Today, one of the top landscape architects in Canada -- Claude Cormier -- died from complications associated with something known as Li-Fraumeni Syndrome. He was only 63.

Claude, and the firm he founded CCxA, have been responsible for some of the most beautiful, whimsical, and critically acclaimed public spaces in Canada.

Those of you familiar with Toronto will know Berczy Park, Sugar Beach (pictured above), the new Love Park, and others. These are easily some of the most successful public spaces in the city, and for good reason.

CCxA is also the landscape firm behind our 100 Lombard project, where we have been similarly working to create a new and whimsical public space in downtown Toronto.

We're all sorry to see you go, Claude. Canada is a better -- and more fun place -- because of your work.

Photo by Filip Mroz on Unsplash

One of my favorite public spaces in the city is easily Sugar Beach at the foot of Jarvis Street. So I couldn't resist sharing this before and after tweet by Waterfront Toronto. Sugar Beach turns 10 years old next week. It's nearly a teenager.

For those of you who were around and paying attention a decade ago, there was a bit of controversy over the cost of this park -- specifically its pink umbrellas. The budget for the park was $14 million and each umbrella cost $11,000.

It's one of those things that's easy to single out and make a big deal out of -- if that's what you're trying to do. "How much? $11,000 for a candy pink beach umbrella? Come on."

But as Waterfront Toronto explained in this blog post from 2014, each umbrella was fabricated out of a solid piece of fiberglass and was designed to withstand hurricane winds, as well as a good old fashioned Toronto winter. They also serve as lighting for the beach at night.

Part of this is coming from lessons they learned on previous waterfront parks, where the umbrellas weren't as expensive and haven't been as resilient to the elements. So there is a whole life cycle cost analysis to be considered here.

Now I don't profess to be an expert on candy pink beach umbrellas, but I will say this: Sugar Beach wouldn't be Sugar beach without them. And ten years later, it's easy to argue for this being one of the most successful public spaces in the city.

P.S. If I could make one small request for Toronto's waterfront, it's that we need to better engage the lake. We need proper places to swim. Think of the Strandbad Tiefenbrunnen or the Seebad Enge in Zurich. We may need to tidy things up a little, but it'll be worth it.

Sometimes I like to start my mornings off by grabbing a coffee and walking down Jarvis Street to Sugar Beach and the lake. 

I’ll find a Muskoka chair (Adirondack chair for you Americans) and position it underneath one of the iconic pink umbrellas. I mostly like to look out at the lake, but I also like the shade so that I can see the screen on my phone in case my Type A tendencies kick in and I want to check emails or mess around on Twitter.

Oftentimes when I’m there–even early in the morning–there will already be other people at the beach. One time I came at 730am and a lady was there tanning in a bikini. I admired her dedication.

Sometimes I need these moments. I like that sobering feeling you get when you take a time out from the everyday to just sit and think. It helps put things into perspective. And you could argue that great cities provide those kinds of spaces.

But how valuable are those spaces? Can you put a price tag on it? Is it worth $1M? How about $14.1M, including $12,000 for each pink umbrella?

Image: blogTO