Over the years, Toronto’s central waterfront has been the focus of many different types of planning efforts. From early land filling for marine shipping facilities to scattered residential development projects in the 1970s, years of ad hoc planning have resulted in a waterfront lacking a coherent look and feel, and one with limited access to the water’s edge.

In 2006, Waterfront Toronto began the process of revitalizing this valuable city asset. The first step in the planning process was to develop a long-term vision for the central waterfront’s public realm — or in other words — all of the public space around buildings such as sidewalks, streets, promenades and parks.

To do that, Waterfront Toronto launched the Central Waterfront Innovative Design Competition in 2006 with an aim to garner fresh ideas for how to transform the area into a world-class waterfront.

The winner of the competition, West 8 + DTAH, proposed a clear, simple and strong vision for the central waterfront that included the creation of a continuous water’s edge promenade and the transformation of Queens Quay into an iconic boulevard with innovative wavedecks at the heads of key slips.

Since the 2006 design competition, planning for the revitalization of the central waterfront has been underway in two key areas:

• Development of the Downtown Waterfront Master Plan: This plan takes the competition-winning vision for the central waterfront and translates it into an action plan for implementation. The plan offers a blueprint to guide the overall revitalization of the public space in downtown waterfront — which includes both the central waterfront and East Bayfront, the neighbouring community Waterfront Toronto is building.

• Revitalization of Queens Quay: Construction is now underway to transform Queens Quay into an economically vibrant and scenic waterfront boulevard that prioritizes transit and completes the Martin Goodman Trail through the central part of the waterfront. Before construction began, there was an extensive Environment Assessment that tested alternatives and obtained public feedback. When the EA was approved in mid-2010, detailed design began and was followed by an extensive planning for construction process.

While some of the early planning was underway, Waterfront Toronto began transforming the central waterfront by designing, constructing and opening three wavedecks at the heads of the Spadina, Rees and Simcoe slips. These must-see wavedecks helped build momentum for waterfront revitalization.