Toronto Canoe Landing Park | ?m | ?s | Concord Adex

I, too, really like the uncut almost prairie like composition of the grass and hope it stays. Then again, I also really liked how the parks looked after no grass cutting for 5 weeks during the strike. I say, let all the parks have some time to grow while saving us all dollars by not having to pay city staff to overcut and prune.

I think it'll be another 5-7 years before we can really judge this park effectively and fairly. Just think about how maligned Dundas Square was when it opened a couple years ago and how integral it now seems.
 
ProjectEnd said:
/\ What in the original design would have fostered that sort of enthusiasm? I'm not saying the park wasn't compromised - far from it - but simply: what was so inspiring about the initial gesture?
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The individual paths that strayed away from the grid design of the park. The materials shown in the renders for the paths. Stone, etc. The bridges. I was expecting just more. Something with more oomph I guess. I'm not saying it's a horrible park by any means, it's just not what I was expecting nor what I'd like to see in this spot. It makes me jealous to see something like Millennium Park in Chicago, and then see what we get.
 
Can we cut the Millenium Park comparison, please?

MP can be compared, if you need to pick on something, Waterfront/Harbourfront. At least the price tags are within the same time zone.

This is a really nice little park, but for $8M, you don't get MP.

I miss the toboggan hill, too. They could have done it down the far west side of the mound, but they would have needed a decent run out area -- better would have been to put the artificial field as the run out.
 
Riverdale Rink Rat said:
MP can be compared, if you need to pick on something, Waterfront/Harbourfront. At least the price tags are within the same time zone.

This is a really nice little park, but for $8M, you don't get MP.
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I was going to say the exact same thing. It is a totally unfair comparison. The landsize and budget are not even in the same league. And what made you guys think that we will be getting a landmark? Even if the park is as every detail as the renderings, it would not be even close to be classified as a "landmark".
 
AKS said:
When I asked earlier in the week, the reply was "whenever the city decides they are ready to take over (maintaining) the park"
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The city won't take over the park until it's satisfied with its implementation. That's really the only way cities can "force" developers to finish things properly - they hold back securities and refuse to take over infrastructure until it's done right. The city didn't build this so we can't blame them just yet. Not until the city decides to assume the park, which probably won't be for a couple years.
 
TOBoy said:
I was going to say the exact same thing. It is a totally unfair comparison. The landsize and budget are not even in the same league. And what made you guys think that we will be getting a landmark? Even if the park is as every detail as the renderings, it would not be even close to be classified as a "landmark".
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It's kind of hard to not view a new park as a landmark, especially at such a prime location... no? Eight acres at this location is nothing to sneeze at and though it may not be the scale of MP in Chicago why should expectations be less, even if only relatively speaking?? City Place Park should be a jewel, and the original design gave hope of this. Where it works it seems to work well - the red canoe - which is why it is disappointing that they pulled their punches and decided to cut of corners... or at least that's how it appears.
 
Automation Gallery said:
You trying to tell me that the city is going to bitch the developer for two years with all the maitenance and any new infastructure untill they declare it theirs.:confused:
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I can't say about this project but that's the way it normally works when developers build public infrastructure. The most visible examples are new subdivisions in the suburbs where well after streets, parks and houses are built, there are signs saying the streets aren't assumed. It has to do with phasing, ensuring everything is up to standard, etc.
 
Silence&Motion said:
Actually, I really hope they let the sides of the hills grow naturally. I'd love to see goldenrod and sumac, just like how they're growing along the sides of the empty lots that surround the park. The lot between Parade and Bathurst St. is a perfect example. It has steep inclines that are covered in natural vegetation. The picture below is the best I can find, but it doesn't really capture the look:
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PS You'd be surprised at the amount of wildlife supported by that field. :) There's a colony of six or seven semi-feral cats living in the junk pile, with some help from a local animal protection group, plus at least three or four self-supporting groundhogs, and another one with a burrow down by the Amsterdam brewery. When out for a walk it's nice to stop on the Bathurst bridge and watch them for a bit, though it is easier to view them in the spring before the bushes have grown too tall.
 
Wow. Some people were expecting the park to compare to Millenium Park? That is crazy. I only expected it to be similar to renderings and models. The park still wouldn't have compared to Millenium Park if it had matched the original plans.
 
EnviroTO said:
Wow. Some people were expecting the park to compare to Millenium Park? That is crazy. I only expected it to be similar to renderings and models. The park still wouldn't have compared to Millenium Park if it had matched the original plans.
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I don't think any one single person here was expecting it to compare to Millennium Park. What people have done is compared what we got to what Chicago got is all. Looking at it as "what we could have had", instead of "look at what we got".
 
^^^
What Chicago got has no relation to what this is. Toronto got a large neighbourhood park for a new residental area.
Millenium Park was built as part of the final piece of the overall Grant Park area that is one of the primary toursit areas of Chicago... apples and oranges. :)
 
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