Toronto’s waterfront badly lags that of other cities, according to an analysis by government agency Waterfront Toronto.Mark Blinch/Reuters
Joe Berridge is an urban planner and partner in Urban Strategies, who advised Infrastructure Ontario on Ontario Place. Richard Florida is a professor at the University of Toronto and author of a new report on Toronto’s waterfront that was supported by Therme Group Canada.
Now, more than ever, Toronto’s economic future hinges on its waterfront. Much has been done to set the stage. More than $1-billion has been spent to reroute the Don River. Great parks such as Corktown Common, Sugar Beach and HTO Park, joined by the recently opened Love Park and great spaces such as The Bentway and Eireann Quay, have opened.
But the pace of development has been too slow, too piecemeal, and too often bogged down by localist conflicts. Indeed, Toronto’s waterfront badly lags that of other cities, according to an analysis by government agency Waterfront Toronto, which compared our waterfront to those of 10 other global cities. Stockholm topped its list, followed by Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Chicago. Toronto was dead last.
London moved the National Theatre to the south bank of the River Thames, where it was joined by the Tate Modern and the landmark Eye observation wheel on the city’s waterfront. New York transformed its Manhattan and Brooklyn waterfronts and put a new university, Cornell Tech, on Roosevelt Island along the banks of the East River. Washington and Pittsburgh have placed major league sports stadiums on their riverfronts. Sydney, Oslo and Hamburg all have iconic cultural venues on theirs. Where’s ours?
We need to think big and act boldly. Toronto’s central waterfront would be the perfect spot for a spectacular modern art gallery. A new branch of New York’s Whitney Museum is right next to the High Line, overlooking the Hudson River. Manchester sited its Aviva Studios on the banks of the River Irwell. Immediately south of the CN Tower and the Rogers Centre is a big, publicly owned parking lot that is slated to become an unexciting, passive park. It is a spectacular site that deserves an exclamation mark.
To the east, the rerouting of the Don River provides a stunning canvas for more than just parks and mixed-use neighbourhoods – it is also the perfect spot for a signature innovation district. Like the highly successful MaRS complex downtown, it could showcase Toronto’s prowess in high-tech fields, from biomedicine to artificial intelligence. It could also be the site of world-class think tanks and academic centres focused on issues such as climate change, global cities, truth and reconciliation and immigrant settlement, highlighting Toronto’s contributions to the world.
To the west, the Ontario Line will soon connect the exhibition halls, stadiums, concert stages and other attractions of Exhibition Place and Ontario Place to downtown, the Port Lands, and the wider region. Former premier Bill Davis created Ontario Place in response to Montreal’s Expo 67 as a hub for active recreation and enjoyment, but the area has languished for decades. Its history makes it the right place for the major lifestyle and sports facilities that are currently being improved or under development, such as the enlarged BMO stadium, the relocated Ontario Science Centre and the new Therme waterpark and wellness destination. Together, they will make the western waterfront a compelling year-round destination.
Exhibition Place already functions as an ancillary convention centre, hosting events like the Collision Conference, which brings global high-tech businesses and talent to Toronto, but it’s moving to Vancouver next year. A new and expanded complex would help the city keep these important gatherings and regain its lost status as an international destination for high-level meetings and the high-value tourism that comes with it.
It’s time to get beyond the false debate between adding more attractions, building more housing and protecting our natural environment. Toronto must do all of that and more.
Waterfront development is critical to the economic revitalization of our city and its urban core, which is still reeling from the aftershocks of the pandemic. Office occupancy downtown is just 65 per cent of what it was; there are no longer enough commuting workers to keep Toronto’s business districts vital. Visitors now make up a large portion of downtown activity in North American cities, according to a recent study. But international tourism is down 25 per cent from its 2019 baseline in Toronto, and travel to major business meetings is stalled at two-thirds of its prepandemic levels. The waterfront is critical to the economic revitalization of our city.
After the SARS outbreak of 2003, Toronto and the provincial and federal governments acted decisively to reverse the damage to the city’s economy and restore its status as a tourist hub. More than $1-billion was invested in arts and cultural facilities, sending a clear message to the world that the city was as open, creative and exciting as ever.
An even bigger and bolder response is needed today. Let’s start with the waterfront.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the Tate Gallery and National Theatre were moved to the east bank of the River Thames. The National Theatre was moved to the south bank of the Thames, where the Tate Modern museum and London Eye were built to join it. This version has been updated.