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Project Details
- Type
- Parks & Open Spaces, Environmental Sustainability, and Waterfront
- Ward
- Toronto-Danforth
- Councillor
- Paula Fletcher
- Current Phase
- Completed
- Current Use
- Industrial Site
- Major Intersection
- Leslie Street and Unwin Avenue
- Site Area
- 2 acres
- Proposed Use
- Parks and Open Spaces
- Surrounding Use
- Industrial uses to the north and to the east, the Turning Basin and The Hearn to the west and Tommy Thompson Park and Lake Ontario to the south
- Type
- Parks & Open Spaces, Environmental Sustainability, and Waterfront
- Ward
- Toronto-Danforth
- Councillor
- Paula Fletcher
- Current Phase
- Completed
- Current Use
- Industrial Site
- Major Intersection
- Leslie Street and Unwin Avenue
- Site Area
- 2 acres
- Proposed Use
- Parks and Open Spaces
- Surrounding Use
- Industrial uses to the north and to the east, the Turning Basin and The Hearn to the west and Tommy Thompson Park and Lake Ontario to the south
Project Overview
Leslie Lookout Park is a new destination in Toronto’s Port Lands located on the Martin Goodman Trail at the entrance to Tommy Thompson Park. The park includes a public beach, distinguished by forested dunes and creates a new multi-use community destination in Toronto’s east end.
The centrepiece of Leslie Lookout Park is a 1.9 acre open space at 12 Leslie Street that connects the public to the water’s edge with views of the entire length of the Ship Channel. The open space includes a viewing platform that provides the public with dramatic views of the Toronto skyline.
The park recycles an industrial landscape into a new recreational hub. The beach and grassy dunes topography provides opportunities for ecological restoration, reforestation, and naturalization. This new destination offers opportunities for year-round programming, including pop-up events, concerts and public art, as well as a unique lookout experience with a west-facing view of the downtown core, and a stunning 360 degree view of the Port Lands. CCxA was awarded the contract to design and construct the park through a design competition. The firm is known to have designed some of the most memorable public spaces in Toronto, including Sugar Beach and Berczy Park.
In March 2023, a mural depicting the Great Anishinaabe Migration, created by Indigenous artist and architectural designer Dani Kastelein-Longlade of Brook McIlroy, was installed on the construction hoarding surrounding the site. The artwork depicted on this mural interprets the path of travel through the seven sites of the chi-bi-moo-day-win’, the Great Anishinaabe Migration and is part of Brook McIlroy’s Indigenous placemaking strategy for the park.
The park officially opened on September 14, 2024.
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Project Materials
Resources
Community Engagement
Project News
Media Coverage, Project UpdatesSeptember 20, 2024A bold and friendly face for Toronto’s Port Lands(Opens in a new window)Media Coverage, Project UpdatesSeptember 20, 2024The east end of Toronto’s Port Lands is a dusty, feral landscape, thick with wild thistles and growling trucks. One block of Leslie Street houses an aggregate yard, a water treatment plant and a supplier of ready-mix concrete. Last week they got an unlikely neighbour. Leslie Lookout Park, which opened Saturday, is a place like no other.
Community Engagement, Project UpdatesSeptember 16, 2024Leslie Lookout Park Opens: A New Urban Beach in the Port LandsCommunity Engagement, Project UpdatesSeptember 16, 2024Leslie Lookout Park, the first major public space in the regenerated Port Lands, officially opened to the public on September 14th. The park, funded and developed by CreateTO and designed by CCxA, is located on the Martin Goodman Trail near the entrance to Tommy Thompson Park at 12 Leslie Street. The park is a new and unique multi-use community destination in the Port Lands that includes forested dunes and an artificial beach connecting the public to the water’s edge with views of the entire length of Toronto’s Ship Channel, and a 13.5-metre lookout tower with a west-facing view of the downtown core and a stunning 360-degree view of the Port Lands. This new destination offers opportunities for year-round programming including pop-up events, concerts and public art.
Port Lands
