Shoreline Commemorative - CODAworx

Shoreline Commemorative

Client: Concert Properties Ltd.

Location: Toronto, ON, Canada

Completion date: 2014

Artwork budget: $445,000

Project Team

Artist

Paul Raff Studio

Client

Concert Properties

Overview

Shoreline Commemorative is a public artwork commissioned by Concert Properties for a new residential development within Toronto’s historic district.

The artwork’s location, south of Front Street on the west side of Church Street, was the site of Lake Ontario’s shoreline for thousands of years. The artwork has a sculpted limestone base evoking the original topography of the city’s edge. Its focus is a glowing glass orb set on a bronze tripod, which acts as a dense glass rendition of the line separating sky and water. The tripod reminds viewers of the surveyors’ instrumentation of the line of sight, an important tool in creating the city. The brick wall to the south is inscribed with the text: “For 10,000 years this was the location of Lake Ontario’s shoreline. This brick wall stands where water and land met, with a vista of the horizon.” These elements, as an ensemble, present a summary of the experience of being on the shoreline with the horizon view to open water, an experience formerly available at this exact location.

Goals

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