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Harbourfront :
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Harbourfront is a neighbourhood on the northern shore of Lake
Ontario within the downtown core of the city of Toronto, Canada.
Harbourfront extends west from Yonge Street to Bathurst Street along Queen's
Quay. East of Yonge to Parliament St. along Queen's Quay, this mostly
industrialized stretch is slated for the future East Bayfront development.
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History :
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Toronto's harbour has been used since the founding of Toronto for
shipping and industrial purposes. The Town of York was founded to the west
of the Don River, along the waterfront. When the town was founded, the
water's edge was approximately where today's 'Front Street' is located. Over
time, the area south of Front Street to today's water's edge south of
'Queen's Quay' was filled in with landfill, creating piers and area for
industrial development.
Prior to the 1972 federal election, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot
Trudeau announced the Harbourfront project, which would expropriate the
industrial port lands from York Street west to Bathurst Street, south of
Queen's Quay and convert them to a cultural and residential district for
Toronto, similar to the Granville Island district in Vancouver. The federal
government has converted the industrial area to an area mixed with art
galleries, performance spaces, boating areas and parks. The surrounding
neighbourhood, formerly industrial has been converted by private land
developers into a series of condominium towers overlooking the project and
Lake Ontario.
From its beginnings as "Harbourfront Corporation", a federal Crown
Corporation established in 1972, Harbourfront Centre was formed on January
1, 1991 as a non-profit charitable organization with a mandate to organize
and present public events and to operate a 10-acre site encompassing York
Quay and John Quay (south of Queens Quay West). Since its inception,
Harbourfront Centre has been introducing Toronto audiences to artists and
art forms that would not normally be seen in commercial venues, exploring
new and bold frontiers in the arts and creative expression.
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Character :
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The area along the waterfront is composed of mixed uses. The federal
government lands to the south of Queen's Quay include a community centre, a
Toronto fire department station, various boating uses, parkland and the
Harbourfront Centre. To the north of Queen's Quay, all of the industrial
lands along the street have been replaced with high-rise condominium towers.
To the east of the federal government lands, the waterfront is mixed with
industrial uses, a hotel, ferry docks, boating uses, a sugar factory and
vacant lands.
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Notable buildings and facilities :
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Harbourfront is the site of the Toronto Islands ferry terminal which
provides transportation services to the Islands from the foot of Bay Street.
Harbourfront Centre, housing galleries and performance spaces is located at
the foot of Lower Simcoe Street. Harbourfront houses four craft studios;
ceramics, glass, metal and textiles. All studios began in 1974 and still
operate, providing new craft artists with subsidized work spaces at the
beginning of their careers. Harbourfront hosts an extensive program of arts
and cultural events throughout each summer, including craft and artisan
fairs, theatre and dance performances and musical concerts. A series of free
concerts is staged at Harbourfront's outdoor concert stage every weekend
throughout the summer and in winter there is a free open-air ice rink.
Queen's Quay Terminal, next to Harbourfront Centre, is a former warehouse
converted into a mixed-use building including a shopping centre designed for
high-end retailers, commercial office space, and a residential condominium
development. Today, the mall houses some stores and restaurants,
predominantly catering to tourists.
The Canada Malting Silos along the waterfront at the western edge of
Harbourfront, are one of the last vestiges of the industrial past of the
neighbourhood. The buildings, long ago abandoned by the company that built
them, but a proposal for demolition was cancelled when the estimated cost
for demolition rose into the millions of dollars. The site is also now
considered a heritage site, and any development must conserve some aspect of
the industrial past. Two proposals have been made, a Canadian music museum
and a Toronto history museum have both been proposed for the site. Both
proposals keep the silos, but demolish other buildings on the site.
To the south of the Silos, Toronto Ireland Park was inaugurated in 2004. The
site has memorials to an 1878 exodus of Irish persons to Toronto.
To the east of Yonge, at the foot of Jarvis Street is the Redpath Sugar
Refinery, which is both an active sugar refinery and a sugar production
museum.
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Parks and Open Spaces :
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Although Toronto has often been criticized for not having a dynamic
and beautiful waterfront park, harbourfront has a network of parks, open
spaces and trails that allow residents and visitors to access the public
realm. Parks and public spaces like HTO Park, the Martin Goodman Trail, and
the Waterfront WaveDecks at the foots of Spadina Avenue, Rees Street and
Lower Simcoe combine to beautify the harbourfront and bring people to the
water's edge.
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List of Harbourfront Parks and Open Spaces :
Transportation :
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The area is served by street car links with Union Station, Spadina
and Bathurst subway stations. The 510 Spadina and 509 Harbourfront streetcar
routes terminate at Union Station, travel underground along Bay Street, and
surface through in the centre ROW lane on Queen's Quay west. The streetcar
route travels along Queen's Quay in a separate right-of-way, either to the
CNE grounds, up to Spadina or to Bathurst, depending on day of the week and
other factors.
