Sugar Beach, Urban beach at Queens Quay waterfront, Toronto, Canada
Sugar Beach is a triangular urban beach park in Toronto's East Bayfront, across from the Redpath Sugar Refinery. Its sand is set with pale pink umbrellas on thin metal poles, dark lounge chairs, white boxy side tables and a light grey sectional sofa. Paved areas use granite setts in three colours forming a stylized maple leaf.
Sugar Beach opened in 2010 as a Waterfront Toronto project designed by landscape architecture firm Claude Cormier + Associés, at a cost of $14 million. The triangular site, at Lower Jarvis Street and Queens Quay, had been a parking lot for the Jarvis Street Slip, a slip created by infilling around 1919–1920. The park takes its name from the adjacent Redpath Sugar refinery.
The park's name comes from the Redpath Sugar Refinery opposite it, and its candy-striped rock trim plays on that theme. Since 2011 it has hosted the Toronto Port Authority's Sail-In Cinema, with an inflatable screen mounted on a barge about 50 metres offshore. Corus Quay next door has retractable doors that open concerts and events onto the beach.
The beach is not meant for wading or swimming in Lake Ontario. It is a flat, sandy surface with umbrellas and lounge chairs, bordered by paved pedestrian areas of granite setts. The park sits at Lower Jarvis Street and Queens Quay, next to Corus Quay, and is separated from the building by a paved strip with benches and trees.
The paving of the pedestrian areas uses granite setts in three colours laid out as a stylized maple leaf. Each tree along the paved strip beside Corus Quay stands in a Silva Cell system holding over 30 cubic metres of uncompacted soil. The park's name comes from the Redpath sugar refinery opposite.
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