Guy Walters, landscape architect with the City of Thunder Bay, says the waterfront development on the shores of Lake Superior involves replacing the grey infrastructure with green: 'Everything we do is climate resilient.'Dean Woloschuk
For generations, Thunder Bay’s waterfront was off-limits – a gritty corridor of rails, grain elevators and shipyards. Now, the city is rewriting its shoreline story, transforming industrial relics into public spaces that reconnect people to Lake Superior.
Like many Canadian cities and towns, the shoreline is a key enabler of industrial activity; the point where the region’s rail lines meet its refineries, warehouses and shipyards, bringing local resources to the global market.
“Like most cities that have industrial waterfronts, there’s a rail line that cuts people off from it,” says the city’s landscape architect Guy Walter. “The public would like to get access to the waterfront, and people would like to see more of it because we live right on Lake Superior.”
On the north side of downtown, Prince Arthur’s Landing, the city’s main public arena, has been gradually restored over the last two decades, followed by nearby Marina Park. As part of the Thunder Bay’s latest Waterfront Master Plan, the park’s existing festival grounds will soon be expanded to double its current capacity to accommodate 15,000 visitors.
A little further south, an area known as Pool 6 – named for the grain elevator that previously occupied the space – has been designated as the future home of the Thunder Bay Art Gallery and an eventual wetland park.
As the city reclaims more of its north-end shore, Mr. Walter says it will expand the recreational trail that serves as a barrier between public waterfront parks and new mixed-use developments nestled between the walkway and the rail corridor.
The concurrent waterfront development projects are also helping the city return some of its natural habitats back to their pre-industrial roots.
“On each one of these projects, the thing I’m driving hardest on is replacing the grey infrastructure with green infrastructure, so everything we do is climate resilient,” Mr. Walter says. “It’s managing storm water, building out habitats, bringing in native species and pulling out all the invasives; so, it’s not just a development, it’s really an environmental effort.”
Thunder Bay is just one of many Canadian cities and towns undergoing a major waterfront transformation designed to return its shorelines to the public after decades of industrial occupancy.
There’s a constant dialectic between the desire to commercialize the waterfront as the primary value and sacrifice other [public interest] qualities.
— Ken Greenberg, principal, Greenberg Consultants
According to urban designer, teacher and principal and Greenberg Consultants, Ken Greenberg, such efforts began with massive investments in waterfront regeneration in the country’s major cities under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in the ‘70s.
“That’s when the Government of Canada created investments in major waterfronts all across the country almost simultaneously,” he says. “Those investments by the federal government were ahead of the curve in terms of creating these great public places on waterfronts across the country.”
Mr. Greenberg, who is also the former director of urban design and architecture for the City of Toronto, says the period marked a turning point in the makeup of coastal cities globally.
“[Older] ports didn’t have the capacity to handle [shipping] containers, there was globalization and the move offshore, and for many major cities the waterfronts were always industrial,” he says. “I used to refer to it as the retreat of the industrial glacier, and it revealed, in city after city, thousands of hectares of land.”
As the industrial heritage receded, Mr. Greenberg says cities began wrestling with how to utilize such valuable real estate, often pitting private interests against those of the public.
“There’s a constant dialectic between the desire to commercialize the waterfront as the primary value and sacrifice other [public interest] qualities,” Mr. Greenberg says, pointing to the battle over Ontario Place as a recent example. Greenberg adds that municipalities are constantly trying to balance the short-term returns of private ownership with the long-term benefits of public spaces.
“The return on investment for waterfront projects is huge; that’s why cities all around the world are doing them,” he says. “It’s local tourism, it’s visitation, it’s businesses, it’s the satisfaction that people feel; it’s how cities get on the list of the most livable cities and attract interest.”
Currently under construction, the Thunder Bay Art Gallery is located on the city’s lakefront.Patkau Architects + Brook McIlroy
Even private developers recognize the value of bringing public spaces to city shores. Like Thunder Bay, Victoria will soon have a new waterfront home for one of its primary art institutions as part of a large private development.
After purchasing the land from a private owner, Vancouver-based Reliance Properties submitted plans to develop nearly seven acres of the city’s downtown waterfront, adding 500 to 600 residential units alongside offices, retail and light commercial occupancy.
If approved, the area, known as the Capital Iron Lands – named after a general store that will remain in its existing heritage building – will see the construction of 15 or 16 new buildings, a new public plaza and the new home of a local fishing company, Finest at Sea Ocean Products.
“With the co-operation of the city, we’re going to be providing the Art Gallery of Victoria a piece of land worth about $4-million [in lieu of rezoning fees], and they are then going to build a brand-new art gallery on our site,” explains Reliance Properties president Jon Stovell.
If approved, plans for Capital Iron Lands, on Victoria’s waterfront, would include the construction of 15 or 16 new buildings, a new public plaza and the new home of a local fishing company, Finest at Sea Ocean Products.DAUSTUDIO
Mr. Stovell adds that the agreement is a win-win for the city and the private developer, as it moves a major community institution into the heart of downtown, increasing the value of the surrounding land. If approved, Mr. Stovell says construction on the art gallery, public plaza and the first two housing developments could begin in late 2026.
“At the same time, we’re working with Finest at Sea, who are trying to finalize their water lot lease from Transport Canada in order to tie their vessels up alongside our land,” Mr. Stovell says.
“More often than not, the waterfront just ends up getting completely redeveloped for residential and office and related retail commercial uses, which is fine,” he says. “This is trying to maintain some legacy activities, and not purely lose that industrial past.”