Public Art / Design Excellence / Our Waterfront Vision / Waterfront Toronto

public art

Public art will be an integral feature of the public space in our new blue edge.

Waterfront Toronto is committed to making art part of the fabric of everyday life in its new waterfront neighbourhoods. Artwork commissions have been a critical part of city building and placemaking since Ancient Rome. In recent decades, public art commissions have played an essential role in major urban revitalization programs internationally. Art has the potential to both reveal stories and create new narratives and shared experiences for the public.

Our plan for public art will enhance the community by:

installing public art in streets, open spaces and parks where it can be seen by the community at large;
using art as a way to beautify and make meaningful otherwise utilitarian areas; and
creating landmarks that celebrate the diversity and creativity of our communities.

A key component of any public art strategy is funding. All new public development projects in Toronto are required to set aside one per cent of their gross construction costs for public art, and the City's streets, courtyards and lobbies host numerous privately commissioned and owned pieces.

To envision and realize an innovative public art program, Waterfront Toronto is taking a bold step. It’s pooling the one per cent of its projected gross construction costs of waterfront projects and using it to fund a comprehensive plan that will make public art an integral part of each neighbourhood.

Once our development partners are on board and construction begins at each site, Waterfront Toronto will recover its upfront investment for public art. At this point, the art will be owned and managed by Toronto Cultural Services as part of the City of Toronto Public Art and Monuments Collection.

One of the first neighbourhoods to integrate public art in the early planning phases of the neighbourhood is the West Don Lands. This means that when Waterfront Toronto designs the public realm – streets, overpasses, parks and other public places – public art is integrated from the start, rather than added as an afterthought.

The West Don Lands Public Art Strategy, dated October 2009, is the first public-art master plan of it size and nature to be implemented in Canada. The strategy offers a framework for integrating public art that celebrates the industrial heritage of the site, as well as its sustainable, vibrant future. It also includes specific recommendations for conceptualizing, planning and commissioning art that not only beautifies the area, but enriches the community as a whole.

light showers, jill anholt, 2011, sherbourne common

A series of sculptures integrated into the water purification system of the park, these graceful arcs echo the scale of the adjacent Gardiner Expressway while giving visual and tactile expression to the surrounding community’s aspirations to sustainability and the future. These nine meter tall art elements carry the collected and purified community stormwater along channels, lifting it from the ground to the sky where it cascades as a textured veil of water and returns it to Lake Ontario. In the evening, integrated motion sensors trigger shifting light patterns in the artwork, emphasizing the sustainability connection between personal action and environmental effect.

public art under construction

mirage, paul raff studio, installation 2012, underpass park

Mirage, by Toronto-based artist Paul Raff, was selected through an open public art competition. The installation of close to 60 hexagonal mirrored surfaces applied to the underside of the Richmond/Adelaide overpasses draws inspiration from the definition of a mirage as an optical illusion by atmospheric conditions. Each of the panels is slightly different in size and spacing to create a subtle sense of movement. The artist uses unusual site conditions of a park under an elevated roadway, to blur the horizon lines between earth and sky.

no shoes, mark di suvero, installation 2012, don river park

Mark di Suvero is internationally considered to be one of the most significant sculptors of the 20th century. In 1967, while in the early stages of his career, di Suvero was invited by the City of Toronto to participate in an International Sculpture Symposium in High Park. Di Suvero was given access to a crane and operator and the results were two monumental pieces, Flower Power and No Shoes, which were the first works in what became the artist’s signature style. After a lengthy restoration and re-installation coordinated with the City of Toronto, who continue to own the work, and overseen by di Suvero himself, No Shoes will be installed in Don River Park.

peeled pavement, jill anholt, installation 2014, mill street

Peeled Pavement was developed by Vancouver-based artist Jill Anholt, through collaboration with the Planning Partnership as an integrated feature of the public realm design for Mill Street. To be installed along Mill Street beside the Distillery District, Peeled Pavement punctuates the side walk, curling up to reveal an underside of industrial artifacts cast in bronze and swathes of glowing lights, the energies of the working city. Exposing the systems of the site links its rich and complex history to the renewal of life and growth envisioned for the public realm of the future.

public art on the central waterfront

Waterfront Toronto has been working with Central Waterfront public realm designers West 8 and DTAH to identify significant public art sites along the Central Waterfront and will be working with City Planning and the City of Toronto to strategically fund public art opportunities in the Central Waterfront area.

public art in east bayfront

Waterfront Toronto is developing a Public Art Strategy for the East Bayfront precinct that will identify key public art opportunities and funding strategies. The first component of the Public Art Program for East Bayfront is Light Showers, completed in 2011 and installed in Sherbourne Common.

west don lands public art strategy

Read the West Don Lands Public Art Strategy, the first public art master plan of its size and nature to be implemented in Canada.

waterfront public art context

The Waterfront Toronto public art program is being rolled out within a broader context of public artworks commissioned through the City of Toronto’s Percent for Public Art Program and Public Art and Monuments Collection. Read more about these programs here.

shedding light on "light showers"

Read an article about the Sherbourne Common Light Showers on The Skinny by Heavy Industries blog.