Warehouse District Park

[Stevey_G]

The Pavilion is in there. I just called it the Public Pavilion because I am not fun.

Yeah this design is definitely subject to change, on second look, the arch's should be directly ON Jasper and 102 Ave rather than recessed as a direct park entrance. I think I'd personally keep a large, dominant, wading pool/ice rink because one must assume this will be an actively used area. I have this image in my head of a fully matured park in the future, and aerial shots during the Oilers game at night of that Ice lit up by the weatherproofed LED bars underneath. Is there anything more Edmonton than LED light bars?!

 

[Gronk!]

The Pavilion is in there. I just called it the Public Pavilion because I am not fun.

I had to squint at my monitor but I found it! It could be a tad bigger though.

 

[Stevey_G]

I had to squint at my monitor but I found it! It could be a tad bigger though.

Unfortunately I don’t recall what I measured it’s size to be. Those basketball courts are scaled properly though so that gives an idea. It seems small, but it’s essentially the size of a small shop housing bathrooms, Change rooms, a snack shack, etc. it just looks small over nearly 2 hectares.

 

[rmp]

Not to scale, but this is roughly what I was thinking.

 

[Stevey_G]

Here's some ideas for this park:

- LED Underlit Rink Space convertible to a public wading pool allows for full seasonal usage of the park's main centrepiece. This also provides the city with a great landmark shot. Imagine the the aerial views during Oilers games of a well lit and activated park space by night with a beaming LED Ice rink in the centre.

- Sweeping modern arches providing entrance from a pedestrian activated 102 ave as well as from Jasper ave. These photos are an alteration to the original ideas I had of classic roman inspired arches - which I feel may be out of place with modern design concepts.

-Bright and colorful basket ball courts which hold the capacity to become off-sized tennis courts when underutilized. These offer color and dynamic to the park during the dark grey winter months.

-A small public waterpark. It wouldn't be a centrepiece park without a place for kids to cool off in the summer. I derived some ideas from Kelowna's outdoor parks.

-park benches with proper arm rests to encourage not being used as beds (I sound horrible by saying this, but we need to keep this park safe and attractive if we are to encourage upscale developments around it).

-A glass pavilion with large stand up historic memorials of the buildings, businesses, and homes torn down to make room for parking spaces, and a story of how this eventually led to the opportunity to build a world class park.

- large playground, remove all tunnel slides and change to open slide to ensure ease of cleaning and not being used as shelter.

-surrounding developments encouraged to build better park facing entrances, or at least construct using principles that allow for convertible inward facing bays. City planning to be advised and take consult from developers to ensure proper integration and coordination of tower/park design elements.

-mid-size ampitheatre with design elements that work to obstruct Jasper Traffic, amplify white noise of wading pool fountain, and service local musicians and small music festivals.

-LED lit photo op area as seen in the final photo.

-Park is this scale and scope to be built out over a 5 year period. With open spaces substitutes with additional amenities over a period of years. All civil works and utilities to be put in place during initial construction to ensure uninterrupted use of the park during construction phases. All existing overhead Telus and electrical utilities to be buried.

 

[IanO]

I'd like us to pass on the wading pool and ice rink (we have that at City Hall and the Leg) and focus on delivery of a different experience.

 

[Gronk!]

I like it! Don't listen to the Canmore Kid.

 

[Edmcowboy11]

Wading pool no, splash park yes.
Trees, YES

 

[Stevey_G]

Respectfully disagree, if you are going to build a trophy park, you need it to be activated year round and you need to incorporate big city elements. I understand why one may focus on the wading pool/fountain features of this design, but the primary goal of this feature is to act as a beaming and beautifully well lit rink surface that catches eyes 8 months of the year from all the towers, and creates a landmark aerial shot you can put on post cards. Edmonton doesn't build enough of those types of things, and incorporating nothing but utilitarian design elements will do nothing but create a flat experience with just enough reasons to visit, but not enough reasons to stay. We have to think big on things like this.

On top of that, fountain features are so frequently put into large district parks all over many cities to add a therapeutic white noise that drowns out the traffic, sirens, and other city noises that can make a large open space such as this feel unpleasant. Redundant? Perhaps. Essential to the ambiance of the park? Absolutely.

 

[thommyjo]

Cool park in shenzen https://www.gooood.cn/wanchuanyunhui-onebase-vanke-sports-community-box-studio.htm

 

[Avenuer]

Again, the Downtown Community League will need to make their needs for the park known (i.e. basketball courts, playgrounds, etc.) through the planned public engagement, otherwise the landscape architects will just be guessing what the community wants.

 

[archited]

^^^^ "Planned Public Engagement" NEVER works. It underscores lazy thinking and it often brings out the "crazies" who like to exercise their inner design aspirations. A professional design group should be able to assess needs without offering a slate of mundane choices to an untrained group -- what a recipe for mediocrity!

 

[IanO]

Engagement is important, but equally so are taking that to help guide decisions versus having to adhere to those 'promissory' bits of information.

Just because a group might think that yet another skating rink (which most don't even use) seems nice, doesn't mean we need or want it overall given the finite nature of these spaces.

 

[archited]

^^^^ Wrong! As one example (and there are many, many more) can you imagine how this project in NYC would have turned out if it had gone through the gauntlet of public engagement?!!

 

[IanO]

When someone wants to build a quarter of a billion $* park like Little Island, they can feel free to do what they wish.

*absurd.