HOK’s Toronto Park Redesign Is Going to the Dogs
Human users also get their shares of a delightful urban space

by Tracy Ostroff
Associate Editor

How do you . . . accommodate diverse user groups (and their canine companions) on a tight urban site?

Summary: HOK architects from the firm’s Toronto office have transformed the city’s Cawthra Square Park with a redesign that introduces dedicated zones to create a positive experience for the different and often incompatible users of the one-acre property. It also breaks new ground in accommodating dog lovers—a touchy issue in downtown Toronto—with a dedicated dog park area, complete with special surfacing, gates, and a dog drinking fountain with a spray, and seating (for the owners).

Pet owners are but one of the many user groups whose needs HOK had to address. The designers worked with the Parks Department and city officials to accommodate a diverse group of stakeholders, including children and families using the play area, gay and lesbian Pride Week visitors, visitors to the park’s AIDS Memorial, and large numbers of people who pass through day and night.

“Our challenge was to identify specific program elements and reconfigure the spaces on this tiny site to suit them with minimal overlap,” says Barry Day, HOK landscape architect and project manager. Day says the architects accomplished this by introducing three dedicated zones, including a small plaza for the AIDS Memorial, children’s play area with secure access points, and the dog park.

History and context
At the same time, the team had to reconcile those needs with the site’s history and context. The site dates back to the 1880s, when it was a sporting club and the place to be and be seen. The park is bordered on the west by a community center that occupies a historic space and serves more than 300 community groups. The park is rimmed to the north by the partial, ruined walls of an indoor ice rink, which frames views of the adjacent residential street and its row of mansard-roofed, 1887-88 townhouses, the architects note. To the south and east, high-rise apartment towers overlook the park.

The new 6,000-square-foot splash pad and play area are marked with vibrant colors that Day designed with Abstract Expressionist-like motifs, to stay away from the kitschy prefabricated patterns for the rubberized surface. Day says he found inspiration from the Victorian neighborhood that surrounds the park as well as the Gay and Lesbian community found just beyond the park’s borders.

Indeed, the hundreds of thousands of people who gather at or near the park for the annual Pride Week celebrations were a driver of the design. The architects removed the turf that had previously covered the area and outfitted the redesigned public plaza with precast pavers that can handle the many people observing Pride Week, the largest event of its kind in Canada, without the ground turning into oozing mud. In addition, the new plaza more sensitively frames the white-barked poplar tree that marks the space of the AIDS Memorial at the juncture of a new walkway system, creating a more respectful space for contemplation and remembrance.

Child’s play
The splash pad provides diversions for different age groups, from day-care program participants to older children on the afternoons and weekends. Wet and dry play areas have different fall-height safety requirements. Two concrete walls allow a clean separation, the architects note, between thick rubberized surfacing with the dry play area and the thin rubber layer in the wet play area. They also create interesting forms, offer a play space for children, and give parents and caregivers a place to sit and watch the children.

The practical amenities continue: the play areas do not have any equipment that could fill with standing water, a hazard for the young children; the architects avoid using mulch and sand on the theory that children would transport the materials and clog drains; and pass up jungle gyms and other large-scale equipment that require a larger safety “crash zone” than the tight site allows.

Don’t forget the dogs!
The dog park area is surrounded by a black iron fence that delineates the quarter-acre dog run. Course sand is easy on the dogs’ paws and allows for efficient surface drainage. The architects programmed a site-wide irrigation system into the dog run. The system reduces potential smells and allows efficient surface drainage. Simulated limestone boulders blend into the natural landscape and provide casual seating under mature maples and horse chestnut trees. The architects note that two more maples were added along with the latest dog-park accoutrements—a dog drinking fountain and shower spray. A poop-and-scoop facility complete with shovel and plastic bags is in the offing.

The architects further enhance the park by widening the existing meandering walkways and finished them in slip-resistant, broom-finished poured concrete. Masses of decorative shrubs line the south side of the walkway, while tea roses will bloom from spring to fall along the sunny side of the walk, near the memorial. The native birch grove and stands of sumac remain.

The designers, including Day, Project Leader Tom Hook, and Plant Specialist Bryan Jones, are all LEED® accredited, and the team included sustainable practices, such as irrigating the dog run, using as many native plants as they could, and employing sustainable materials. Day also stresses that communication, particularly with the vast array of user groups, as well as with the local council member and parks department, was key to the project’s success. It’s a project for the dogs, and for the people and community, too.