{"id":527553,"date":"2010-04-14T15:20:33","date_gmt":"2010-04-14T19:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dirt.asla.org\/?p=4350"},"modified":"2010-04-14T15:20:33","modified_gmt":"2010-04-14T19:20:33","slug":"toronto%e2%80%99s-new-park-brings-light-to-the-underpass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/527553","title":{"rendered":"Toronto\u2019s New Park Brings Light to the Underpass"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nPhillips Farevaag Smallenberg<\/a>, a leading landscape architecture firm, is working with The Planning Partnership<\/a> to create a new underpass park, which will be located near the firm’s\u00a0hybrid park \/ water treatment facility\u00a0now under development (see earlier post<\/a>).\u00a0The degraded area beneath the highway overpass in\u00a0Toronto\u2019s West Don Lands\u00a0will become\u00a0a\u00a02.5-acre park. The underpass park adds another piece to the ambitious Waterfront Toronto<\/a> redevelopment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

John Campbell, president and CEO of Waterfront Toronto,\u00a0said the park\u00a0\u201cis a crucial step in delivering on our promise to revitalize the West Don Lands into Toronto\u2019s next great neighbourhood. Influenced by the massive overpass structures, the park\u2019s design transforms the derelict and underused space into a bright, fully accessible urban neighbourhood amenity that will contribute to the success of the developments being built in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The park will feature athletic courts, recreation areas for seniors,\u00a0community spaces, cafes, and playgrounds, as well as lots of trees and community gardens. Greg Smallenberg, ASLA, partner, Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg, said: “The design takes full advantage of the existing site\u2019s eccentricities and its free-for-the-taking weather protection, transforming something that might otherwise be incidental into a delightful urban patch.”<\/p>\n

To make pedestrians who use the park feel safe at all times, lighting has been carefully thought-out. According to Daily Commercial News and Construction Record<\/a><\/em>, the park is lit by a\u00a0\u00a0”combination of LED lighting on the columns, shielded in-ground and in-wall lights and illuminated concrete ribbons at the seating areas. The more than 50 overpass columns will be lit using diffuse LED spotlights.”<\/p>\n

The landscape is also designed to be sustainable. Daily Commercial News<\/a><\/em>\u00a0adds the\u00a0park will feature the application of sustainable materials, including granite cobblestones reclaimed from an avenue, and recycled rubber.\u00a0The landscape architects will\u00a0plant more than 50 trees, adding green areas to the spaces between the ramps. The plant system is designed for minimal irrigation.<\/p>\n

The park budget is $5.3 million, and includes site preparation, demolition and soil remediation, design and construction costs and public art. Waterfront Toronto is aiming for LEED-ND Gold.<\/p>\n

Learn more about the new Underpass Park<\/a>, and see images, fact sheets and context maps.<\/p>\n

In related news, Ken Greenberg, a prominent Toronto urban planner, has resigned from the Lower Dons Land redevelopment project. The Toronto Star<\/a><\/em> writes: “A prominent Toronto urban designer has resigned from a contract to integrate a controversial sports complex and hockey arena into the city\u2019s east waterfront area, charging that the vision for the neighbourhood has been ’squandered.’ The resignation of Ken Greenberg is sure to ignite debate over the future of Toronto\u2019s urban renewal.”<\/p>\n

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Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg, a leading landscape architecture firm, is working with The Planning Partnership to create a new underpass park, which will be located near the firm’s\u00a0hybrid park \/ water treatment facility\u00a0now under development (see earlier post).\u00a0The degraded area beneath the highway overpass in\u00a0Toronto\u2019s West Don Lands\u00a0will become\u00a0a\u00a02.5-acre park. The underpass park adds another piece […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6808,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-527553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6808"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}