The Port Lands’ New Isla Bonita

If you can’t find Atlantis, make one yourself. And so, Waterfront Toronto is creating a thriving mixed-use community, Villiers Island, at a newly formed mouth of the Don River. Over the next seven years, the multi-step Port Lands Flood Protection project, spearheaded by landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, will furnish the area with bustling public parks, wetlands and enticing tracts of shoreline, all while protecting the Lower Don Lands from future flooding.

Accessible to Torontonians and island dwellers alike, the isle will be dotted with restored heritage buildings that nod to the Port Land’s industrial past, plus recreational spots for everything from kite-flying to in-line skating.