Zone 2
Beginning with observations of Zone 2 of David Crombie Park, its site is bordered to the north and south by housing complexes. The north building, named The David B. Archer Co-Operative, boasts restaurants and storefronts on its street edge, whereas the south building, The Woodsworth Housing Co-Operative, contains only residences. Both are mid-size apartment blocks offering a variety of unit types. Other notable neighbours of the park include the St. Michael Elementary Catholic School and it’s schoolyard to the west, as well as the David Crombie Dog Park to the east. The mixed-use residential context that surrounds the park results in a relatively diverse user population. David Crombie’s urbanization efforts were heavily inspired by Jane Jacobs, who recognized that good neighbourhoods start from the ground up, with thousands of people coming together and interacting spontaneously.1 From a purely surface-level observation, the residents represented a wide array of ethnicities, income levels, and ages.
In terms of physical features, the east end of the park block contains a fountain commemorating Crombie, surrounded by a circular cobblestone hardscape and concrete benches. A pathway circumambulates the circle, connecting the corner of The Esplanade and George St. with the Woodsworth Housing Co-Op. The center of the block is greenspace with a rectangular woodchip pad that houses a swing set and single-person seesaw. On the west end is another circular hardscape containing four metal benches in a cross orientation. The circle is partially enclosed by a 1m high concrete barrier with arches providing entrance and exit, and the area is well shaded by tree canopy.
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The perimeter of the block is outlined with trees of varying sizes and species. These trees shade the sidewalk along the Esplanade and subtly differentiate the space of movement from the body of the park, providing a feeling of protection but also formulating the park as a destination. Consequently, the park is treated as such and is generally only crossed out of necessity, with The Esplanade sidewalk acting as a pedestrian ‘superhighway’. The north side of the park beside the sidewalk receives a considerable amount of sunlight, but a colder microclimate is formed by the shade from the trees and housing Co-Op to the south. Considering the cold weather at the time of the study very few people stayed in this area for any amount of time.
The vast majority of users were simply passing through, and were only using the park as a means to fulfill their necessary activities. Still, the impressive number of people that were observed is nonetheless a testament to the park’s relative success. Unfortunately, very few users spent more than five minutes staying in the park. In all cases they used the only truly effective seating surrounding the fountain. These spots were open and accessible yet on the periphery to offer a vantage point of one’s surroundings. The other options were sorely neglected, either because they were too far out of the way or were too isolated from others. Additionally, while the swingset was effective eye candy to draw people in and off their path, no other elements in the park appeared to spontaneously influence people to the same degree. Zone 2 fulfilled many of the requirements for a nurturing environment as outlined by Jenny Donovan in Designing the Compassionate City: exposure to nature; the importance of trust; the playability of surroundings; and the ease of understanding available experiences. The category where Zone 2 stood out the most, however, was it’s connectedness of citizens and their environment. The healthy environment of Zone 2 is evidenced by its ability to connect “citizens together to create a sense of community.”2
Notes:
1. William H. Whyte, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (New York: Project for Public Spaces, 2018), 28
2. Jenny Donovan, Designing the Compassionate City: Creating Places Where People Thrive (New York: Routledge, 2017), 74
