The rooftop patio at The Thompson HotelDeborah Baic/The Globe and Mail
Previously known to rival basements as modern architecture's least hospitable level, flat rooftops are lately being recognized as a fertile supply of extra real estate in downtown Toronto. Ambitious property owners are taking sterile expanses of tar, gravel and ductwork and turning them into elevated Edens or high-society hot spots that offer fresh perspectives of the city below.
PUBLIC
Three gardens offering leafy relief for ordinary downtowners.
City Hall
Queen and Bay
One level above Nathan Phillips Square, at the base of City Hall's towers, a desolate concrete slab served next to no useful purpose for 45 years. That changed at the end of May with the opening of the new one-hectare City Hall Podium roof garden. Low-lying rows of sedum, grasses and perennials unfold in an orderly fashion, complementing the modernist architecture above. It's a restrained array, not the kind of place you might go shoeless to let the moss tickle your toes, but the aroma is pungently earthy, not floral; the crushed-calcite walkways and minimalist benches remind people they should consider themselves welcome at the place where local democracy blooms.
Access: Via the ramp from Nathan Phillips Square or staircases from Bay or Hagerman streets.
401 Richmond St.
Richmond and Spadina
There's no need to check if any plants on the roof of 401 Richmond are plastic. Tenants of the four-storey building pride themselves on being certifiably authentic and the garden is a natural extension of that. Now 15 years old, it has grown organically to encompass a chaotic vegetative variety. Worn deck boards underfoot attest to this sanctuary's popularity. Homemade contraptions that guide creeping vines and hefty baskets of draping plants crowd walkways leading to small groups of tables and chairs in the shade. Pollen isn't the only thing wafting through the air now that the garden has become a Wireless Toronto hotspot.
Access: Follow the hand-drawn signs from the elevator on the fourth floor.
Sheraton Centre
Queen and York
Looking south from Nathan Phillips Square one sees concrete, much of it vertical, but above one flank of the profoundly bleak Sheraton Centre peek the tops of mature birch and red pine trees that have been growing since 1972. A jaunt through the lobby, up the escalators and out into the Waterfall Gardens brings the curious to a three-level garden where the hefty trees compete with the tiered waterfall for attention. Narrow flagstone paths wend through thick shrubbery and a section of walkway that bridges the water course closely resembles a cottage dock, for a lunch-hour fix for anyone who can't wait until the weekend to pad along dock decking.
Access: Through the main lobby at 123 Queen St. W. and up the central escalators.
Fairmont Royal York
Front and York
Fourteen stories above Front Street, starched chef hats bob between raised planting beds as their bearers tend to the herbs, vegetables and fruit destined for dinner plates inside the hotel. The chefs don't seem bothered by the honeybees coming and going from six hives, each one displaying the Fairmont logo. The garden is designed more for yield than for leisure, but a weekend afternoon tea at Epic restaurant includes a tour of the 4,000-square-foot spot for those who want to see what new flavours are growing.
Access: Epic restaurant, 416-860-6949. To take the tour without the tea meet in the Library Bar at 2 or 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
PRIVATE
Three exclusive rooftops the public can only look up to.
Merchandise Lofts
Church and Dundas
Gardens make up almost half of the 20,000-square-foot amenity space atop the monolith at 155 Dalhousie St. The 130-foot ribbon of undulating perennials renews itself through the season as different plants bloom in succession. The heart of the array has to be the four-by-20-metre marsh garden where the distinguished hemlock tree holds sway. Its sweeping trunk and dense boughs of soft needles mark it as an arboreal gem, rare in Ontario forests and rarer still on Toronto rooftops. It's a note of rustic realism that complements more urban amenities like the glassed-in swimming pool, communal barbeques and canine compound.
Access. For tenants and guests only.
The Spoke Club
King and Spadina
The glass railing guarding the western length of this fourth storey patio has a clean edge, with no trim or border to impede views - or impart a feeling of structural integrity. It might be disconcerting to those inclined to vertigo, but during rosy summer evenings the aesthetically sensitive clientele of the arts-minded Spoke Club don't want anything getting in between them and the best sunsets in the city. The patio strikes a balance between greenery and seating capacity, with room for 100 members and guests.With no dress code, the pretension level remains below what you would expect at a place that serves watermelon-basil martinis.
Access: Private club. An initiation fee and annual dues are the tickets in.
Thompson Hotel
Bathurst and Wellington
The transition from dark to light is abrupt when the doors of the deep black elevator open to the roof of the Thompson Hotel. In the distance the Toronto skyline reflects the sun back toward a compact pool surrounded by gleaming bodies on designer deck furniture. But before you can gaze fully upon either spectacle, you have to get past the hostess, stationed to ensure visitors are residents or guests of the Thompson's 336 residential and 102 hotel units. From water level, the "infinity" pool's invisible glass edge makes it appear as though you could swim straight out over the fashion district. The grass in the planters is admittedly fake, but the servers' cocktail dresses are genuine Jeremy Laing designs. Since its opening last month, this has already become the place where next week's trends in sunglass fashion are established.
Access: Residents and guests only.
SIDEBAR
Nurture from nature
The domed enclosure overlooking Toronto Police Headquarters is not spacious, but then again, sweat-lodge ceremonies are intimate affairs. The squat structure atop the Native Child and Family Services building at 30 College St. is only one way the social workers downstairs use their rooftop garden to help clients connect with native culture in ways that were impossible before.
The garden opened last month and includes a children's play area of grassy mounds and a natural-gas fire pit for group-therapy sessions and gatherings like the sunrise ceremony.
Sweetgrasses (for ceremonial smudging) and cedars (for teas and medicines) line the perimeter, and clusters of Saskatoon berries (for pemmican) and Three Sisters vegetables (corn, squash and beans) dot the communal area.
"The garden allows our clients to connect to their traditional way of life, which can be very restorative, in ways they have trouble doing in the city," says facilities manager Norman Clarke.
A few blocks away at Covenant House on McGill Street, the flowers, vegetables and fish pond of the two-year-old roof garden figure into vocational or academic photography, art, biology and culinary programs at Canada's largest youth shelter. The garden features a living wall and waist-high planting beds and staff use it as a gathering place for therapy, meditation and yoga sessions for many of the 4,000 kids who shelter in Covenant House each year. "Having a quiet and safe place to relax, or being able to nurture a garden can be important steps toward these kids getting back on track," says Covenant House's Rose Cino.