Landscape Performance Case Study Investigation: HTO Park

As part of the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Case Study Investigation (CSI) program, JRS partnered with researchers from the University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty to evaluate the performance of HTO Park – a post-industrial waterfront landscape designed to transform contaminated land into a vibrant, ecologically active public space. This research quantified a range of environmental and social benefits, including brownfield remediation, stormwater infiltration, habitat creation, and climate-responsive design. The resulting case study has contributed to an important body of work quantifying the performance benefits of landscapes throughout North America (in this case, related to best practices shaping urban waterfronts).

Project Statistics

  • Park Size – 6 acres
  • Boardwalk Length – 190m
  • Boardwalk Cantilever – 10m
  • Fish Habitat Area – 1780m²
  • Increase in Fish Population – 3x
  • Soil Capped On-Site – 534,000 tons
  • Soil Volume for mounding – 5,250 yd³
  • Estimated Cost to Dig & Recycle Off-Site – $24M
  • Capping Cost – $1.5M
  • LAF Landscape Performance Case Study Investigation: HTO Park

As part of Janet Rosenberg & Studio’s commitment to advancing sustainable landscape architecture through applied research, the firm participated in the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF)’s Case Study Investigation (CSI) program in 2015-2016. CSI is a unique research collaboration that pairs academic researchers with leading design firms to quantify the environmental, social, and economic benefits of high-performing landscape projects. The findings from these studies contribute to LAF’s broader Landscape Performance Series, a robust resource designed to evaluate and demonstrate the impact of landscape solutions.

JRS was selected to partner with a research team from the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto, led by Jane Wolff and Elise Shelley, with research assistant Elise Hunchuck. Our firm served as the liaison and data source for a case study on HTO Park, one of Toronto’s most iconic waterfront public spaces. While the design of HTO is detailed on our HTO project page, this initiative focused specifically on the sustainable performance of the park’s design interventions.

The research, documented in full via the Landscape Performance Series, highlights several key environmental and economic benefits:

  • Brownfield Remediation: The project capped contaminated soils in place, using over 5,000 cubic yards of clean soil to safely transform the site without costly dig-and-dump remediation. This approach saved an estimated $22-23 million and eliminated the need for 38,000+ truck trips to remove hazardous materials.
  • Stormwater Management: A system of dispersing infiltration pits and integrated irrigation holds and cleans stormwater on site, preventing untreated runoff from reaching Lake Ontario.
  • Fish Habitat Creation: A 624-ft cantilevered boardwalk created over 19,000 square feet of new fish habitat using a layered mix of recycled and natural materials. This intervention supported a near doubling of fish species and tripling of the overall fish population.
  • Urban Biodiversity: More than 100 trees and extensive native and adaptive plantings contribute to habitat creation, urban cooling, and improved air quality.
  • Social Accessibility: The park introduced a new kind of public edge to the lake, balancing proximity with safety and expanding recreational access to the downtown waterfront for all visitors.

Through this collaboration, JRS contributed to the growing body of evidence that landscape architecture not only shapes experience but delivers measurable ecological and infrastructural value. The CSI process also helped the firm refine internal methods of evaluating performance and communicating the benefits of design to clients, stakeholders, and the public.

To read the full case study and explore the research methodology, visit the official HTO Park Case Study Brief on the LAF CSI website.

Aerial View Photography Credit: Andrey Cherknykh

Related Projects