MARIE CURTIS PARK PAVILION

Sitting abandoned within the Marie Curtis Park since the early 1960’s, was this small steel framed park pavilion, in rather poor condition. Somewhat miraculous that it avoided being demolished over all that time, we were presented with an opportunity to refurbish the building and give it a new program better suited to our era and 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 over the utility space was removed and replaced with a flat roof, complete with linear skylights at its edges and ivy flowing down 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 extraction of breasts. In its final form, the park pavilion is a composition of white flat roofs, white marble walls and horizontal wood siding; all of which abstractly reference 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 doors and windows
• Recycled white Carrara marble wall panels
  (recycled from the Bank of Montreal renovation)
• White stucco
• Prefinished white metal soffits
• Green roofs complete with skylights

GENERAL PROGRAM:

• Food pavilion complete with kitchen and outdoor seating area
• Women’s & men’s washroom/change room facilities
• Utility room for storage of maintenance equipment
• Multitude of hardscaped pathways leading to and from the pavilion

COST: $2 million

COMPLETION: Project