Copper Canopy

 

Location: Ontario Square, Harbourfront Centre

Date photo taken: 18 October 2025

If you find yourself on the waterfront between now and November 16, head for the open space north of the Power Plant gallery. There you'll find a canopy of cut copper leaves, twisting and spinning and reacting to wind and light. If you're there during the day, the leaves blaze when the sun hits them, but if you visit after dark, the on-site lighting creates its own atmosphere. Do as you're encouraged to do - enjoy a moment of stillness beneath this ever shifting forest canopy. 

It was designed by RAW Works, with Roland Rom Colthoff, Suleman Khan, Elmira Yousefi, Aaron Hendershott, and fabricated by Anex Works.     

Labatt wall

 

Location: Queen's Quay Terminal

Date photo taken: 12 July 2025

On a hot, sunny visit to Toronto's waterfront recently I spent some time discovering the early history of Labatt. It wasn't intentional, but while cooling off in Queen's Quay Terminal I stumbled across this timeline. It runs along a wall outside the Labatt offices and it has some pretty cool early photos, labels and marketing pieces. If you want to learn more about this London, Ontario born brewing company find your way up to the quiet second floor of the Terminal via the escalators in the southern atrium. Or you can always just visit their website. 

Toronto Police Marine Unit

Location: Toronto Islands

Date photo taken: 12 July 2018

This is one of nine different types of watercraft employed by Toronto's police force. Being situated on a lake, it should come as no surprise that Toronto has a marine unit. What I did find surprising is the size of the unit and the scope of their responsibilities. It's part of the Specialized Emergency Response at TPS and along with Sergeants, Constables, and a Staff Sergeant, it also has 10 divers, three mechanics and a cat named Porter. Its area of coverage is larger than the city itself because it has jurisdiction on the lake, stretching out from the city all the way to the border of the United States. Plus it's responsible for all the waterways within Toronto, including rivers, ponds, and reservoirs. The divers also work in the sewers. The main station is located on Queens Quay and there are three sub-stations - one in Scarborough at Bluffers Park, one on Centre Island and at the Humber River.

Careful Infrastructures for Reassembled Lands (No.2)

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Location: Waterfront promenade

Date photo taken: 22 October 2022

In 2022 Waterfront Toronto and the Waterfront BIA announced the appointment of Lisa Hirmer as their new artist-in-residence. Her mandate was to "create meaningful, experiential encounters with the community, activate underutilized spaces along the lakefront, and draw new audiences to the waterfront." One theme of the residency was climate change. Hirmer took the opportunity to collaborate with writers to create a sign project for the waterfront promenade and this is one of the resulting pieces. This particular text is by Sangamithra Iyer and it was fabriated by Ocel Metal Fabrication.

Heavenly Waters

Location: Queens Quay, west of Jarvis

Date photo taken: 30 August 2020

Starting in 1981 Robert Wyland began painting large scale murals, dubbed Whaling Walls, around the world. This is one of two that he created in Toronto, although the second one, at the ROM, is now listed as extinct. This one can be found on the north wall of the sugar shed at the Redpath Sugar plant on Toronto's shoreline. It was created in 1997 and it's a bit special in that it was co-signed by Robert Hunter, the Canadian environmentalist who co-founded Greenpeace and spent years campaigning against commercial whaling. 

Torrent at Redpath Refinery

 

Location: Redpath Refinery, Queens Quay at Jarvis

Date photo taken: 1 June 2022

Depending on where you live in Toronto, I think it's sometimes easy to forget that we're a waterfront city. And even if you're a fan of our waterfront, it's easy to forget that it was once dominated by shipping piers and industry. One of the few remaining remnants of this industrial past is the Redpath facility at the foot of Jarvis. According to their website, Redpath is Canada's oldest food company, in operation since 1854. The refinery on the lake front was opened in 1959 and the official opening ceremony was attended by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. Today it receives regular shipments of raw sugar on ships such as this one. Did you know that there are websites that let you learn about and track ships like this? For example, this ship, which is the bulk carrier Torrent, was built in 2010 and sails under the flag of Cyprus. Before arriving in Toronto, its last marked location was Montreal, and before that, Brazil. Fascinating.

Fun fact: The green arm at the right of this image is a large claw which reaches into the hold and unloads the sugar. You can stand and watch it, and if the wind blows just right, you can actually smell the raw sugar. 

Control No Control

 

Location: Harbourfront Centre

Date photo taken: 9 February 2022

I used to really look forward to the Toronto Light Festival. Brightening up our long January nights with light-based art installations seemed brilliant. That tradition is back in a new form. Harbourfront Centre and Fjord Studio out of Norway are co-presenting Nordic Lights, a series of pieces by Canadian and Nordic artists. There are six in total, a mix of physical works and projection-based art. You can follow the provided map, or just wander through the park and discover each for yourself. Pictured here is Control No Control by Montreal-based studio Iregular. It's mesmerizing to stand back and watch, but if you're more hands on, it also reacts to touch.

