The concrete jungle of Downtown Toronto can sometimes be an unwelcoming place for our four-legged companions, but the newly redeveloped Berczy Park offers a respite for the city’s dogs and their human allies. Designed by alumnus Claude Cormier (BLA 1986), Berczy Park will now feature hand-painted dog sculptures spitting water into a large cast-iron fountain. Surrounding the centrepiece is a diamond-grid of pink and grey granite, with new elm trees and tulips along the perimeter.

“We’re trying very hard to make this not like a mall,” Cormier told The Globe and Mail. “We are combining it with the public realm to create a very urban feeling.”

Berczy Park officially opened on June 28, and is located behind the Flatiron Gooderham Building on Church and Front Streets.

Cormier has designed other well-received public spaces in Toronto, such as the HTO Park, Sugar Beach, and his firm is currently designing “Central Park” at the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre.

“The Montreal-based designer has put his stamp on the city with parks and public spaces, such as Sugar Beach," writes Alex Bozikovic for The Globe and Mail. “They’re whimsical but rigorously planned: incorporating time-honoured principles of public space, and the history of landscape design, but also a sense of fun.”

Two years ago, Cormier participated in a short lecture and panel discussion to celebrate the 125-year-history of the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. Titled "The Future of Creativity,” the event was one of four dialogues on the work of our faculty and alumni, and the new modes of practice that they, together with our students, hope to model and instigate. Watch the full lecture on our YouTube channel.

Photos, top: 1) Credit: Industrios Photography 2) Credit: Tom Ridout 3) View of the plaza and fountain looking west, CC+A