Vision Statement One
This proposal for Point Pleasant Park is linked to reforestation methods and interpretation on the site and is intended to diversify the park as habitat for flora and fauna as well as increasing experiential qualities for park users while creating a flexible park program in which the current generation of users may play an immediate role. Though the general destruction to Point Pleasant Park caused by Hurricane Juan stunned and dismayed the citizens of Halifax, this design's approach is to take advantage of the "rebalancing" begun by Hurricane Juan but with entirely different methods: sustainable practices that park users will understand and in which they will want to participate.
Interpretation of park ecosystems and park cultural history would occur at different levels of intensity from detailed on-site interpretation with signage and expert tours in the 'interpretive gardens' (simple ecosystem models managed by forestry professionals) to remote interpretation of large, extant woodland systems that would also continue to provide the solitude that park users look for in Pt. Pleasant Park. These interpretive efforts would be enhanced by resources of a new Point Pleasant Center discretely located within the park and made accessible to all citizens, including the handicapped and elderly, by an entrance road through landscapes illustrating landscape types found throughout the park; this would not only entertain and inform those who cannot stroll through the park, but would provide stimulating motivation to further park experiences for those who can. The entry road would comprise the primary park entrance and would be built on the site of the existing roadbed (Cambridge Drive) connecting Pt. Pleasant Drive to the Center and organizing some of the more intensive park activities in an area of relatively level ground:
• Entry signage
• Bus stop (external to park)
• Great Lawn (field for pick-up games of soccer, for example)
• Interpretive gardens
• Memorials and monuments
• Prince of Wales Tower and overlook
• Pt. Pleasant Center, amphitheater, and parking.
Paths for pedestrians intersect frequently with this spine and take people to all parts of the park, while automobile access is limited to this spine and the port entry to the northeast (site of the Nursery & Tree Farm). A loop path accommodates pedestrians and bicyclists on separate, parallel paths.
The Center houses an ongoing photographic exhibit of Pt. Pleasant Park showing its history and its contemporary development and use. Educational programs in the Center reflect projects undertaken on site (such as tree plantings) and encourage volunteerism. Near the Center is an outdoor amphitheater (for Shakespeare-by-the-Sea and others) overlooking the harbor and downtown Halifax.
Current efforts to restore the ecology of Black Rock Beach would be extended to the entire shoreline and involve further research into indigenous shoreline habitats. Piers and decks accommodate large groups
of people while protecting the shoreline. This proposal makes a distinction between the shoreline lawn (for viewing ships and the seascape) and the water's edge where restoration projects occur. All shoreline activity should be influenced by restoration efforts. (Cathy Soergal Marshall)
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