Cloud Gardens

Cloud Gardens
Cloud Gardens greenhouse is seen in the upper left
Type	Public Park
Location	Toronto, Ontario
Operated by	City of Toronto

Cloud Gardens or "Bay Adelaide Gardens and the Cloud Forest Conservatory"^[1] is a small park in downtown Toronto. It is on Richmond Street just east of Bay Street on half an acre (2,000 m²) of land.

Origin

The site was given to the city in the 1980s as part of a deal that allowed the Bay Adelaide Centre to be higher than official plan limits. The developers thus gave a small portion of the lot to the city and spent $5 million to build a park.

Design

The park is one of the more elaborate in Toronto. It was designed by a partnership of Baird, Sampson Neuert Architects,^[2] the MBTW Group/Watchorn Architects, and two artists, Margaret Priest and Tony Sherman.^[3] It won George Baird a Governor General's Architecture Award.

Description

The western part of the park includes a network of pathways and is edged by cluster of trees around a semicircular lawn. The eastern portion is more elaborate with a series of walkways climbing past a waterfall. Rising above this area is a monument to Toronto's construction workers designed by Margaret Priest and constructed by the Building Trades Union. It comprises squares that each illustrate one of the building trades. Thus one shows a network of steel rebars, another, a cluster of wiring.

The namesake feature of the Gardens is a small greenhouse set to the cool and moist conditions of certain mountain ecologies. A walkway runs from the lower-level entrance to an upper-level exit by the waterfall. Occasionally, parkour teams of Toronto will train here.

See also

• The Bay Queen Street
• Bay Adelaide Centre

References

1. ^ "Bay Adelaide Gardens and the Cloud Forest Conservatory". City of Toronto, Toronto Gardens and Conservatories. 2000-10-23. http://www.toronto.ca/parks/parks_gardens/bayadelaidegdns.htm. Retrieved 2009-03-27. 
2. ^ "Barry Sampson - projects - 0.6A public park (aerial photo)". University of Toronto web site, faculty pages. http://www.daniels.utoronto.ca/node/748. Retrieved 2009-03-27. 
3. ^ "Urban Design: Cloud Garden Park". Lost Streams, Toronto, Web site. http://www.lostrivers.ca/points/cloudgrdnpk.htm. Retrieved 2009-03-27. 

Coordinates: 43°39′04″N 79°22′47″W / 43.651168°N 79.379826°W / 43.651168; -79.379826