Canoe Landing Park is an privately funded urban park in

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada, adjacent to 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 extends ...

in the CityPlace neighbourhood. The name was chosen as part of a city-run contest and the final name was announced on the '' t.o.night'' free evening commuter paper. Formerly, it was tentatively known as ''CityPlace Park''. The park's ribbon cutting ceremony was on September 9, 2009. The Park was designed by Landscape Architects

Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg Phillips may refer to: Businesses Energy * Chevron Phillips Chemical, American petrochemical firm jointly owned by Chevron Corporation and Phillips 66. * ConocoPhillips, American energy company * Phillips 66 The Phillips 66 Company is an ...

of Vancouver in collaboration with Landscape Architects, The Planning Partnership of Toronto, Public Art Consultant Karen Mills and

Douglas Coupland Douglas Coupland (born 30 December 1961) is a Canadian novelist, designer, and visual artist. His first novel, the 1991 international bestseller '' Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture'', popularized the terms ''Generation X'' and ''McJ ...

. The park incorporates integrated artwork in the form of a landform (the bluff) and stand alone art pieces by Douglas Coupland: a canoe large enough for people to stand in and see over the Gardiner to Lake Ontario, a colourful display of large fishing bobbers, a sculptural beaver dam, programmed tree lighting (which will be more evident as the trees fill out), a pair of "iceberg benches" situated near the canoe, the "heart-shaped stone" bronze artwork which was cast from a stone retrieved by Terry's brother at the end of his journey and a one-mile run called the

Terry Fox Terrance Stanley Fox (July 28, 1958 June 28, 1981) was a Canadian athlete, humanitarian, and cancer research activist. In 1980, with one leg having been amputated due to cancer, he embarked on an east-to-west cross-Canada run to raise money ...

Miracle Mile. The developers of Concord CityPlace are Concord Adex Developments. On the advice of their consultant, Karen Mills, Concord approached Douglas Coupland, the Vancouver author, artist and sculptor. Some of Douglas Coupland's other recent Toronto projects include Super Nova, a sculptural work/clock tower in North York (at the Don Mills Centre) and "Monument to the War of 1812," situated on Fleet and Bathurst street corner (just south of Old Fort York). The canoe promontory was created as part of a proposed "earthwork" identified in the public art masterplan for Concord CityPlace (Public Art Management, Karen Mills, 1999) and was made from on site excavated fill and

geosynthetic Geosynthetics are synthetic products used to stabilize terrain. They are generally polymeric products used to solve civil engineering problems. This includes eight main product categories: geotextiles, geogrids, geonets, geomembranes, geosyntheti ...

reinforcements. The hill has an elevation that allows viewers to see over the Gardiner Expressway to Lake Ontario. Some 20,000-25,000 dumptruck loads of fill were diverted from landfills. Cityplaceview

References

External links

National Post article by Peter Kuitenbrouwe

br/> Toronto Star video by Bernard Wei

br/> Toronto Star article by Christopher Hum

br/> Toronto Star article by Vanessa L

br/> Globe & Mail article by Kate-Marie Gardne

{{Parks and squares in Toronto Parks in Toronto 2009 establishments in Ontario

See also

References

External links