Toronto's new park with fake beach and lookout tower to open this summer
Toronto's most hotly anticipated new park is set to open to the public this summer, so you can start counting down the weeks until you can soak up the sun and panoramic views from the much-hyped Leslie Slip Lookout Park.
The nearly two-acre park at the east edge of the Port Lands' ship channel was scheduled to open last year, but like many public works projects (looking at you, Eglinton Crosstown), its opening was pushed back.
Despite missed deadlines, work is pressing along for the new public space, which will feature an artificial beach and a viewing platform from which visitors can soak in ever-changing views of the city's skyline.
Now, it's official: Leslie Slip Lookout will open in July, according to a new aerial video of the site shared by the landscape architect in charge of its design.
With just three months to go before the ribbon is cut, recent views of the site shared by designers CCxA and the City's real estate arm CreateTO reveal that the artificial beach's sand is in place and the lookout tower is structurally complete.
Anyone else dreaming about a beach day today? Here’s a sneak peek at the waterfront views from the lookout tower and beach at Leslie Lookout Park, on schedule to open to the public this summer. #PortLands pic.twitter.com/QnzFEsRpXd
— CreateTO (@_CreateTO) March 22, 2024
The park's design follows cues of other successful artificial beaches in Toronto designed by CCxA, including HTO Park and Sugar Beach.
Leslie Slip Lookout Park is just one of many exciting projects reshaping Toronto's Port Lands from an industrial zone into an inviting pocket of the city featuring new recreational spaces.
With additional features like forested dunes, multi-use paths, and year-round programming including pop-up events, concerts and public art, the park will open the edge of the once-heavily industrialized ship channel for public use.
Combined with new parks lining the newly-filled artificial mouth of the Don River — the crown jewel in the City's Port Lands Flood Protection project — Leslie Slip Lookout Park will help to re-animate this dead pocket of the city into an inviting and exciting place to spend a summer day.
No specific date in July has been announced just yet, but stay tuned for further details about the park's planned opening.
CreateTO
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