Tagging Trash

Location: Promenade next to Sugar Beach

Date photo taken: 23 June 2021

How often do you think about trash? Perhaps more now than you used to, but I'm going to guess that the average Torontonian still doesn't spend much time thinking deeply about garbage. It's probably a good thing then that someone is thinking about it. One such group is the U of T Trash Team. Among their projects is Fighting Floatables, which aims to understand the problem of trash in Toronto harbour. They perform visual audits as a first step and then deploy trash capture devices in the water to trap floating debris. Collected material is then subjected to both a simple daily quantification and a deep dive analysis. This year they've added another layer to this by releasing plastic bottles containing GPS trackers into Lake Ontario. The bottles act like any other trash in the water, and the GPS trackers help the team understand how trash moves around the waterfront. They've made the movement maps available online so you can see for yourself how the move bottles around. It's one more way they're striving to create an "engaged waste-literate community where citizens are actively working to protect people, wildlife and the planet through the intersection of science, policy, community engagement and innovation that promote waste reduction."

Artscape Bayside Lofts - Natia Lemay

 

Location: 30 Merchants' Wharf

Date photo taken: 16 June 2021

I feel like you never know what you're going to see when you visit the East Bayfront these days. Sure, lots of cute dogs being walked is a given. Also construction and views of the water, but surprises also abound. One day recently part of the promenade was decorated with candy coloured paper lanterns and huge pots of flowers. The same day I saw that I also noticed this streetside gallery. It's probably been there for awhile but I've never noticed it. It runs along the west side of the new development at 30 Merchants' Wharf, a building which houses 80 affordable housing units geared to artists and artist-run families. Known as Artscape Bayside Lofts, the units are part of the larger Hines-Tridel Aquavista development and are owned by the City of Toronto.

This particular exhibit is called "Family in Art" and all the works are by Natia Lemay. 

The Big Social: AR Edition

 

Location: Natrel Pond, Harbourfront Centre, Queens Quay

Date photo taken: 6 October 2020

If the fine fall weather that is about to hit the city entices you outside and you find yourself in the vicinity of Harbourfront Centre, make your way to the Natrel Pond to experience THE BIG SOCIAL: AR Edition. Using your own tablet or phone you can access a series of dance presentations brought to life on the pond right in front of you, thanks to this augmented reality experience presented by Fall For Dance North. I had initially intended to use a screen capture for the image here but decided that would be a spoiler! The show is available from dawn til dusk until October 18th and it's a great way to enjoy Toronto's arts and culture scene while socially distancing.

Centreville - Saugreen Lumber Company

Location: Centreville, Centre Island
Date photo taken: 12 July 2018

Centreville, the amusement park situated on Centre Island, has been delighting children since 1967. Built to resemble a turn-of-the-century Ontario town, the park started small with only 7 rides but food and game stands followed in 1970 and the park now features over 30 rides, mostly geared to young children. These floating cars are from one of the more exciting rides, The Saugreen Lumber Company log flume, which was introduced in 1972. Admission to the park is free, but tickets are required for the rides, or you can buy an All Day Ride Pass.

Sunscreen Dispensers

Location: Sugar Beach
Date photo taken: 30 June 2018

If you find yourself at Sugar Beach this summer but forget your sunscreen, no worries, the City has you covered. Just look around until you find this bright yellow box. It's a touch-free dispenser filled with SPF 30 sunscreen. First piloted in 5 waterfront locations last year, the program has been expanded and now features 50 dispensers located all along the Waterfront Trail. Costs for the program are being covered by the David Cornfield Melanoma Fund and the Douglas Wright Foundation, and they are also responsible for keeping the boxes filled and maintained. A map showing dispenser locations and a list of sunscreen ingredients can be found on the besunsafe.ca website.

Public Art at Pier 27

Location: Pier 27 development, Queens Quay

Date photo taken: 18 February 2018

The Pier 27 development is currently taking shape as part of Toronto's waterfront redevelopment. It constitutes a number of condo buildings on the plot of land between Yonge Street and the Redpath Sugar Factory. In the fall of 2017, the space between the buildings at 29 and 39 Queens Quay became the permanent home of a large art installation by American artist Alice Aycock. The forms, that of the cyclone, seen here, and the whorls of paper, glimpsed on the left edge of the picture, are reminiscent of her Park Avenue Paper Chase, which appeared in 6 locations along Park Avenue in New York between March and July of 2014.

Sugar Beach

Location: At the foot of Lower Jarvis, south of Queens Quay
Date photo taken: 19 February 2017

Sugar Beach, located across the slip from the Redpath Sugar factory, is one of Toronto's newer and already most iconic parks. Half of the park is given over to a beach space complete with comfy chairs and 36 lovely pink umbrellas. The other half of the park is a plaza designed for hosting programmed and more spontaneous events. The two halves are bisected by the Waterfront Promenade. Even in the winter, Sugar Beach has its appeal. On a sunny day like this one, the water looks spectacular and the sand under the umbrellas glows pink. This weekend, the park will once again host Sugar Shack TO, a free event with live entertainment, a marketplace, a specialty bar and of course, some sweet treats.