Nathan Phillips Square – Peace Garden

public civic park garden green roof memorial graphics

Discover This project is part of the Nathan Phillips Square project.

In the early 1980s a coalition of Peace activists petitioned the then-Mayor Art Eggleton to erect a Peace Garden in Nathan Phillips Square at City Hall. Coinciding with the City’s sesquicentennial, the self-contained garden was inserted right in the middle of Revell’s square. In addition to becoming run-down over the years, it was regularly trampled as its position made it a serious impediment to larger activities on the square.

The new Peace Garden at Nathan Phillips Square, relocated to the west side of the raised walkways, creates both a significantly larger place for Peace contemplation and protest, and, a key infrastructural element in the larger conception and strategy for the Square. The Peace Garden is self-contained, yet also acts as a giant staircase to gain access to the upper walkway and new Theatre; it frames a new north-south enfilade of activated landscapes connecting Queen Street to the Law Courts; and, with its tipped planes, covers and acoustically tempers a major exhaust vent from the parking garage below. It transforms an area that was a noisy back-of-house landscape into a calm and richly planted destination to linger in.

The two angled, stepped planting planes echo the form of two cupped hands – framing a space focused on the project of peace. They enclose a flexible space suitable for the large annual ceremonial events, classroom-sized groups, everyday lingering, and reinstate the original and restored Peace Pavilion and its iconography, with a new flame and water cauldron set within a reflecting pool. The bronze cauldron symbolically contains the water brought from Nagasaki, with an eternal flame – kindled in Hiroshima – supporting the open corner of the Pavilion. The pavilion is reached via a bridge made with granite from the original garden.The Garden is open to the main Square to the north and east, maintaining the visual connection between the Eternal Flame and the Mayor’s office, part of the original Garden’s rationale. Large engraved concrete thresholds with stainless steel letters at the north and south announce the name of the garden, and a bridge crosses between the ginkgos – clearly indicating passage into something special and separate from the main Square.

**The bridge from the theatre to the peace garden**

**Planting and lighting in the stepped garden**

**Looking through the garden towards the theatre**

**The Garden attracts people and fauna**

Design Team: PLANT Architect/Perkins+Will in joint venture with Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects and Adrian Blackwell Urban Projects
General Contractor: PCL Constructors Canada and Four Seasons Site Development
Structural: Blackwell Bowick Engineering
Mechanical/Electrical: Crossey Engineering Ltd.
Team: PLANT – Chris Pommer, Lisa Rapoport, Mary Tremain, Elise Shelley, Vanessa Eickhoff, Lisa Dietrich, Eric Klaver, Cleo Buster, Jane Hutton, Heather Asquith, Suzanne Ernst, Jeremy McGregor, Matthew Hartney; STIP / P+W – Andrew Frontini, D’Arcy Arthurs, Linda Neumayer, Vis Sankrithi, Elizabeth Tseronakis, Perry Edwards, Gavin Guthrie; HSLA – Peter Schaudt, John Ridenour, Shawn Weidner, Justin Libra; ABUP – Adrian Blackwell; James Urban; Blanche Lemko van Ginkel.
Photos: Steven Evans Photography

Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) Design Excellence Awards (Finalist) 2017 Winner
UIA Friendly and Inclusive Spaces Awards (Shortlisted) 2017 Winner
CSLA National Award of Excellence 2016 Winner
Governor General’s Award of Excellence 2016 Winner
National Urban Design Award 2016 Winner
Canadian Architect Award 2007 Winner
Toronto Urban Design Awards 2007 Winner
Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization Competition 2007 Winner

project index