MisterF
Senior Member
Marysville is the only real community on the island.
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Downtown Kingston & Wolfe Island wind farm
- Thread starter MisterF
- Start date
Marysville is the only real community on the island.
nfitz
Superstar
Great photos! I used to live in Kingston for a while ... I guess I haven't been to Wolfe Island for a few years ... when did they build the windfarm!
MisterF
Senior Member
Back in Kingston, I had a chance to wander around downtown before i went home and I checked out the new market square behind City Hall. It was a parking lot for decades, and now it's a public square with a skating rink in the winter and a weekend farmers market the rest of the year.
This is what's wrong with most of the new public squares I've seen lately. They're designed to be a blank canvas for programmed uses, but that's only a minority of the time. The rest of the time it's a dead zone. The new square in uptown Waterloo has the same problem. It's like we've forgotten how to design public squares.
There's some people! The square's "centrepiece" is pushed off to a corner, and it's the only place where anyone was congregating. It should be bigger and in the middle, with the farmers market and skating rink designed around it. Outdoor cafes in the square would top it off.
More downtown Kingston:
City Hall
Princess Street - the only picture I took that day but it's one of the busiest main streets in Ontario.
The new KRock Centre
County Courthouse
Waterfront condominiums, planned just like the old Harbourfront towers in Toronto: between Kingston's equivalent of Queen's Quay and the water.
This is what's wrong with most of the new public squares I've seen lately. They're designed to be a blank canvas for programmed uses, but that's only a minority of the time. The rest of the time it's a dead zone. The new square in uptown Waterloo has the same problem. It's like we've forgotten how to design public squares.
There's some people! The square's "centrepiece" is pushed off to a corner, and it's the only place where anyone was congregating. It should be bigger and in the middle, with the farmers market and skating rink designed around it. Outdoor cafes in the square would top it off.
More downtown Kingston:
City Hall
Princess Street - the only picture I took that day but it's one of the busiest main streets in Ontario.
The new KRock Centre
County Courthouse
Waterfront condominiums, planned just like the old Harbourfront towers in Toronto: between Kingston's equivalent of Queen's Quay and the water.
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MisterF
Senior Member
It was completed earlier this year. It has 86 wind turbines scattered all over the island, each with a capacity of 2.3 MW for a total of 197.8 MW.
nfitz
Superstar
Great Kingston photos ... interesting to see the Market Square ... they were working on it last time I was there.
junctionist
Senior Member
That currently uninspiring square looks like it could become a parking lot tomorrow. It's begging for a grand centrepiece and some landscaping.
nfitz
Superstar
It is functional though ... and it is used as the marketplace on market days. Someone should grab some photos on market day!
MisterF
Senior Member
The square has 3 functions: host the farmer's market and other events, skating rink in the winter, and public square the rest of the time.
The third is the function that it's trying to fulfill the majority of the time, and that's where it fails. If it fails at its most common function, it's not functional. It could have been designed with a centrepiece in the middle of the square and the market designed around it. Even with a regulation sized ice rink there's still room to have a big fountain or sculpture with seating closer to the centre of the square. Most squares are designed this way, including market squares. The edges of the square need help too - planters (like the new ones on Dundas outside the Eaton Centre), patios, benches, etc. would help.
nfitz
Superstar
Yeah, I don't disagree ... but given a few years ago, it was simply full of parked cars (and there's no shortage of parking lots in downtown Kingston), it's already an improvement!