Heritage Report: South Humber Park Pavilion

Heritage Report: South Humber Park Pavilion

Brown + Storey Architects prepared the South Humber Park Pavilion Heritage Evaluation Report for the City of Toronto Planning Department in 2019.

The South Humber Park Pavilion is a unique shelter and washroom building built in 1959 in ravine parkland adjoining the west side of the Humber River Valley in South Etobicoke. The Pavilion has become popularly known as ‘The Oculus’, and its future became the subject of significant public interest and concern after renovation plans were announced for the structure in July 2016.

This Heritage Evaluation Report examines the South Humber Park Pavilion in terms of two interrelated aspects:

  1. The Pavilion as an object (consisting of both the unique concrete disc, the complementary curved wall of the washroom building, and the flagstone surface) – the remarkable character and high quality of its architectural and engineering design, exemplifying the adventurous optimism of the modernist era in Metropolitan Toronto’s early public buildings.
  2. The emergence and development of the South Humber Park as a public landscape, and the Pavilion’s place within both the physical environment of the park and the story of the site’s development and conservation.

The Full Report

For a complete analysis of the Pavilion and its historical and present role in the park landscape, please view the report here.

Read the Toronto Star article here.