HTO Park

HTO Park is an urban beach in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that opened in 2007. It is located west of Harbourfront Centre, on Lake Ontario.

History

The park is built on quays once used by ships berthing in Toronto's Inner Harbour.
The park consists of two sections:

H_TO Park West is built on the eastern half of Maple Leaf Quay
H_TO Park East is built on the old Peter Street Slip

The two quays are concrete man-made infill during the 1920s with the project completed by 1929. The eastern portion was home to Maple Leaf Mills Silos until 1983. The western half was home to a smaller industrial business with a small office structure. During the 1980s, a condo project was built on part of Maple Leaf Quay while the rest stood empty as a parking lot. The eastern portion lay empty in the 1980s and 1990s.

Name

H_TO is a play on water|, the chemical formula for water, since "TO" is commonly used to refer to Toronto and it is a waterfront park.

Design

H_TO Park was designed by landscape architecture firm Janet Rosenberg & Studio, Claude Cormier Architectes Paysagistes Inc. and Hariri Pontarini Architects. The park incorporates elements of a park, beach, and golf course. The park's standout feature is a sandpit that holds Muskoka chairs and enormous fixed yellow metal umbrellas. The umbrellas were designed to evoke the Georges Seurat painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. At night, the park knolls are illuminated by LED lights.
In 2016, HTO Park was included in The Landscape Performance Series Case Study Briefs, a database of over 200 exemplary built projects with quantified environmental, economic and social benefits.

Area

H_TO Park East is also home to the Toronto Fire Services Station 334, Toronto EMS Station 36.