Weekend Green

Weekend Green

July 2017 - Toronto ON

It has been almost 32 years since the creation of Toronto's Peace Garden at Nathan Phillips Square. The brainchild of local religious figure Father Massey Lombardi, the garden was conceived in response to the Art Eggleton administration's 1983 declaration of Toronto as a "nuclear-free zone". The Peace Garden was completed the following year, with its Flame of Peace lit by Pope John Paul II in September 1984, and an official opening attended by Queen Elizabeth II a few weeks after.

Since 2010, the Peace Garden has been undergoing a major overhaul as part of the greater Nathan Phillips Square revitalization, with the previous space demolished and replaced with a garden in a new location.

The new Peace Garden, located on the west side of the square, features two elevated planting areas landscaped with flowering trees and native plants. The eastern portion of the Peace Garden features terraced planters that also serve as seating and stairs leading to Nathan Phillips Square's elevated walkway.

The west side of the Peace Garden combines planters with a reflecting pool and the relocated pavilion from the garden's previous incarnation, accessed via a small granite bridge spanning the reflecting pool.

The refurbished Flame of Peace sits just beyond the bridge at the north end of the pool.

The eternal flame, lit from embers brought from Hiroshima, and water from the rivers of Nagasaki, a testament to those cities ravaged by atomic bombs.

In the centre stands a pavilion, built with one corner missing to symbolize the work that still needs to be done to achieve peace.