We hosted our seventh annual AED (Architecture, Engineering & Design) event in November, with the theme of Private Spaces, Public Interests: Growing and supporting our public realm through smart policy.
As most GTA residents know, the discussion about the way the city of Toronto treats public space has heated up recently. There are recent successes to point to, such as Waterfront Toronto's redevelopment project and the promise of the reclamation of unused space under the Gardiner Expressway (the Bentway Project). And just weeks before our event, there was a debate in Toronto city council about the Raildeck Park project (the outcome is that the exploration of how much it would cost and what it would take to build the park should go ahead).
As urban development continues to expand to include considerations for the public use of space, often designated as Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS), the question increasingly becomes, how does the private sector engage with public spaces in a way that benefits both?
To discuss this question and much more, we had a keynote speech from Dave Harvey, Executive Director, of Park People, followed by a lively panel discussion moderated by Marcus Gee of the Globe and Mail.
Keynote
Dave Harvey of Park People started off by asking What is a park? He called it "publicly accessible land" and gave examples of places you might not think of as traditional parks, such as the enormous Rouge Park and the Gatineau Hydro Corridor in Scarborough.
Dave said that 13% of Toronto is park land, which compares favorably with big American cities. We have great 'new' spaces such as Corktown Commons, one of the best designed in the city. And Dave said that programming in the parks is key to attracting people. He spoke about one great example of collaboration between the city and park friends groups: pumpkin parades (where friends of park groups organize parades for jack-o-lanterns on November 1st, the day after Halloween, and afterwards the city picks up the pumpkins). He mentioned that philanthropy and conservancy must go hand in hand. It's great to have park land donated, but then we need to pay park staff to operate parks, so city funds need to be there along with philanthropy.
Panel discussion
After Dave's keynote, we moved on to the panel discussion on planning public community space and city building, including this illustrious group of panelists (moderated by Marcus Gee, Columnist, The Globe and Mail):
- Gabriel Leung, VP Development, Concord Adex;
- Kelvin Browne, Executive Director and CEO, Gardiner Museum;
- Judy Matthews, Philanthropist, the Bentway project;
- Jane Perdue, Public Art Coordinator, Urban Design, City Planning; and
- Chris Pommer, Partner at PLANT Architect Inc.
The panel covered a lot of ground. Gabriel Leung spoke about getting the Canoe Landing Park built and then maintained, and Chris Pommer compared similar notes when he talked about how to ensure follow through once commitments to park space are made. Judy Matthews chimed in by discussing her inspiration to support The Bentway project (under the Gardiner Expressway).
Jane Perdue carried on with the theme of marrying donations with maintenance funds. She said the city learned the hard way after a generous donation was made of an art piece for the intersection of University & Dundas, but with no maintenance fund included. There is now a policy in place that donations have to come with sufficient maintenance funds.
Moderator Marcus Gee asked whether Toronto's aspiration for our public spaces could be reached. As you can imagine, everyone had a view! The panel ended on an upbeat note - when asked what the panel thought of Raildeck Park, Kelvin Browne of the Gardiner Museum summed it up well when he said: "Big ideas are easier to sell than small ones."
We are looking forward to hosting our eighth annual AED event in 2017, and in the meantime, let's keep the discussion of private funding and public spaces going in Toronto.
