4th Year BLA Open House for Riverpark Designs in Downtown Guelph

All are welcome to join the 4th year BLA students as they host an open house in the City Hall Galleria to present their designs for the extended Riverpark along Wellington Street in Downtown Guelph.

All are welcome to bring skates as we will enjoy a skating party at the Market Square rink following the presentations- then off to the Albion!

Invitation to:  Open House for Landscape Architecture Designs for "Riverpark" (Gordon/Wellington + environs)
When/Where:  City Hall Galleria, Monday, December 2, 4:00pm to 7:00pm (refreshments provided)          
From:  Professors Lise Burcher & Nadia Amoroso, SEDRD, University of Guelph

Drop by the City Hall Galleria on Monday, December 2nd from 4:00pm 7:00pm to view the "Riverpark" design drawings and talk to the Landscape Architecture students about their vision for the area and how they propose to activate this very significant urban open space through the design of highly engaging active park programming and facilities. Framing the design project with the working title "Riverpark", the student design explorations draw on the foundation urban design district plan integrated in the Downtown Secondary Plan with the reclaiming of the river edge lands throughout the existing commercial plaza development along Wellington Street.

The students envision the park extension along Wellington Street as a significant contribution to the quality of life that will be enjoyed by the many residents that will be moving into the downtown core with thousands of additional residential units planned for the area. Their designs embrace this park and connecting river system as one of the landmark open space systems in the City with significant cultural and natural heritage features enjoyed currently by those in the beautiful and established adjacent neighbourhoods and those that travel to the riverfront from more distant neighbourhoods in the City.

Harnessing the exquisitely crafted foundation of the Downtown Secondary Plan and the tremendous excitement generated by the recent and future leveraging of private sector contributions in the "lowertown" area south of Market Square, my co-instructor Nadia Amoroso and I engaged our graduating Bachelor of Landscape Architecture students over the semester in the design of the open space quadrant south of Wellington Street (and bounded by Gordon Street on the west and Wyndham Street on the east). 

As in the past, with a commitment to participating in community engaged practice with my students in SEDRD, the class worked with a cross section of community stakeholders- those engaged in the evolution of our community- to form and refine their design scenarios. Community contributors included members of the design community, local developers, and neighbourhood group representatives. As well, George Dark, founding partner of Urban Strategies, the firm engaged to develop the urban design framework for Downtown, provided input to the students design scenarios.

Engage in the discussion of the future of outstanding resource. Looking forward to seeing you there.

Lise Burcher. Professor, SEDRD, University of Guelph