[Greenspace]

^Not sure what trees can be saved if the streetscape is being redone so they can put in proper soil cells. If you see other trees in soil cells they grow extremely fast. The parking lots themselves just have a bunch of volunteer weed trees like manitoba maples.

I love that idea, I think Dustin Baijer had started some seedlings.

 

[thommyjo]

The "northern light" installation is interesting. I like that it'll really help in the winter potentially. Interested to see what they mean by "interactive"? Also, this could be super lame/gimmicky. But I respect the effort to try something super local/unique to edmonton!

 

[Edmcowboy11]

I love reading the Facebook posts on the park space.
"How can they consider taking away park.,"
"There is so little parking as it is" etc, etc, etc...

 

[_urbanite]

I think they've clustered too much in western section of the park. The pavillion and water feature should be moved to a more central location IMO. I don't think the water feature should be in the shadows of the The Parks towers, and with the pavilion having the only washrooms, it'll be a bit of a trek to reach them if you're in the eastern section of the park.

I completed the survey and shared these thoughts. I also recommended they go with the staggered bench seating, in particular near the basketball court, which will likely see more people congregating in a more confined area. I also recommended they go with the enclosed court, which I believe will make it more usable.

For security measures, I suggested they include emergency phones and or panic buttons throughout the park.

 

[Greenspace]

The "northern light" installation is interesting. I like that it'll really help in the winter potentially. Interested to see what they mean by "interactive"? Also, this could be super lame/gimmicky. But I respect the effort to try something super local/unique to edmonton!

As apposed to most projects where the art/artist comes later, the selected artist in this case is working directly with the design/project team to integrate their art.

Selected artist profile here -

https://yegarts.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F683161846652534784

You can get an idea from her other work what 'Northern Lights' might be like.

 

[Greenspace]

"I think they've clustered too much in western section of the park. The pavillion and water feature should be moved to a more central location IMO. I don't think the water feature should be in the shadows of the The Parks towers, and with the pavilion having the only washrooms, it'll be a bit of a trek to reach them if you're in the eastern section of the park."

What we've been told the the western side is more 'active uses' and the easter is supposed to be less active/quieter.

 

[kcantor]

i think this plan is trying to do too many things and wonder if any of them will be successful as a result.

the dog park should be at the sw corner to provide as much distance as possible from alex decoteau.

the pavilion isn't big enough to program properly (ie it needs to offer ice cream in the summer, hot chocolate in the winter, indoor as well as outdoor space to enjoy them).

if basketball is going to be offered, at a minimum it needs to be full court marked like a school court "sideways" as well as lengthwise so it can host two games at once and have 6 informal hoops the rest of the time. the court should also have bleacher space or at least benches on the knoll.

where is the rental or loan space for basketballs and chess boards in the summer and toboggans in the winter, for bicycles or in-line skates?

if the 107th street connection is wide enough for food trucks etc., it should permit traffic - with calming measures like benches - etc. that provide better access and better security (like stanley park and queen elizabeth park, and central park etc.).

the "fountain" needs to be year round - as it stands, our summer days are too long for the "camp-fire" effect to be noticeable and there is no indication of what they plan to do with it in the winter when the days are short.

the playground equipment should be sized for adults, not just children, as adults will use it whether planned for or not.

the "attendants" need to be ambassadors wandering about and assisting with the programming (and security) and not hanging around inside the pavilion as glorified washroom attendants.

if this park is going to be successful, it needs to do what is done at the legislature grounds and churchill square and kinistinaw and louise mckinney and mckay school/dick mather and michael phair and beaver house and railtown and ezio faraone, and alex decotau better if it is going to be successful. and if that means doing fewer things in order to do them better, that wouldn't be a bad choice.

from a fitness perspective, it would also be interesting to see if the city plans to program some of the fitness spaces/offerings as part of a "chain" that would go from one park to another and animate more than one of them as well as the streets in between with more activity.

 

[IanO]

' the dog park should be at the sw corner to provide as much distance as possible from alex decoteau.'

THIS

Why anyone would put two within a block and a half is odd.

