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| - Sugar Beach is an outstanding new public space which I love to visit. With fine sand, pink umbrellas, and white Muskoka chairs, it's a great place to relax and unwind in any season, to hang out and socialize, to read and enjoy a beverage, and to tan in the summer. It's a shame to read the comments about imagining being in the Caribbean because the fact that it's in downtown Toronto is cool--there's a beautiful skyline and the Toronto Islands in the background. It feels so calm and leisurely even though it's near the core of this bustling metropolitan city. The Redpath Sugar Refinery across the quay is a fascinating structure that is evocative of the city's rich history of waterfront industry. Occasionally, one can smell sugar being refined, which is great because it smells like brown sugar. Its giant "sugar shed", cranes, and ocean-going ships are interesting to see, but one can also find chairs with a view of Lake Ontario and the calm harbour waters if one prefers.
It's undeniable that designer Claude Cormier produced an outstanding design by any standard with exceptional attention to the fine details. It deserves to be included in international urban and landscape design books. The massive pieces of natural Canadian Shield rock are enjoyable to climb for the views of the place and even just for the experience which you would not get without going to northern Ontario. They're whimsical with their candy cane stripes playfully reinforcing the sugar theme. The trees are lush and beautiful, and I love the details like the same trees also planted amidst the sand of the beach by the edges, an unexpected touch. The grassy berms are engaging. In North American urban design, paving is often low key, but here it's as impressive as the rest of the landscape, with an exquisite stylized maple leaf motif in three colours of granite setts.
There's a splash pad for kids which looks great and has a beautiful lighting pattern of alternating colours at night. It also continues the maple leaf paving motif--this time with smooth slabs of granite. The design seems to have taken into account skyline views, which are magnificent and unobstructed by clutter. The waterfront promenade which links the space with Sherbourne Common to the east is also beautiful, lined with formal rows of trees and prominent curved wooden benches evocative of tall ships. Here, the space is most romantic, inviting strolls and intimate moments.
Sugar Beach is not a traditional beach. You can't go for a swim. It's more of an inviting public space where you can enjoy many aspects of the beach in a great urban setting that embraces its surroundings. The idea of a beach is inviting; this isn't just another strip of lawns and generic benches that you'd be excused to ignore. One would be hard-pressed to find such interesting contemporary public space design even in Europe. It's beautiful and functions well as a public space. I look forward to every opportunity I get to visit Sugar Beach!
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