Toronto Star

For more than a century, Torontonians have dreamt of a waterfront park. As far back as 1880, plans were being drawn up to turn the area between Ashbridge's Bay and the Don River into a vast green space. In 1912, the city even approached the firm of Frederick Law Olmstead, the man who "invented" landscape architecture, to design a lakeside park in the east end. Those schemes came to naught, of course, but now the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp. has revived the idea. The new scheme calls for a 16.4-hectare facility to be created south of the Keating Channel, north of Commissioners St. between Cherry St. and Don Roadway. Though plans haven't been finalized, a consortium of design firms will present its options at a 7 p.m. public meeting tonight at the Novotel hotel on the Esplanade.