How not to build a public park
How (not) to build a public park
As part of the “public benefits” package for its 29 storey, mixed-use Tableau development in Toronto’s Entertainment District, Urban Capital and its partner Malibu Investment proposed a new urban park for the sad triangular site across the street on the northeast corner of Richmond and Peter Streets. A grove of trees planted in a grid of “silva cells” (a new construction technique that allows tree roots to grow under paved surfaces), it promised to bring dense greenery to this hard urban environment. How hard could it be to get this minuscule exercise in city building approved and constructed? As it turns out, impossibly hard.
On this page, a very abridged version of Urban Capital and Malibu Investment’s close to nine-year struggle to get a $1 million park under construction.
