Toronto, Canada

June Callwood Park

Balmori Associates, DTAH - Du Toit Allsopp Hillier Architects

“Each person is like a stone in a pond . . . Individual actions, good or bad, send out tiny ripples that change the surface of the public pond. People, by choice, can spread warm understanding or cold indifference.” -June Callwood

A park rich and wonderful in its subtle complexity and formal clarity is an elegant tribute to June Callwood, “Canada’s Conscience.” Our design is a uniquely sculpted surface inspired by the life of June as well as from nature’s phenomena and Fort York’s history. We envision June Callwood Park as an innovative neighborhood park for Fork York as well as an imaginative landscape for Toronto, a designated Creative City.

Fort York
Balmori Associates and DTAH’s design for the June Callwood Park builds off the energy of the City of Toronto and historic Fort York. Our vision embraces Toronto’s legacy of existing public spaces and roots itself in the pursuit of reuniting Fort York and Lake Ontario. A simple articulation of the Fort York – Lake Ontario axis, creates intimate neighborhood pockets, along a flowing pathway that opens up on its respective ends to Fort York, Coronation Park and Lake Ontario

Sculptural forms are generated by visually extending the landscape from Fort York’s simple topography and shaped by sun and wind patterns in the park. Natural rhythms and weather patterns carve out ridges for planting, sitting, playing, and habitat and facilitate storm water management in an artful manner, fitting for a park which sits in on the historic edge of Lake Ontario. Imagine undulating waves that transition from a serene field of green to rolling hills in a single sculptural landscape surface. This sculpted landscape topography accommodates a variety of programs and activities in its various folds. Sectional changes simultaneously accommodate spaces for recreation, movement, and respite allowing for new ways of urban inhabitation and programmatic facility.

While a sculptural topography forms the park’s interior, its park edges are more urban in character. Grasses, perennials and groves of trees cover the surface with simple self sustaining landscape thresholds that changes from an urban to a contemplative landscape. A gently undulating landscape is like the transitions seen in a Japanese garden as one moves from the inside to the outside. These east-west passages combined with the north-south central valley increase connectivity between Toronto’s public urban spaces as well as downtown Toronto to Lake Ontario. These forms open up to a sparkling open plaza of quartzite for events and social gathering on the south of the park and a Fort York Green; a great lawn on the north side.

Plantings and a sculpted surface will be arranged to maximize the openness of June Callwood Park as a visual valley to the lake. Along the north-south axis of the park, is an allée of maple trees; a Maple Vallée facilitating lines of movement through the site. June was fond of the maple and cherry trees in the landscapes of her youth and the vibrant seasonal color of the maples will provide a signature for the park. These east-west passages combined with the north-south central valley increase connectivity between Toronto’s public urban spaces as well as downtown Toronto to Lake Ontario. Our design ambition is that presence of the Fort York and the waterfront are evident within June Callwood Park, while simultaneously maintaining its identity as a park.

June Callwood Public Gardens
At the heart of the June Callwood Park are the June Callwood Public Gardens, a reflection of June Callwood. The ripples flanking either side of the Maple Vallée contains richly planted gardens. Echoing June’s desire for the Casey House to always have fresh flowers as a symbol of compassion, our desire is for these richly planted gardens to memorialize June’s spirit of compassion and commitment to social justice. A seasonal variety of richly planted native and wild seasonal flowers flow down through the landforms. These richly planted gardens can be viewed from various angles and seen from different perspectives as people move through the park; providing habitat for birds and butterflies.

Play
“I’d like children in my park, especially little ones. I’d like places for the little ones to be comfortable.”
-June Callwood

Play will be integrated into the forms of the landscape. Slides meander down the slopes and children play in the mist of rubber balloons in an interactive splash park. Rubber surfaces allow for unstructured play and the Fort York Green provides passive play space adjacent to the playground. Toddler sledding hills will emerge in the winter months. Ecological details are woven throughout the park and with the enhanced seasonal variation built into the park; these details will provide children with playful educational opportunities.

Veil of Green
June Callwood Park will function on an extreme level of sustainable agency. Our design for the park employs a responsive ecological infrastructure. Landforms are graded to collect stormwater in underground cisterns; collected water will be used to irrigate the park. This irrigation system will enable the City of Toronto to effectively maintain the health of June Callwood Park’s trees and plantings as necessary. A grove of trees is planted at the southeast corner of the park to block prevailing winds. Smaller bands of trees are planted along the park’s perimeter to shield the park from the wind tunnel effect cause by surrounding buildings. We have been working with local Toronto arborists to isolate salt-spray tolerant plantings, which are strategically placed at the north end of the park where salt spray is abundant from the Gardiner Expressway. June Callwood Park will proactively fit into and engage the social ecology of interesting and lively public spaces woven with a veil of green ecological details and water systems.

Light & Shadow
The shade studies were as important in determining the form of the park as the urban movement strategies. The park is shaped to maximize the sun exposure with maximum wind protection through the topographic variation. The Event Plaza will see the greatest amount of sun. Stainless steel Sky Pools dot the plaza, bringing light and sky to the ground. The concave surfaces will also playfully reflect the park visitor and collect water and snow from the plaza. At night they will glow with the moonlight. Strategies, such as heliostats will be proposed to the adjacent building developers to direct sunlight from the roofs of the towers into the park. June Callwood Park is a See Stars Park, meaning it will use state of the art high efficiency lighting to wash surfaces and not contribute to light pollution. Pole lights are avoided as far as safety dictates, to create an inviting glow, much like a moonlit night.

Tree Advocacy
Urban trees are vital to the success of any park in the city. Toronto is leading the way in tree advocacy and June Callwood Park will follow best management practices for designing continuous tree pits, planting and maintaining its trees. Trees provide a vital role in the health and bird & animal habitat of the city. Planting the Maple Vallée with large caliper canopy trees will provide immediate benefits to the visual iconography and ecological function of the park.

team credits:
Balmori Associates
Diana Balmori / founding principal
Mark Thomann / director
Kira Appelhans

Europaconcorsi Beta

June Callwood Park