Celebrating a New Community Park in Toronto

Over 100 members of the Willowdale community celebrated the grand opening of a brand, new park yesterday. City Councillor Lily Cheng, together with several children attending the event, officially welcomed Holmes Park—a 1,000 m² flexible space featuring a multi-age, active play zone; urban gathering space; and planting areas located adjacent to a new, hi-rise condo, Azura, which was recently built by Capital Developments.
 
Surrounded by dense urbanization in Toronto’s Yonge & Finch neighbourhood, Holmes Park introduces a vibrant and inviting public space to people of all ages in the community. As Landscape Architects leading the design and construction of the new park—a significant contribution to the community by Capital Developments—we worked closely with the City of Toronto, participating in multiple public engagement meetings to thoroughly understand the needs of the community.
 
The collected feedback became the guiding keystone for design development, which led to the creation of unique features such as the custom berm playground—which represents the first introduction of this building material and play space within a City of Toronto park—a specialized combination of play equipment, multi-coloured and multi-sensory surfacing and flexible social spaces.
 
Flexible space was designed to create multi-age play areas, adaptable and safe meeting spaces, and custom fabrication of a unique shade structure, which not only spawned multi-seasonal interest, but also a new public art installation.
 
In addition to an address from Councillor Cheng, the grand opening ceremony also included an announcement from Chris Dynes, Vice-President of Development at Capital Developments, of an expansion to Holmes Park. Members of the community were encouraged to provide their feedback into the park’s future expansion, which will also be designed by STUDIO tla.