Toronto Grange Park | ?m | ?s

Wow! I had no idea that the AGO essentially owned the park.

Neither did I.

i absolutely love grange park. china town to the north, queen west to the south. it is surrounded by beautiful little houses and is now bordered by two of toronto's most important and iconic buildings. it's connection to john street is also a gem. what a little oasis in the city.

i agree it needs a SLIGHT facelift. i would like to see some stone or brick sidewalks replace the current asphalt paths. a fountain would be great too. and some public works of art from local artists would be fantastic. let's not forget the elementary school's facilities there too.

i always loved the drum circles and musicians that find themselves in nyc parks and hope that grange will soon be a more prominent creative hotbed.

i do worry though that the park will become too famous. i love it's somewhat lowkey status. i guess its fame will be inevitable however, and hopefully with that, will come some beautification.

I agree. I kind of like a few of the rough edges here but admittedly Grange Park could use some TLC, points of interest and in a perfect world, a deal to integrate perhaps half of the unused property (owned by Gateway Properties) at the back of 50 Stephanie Street into the park.
Grange Park is a great example of what a smaller city park can be. One afternoon last summer I entered the park and passed two guys playing bongo drums or something, there was a crowd gathered around the middle of the park watching some kind of performance piece & dogs running around catching balls & frisbees. I sat down when I saw 4 or 5 older Asian men practicing tai chi. A short time later 2 or 3 young gansta-types joined in. The young guys took it very seriously and seemed to join in seamlessly with the Asian men. I thought all this activity really encapsulated the spirit of Grange Park.
I look forward to improvements here but I hope the AGO doesn't go overboard. It should remain functional and user friendly. The Grange Park Revitilization Plan calls for, in part, “…a restoration and revitalization plan for Grange Park that will be green, strikingly beautiful, resilient, sustainable, accessible, interactive as well as providing a place for contemplation while welcoming all neighbours, residents and visitors to our community by utilizing design excellence, state of the art conservation techniques and outstanding works of artâ€.
Sounds promising.
 
Grange Park really is our only chance to create a park similar to the beautiful grand parks of many European and Asian cities. I still maintain that this park needs to be something amazing. It's in a prime location, sitting in front of the AGO and it should reflect this. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm really hoping that we move beyond these "Toronto doesn't do grand" ideals. We're one of the richest cities in the world, it's about time we show it in our parks. The Music Garden is a start, but Grange really could be the jewel of the city. I think this can be done both simply and eloquently, with some sort of sculpture garden and maybe a fountain. Anything short of this and I'll be disappointed.
 
The AGO says the money is being used to retain Greg Smallenberg, of Vancouver’s PFS Studio, to work up a landscape design for the park. Smallenberg’s firm is probably best known in Toronto for designing Sherbourne Common, a combination park/stormwater treatment facility at Sherbourne Street and Queens Quay East.

Sounds promising, though I would personally wish for something more dramatic and mature for this particular location.
 
Somewhat tangential, but since Grange Park is the terminus, I thought I'd put it here: saw today that John Street has been narrowed between Queen & King. The easternmost lane is blocked to cars by planters full of flowers. Is this the start of the long-threatened John St revitalization, or is it just a temporary pilot project? Forum search is failing me.

It would be nice if they could somehow tie the Grange Park redo in with John St; repeating design motifs found in the park all the way down to Front would be a nice way to pull it all together.
 
adH:

Ding ding ding - I would love to see Gehry be put in charge of the entire thing - from GP revitalization, John Street all the way to the M+G project - and let it be the capstone of his career.

AoD
 
I have to disagree. I don't want the park to lose its informal feeling; minimal interventions here would be nice. I don't want an egotistical or over-designed expression, or the addition of clean lines, or a "modern" park design or any of that. Not here.

Improvements to the paving and surfaces, some touching-up to the landscaping, etc., would be ideal, and above all, ongoing maintenance and care for the park as opposed to one up-front re-imagining of the space.

It works very well as is; it just needs a series of light interventions and improvements.
 
Gotta agree with modern™ all the way here. I've been visiting the park on an almost-weekly basis over the past six months and it's lovely as it is. Perhaps more love could be given to the park, as suggested - maintenance, nicer plant materials, that sort of thing; it's already an oasis. But a grand statement, even if it were designed by Gehry? No thanks. It's already pretty cool and the sightlines are excellent. What we need are more parks of this size and presence in the core.
 
Why so underwhelming though Lenser/Modern? This park is in the heart of downtown (stomping ground of residents and tourists alike), adjacent to one of the most important art museums in North America and OCAD, if there is any location appropriate for high design in Toronto it's here.

Good grief, Toronto doesn't lack for patches of green (in one deplorable state or another)... really, we're blasé now about overzealous garden intervention??
 
Hey Tewder, if it's going to happen it's going to happen. Yeah, I like it as it is - so sue me. I'm just hoping it's not some overwrought monstrosity imposed on an already lovely, tranquil park. Let's see what happens, shall we? Good grief, indeed.
 

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