Love Park

A lush urban oasis, Love Park (currently York Street Park) creates a playful and immersive experience secluded from busy downtown life.

Designed by CCxA in collaboration with gh3*, Love Park invites visitors to rekindle their relationship with the stillness and enduring beauty of nature. Located at the southern foot of York Street and Queens Quay, this 2-acre park responds to the need for flexible public space in the southern Financial District and Harbourfront neighbourhood.

The park site is the antidote to its former use as the York-Bay-Yonge eastbound off-ramp of the Gardiner Expressway, which was removed and reclaimed for public use in 2016-17. This new park is a deliberate departure from the hard surfaces dominating downtown Toronto, with healthy existing mature trees retained and dozens of new trees being planted. Tree-lined sidewalks outline the entire perimeter and internal pathways of the park site, marking the transition into a calm urban refuge. Rolling elevated grassy mounds provide further buffer from the adjacent roadways and offer space to relax and enjoy the park at different vantage points.