They are striking in their simplicity — pretty, yet functional and, based on Friday’s hot sun, exceedingly popular.

The 36 pink umbrellas at Sugar Beach have raised eyebrows this week — not for their sculptural quality or their fierce practicality, but their cost.

Pegged at about $12,000 each, however, these are not your standard patio umbrellas — they are art, explained James Roche, Waterfront Toronto’s director of parks, design and construction.

Four years old, the umbrellas were designed by Andrew Jones, a Toronto industrial designer who was part of the design team that created Sugar Beach.

The park actually has three components: the plaza, the promenade and the beach.

“The umbrellas are less about a site furnishing. They’re more about a strong, graphic, artistic kind of statement that defines the beach area of Sugar Beach,” said Roche.

The pink is true to the vision of park designer, renowned landscape architect Claude Cormier and the colour looks good all day long in all weather, he said.

The umbrellas and a $500,000 installation of two giant rocks are only part of the $14.1-million park that ranks 97th among 308 Toronto attractions on TripAdvisor. That money included design, contracting, excavation, repair of the dock wall, tree cells that have allowed the trees to triple in size in four years and other hard and soft costs, said Roche.

The umbrellas are designed to minimize opportunities for vandalism and they are deliberately sized and spaced to provide clusters of shade but also to allow for sunny spots among the canopies. Bigger, stronger and more durable than the yellow ones at HTO park further west on the waterfront, they are expected to last at least 15 to 20 years.

It’s an investment in the future of the waterfront that has helped attract private developers, said Tridel senior executive Andrea Calla. The park, already bustling, will be enjoyed by even more people once the East Bayfront is built out. Tridel and Hines expect to begin construction on the Aqualina Bayside condos near Lower Sherbourne in the fall.

“Sugar Beach has managed to get a lot of international attention. It is something that adds to Toronto’s brand, like Millenium Park in Chicago,” he said.

“Toronto, with our building boom, has grown and become more savvy with design at all levels,” said Calla, who is also vice-chair of the Canadian Urban Institute.

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