The fenced lot at 1010 Yonge Street, just west of Rosedale station, has been empty since its Green P lot closed at 11:59 p.m. on June 9, 2023. Toronto is planning a net-zero community recreation centre for the site, with a six-lane, 25-metre lap pool, a leisure pool, and a gym with a running track. Five design teams are now preparing proposals, and the public gets to review them before a jury picks one.
The City expects to name a winner this fall. On its current schedule, the building opens in summer 2032. That leaves a gap of about six years between the moment the building's character gets decided and the first swim. For neighbors, the next few months matter more than the ribbon-cutting.
A Competition Toronto Hasn't Run Since 1987
Toronto usually doesn't hold open design contests for recreation centres. Canadian Architect reported in May 2026 that this is the City's first design competition for a community recreation centre since 1987. Ward 11 Councillor Dianne Saxe wrote in her May 2026 newsletter that the competition was held "at my request."
The competition has two stages. In the first, 21 teams submitted qualifications. An evaluation committee of City staff and an independent professional advisor picked the five highest-rated teams to move on. Each is led by a Canadian architect working with one or more partner firms:
| Canadian lead | Partner firm or firms |
|---|---|
| Adamson Associates Architects | Kengo Kuma and Associates |
| KPMB Architects | hcma architecture + design |
| Moriyama Teshima Architects | SHAPE Architecture Inc. |
| NORR Architects & Engineers Limited | Zaha Hadid Architects |
| Teeple Architects | 3XN Architects and SOCA |
That is an unusual shortlist for a neighborhood pool and gym. It puts Kengo Kuma's office, Zaha Hadid Architects and 3XN in the running for a civic building on Yonge Street, between Ramsden Park to the north and Budd Sugarman Park to the east.
How the Public Feeds Into the Jury's Decision
The City's project page sets out the next steps. The five teams spend summer and fall 2026 developing concept designs. After that, the City's sequence is:
- The design proposals go to the project's advisory groups for review.
- A public exhibition and online survey launch.
- Community feedback is collected and passed to the jury.
- The jury selects a winning design and the City announces it.
The jury is made up of recognized design and architecture professionals, the City and the Community Advisory Committee. The designs will be posted on the project website and shown at a public exhibition for feedback before the jury decides. The City says that feedback informs the jury's choice and that the decision "is final." After the winner is named, later rounds of engagement will refine one chosen scheme, and the public won't be comparing designs again.
The City's project page was last updated June 22, 2026. It still lists the exhibition and survey as upcoming steps and gives no venue or dates. The page has a sign-up form for project updates, which is how notice of the exhibition is likely to arrive. The Deer Park Residents Group has also covered the competition and pointed its members to the same page.
What the Teams Were Told the Site Means
The Community Advisory Committee and the Indigenous Advisory Circle each wrote a vision statement, and both are part of the brief given to the five teams. The committee's statement asks for architecture that honors
"Ramsden Park's unique identity, including its role as the source of Toronto's distinctive yellow bricks, its ravine landscape, Indigenous heritage and the diverse communities that have shaped the neighbourhood."
The brick reference is to the park's own past. The Toronto Historical Association places the longest-running part of the Yorkville brickyards on what is now Ramsden Park, and notes that the area's "white" brick was actually a soft yellow. A cultural heritage report prepared for the ABC Residents Association dates the start of brickmaking to around 1835, and the yards closed in the 1890s. According to the City's Bloor-Yorkville heritage assessment, Toronto bought the brickyards for parkland in 1904 and named the park after local alderman J. George Ramsden.
The advisory groups' June 2026 sessions also covered the ground under the lot. Participants learned about the buried rivers beneath the site, the historic Davenport Trail and the ancient shoreline of Glacial Lake Iroquois. The City says this research will shape how the teams think about the site's identity. The Indigenous Advisory Circle's vision statement asks the centre to recognize "the water flowing beneath the site."
The neighbor to the east has a history that fits the project. Budd Sugarman Park is named for an interior designer who opened a Yorkville practice in the late 1940s and campaigned to preserve the area from the 1970s onward. According to a historical marker about him, he helped turn a former parking lot into a public park, and locals called him the "Mayor of Yorkville." The Ontario Historical Society's June 2000 bulletin reported the park's official naming ceremony. The recreation centre would replace a second former parking lot directly beside that park.
What People Asked For in 2025
Before any architect was hired, the City ran an online Thought Exchange from May 30 to June 16, 2025. It drew 173 participants, who posted 135 ideas and gave 2,600 ratings. Their rankings are worth knowing before looking at the five designs, because they show the gap between what participants wanted most and what the program confirms.
- Functions: aquatics ranked first, followed by fitness and wellness, then sports facilities.
- Aquatics: a lane pool ranked first, a warm leisure pool second and a sauna room third.
- Fitness spaces: a gymnasium ranked first. A running track ranked fifth of seven.
- Indoor sports: racquet and paddle sports ranked first of six.
- Arts and culture: an art studio ranked first.
The proposed program matches the top two aquatic requests, a lap pool and a leisure pool, along with a gym, a running track and multi-purpose spaces. The published program doesn't list a sauna, a racquet court or an art studio. Highly rated comments also called for affordable access, year-round spaces for long winters, and design that is "transit-friendly" so people can take part "without a car." On a site next to a subway station, the transit request is easy to meet. How each design fits the lower-ranked requests into multi-purpose space is a fair question to put to the exhibition.
Where the Lap Swim Happens Today
For now, the closest City pools are a trip away from the station. Wellesley Community Centre at 495 Sherbourne Street has a 25-metre pool and a tot pool. Other nearby options include Hillcrest Community Centre at 1339 Bathurst Street and Harrison Pool at 15 Stephanie Street. Harrison's pool is 20 yards long. The Ramsden centre would add a six-lane, 25-metre pool right at the station, on the same block as the park.
The Opening Date Has Moved Twice
The design decision is close, but the opening has been moving further out. When blogTO covered the project in March 2025, the plan called for construction in spring 2027 and opening in summer 2030. The current published dates are later:
| Milestone | Schedule reported March 2025 | City schedule now |
|---|---|---|
| Construction starts | Spring 2027 | Spring 2028 |
| Centre opens | Summer 2030 | Summer 2032 |
The City says its timeline "is subject to change." In May 2026, Canadian Architect reported a 2028 groundbreaking and an opening in 2034. The City's page still says summer 2032. Under either date, a winning design announced this fall will spend years in detailed design, which the City schedules for winter to fall 2027, and then in construction.
Sources also give the address two ways. Green P and the councillor use 1010 Yonge Street. blogTO and UrbanToronto's project database use 1020 Yonge. Both refer to the same former Car Park 269, the City's solid waste facility sits to its west, and Shay Ristorante opened across Yonge at 1055 on October 1.
The Window Is This Fall
The building's form, materials, relationship to Ramsden Park and handling of the brickyard history will be largely set by which of the five teams wins. The exhibition and online survey are the steps where public comment goes to the jury. To be notified when they open, use the sign-up form on the City's project page.
A major civic building at Yonge and Crescent will change how that stretch of Rosedale works day to day. If you'd like to talk through what this project means for a property near Ramsden Park, Taylor Townley can help. Request a Confidential Consultation.
