TERRAINS OF MEMORY:
Approach to Park Renewal
Point Pleasant Park is the archive of Halifax. Settled by Europeans before Halifax, it retains traces of its past, from global military roles to individual homesteads to Miq'maq ceremonial grounds. More fundamentally, it is the tangible guardian spirit of the Peninsula. It has seen great change yet it barely changes. It is still and solid and those who leave the city behind and enter it know that it offers timeless counsel.
What about the park is so vital? That it is a city forest in a forest nation. That it stands as the wild sea gate to the city. That the land and the harbour are beautiful. And that it includes noble structures with meanings resonant of the city's very existence. These qualities should be at the core of the Park's renewal strategy.
To be manifest, they require a park design which does the following: It must be forested coast to coast, with less encroachment of lawn and landscaping. It must better exploit its resources, natural and cultural. And to do these things it must offer a network of paths which better transports the park user to that forest quality, to those resources, to those picturesque spots and noble structures. Path design can be less invasive and at the same time richer and more imaginitive.
We propose an ordering of Pathways as three distinct Terrains: Outer, Inner, and Secret. These correspond to different strata of urban memory, and are described in the adjacent text.
The Fulcrum - Site Context and Entrance Design
It is remarkable that the place where Halifax comes to better know itself is a forest park entirely outside of anything urban. Like an alter ego, this different-ness is fundamental to Point Pleasant Park's symbiotic relationship to the city. The perimeter of the park is like a fulcrum, where the opposing forces meet, and balance is maintained. Unlike, for example, at a Commons, the threshold of the Park must be immediate and visceral. Currently it is not.
Long term goals, which can be naturally phased, include the following:
• Open the access through the Terminal as the route to the Lower Lot.
• Re-think Point Pleasant Drive as a treed Avenue in the Park.
• Introduce gates at Tower Road and either end of Point Pleasant Drive.
• Phase out the Upper Lot and all car access to Point Pleasant Drive other than residents.
• Raise the existing threshold wall at the Lower Lot for visual and audible screening.
• Remove car parking from the prominent shoreline area.
• Introduce a pond and bridge to emphasize separation.
• Encourage forest growth to perimeter, except at major entries. Even along the coastline.
• Visually re-unite Cambridge Drive and Tower Road as a continuous umbilical cord from the Martello Tower to the City. (Alec Brown)
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