GARDINER GREEN
In the midst of the city's noise, traffic, density, and hard surfaces, we seek respite. Suddenly an oasis materializes: a cool, lush retreat, densely enclosed with trees. This unexpected enclave contrasts with the city's lively waterfront parks, while providing a gateway to them.
From the outside, the park appears to be a patch of forest. Like a green beacon, its closely spaced trees draw us toward it. Once we are inside, the rolling topography that encloses the Oasis screens out traffic and offers a hiatus from urban life.
To accentuate this immersive quality, the planting exaggerates the feeling of depth and scale by amplifying a forest's vertical layers: lofty upper canopy, lacy understory of fine textures and blooms, and at the ground plane, a sparkling green carpet.
Within the oasis are groupings of outdoor rooms - places that invite individuals and small groups to stop and chat, eat lunch, or simply relax. This is primarily a community park for everyday use, but for special events, it can accommodate large crowds.
Water features take various forms in the oasis: a reflecting pool, a central misted zone, and a drinking trough for dogs.
History and playful transformation intersect here. The eight concrete bents that previously supported a now-demolished Gardiner Expressway exit ramp remain in place, looking like petrified trees under the park's living, leafy canopy. No longer serving a vehicular infrastructure purpose, they have become community infrastructure. Integrated with new ringshaped elements, they animate the park day and night, providing focal points within the outdoor rooms.
Each bent has acquired its own identity: the tallest now has swings hanging from it; water 'leaks' from another into the reflecting pool; one is a glowing lamp; another, the towering centrepiece of a circular table. Subsumed within the greenness of the oasis, these massive infrastructural remnants acquire a new context and new meaning, and inhabit Gardiner Green (The Green).
(From competitor's text)
This design told a very beautiful and enticing story about vegetation and plant growth and maintenance. While the Jury appreciated the attention paid to programming the bents, they felt that this overtook other parts of the park design. The Jury felt that the circulation within and through the park lacked legibility and that the landforms around the edges too high, leading to a visually impermeable space that did not feel welcoming. The Jury would like to have seen a more developed proposal for water and found it difficult to imagine how public art could be integrated into a space that was so aesthetically defined and full.
(From jury report)
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