MARIE CURTIS PARK PAVILION

MARIE CURTIS PARK PAVILION

Sitting abandoned inside the Marie Curtis Park since the early 1960s, was this small steel framed park pavilion, in poor condition. Miraculously, this building somehow avoided being demolished and we were presented with an opportunity to refurbish it and give it a new program better suited to this waterfront park.

As such, we dissected the building into its constituent parts, starting with the existing circular roof over the food pavilion, which we enlarged by 5’-0” (1.5 m) and clad its existing columns with protective white “shrouds”. The existing gable roof overtop the utility space was removed and replaced with a flat roof, complete with linear skylights at its edges and ivy cascading from its sides. The men’s washroom was expressed using a flat, rectilinear roof, while the women’s washroom was articulated using two intersecting flat circles – a simple, feminine abstraction of breasts. In its final form, the park pavilion is a quiet composition of white flat roofs, white marble walls and horizontal wood siding, a nod to nearby nautical vessels, readily seen from this waterfront park.

LOCATION: Etobicoke, Ontario

ARCHITECT: LINEVISION Architects

DESIGN LEADERSHIP: Michael Poitras,
Principal-in-Charge

CLIENT: City of Toronto Parks & Recreation

STATISTICS:

  • No. of storeys: 1
  • Total floor area:
    3,500 ft2 (325 m2)

MATERIALS:

  • Horizontal Ipe wood siding
  • Spanish cedar windows & doors
  • Recycled white Carrara marble wall panels
    (recycled from the Bank of Montreal renovation)
  • Stucco cladding (white)
  • White pre-finished metal soffits
  • Green roofs + skylights
  • Outdoor landscaping

GENERAL PROGRAM:

  • Food pavilion, kitchen & outdoor seating area
  • Women’s & men’s washroom/change room facilities
  • Utility room (maintenance equipment storage)

COST: Withheld

COMPLETION: Project