Toronto Rees Park Playground and Pavillion | ?m | ?s | Waterfront Toronto

DavidCapizzano said:
I'm not in love with this.... That's a lot of lawn, that will receive little to no shade for many years until the trees begin to really mature. It's also a huge uninterrupted expanse with minimal connections from the sidewalk to the paths along the base of the "ridge". I can already see desire lines forming here. I'm also worried about having lawn space abutting the sidewalk with no curb or separation - wouldn't the soil along the sidewalk edges just become compacted or too saturated with salt for any grass to thrive there? Specifically worried about the area where the lawn comes to a point at the southwestern corner of the park.

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I'm no pro but I took a crack at how they could break up that lawn a bit - I think continuing the benches all along the sidewalk frontage will help reduce wear on the grass, and some openings would help prevent desire lines forming and still allow views to the ridge feature beyond

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Totally sympathize w/your POV.............but:

The Lawn is partially there for function, but largely due to Toronto Water infrastructure going in within the park. They're not allowed to put in any obstacles to that work.

The pertinent paragraph is here:

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Northern Light said:
Yes, the intent is to create a ridge structure ( a faux Scarborough Bluff if you would) in order to hide the Gardiner Expressway from view and act as a noise barrier as well.
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...yeah, that was also mentioned in there...so I go that part. 😸
 
A major projects update went to Executive Ctte recently, and I've been mucking through it...........

Here's the applicable blurb for this project:

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'Yellow' for on-time.........yellow is a warning colour in this type of report.........indicating a risk to a desired budget/completion date. Red being definitively non-compliant. Four years late gets a yellow? Pfft.
 
...I thought they only issued yellow and red cards in soccer.
 
I bear news.........

Brooks Mcllroy is out as the design firm here.

The Ridge is gone too.

Park is deferred, timeline TBD since no new design team is in place.

But zero chance anything comes forward here in 2024 or 2025.
 
Northern Light said:
I bear news.........

Brooks Mcllroy is out as the design firm here.

The Ridge is gone too.

Park is deferred, timeline TBD since no new design team is in place.

But zero chance anything comes forward here in 2024 or 2025.
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Hmmm...WT dropping the ball here? That would surprise me considering how much quality work they've done over the last couple of decades...
 
Towered said:
Hmmm...WT dropping the ball here? That would surprise me considering how much quality work they've done over the last couple of decades...
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In due course, WT will likely speak for itself. Though they seem to have dropped the communications ball on this one.

I won't say much about why it's happened at this juncture, except to say the design team didn't do anything particularly wrong, nor is this about money so far as I know. There are other reasons for the change.
 
Probably an unpopular opinion, but I’d prefer to see this site re-visioned as housing. There’s superior park space across the street, towers here block out the noise and exhaust from that elevated freeway thing and in housing crisis, I say that’s the priority. Interested to see what happens here (though with the loss of the ridge, not super optimistic).
 
Northern Light said:
In due course, WT will likely speak for itself. Though they seem to have dropped the communications ball on this one.

I won't say much about why it's happened at this juncture, except to say the design team didn't do anything particularly wrong, nor is this about money so far as I know. There are other reasons for the change.
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Does the announcement today have anything to do with this?
 
With the highways uploaded, the city will have plenty of cash for stuff like this!
 
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