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JC Saddington Park
JC Saddington park is an open public park with scattered green spaces minutes away from the Port Credit lighthouse. Located in a residential area within the neighbourhood of Port Credit, the park is secluded from the high pedestrian traffic on Lakeshore Road but still has visual relations to other attractions of Port Credit. Many people spend a lot of their time at the park observing the activities happening on the water or setting up picnics within large groups. A number of activities are introduced throughout the park by the users occupying the space. Though it is an overall successful public space, it still has some drawbacks.
The site has several open grass fields that are divided by large hills which allow for various activities to occur. According to Jan Gehl, there are three types of outdoor activities however, the park exhibits two; optional and social. [1] Optional activities such as playing and running encourages the users to interact with each other throughout the space creating a nurturing place that provides children and adults many opportunities to have fun. [2]
The playability of the grass hills in the middle of these fields are intentionally designed to be used by all 17 Gehl, Life Between Spaces: Using Public Spaces. 18 Jenny Donovan, “What Makes a Place Nurturing or Neglectful?,” in Designing the Compassionate City: Creating Places Where People Thrive, 1 Edition (New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2018). ages. There are many instances throughout the park where children are able to run and play as adults are sitting, watching and observing activities around them. The connectedness of the space encourages users to occupy it for almost as long as an entire day.
Figure 1: The main path that runs through the park
Figure 2: The boundary rock edge that invites a lot of activity
Figure 3: A dense area of vegetation to create shaded areas
The main concrete path of the park goes around and through the open grass fields The features of what makes this place great is due to its accessibility, attractiveness and sociability. [3] It is an accessible spot due to its visual connections to the boardwalk, and physical connections to the residential area. The attractiveness of the path encourages people to walk in larger groups as it is wide enough to have numerous people walk by without invading other people’s space. Its open design also creates sociable functions as it does not dictate people’s static and dynamic interactions. The dynamic activities occurring along the path include walking, talking, biking, and running, which tend to occur in groups of 2 or more. These people typically pause to spend time on the park benches along the path for about 5-15 minutes to either rest, or watch the activity towards the waterfront.
The most enticing feature of the site is the boundary that defines the edge of the park which is a hardscape of big rocks. About 50% of the park is bordered with this hardscape that overlooks the waterfront (figure 16). According to Donovan in the reading “What Makes a Place Nurturingor Neglectful?”, a place is nurturing when users can interact with nature. [4] Though the rocks are designed to be a boundary breaking the land to water condition, they encourage opportunity for activities such as sitting, watching and fishing. Depending on their activity, people tend to spend their time here ranging from 15 minutes to a few hours. Being an extension of the land, these rows are accessible right off of the main path. As said in the film The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, 'people tend to sit where there are places to sit’. [5] The rock ledges are a good example of this. Even though they are not designed to sit on, they are still inviting to do so because of their form (figure 16). The arrangement of the rocks allow for small weeds and bushes to grow in between the cracks creating a softscape of boundaries for the users.
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In contrast with the small weeds and bushes near the waterfront, the main landscaping of the park consists of large forms of vegetation that are strategically placed to create shaded areas in the summer. These shaded spaces create physical comfort for the users, specifically thermal and visual; creating shade provides thermal comfort by cooling the space whereas, the 360 degree views of nature expresses visual satisfaction [6]
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Distributed throughout the park are stationary benches along the immediate path to sit and observe the variety of activities taking place along the trail. For more permanent picnic setups, there are picnic tables and barbecues throughout the park that are strategically placed to maximise usage. These elements help shape the overall configuration of the space by creating a connected set of discrete units. The benches, tables and barbecues are designed to influence specific behaviours and activities in these areas [7] and encourage programmatic activities at the grand scale of the park.
In the center of the park is a smaller, paved public square to contrast the surrounding green nature. As mentioned in the film, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, people do not like to stop and talk in the middle of a space; people tend to surround physical landmarks.[8] The paved square is an unsuccessful feature of the park because it has no immediate landmarks to gather around. Another feature that also makes the site unsuccessful is the curvilinear stairs leading to the square. These stairs are unproportionate to the human scale as they have a low rise and wide run, ultimately making the use of these stairs uncomfortable and uninviting. Beside this square is a manmade pond that gives the middle of the park a visual appeal. Unlike the square, triangulation occurs with the pond as it is a physical feature that people enjoy gathering around. [9] The pond invites wildlife which in return creates a conversation point amongst the occupants, further enhancing the success of this element in the park.
Figure 4: Dynamic activities throughout the park
'people tend to sit where there are places to sit’.
Figure 5: The unoccupied paved public square
Figure 6 (top left): Gatherings throughout the park
Figure 7 (top right) : The softscape of light vegetation along the rock boundary
Figure 8 (bottom left): People fishing and watching the view of the waterfront
Figure 9 (bottom right): The unproportionate stairs attached to the paved public square
Mann, Tavleen. Evaluation Criteria and Breakdown,Brampton, Ontario. October 8, 2020.
[1] Gehl, Life Between Spaces: Using Public Spaces
[2] Jenny Donovan, “What Makes a Place Nurturing or Neglectful?,” in Designing the Compassionate City: Creating Places Where People Thrive, 1 Edition (New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2018).
[3] Pinard, “Social: A Public Space and Placemaking.
[4] Donovan, “What Makes a Place Nurturing or Neglectful?”
[5] Whyte, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces
[6] Pinard, “Healthy: Happiness and Well-Being.”
[7] Pinard, “Social: A Public Space and Placemaking.
[8] Whyte, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces.
[9] Pinard, “Social: A Public Space and Placemaking.
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