Toronto has a hidden, elevated park and it just doubled in size

Four years since Toronto’s new floating park above the rail corridor debuted, a second phase of the elevated park has recently doubled the size of this kind-of-secret hangout spot.

The second tower of the monumental CIBC Square office complex from developers Ivanhoé Cambridge and Hines recently wrapped up construction, and June marked the long-awaited debut of the northern phase of the complex’s one-acre “sky park” connecting the two towers over the Union Station rail corridor.

Floating a couple of storeys above Bay Street’s underpass beneath the rail corridor, and accessed by stairs and escalators from either side of the tracks, the sky park serves as the public centrepiece between the pair of shimmering glass office towers — the largest office buildings constructed in Toronto’s Financial District since the 1990s.

Contrasting the faceted exterior of the WilkinsonEyre-designed office towers, the park’s design, developed in collaboration with landscape architects Public Work, boasts smooth, rounded curves throughout its gardens, paths, and gathering spaces, all as trains thunder along the tracks below.

“From the outset, the public realm strategy was fundamental to the success of the masterplan,” said Dominic Bettison, Director at WilkinsonEyre.

“The creation of three new public plazas, connected by the elevated sky park and a new urban laneway, helped integrate a development of this scale into Toronto’s existing urban fabric,” said Bettison.

Bettison says that the team “sought to create a network of connected destinations that strengthen pedestrian movement, support everyday public life, and create meaningful new spaces for people to gather, pause and engage with the city.”

The sky park offers some outrageously impressive views of the cityscape, but be warned, the first phase of the park’s 2022 debut was met with conflict between photographers and overzealous security guards — a reminder that, while this park is accessible to the public, it remains privately owned and subject to the property owner’s rules.

Regardless of whether or not you plan on bringing a camera, the unobstructed views over the rail corridor towards landmarks like the CN Tower and Royal York Hotel are among the best you can get from a publicly accessible space.

Tim Kocur, Executive Director of the Waterfront BIA, hailed the park for helping to both figuratively and literally bridge the gap between downtown and the waterfront formed by the rail corridor.

“The completion of the CIBC Square North Tower and the elevated park is an inspiration of north-south connectivity,” said Kocur back in June.

“Our waterfront has benefitted greatly from expansion of the Financial District southward, but the Gardiner Expressway and rail yards remain a barrier that’s difficult to ignore,” added Kocur, celebrating the park as “a visual nod to crossing those barriers.”

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