Yesterday, while a handful of Spacing Montreal contributors sat in a musty church basement with hundreds of other Expozine exhibitors and visitors, about 150 people attended a public forum on the future of the Pine/Park interchange. Dozens of proposals were submitted on how to deal with the newly-reclaimed space, but the verdict that emerged from yesterday’s consultation was this: the space will not be developed. Currently, it is zoned to allow buildings up to four stories high, but Plateau mayor Helen Fotopulos said that it will be soon be rezoned for parkland.
Of course, parks come in many shapes, so the discussion is far from over. The challenge, it seems, is to make sure that Pine and Park becomes a gathering space — not just the featureless afterthought, covered with cheap sod, that it is now. What kinds of things could make this very passive green space an active part of the city? There are plenty of examples to choose from. The Project for Public Spaces, a large non-profit organization based in New York, offers some solid guidelines on how to build a good park, guided by the straightforward axiom, “Design alone does not make a park succeed. Great parks have a choice of things to do.” Check out their Ten Principles for Creating Successful Squares for some ideas.
Top photo by Denis-Carl Robidoux
Bottom photo by Robert Skinner, La Presse
2 comments
There’s so much potential in that space, considering the interesting things people already do with it. I’d love to see something like Dufferin Grove park happening here, but that seems unlikely.
This area, while beautiful, is somewhat tired looking. Moreover, the La Cite complex, like most developments dating from the 1970’s is utilitairian and ugly. Instead of railing against building and development projects, to say nothing of Montrealer’s low-rise image of the city, we should be focusing on design and architecture. Montreal will never be Manhattan, or Chicago… when we have the opportunity to get development, we should be pressing developers to be partons of architeture and good design not running them out of town. This area like most areas of downtown could use some high quality architecture. I could easily imagine beautiful apartment buildings covered in limestone of a mix of brick and limestone (Robert AM Stern anyone??) facing the park. This is a city, a celebrated one no less. What heritage are we leaving for future generations if we are anti development?? In 100 years they will look back and say that we made no contributions to our city and it’s story. A city is a living and evolving and growing place. It is not a medieval museum. If you want park and greenspace, move to Blainville. Our downtown should be a showcase of our past and our present. If we are a world class city, let’s start acting like one.