Toronto New Park at 229 Richmond West | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | Gow Hastings

[Northern Light]

Update here on the park at 229.

It's in the budget.

First year is this year, followed by 2023 and 2024.

Seems like an optimistic timeline....

Budget is millions so 10M total.

https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2022/bu/bgrd/backgroundfile-174938.pdf

p.12

 

[condovo]

Is there going to be parking under the new park or is it going to be under the new tower? In other words, is the park going to be a park or a glorified roof for underground parking?

 

[Northern Light]

Is there going to be parking under the new park or is it going to be under the new tower? In other words, is the park going to be a park or a glorified roof for underground parking?

Parking under the park has been nixed!

 

[Start Fox]

These changes are great.

However, on a general note I wish we started viewing underground parking as a 1:1 replacement for street parking. If there were underground parking here and we could replace the nearby street parking with wider sidewalks, that'd be a worthwhile tradeoff in my view.

The justification for street parking seems to always be that businesses need it. That's great, but we've added hundreds if not thousands of Green P and other paid parking in the vicinity, yet the "businesses need the street parking to survive" narrative persists.

 

[HousingNowTO]

The justification for street parking seems to always be that businesses need it. That's great, but we've added hundreds if not thousands of Green P and other paid parking in the vicinity, yet the "businesses need the street parking to survive" narrative persists.

Like removing development parking-minimums... it will take a few years --- but we will slowly kill-off CHEAP street parking in Toronto.

We don't want 1:1 replacement, that only embeds lots of carbon into bathtubbing underground parking. You can't have Green-Standards at the City and Cheap/Easy parking.

The City policy clearly wants/needs fewer private cars in the core... and easy parking-access runs counter to that.

 

[Northern Light]

Like removing development parking-minimums... it will take a few years --- but we will slowly kill-off CHEAP street parking in Toronto.

We don't want 1:1 replacement, that only embeds lots of carbon into bathtubbing underground parking. You can't have Green-Standards at the City and Cheap/Easy parking.

The City policy clearly wants/needs fewer private cars in the core... and easy parking-access runs counter to that.

My prescription is steadily forcing street parking off of a main streets, but adding pay and display to existing parking on side streets (permit holders don't pay twice).

At the same time, rates have to rise, permit parking remains as cheap as .60c per day which is absurd; while pay and display on-street ranges widely but is usually in the $2-3 per hour range, and as high as $4.

Even today, prices should be $4 in lower demand areas, and up to $7 per hour in peak-zones.

As supply drops, prices should rise.

For Permit holders, there should be only 2 classes of permit, instead of 3; and for the 1st car it should be at least $120 per month ($4 per day); while a second permit per family should rise to $210 per month.

 

[Northern Light]

Confirmation in a report to the next Toronto Parking Authority meeting that the parking garage beneath the park at 229 Richmond is nixed:

https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2022/pa/bgrd/backgroundfile-224469.pdf

From the report:

****

Going backwards now, to look at what led up to this:

Points 2 and 3 are critical as to why this is really great news.

 

[Northern Light]

In respect of the new park at 229 Richmond, the City has a 'thought exchange' / survey open right now for people to basically share/rank/rate priorities as to what the priorities for this park are, ie. how it will
programmed.

Join the conversation and share your thoughts

ThoughtExchange makes your voice heard on things that matter.

tejoin.com

 

[Northern Light]

 

[AlbertC]

New Park at 229 Richmond Street West

Provide feedback on the winning design for the new park. The survey closes on October 22, 2024. Take the Survey A new 2,600m2 park is coming to 229 Richmond St. W. The site is currently leased to a restaurant and used as an outdoor patio. Waawaatesi, the proposed design by West 8 Urban Design...

www.toronto.ca

229 Richmond IAC

s.cotsurvey.chkmkt.com

Indigenous Advisory Circle for the New Park at 229 Richmond Street West​

The vibrant public space at 229 Richmond Street West will be transformed into a brand new 2,600 square metre (28,000 square feet) public park for all to enjoy! The new park will be comparable in size to the Village of Yorkville Park and Berczy Park. We would like to invite community members who identify as Indigenous to Canada to join the Indigenous Advisory Circle (IAC) for the new park at 229 Richmond Street West to provide helpful insight and feedback throughout the duration of the project.
About the 229 Richmond Indigenous Advisory Circle (IAC)

