Big crowds take in Winter Stations 2024 opening celebrations on Family Day
By JESSICA SHACKLETON
Winter Stations on Woodbine Beach officially opened for the tenth year on Family Day.
This year’s theme is Resonance, and the designs were inspired by past winners.
The sunny but cold weather on Monday, Feb. 19, helped to bring out big crowds for the opening celebrations of Winter Stations 2024.
Beaches-East York Councillor Brad Bradford and Beaches-East York MPP Mary-Margaret McMahon joined RAW Designs architect Dakota Wares-Tani to kick off the event.
“As we move down the beach and check out the exhibits, pay attention to the theme of resonance. The idea behind this year’s design competition was revisiting and reimaging some of the designs we’ve seen over the past ten years,” said Bradford at Monday’s opening ceremonies.
More than 400 designs were submitted for the free public art event and the six winners are now set up and displayed on the beach.
The contest is open internationally and allows designers to show their skills. Architecture students from Toronto Metropolitan University, the University of Waterloo, and the University of Guelph are among the winners.
The event welcomes locals and visitors from around the city and country. Woodbine Beach is a popular destination in the summer and Winter Stations aims to showcase that it can be enjoyed all year long.
The installations on display along Woodbine Beach this year are Bobbin’; We Caught a UFO; A KALEIDOSCOPIC ODYSSEY; Nova; WINTERACTION; and NIMBUS.
Lee and Angie Fletcher live in the neighbourhood and visit Winter Stations every year. Angie walks their dog, Roxy, at Woodbine Beach, all the time.
“It’s a super initiative,” said Lee. “February is sort of a grim month so it’s nice to come and see them.”
They noticed that this year the designs feel more appropriate to the context of having them be actively enjoyed by visitors. “It seems as if they’ve learned from the past and will last longer,” said Angie.
Their favourite installation was A KALEIDOSCOPIC ODYSSEY by the team for Brander Architects.
For the Fletchers, resonance means shifting your perspective.
A KALEIDOSCOPIC ODYSSEY is one of the installations for Winter Stations 2024 along Woodbine Beach this year. Photo by Jessica Shackleton.
The kaleidoscope installation is meant to offer a different experience for each interaction, and designer Adam Brander said resonance and reflection are closely connected.
Along with the six installations along the lake, there are three installations on Queen Street East for this year.
As part of efforts to connect the installations on Woodbine Beach with Queen Street East, the installations Making Waves, Delighthouse and CONRAD will be on display in Woodbine Park, Kew Gardens park and Ivan Forrest Gardens park respectively.
Three generations of the Costa family – Mary, Michelle, and Elliot Madej – also come to Woodbine Beach often and visit the Winter Stations on opening day every year.
“We come to the beach anyway so it’s always really exciting when they do something new,” said Michelle.
“I think if we don’t have anything to do we look at the Winter Stations,” said Elliot, 10.
They were all looking forward to seeing the We Caught A UFO! installation, which was very interactive and welcomed children to climb up inside.
The We Caught a UFO! installation had a line of children waiting to climb in during the opening day of Winter Stations 2024 on Woodbine Beach on Monday, Feb. 19. Photo by Jessica Shackleton.
The installations will be on Woodbine Beach and along Queen Street East until the end of March, and visitors are encouraged to uniquely enjoy them each time they come to the area.
“It’s fun to see something new in a place that we’re at all the time,” said Michelle. “I like that you can go inside. The kids are going to climb inside anyway so I love when they design them so that that’s meant to happen.”
Michelle and Elliot like to collect sea glass on the beach, so if they were to design an installation, it would be a giant, shiny piece of sea glass.
McMahon was the councillor for Beaches-East York during Winter Stations’ inception in 2014. The initial idea came from a competition in Winnipeg to design warming huts on the frozen river, which was won by architects from RAW Design, and they brought the concept back to Toronto, McMahon remembered in her comments at Monday’s opening ceremonies.
“Make Toronto a winter city and get us all outside and off our couches and enjoying the outdoor space,” said McMahon of the original idea for Winter Stations. “They came to me and said ‘Let’s do it on the lifeguard stations’, and we were like, ‘OK!’”
Sponsors for Winter Stations 2024 are The Beach BIA, RAW Design, Northcrest Developments, CreateTO, Sali Tabachi Branding and Design, Meevo Digital, and Micro Pro Sienna.
To learn more about Winter Stations and the meanings behind the designs, please see this Beach Metro Community News story: https://beachmetro.com/2024/01/17/winter-stations-2024-to-feature-installations-along-woodbine-beach-and-in-parks-on-queen-street-east/
Nova is one of the Winter Stations 2024 installations along Woodbine Beach. Photo by Jessica Shackleton.
Bobbin’ is one the Winter Stations 2024 installations along Woodbine Beach. Photo by Jessica Shackleton.
WINTERACTION, which has a virtual component, is one of the Winter Stations 2024 installations along Woodbine Beach. Photo by Jessica Shackleton.
