Armour
Senior Member
What's even worse is the extension of concrete into the planters. It looks so bloody cheap and cold. Would it kill the city to use some brick instead? Brick can't be that expensive. We're not asking for precious stone.
- Thread starter interchange42
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junctionist
Senior Member
Poured concrete tends to look bad after the first year. It fades from its clean and sleek white finish to a dull gray. Then, it gets dirty and stained. It should generally be avoided for public spaces like parks and other landscaped spaces. Waterfront Toronto is achieving great successes by avoiding it in favour of granite pavers. Other alternatives that are more suitable for public spaces include granite slabs, paving bricks and precast concrete pavers.
Adjei
Senior Member
We're cheapskates.
maestro
Senior Member
The go to reasoning for everything however, is poured concrete really cheaper than formed granite pavers? Not my area but, I can say I've paid more for a concrete walkway than one of pavers. Asphalt is dirt cheap though.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
I'd think labour cost (installation) is higher for one. The original rendering of the park clearly indicates the use of paving units - somewhere down the line it must have gotten value-engineered out. Like honestly, don't show me pretty renderings that denotes a certain materiality if one isn't willing to live up to it.
Which is another reason why I do NOT trust the city regarding any of their public realm projects.
AoD
Torontovibe
Senior Member
I haven't seen this park in person but just by looking at the pictures here, I can tell this park will be much nicer than June Collwood Park and much more popular. Just the fact that it has nice seating areas near the front of the park, will make a big difference. It will draw people into the park to sit and just hang out. In JC Park, the seating area is hidden in the back and it's not very inviting at all.
This park here looks very different from JC Park.
And yes, this park would have been much better with nice paving stones or bricks.
This park here looks very different from JC Park.
And yes, this park would have been much better with nice paving stones or bricks.
NBGtect
Active Member
The benches with the rusted metal corners look great. It's been non-stop construction here for a long time, so this is a nice payoff and it should be well-used.
arch_on_
New Member
Yep, it's open, and what a trainwreck it is.
- It's trying to be a multifunctional square (not a park), but there isn't any wide open space for events. The entire thing is sprinkled with trees and those ludicrous light posts.
- The benches look nice enough (except for the random blue stripes) but the bench seat has a depth of around 1m, meaning if you want to use the backrest, your legs will be hanging straight off the edge and can't reach the ground. You feel like a child sitting in an adult chair.
- In between the trees along Lisgar, there's a half meter drop from the park to the sidewalk. No intermediate steps or anything.
- The main area of the park/square has some sort of fine gravel groundcover not unlike what was used at Lawren Harris Square in the West Donlands. The problem with this is that when it rains - like it has been all week - it turns into mud. The entire central area of this square is a big pit of mud. Even on dry days my feet sink into it, so I now make a point of avoiding it altogether.
- It's trying to be a multifunctional square (not a park), but there isn't any wide open space for events. The entire thing is sprinkled with trees and those ludicrous light posts.
- The benches look nice enough (except for the random blue stripes) but the bench seat has a depth of around 1m, meaning if you want to use the backrest, your legs will be hanging straight off the edge and can't reach the ground. You feel like a child sitting in an adult chair.
- In between the trees along Lisgar, there's a half meter drop from the park to the sidewalk. No intermediate steps or anything.
- The main area of the park/square has some sort of fine gravel groundcover not unlike what was used at Lawren Harris Square in the West Donlands. The problem with this is that when it rains - like it has been all week - it turns into mud. The entire central area of this square is a big pit of mud. Even on dry days my feet sink into it, so I now make a point of avoiding it altogether.
TOfan696
Active Member
I agree
I agree... I was there today for the first time and it is one of the worst new public spaces I have seen in Toronto. The design doesn't really take into account any programming or even a thought for how people would use this space. I saw skateboarding on the benches and dogs going to the bathroom. It is not a space I could ever imaging people wanting to go to which is such a shame, considering the captive population.
I agree... I was there today for the first time and it is one of the worst new public spaces I have seen in Toronto. The design doesn't really take into account any programming or even a thought for how people would use this space. I saw skateboarding on the benches and dogs going to the bathroom. It is not a space I could ever imaging people wanting to go to which is such a shame, considering the captive population.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
it's an utter crapshoot. The Urbancorp building beside it is crawling through construction, Edge on Triangle Park hasn't even started the part in front of the building, etc. Horrible park, surrounded by buildings that are all collectively half finished and crawling through construction.
Kevin_Laracy
New Member
I went and looked at this park and was very disappointed. Again we have a park that was designed to look cool in plan and the designers and City managers bought into the funky narrative because it struck all the right notes. The trees are all going to die here. What doesn't the landscape architect understand about planting trees in compacted crushed stone that people walk on and that is poorly drained? Those random granite boulders look like the construction company had some rocks lying around that they just dropped off. The use of boulders is a design move best left to second year university students and residential landscape construction companies. This isn't cottage country nor is it your front yard. The benches are some ersatz take on the Highline design, poorly detailed and poorly conceived. Already the wooden anti skate blocks are popping off. The light poles look like remnant pillars for an old industrial building. Maybe that was intentional. They are big fat chunky visual intrusions in the space. They present enough surface that they should attract posted notices and graffiti soon. The grading of the surface is terrible, looks like it was done on the fly by the contractor. The plan design is unintelligible to someone standing on the ground. Maybe looking down from the condo it will look cool. There was an earlier reference to June Callwood Park. That's in the same league of terrible design. Someone needs to get fired for letting this get as far as it did. I can hardly wait to see what 25 million dollars buys for the new and exciting space to be constructed under the Gardiner Expressway. Toronto is in a funk right now, poor park design happening all over the place.
NBGtect
Active Member
If it's just going to be a dog peeing park, then just keep it simple by planting a few trees in silva cells and laying down sod. No need for silly 'urban' designs that turn out awful anyway and take forever to go through planning, consultations, permits, and construction. Trees and grass are actually useful.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
Said it before, will said it again - I do not have much confidence in the ability of the City of Toronto to execute any landscaping project properly. Cost notwithstanding, compare and contrast the WT deliverables with these choice examples.
AoD
AoD