You want these scattered and within 2-3 blocks of various areas with little overlap.

If anything, there needs to be a linear one on the 109st MUT, rossdale and east Downtown.

 

[archited]

^^^^ 100% -- or a linear one that runs along 102nd Avenue in lieu of the one-way auto traffic.

 

[Avenuer]

^^^^ A complete upside down effort... two anaemic choices offered by an inept City Planning department and then a questionnaire that relies totally on public input to sort out possibilities within that framework -- where are the true professionals that are offering up imaginative solutions? What a boondoggle!!!

What imaginative solutions would you have proposed? This park offers about the same as what you would see in most other major downtown parks in other cities I think.

 

[northlands]

Voted in the survey solely for the reason of telling them to use a full basketball court. The multi hoop would be a huge swing and a miss. Also the lack of pickle-ball courts is strange--especially when it's so popular among older generations.

The fireplace fountain thing is really out of left field but I think bordering on brilliant if executed properly, but they need to ensure there are monies set aside for a good maintenance program and to ensure it will be quickly repaired when it inevitably is repeatedly vandalized.

 

[northlands]

they need to ensure there are monies set aside for a good maintenance program and to ensure it will be quickly repaired when it inevitably is repeatedly vandalized.

Actually, this highlights my thoughts on the entire park project. How the park is maintained afterward is virtually as big of a factor for the success of this park as the design of it is and the cost of that cannot be underscored. It's broken windows theory 101. Enough of repairs & maintenance being severely under-budgeted until we read about Council being "shocked" by an admin report saying there's a risk of things being removed/closed due to lack of funds to adequately maintain.

 

[archited]

What imaginative solutions would you have proposed? This park offers about the same as what you would see in most other major downtown parks in other cities I think.

There is a ten-thousand word essay bound up in response to your question. One thing that I would have done would have been to activate the bordering alleyways -- perhaps with vertical plant walls and light-emitting "active" art nestled in those plant walls -- both of these on the far side of the alley thereby making the alley a MUP component of the park itself -- and both of these capabilities would have been addressed at the outset, not as an afterthought add-on. The alleys would have then been able to have been integrated into bordering private development and they would have been encouraging, asking adjacent landowners and developers to bite into the project, expanding the park sensibility beyond its own boundaries. And instead of having a path-in-the-woods as step one and then having an exercise of "plunking" elements into the woods adjacent to that path in a rather haphazard, random effort, I would have looked at the entire area holistically and designed elements that would then define routes of access -- not the other way around as has been done currently. There are so many visual elements that might have been incorporated into the design that are now in designer's wasteland. When I am next in Edmonton I will invite you out to dinner so that we can have a detailed discussion on the BIG MISS that sees this park unfolding in entirely the wrong way.

 

[Avenuer]

There is a ten-thousand word essay bound up in response to your question. One thing that I would have done would have been to activate the bordering alleyways -- perhaps with vertical plant walls and light-emitting "active" art nestled in those plant walls -- both of these on the far side of the alley thereby making the alley a MUP component of the park itself -- and both of these capabilities would have been addressed at the outset, not as an afterthought add-on. The alleys would have then been able to have been integrated into bordering private development and they would have been encouraging, asking adjacent landowners and developers to bite into the project, expanding the park sensibility beyond its own boundaries. And instead of having a path-in-the-woods as step one and then having an exercise of "plunking" elements into the woods adjacent to that path in a rather haphazard, random effort, I would have looked at the entire area holistically and designed elements that would then define routes of access -- not the other way around as has been done currently. There are so many visual elements that might have been incorporated into the design that are now in designer's wasteland. When I am next in Edmonton I will invite you out to dinner so that we can have a detailed discussion on the BIG MISS that sees this park unfolding in entirely the wrong way.

Let me know when you are here next and I'll take you up on that offer!

 

[Edmcowboy11]

I was thinking bout the surrounding area for the park. One the southwest side there will be the Parks building and on the east side there are a couple proposed residential towers. The one are where there hasn't been any proposals so far, as far as I know, is along Jasper ave between 107 st and the BP's. Has anyone heard anything recently for that property. What do you think should go there?