Love Park is an endeavor to break from the grid and assert an open space character that reinforces Toronto’s evolving landscape specificity, a unique signature to express the spirit of the city. A new metropolitan icon to capture the Toronto brand, Love Park also serves as a local park for a diverse mix of residents, workers, visitors and tourists in the burgeoning Waterfront neighbourhood. A space of simplicity and grandeur, Love Park accommodates a myriad of flexible and open-ended uses while sustaining its own conceptual integrity and personality over time. The interplay between clearing and tree cover, sun and shade, as well as seeing and being seen all combine to make a green oasis of quiet yet stimulating repose. This breathing room in the city is qualified by a looseness in layout that promotes freshness and flexibility. Unobstructed sight lines through clearings and trees across the park, to the surrounding towers, as well as the harbour to the south, promote safety without imposing an overly rigid structure of occupancy. A pavilion trellis of intersecting arcs reinforces the geometry of the park layout, its lace structure becoming more pronounced by vines over time.
