, living, and recreation, resulting in a substantial increase in the city's stock of affordable and market housing; * Create a "convergence community" that crosses all disciplines of creativity to take advantage of Toronto's unique position in New Media, communications, music, biotechnology, software, and high technology. * Provide a clean environment by improving water quality, cleaning up contaminated soils, eliminating the risk of flooding, and naturalizing appropriate areas. * establishment of a corporation separate from the government to oversee the revitalization. Source: City of Toronto. The Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation was formed in 2001 to oversee and lead waterfront renewal. It has subsequently been renamed as Waterfront Toronto. The organization is jointly funded by the three levels of government. The organization is overseen at the federal level by the Department of Finance, at the provincial level by the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, and at the municipal level by the Waterfront Project Secretariat. The organization is directed to support the following policy objectives of the three levels of government: * Reducing urban sprawl * Developing sustainable communities, particularly in the area of energy efficiency * Redeveloping brownfields & cleaning up

contaminated land Contaminated land contains substances in or under the land that are definitively or potentially hazardous to health or the environment. These areas often have a long history of industrial production and industrial farming. Many sites may be affect ...

* Building more affordable housing * Increasing economic competitiveness * Creating more parks and public spaces Source: Waterfront Toronto

Governance

The President and CEO of Waterfront Toronto is George Zegarac, who joined the organization in 2019 after a 33-year tenure in the Ontario Public Service. The organization is governed by the following board of directors: * Rahul Bhardwaj * Leslie Woo * Jeanhy Shim * Ausma Malik * Kevin Sullivan * Drew Fagan * Alysha Valenti * Andrew MacLeod * Wende Cartwright * Laurie Payne * Paul Khawaja * Jack Winberg Source: Waterfront Toronto

Projects

Corus Quay

Corus Quay Corus Quay, originally named First Waterfront Place, is an eight-storey commercial office tower located on a waterfront site in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The building is the first major development planned for the East Bayfront district, and co ...

, originally named First Waterfront Place, is an eight-storey commercial office tower located on a Toronto waterfront site. Corus Quay is

Corus Entertainment Corus Entertainment Inc. (often simply known as Corus) is a Canadian mass media and television production company. The company was founded in 1987 as Shaw Radio Ltd. as a subsidiary of Shaw Communications and was spun-off from Shaw in 1999. It h ...

's new Toronto headquarters, consolidating its 10 locations and 1,200 employees into one site. The building is a collaboration between the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation and the Toronto Economic Development Corporation. The East Bayfront Precinct, where the building is located, is intended to be an important public destination as well as provide a range of housing and commercial opportunities. The development achieved LEED (

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a Green building certification systems, green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating ...

) Gold status for the project's

environmental sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

. The LEED rating system recognizes leading-edge buildings that incorporate design, construction, and operational practices that combine healthy, high-quality, and high-performance advantages with reduced environmental impacts. In addition, Corus Quay has several green roof areas, a massive five-storey green living wall, 100 bicycle parking spaces, and

public art Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...

installations created by award-winning U.K. artists, Troika.

Planned districts

* East Bayfront * Port Lands * Quayside * West Don Lands

Other projects

* The Bentway - Active space created from repurposing of under-utilized lands under the elevated

. * Corktown Common - New park in the West Donlands development. * HTO Park - New park along Toronto Harbour. * Sherbourne Common - Public space incorporating play areas and stormwater-driven fountains. *

Sugar Beach Sugar Beach is an urban beach park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that opened in 2010. It is located across from Redpath Sugar Refinery in Toronto's eastern East Bayfront. Like HTO Park to the west, the beach is not meant for wading or swimming ...

- A public space with sandy areas and permanent umbrellas for sunbathing. * Underpass Park - An active play space area located under the Gardiner Expressway in a former 'dead' area. Inaugurated on August 2, 2012, it's the 18th public space built or revitalized by Waterfront Toronto since 2005. * Ookwemin Minising (formerly Villiers Island) - Island being constructed as part of the naturalization of the mouth of the Don River. * WaveDecks - A series of wooden deck structures designed with wave-like undulations that also serve as fish habitats. * Love Park (Toronto) - A new park with a natural pond in the shape of a heart, developed in place of a previous highway off-ramp. Future projects include: * Rees Street Park - new park from the parking lot south of the Rogers Centre. * Lower Yonge Park - new park that is to be delivered as part of the development of the Lower Yonge Precinct. * Port Lands Flood Protection Project - Naturalization of the Don River mouth is expected to complete by 2024. The project includes a new channel for the Don River. * Revitalized Jack Layton Ferry Terminal. * Waterfront Walk - a continuous promenade along the Toronto Harbour waterfront.

References

External links

* *{{cite web , last = , first = , authorlink = , year = 2007 , title = Toronto Waterfront – The Waterfront Trail , url = https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=105047441964785653381.0004352e77c042c201581&ll=43.647939,-79.346352&spn=0.039189,0.079479&z=14&om=1 , format = Google Maps , publisher = , accessdate = July 13, 2007 , archive-date = November 10, 2012 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121110121012/http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=105047441964785653381.0004352e77c042c201581&ll=43.647939,-79.346352&spn=0.039189,0.079479&z=14&om=1 , url-status = dead Planned developments Organizations based in Toronto Harbourfront, Toronto Waterfront redevelopment organizations