Parkette Design Competition
Brunswick-College Parkette Design Competition
Competition closed!!
Winners of the Brunswick-College Parkette Design Competition
announced at HVRA AGM
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October 18, 2011
Harbord Village Residents’ Association is extremely grateful for the magnificent response to the Brunswick-College Parkette Design Competition, which was launched on January 1st 2011.
27 submissions were received from eight countries: Canada-13, Italy-7, US-2, UK-1, Argentina-1, Germany-1, the Netherlands-1, Portugal-1.
On May 1st, 2011, the entries were judged by a panel of five landscape professionals and by members of the Harbord Village community.
Since every entry was stunningly beautiful, highly imaginative and well adapted to the parkette’s difficult urban and social environment, judging was extremely difficult. Nevertheless five winners were chosen, three by our judges and two by the community.
You can see the WINNERS here
and all SUBMISSIONS here.
Now the difficult part begins: turning these dreams into reality. In spite of today’s difficult economic times – which we know our submitter architects must be all too aware of – we anticipate that transformation beginning soon.
WINNERS of the Brunswick-College Parkette Design Competition
Judges’ 1st Choice: Judges’ 2nd Choice: Judges’ 3rd Choice: Neighbourhood 1st Choice: Neighbourhood 2nd Choice:
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Our Judges
Steven Webber, Land Use Policy Planner
School of Urban & Regional Planning, Ryerson University
(and a resident of Harbord Village)
See Steven Webber's comments here. (pdf)
Michelle Reid, Supervisor Parks Operations (Horticulture)
Toronto East York, Wards 20 & 27
See Michelle Reid's comments here. (pdf)
Dr. Mitchell E. Kosny, Director (Interim)
School of Urban and Regional Planning Ryerson University
See Mitchell Kosny's comments here. (pdf)
Jane Hutton, Lecturer in Landscape Architecture
Harvard Graduate School of Design
See Jane Hutton's comments here. (pdf)
Victor S. Ford, OALA, CSLA, ASLA, Principal
Victor Ford and Associates Inc, Landscape Architects, Toronto
See Victor Ford's comments here. (pdf)
Our distinguished judges were ably supported by competition coordinator Richard Longley. Thank you Richard!
See Richard Longley's summary notes here. (pdf)
Competition priorities
Simplicity: easy and cheap to build, easy to clean and maintain, no or minimal hiding places.
Beautiful and striking: a 21st century parkette that is worthy of its location and its time, that attracts a larger number and a greater variety of users than it does at present.
Intimate and open: a careful compromise between an intimate space, which is not a hiding space and a space that is open to the point of bleakness.
Open for business: the west end/ground floor of Kensington Health Centre is made accessible to as many as three non-medical (café, retail or other) uses.
A clear walk: N-S through and beside the park with a good view of St Stephen’s church in the S
Wheelchair accessible: ramps, from the S (College St) and the N (Kensington Gardens.) Slope needs to be gentle and, if necessary,fitted with handrails.
Seating: beautiful, comfortable but for sitting, not sleeping on.
Underground parking lot vents: covered with sculptured or sloped grates that cannot be slept upon.
Planting: perennial, drought-resistant, hardy, not liable to create hiding places or generate or trap litter.
Sculptures or other decorative elements: sculptures, rocks, water features, solar trees etc., likely commissioned and financed separately from the parkette, easy to maintain, resistant to vandalism and graffiti, not liable to trap blowing litter.
Brunswick College Parkette complements Margaret Fairley Park: BCP, rebuilt, is a hard-scaped (but comfortable) park primarily for adult use. It complements green Margaret Fairley Park with its children’s playground in a way that the two parkettes “bookend” Brunswick Avenue, College to Ulster.
Location
Brunswick-College parkette occupies the north-east corner of, historic, residential Brunswick Avenue in Harbord Village Heritage Conservation District, and dynamic, diverse College Street. It flanks the west end of Kensington Health Centre and faces, to the west, Caplansky’s delicatessen, to the south, the historic Church of St Stephen’s in the Fields, the new Planet Traveller eco-hotel, and Augusta Avenue, which leads into Kensington Market.