Imagine Relic Park
THE PIECES OF THE PUZZLE
Relic Park creates a route from the Art Gallery of Ontario to the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, connecting two of Toronto’s great cultural landmarks. The strong heritage presence and green oasis of Campbell House make a visual link across University Avenue to the Four Seasons Centre. The Grange Green Plan further establishes the rationale for a linear park within the core.
Relic Park transforms an overlooked part of the city into a unified corridor of green, utilizing rediscovered relics from Toronto’s past. The dynamic, high-quality linear park will feature parkettes and focal points that link the urban core at Campbell House through the Grange neighbourhood, ending at the AGO. This will create a unique opportunity for residents and visitors alike to rediscover fragments of Toronto’s past unexpectedly and delightfully contrasted with a natural environment of native species, reflecting Toronto’s Indigenous origins. Relic Park’s path will zigzag from Campbell House, north up Simcoe, across Michael Sweet Avenue, up St. Patrick, and along Dundas to McCaul. The park will feature architectural stone fragments or ‘relics’ that are currently in storage at Guild Park and Gardens.
The project will be undertaken in two phases. Phase 1 extends the existing 2018 installation of Guild stones in the Campbell House garden, and includes Michael Sweet Avenue and Simcoe Street, where a substantial new pedestrian zone of about 1300 square metres will be created in the heart of downtown. The new pedestrian zone is designed to support a wide range of public activities and will be a welcome respite from traffic noise.
Phase 2 will follow the completion of the condo developments at 234 Simcoe (Lanterra Deveopments) and 292 – 298 Dundas West (Tribute Communities). Artists’ Alley and the 52 Division Police Plaza in Phase 2 also have the potential for integration into Relic Park.
Arrangements of the carved stones will punctuate the route. Their placement will create gathering places for people and serve as focal points within the landscape. Large stone pieces, such as column sections and decorative window pieces, will be re- purposed into benches. Strategically placed interpretive signage will inform the public about the historic provenance of the stones.