I feel like I’m missing something in the design of the public parks. Those lawns are not really big enough to do anything active, and have no seating, or shade, or anything to look at. What are these people in the drawing doing? Is there an idea here?
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This one has the same problem… But worse, and the main desire line down the centre of the park is interrupted by plantings.
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I would imagine that neither of these parks actually has a real design yet; Parks will get the final say on that; these are probably just high level concepts.
But your critique is entirely on point.
In the latter case, it's pretty basic design 101 to follow logical desire lines; if you don't, people will tend to make one after the fact and mess up your plan (see College Park as case in point).
In the former, the park simply isn't large enough to serve its intended function. It's the result of dumb public policy (developer shall provide 'x % of land' for parks w/o asking whether that size of plot makes any particular sense)........as well as Parks refusing to use the Parkland Acquisition reserve wisely to size-up such parcels where it makes sense.
While there can be wonderful, small, public spaces with good design (Berczy); they are relatively rare, and also tend to only serve the function of 'public square'.
Communities also need sports fields, playgrounds, natural areas, picnicking space, and performance areas; and for most/all of those, you need at least 1ha/2.5 acres, and typically more.
Ten bucks says when parks sees the top parcel handover for design, they're going to want to put a playground on it. There is room for that; but if it's a good playground, there won't be room for much of anything else.