Sherbourne Common

Sherbourne Common is a stunning new waterfront park located in the heart of East Bayfront in Toronto, Ontario. The new $28.7-million public green space is located in a former industrial area along Lake Ontario and spans more than two city blocks at 1.5 hectares.

Featuring three key design elements – woods, water, and wide-open green space, the park provides an exciting and vibrant gathering place for residents and visitors alike. The park features a children’s playground, a grove of trees, seating and benches, a skating rink that acts as a splash pad in the summer, a zinc-clad pavilion, and a spectacular water channel with striking art sculptures.

Integral Group provided mechanical, electrical, modeling, and sustainability consulting services for Sherbourne Common. As sustainability was a major component in the development of this new green space, several sustainable features were utilized in the design of the park and pavilion. The pavilion includes a high-performance building envelope, natural ventilation, energy recovery ventilator, baseboard radiator, and natural gas-fired tankless water heaters that provide hot water to needed machinery.

The pavilion houses the park’s mechanical operations systems and the ultraviolet (UV) facility for neighborhood-wide stormwater treatment. The treated stormwater is released through three art sculpture towers and then flows into a concrete water channel (urban river) that spans 240 meters and empties into Lake Ontario. Low-flow water fixtures reduce water consumption, and the UV-filtered site stormwater is used for toilet flushing. Sherbourne Common’s stormwater management system makes the infrastructure aesthetically stunning and extremely functional.