On Saturday April 20th, join Toronto’s Butt Blitz Cleanup by taking part in a Friends of Berczy Park cleanup in our local park. See the poster below for details, and come to Berczy Park at 10am to help give the park a good spring cleaning.
Meet location: 10am at the Berczy Park gravel mural garden (right behind the Flatiron Bldg). Ask for event organizer ‘Marc’.
Since we’ll collect discarded cigarette butts, perform sweeping of the park terrace, and general litter clean-up), you may want to bring garden or rubber gloves, an extra broom, or metal tongs to easily scoop up cigarette butts.
Thanks for helping make our beloved park sparkle for spring!
Do you love spending time in Berczy Park? Why not pitch in a few minutes to help us keep it clean and beautiful?
You may not know that Friends of Berczy Park has a team of volunteers who keep our popular terrace tables & chairs clean, spring through fall. These ‘super heroes’ sign-up for a flexible, one-week shift anytime between May and October. We provide them with a bag of cleaning supplies, including gloves and cloths, so our volunteer(s) can give the tables a quick polish, and everyone can enjoy our wonderful shady seating area.
If you’d like to take a few minutes to help out – perhaps while you enjoy the park, walk your dog, or pass by – please email us at berczypark@gmail.com and say “I want to join Berczy tables team”.
Once again – and just in time for Toronto’s holiday Cavalcade of Lights and the Santa Claus Parade (Nov 26) – Berczy Park’s beloved fountain hounds are decked out for the festive season! For the sixth year in a row, the Friends of Berczy Park drop-in knitting group has made colourful and warm, wool scarves for our four-legged sculptures. To help keep others warm, the group donates each year’s hand-made knitwear to local charities and shelters at the end of the season.
Thanks to our skillful and dedicated knitters, and kudos to the Old Town Toronto (St Lawrence Market Neighbourhood BIA) staff who come out to install the decorations each year! Happy holidays to all!
We sadly share that much admired landscape architect, Claude Cormier, founder of Montreal-based Claude Cormier + Associes, and chief designer behind the current Berczy Park, passed away on Sept 15, 2023, from a cancer-related illness.
Cormier (1960-2023) won acclaim for his design vision, and projects far and wide, including numerous high profile park developments or revitalizations in Toronto. In 2013, Cormier’s design firm won the commission to redesign Berczy Park, which was originally opened in 1980 and designed by renowned local landscape designer H. Stephen Went. Cormier, alongside the late City Councillor Pam McConnell, and his design team including Marc Halle of CCXA, was personally immersed in extensive community consultations to devise a unique design for Berczy. Cormier’s design scheme included multi-functional spaces to accommodate the existing park’s diverse users, from office workers and tourists, to families with children, to the growing community of pet-owners, who in fact helped inspire the whimsical, three-tier, victorian-style fountain decorated with life-size dog and cat statues.
Park designer Claude Cormier describes his park vision at Berczy Park grand opening in 2017.The new Bercyz Park: life-size dog sculptures will populate the three-tier fountain.One cat joins the fountain dogs.The fountain by night.
Cormier also championed the creation of an on-leash pet area/mural garden to frame and highlight the historic Flatiron Building/Derek Bassant mural, a dramatic granite plaza with movable cafe style seating, rolling hills and lawns for visitor relaxation and play, and ample, long benches for people-watching. The revitalized Berczy Park reopened in 2017, after a two-year construction project, and quickly became a top Toronto destination for locals and visitors who adored the ‘Berczy dog fountain’, making the park one of the most photographed and ‘instagrammed’ spots in the city.
Berczy Park is one of Cormier’s marque projects in Toronto including HTO Park, Sugar Beach, Love Park and the soon to be completed Leslie Lookout Park and the public areas at The Well complex at Spadina and Front Streets.
Friends of Berczy Park is grateful to Cormier for his immeasurable contribution to the park’s rebirth and its enduring success as a beloved city and community green space. Our condolences to Cormier’s family, friends and colleagues at CCXA.
Attention knitters! This summer, our Friends of Berczy Park drop-in knitting group meets each Tuesday, at 2pm at the table & chair sets on the Berczy Park terrace. Drop in to socialize and refine your skills with other talented knitters, including the ladies who make the colourful wool holiday scarves for our Berczy fountain dogs. Weather permitting.
Get ready for family Storytime in the Park (Berczy & St James Parks) this summer. From July 10-Aug 2, join us Mondays at 1pm in Berczy, and Wednesdays at 1pm in St James, for this free activity with a rep from Toronto Public Library. See you soon!
UPDATE: July 26 and August 2nd story times in St James Park are cancelled due to library staffing limitations. July 31 storytime in Berczy Park will still occur.
Take part in this neighbourhood wide clean-up, and help refresh our park for the spring. Meet up between 9am-10am on Saturday April 22 by the Berczy Park fountain. Ask for Marc who can help you find a helpful clean-up task. We’ll supply basic clean -up supplies, but feel free to bring your own gloves or other handy items.
We’re fortunate the Toronto City Planning Dept enforces rules that prevent new developments from causing seasonal shadows on Berczy Park. At last night’s Community Consultation for a new 39-storey tower at 45 the Esplanade, the developer presented its shadow studies, showing that minimal shading effect of the tower on Berczy in spring and fall. (The City does not require a developer to minimize winter season shadows, since the sun angle is too low in those months to prevent this impact.)
It’s important for community members to be watchful that city development benefits versus hurts our invaluable urban green spaces.
Berczy Park 