A design competition is currently underway for the new park at 229 Richmond Street West. A design jury will select the winning design team, which is comprised of industry leaders, including an Indigenous artist and curator. The IAC will serve an advisory role and provide valuable insight on the development of the winning design for the new park at 229 Richmond St. West. IAC members will analyze and engage in meaningful discussions on key project elements and add their perspective and knowledge to move forward in a good way. They will also communicate closely with the project team, effectively relaying project information within their networks and communities, while amplifying community feedback and ideas.

Applications
Applications are being accepted until 11:55pm on September 27th, 2023. All applicants will be notified if they have been successful or unsuccessful by September 29th, 2023.

 

[Patch]

New Park at 229 Richmond Street West

Provide feedback on the winning design for the new park. The survey closes on October 22, 2024. Take the Survey A new 2,600m2 park is coming to 229 Richmond St. W. The site is currently leased to a restaurant and used as an outdoor patio. Waawaatesi, the proposed design by West 8 Urban Design...

www.toronto.ca

The five shortlisted conceptual designs for the new park at 229 Richmond Street West have been released. The Survey closes October, 29, 2023. I thought it'd be fun to start a poll here as well

Wàwàtesí by West 8 Urban Design and Landscape Architecture:​

Waasamoo-mitigoog / Electric Forest by Public City:​

OneSky by PMA Landscape Architects and SLA:​

Nookomis Garden by DTAH:​

River Park by O2 Planning and Design and OLIN Studio:​

 

[Northern Light]

Wow, I'm going to have to take a closer look at these; but at first blush colour-me profoundly underwhelmed.........

We've got an aerial jigsaw puzzle that looks like shades of June Callwood......

Giant Blue-lit beer bottle cap rims

A design that puts 1/3 of the park under artificial canopies.......

Yikes!

***

PMA and its bottle-cap rims is by far the Greenest design; but both that and the DTAH design will draw the wrath of @smably for extensive use of architectural seating.

***

Seriously, can we send them all back?

I think I can fix the PMA and DTAH designs and make them work better; but the others are pretty irredeemable.

 

[picard102]

I'd say let the restaurant keep leasing the space until they don't want to anymore. Nothing presented here is particularly worth losing that revenue or removing one of the largest patios in the areas.

 

[Towered]

Woof - not exactly earth shattering designs here. Did Cormier not submit anything? They would have blown all these away with ease.

That said, I'll reluctantly take the OneSky proposal. The giant bottle caps are a cheeky nod to the area's booze-soaked past as Clubland (which I was an active participant in)...

Some stylized, chunky yellowish blobs in random spots would be the chef's kiss.

 

[smably]

PMA and its bottle-cap rims is by far the Greenest design; but both that and the DTAH design will draw the wrath of @smably for extensive use of architectural seating.

I will reserve my wrath for DTAH but spare PMA (in part).

An amphitheatre is one case where I'm OK with architectural steps, assuming it's thoughtfully designed and properly programmed. (The music garden, for example, is a great example of good amphitheatre programming.) In this design, I notice that the placement of the steps should theoretically provide a barrier-free, if zigzagging, route to the top:

That's a pretty good way to ensure that someone who can't climb stairs can still use the entire space and have a similar experience to someone who can climb stairs.

However, I can see a few potential problems with this design off the top of my head. If no lip is provided on the steps, someone in a wheelchair could roll over the edge while navigating the switchbacks. The ramp might also be inaccessible to blind or low vision users without a tactile strip in the centre of the walkway. I would also hope to see space provided for wheelchair users to stop without blocking the ramp so they could easily join people sitting on the steps.

Big disclaimer: I am in no way an accessibility expert and I don't intend to speak on behalf of people with disabilities. Architects could (and should!) design for accessibility by hiring people with disabilities, training their non-disabled staff on accessible design, and engaging accessibility consultants throughout the design process.