The area is accessible from the Spadina, Yonge/Bay and Jarvis street
off-ramps of the Gardiner Expressway.
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Neighbourhood issues :
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The neighbourhood is separated from the rest of downtown Toronto by
the elevated Gardiner Expressway. A project to link Lower Simcoe with Simcoe
St. via tunnel is currently under construction to provide a new link between
Harbourfront and downtown. Proposals have been made to demolish the
Expressway in the area. One proposal was to demolish the highway east of
Spadina Avenue. Another proposal, to demolish the highway from the Don River
to Jarvis Street is being actively studied by the City of Toronto.
The Toronto Island Airport is another neighbourhood issue. The airport,
located to the south-west of the neighbourhood, is opposed by local
community groups and some city politicians, including Toronto's mayor, as an
impediment to the waterfront lands redevelopment. The airport, built in the
1930s, is utilized for regional air travel. The airport generates hundreds
of noise complaints monthly to its operator, the Toronto Port Authority. The
Toronto Port Authority confirmed on September 12, 2008, that Porter Airlines
was fined for breaking noise curfews in its operations at the Island
Airport. A study by the Port Authority is being conducted into reducing
noise from Porter's takeoffs and landings.
Queen's Quay is currently a four-lane thoroughfare with a separate
right-of-way for Toronto's streetcars. A development plan is proposed to
modify the street further to provide a central section of the Martin Goodman
Trail, a cyclist and recreational pathway along the waterfront.
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East Bayfront :
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The area to the east of Yonge Street, predominately still
industrial, is slated for redevelopment as part of Waterfront Toronto's
plans to create a residential and commercial district. Corus Entertainment
will move their television studios to Corus Quay a site along the water that
was previously home to Waterside Tennis Club (now looking for a new location
"waterside"). Low-rise apartment buildings and parklands, including
Sherbourne Park, are also slated for the area.
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Related Links :
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Harbourfront Centre, Toronto
Harbourfront Centre is a key cultural facility
on Toronto, Ontario's waterfront, situated at 235 Queen's Quay West. Established
as a crown corporation in 1972 by the federal government to create a waterfront
park, it became a non-profit organization in 1991. Funding comes from corporate
sponsors, government grants, individual donors and entrepreneurial activities.
Harbourfront Centre is patrolled by its own in-house
security team which works closely with police to ensure the property is properly
maintained.
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Toronto City Centre Airport
Toronto City Centre Airport, (TCCA) (IATA: YTZ,
ICAO: CYTZ), also known as Toronto Island Airport, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
is a small airport located on the Toronto Islands. It was opened to aviation in
1939, and was initially known as the Port George VI Island Airport after the
reigning monarch of the time. During World War II it was used for air force
training by the Royal Norwegian and Royal Canadian Air Forces. Since then it has
been used for civil aviation and, since 1984, scheduled airlines as well. Since
2000, the airport has become the centre of controversy between the City of
Toronto and community groups wishing to close it and restore the site to
parkland and the Toronto Port Authority (TPA) and Porter Airlines which wants to
expand its usage.
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Toronto Islands
The Toronto Islands are a chain of small islands in the
city of Toronto, Canada. They are located in Lake Ontario just offshore from the
city centre, and provide shelter for Toronto Harbour. The islands are a popular
recreational destination, and are home to a small residential community and to
the Toronto City Centre Airport. They are connected to the mainland by several
ferry services.
The islands comprise the largest urban car-free community in North America,
though some service vehicles are permitted. Recreational bicyclists are
accommodated on the ferries, and bicycles, quadracycles, and canoes can be
rented on the islands as well.
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Toronto Port Authority
Toronto Port Authority (TPA) is a Canadian Port
Authority responsible for all activities in the Port of Toronto, located in
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, including the Toronto City Centre Airport (commonly
known as the Island Airport). The Authority is a federally-incorporated agency,
with directors appointed by the Government of Canada, Government of Ontario, the
City of Toronto and port users.
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Waterfront Toronto
Waterfront Toronto, also known as WATERFRONToronto, is an
organization administering revitalization projects along the Toronto waterfront
in Canada. Formed as a partnership of three levels of Canadian government in
2001, the organization is administering several blocks of land redeveleopment
projects surrounding Toronto Harbour and various other initiatives to promote
the revitalization of the area, including public transit, housing developments,
brownfield rehabilitation, possible removal of the Gardiner Expressway in the
area, recreational trails and lakeshore improvements and naturalization of the
Don River. Actual development of the projects is done by other agencies,
primarily private corporations. The projects include a series of wavedeck
walkways and gathering places designed by West 8 and DTOH.
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