Equitable Resilience in Toronto’s Open Space Research Report - Introduction_UofT_#1

Equitable Resilience in Toronto’s Open Space - Introduction_UofT_#6

Working on the collective partnership goals of (re)defining quality in Canada’s built environment, this situated project by the University of Toronto team focuses on the vitality, equity, sustainability, and resilience of local neighbourhood parks in Toronto. From initial engagement with our industry partners – The City of Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation (PF&R) and the Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA) – we identified several procedural gaps in how local, small-scale, community/neighbourhood parks are designed and maintained, especially when compared to competition-winning destination parks along the waterfront. This is a critical distinction in our roadmap to defining quality – we want to focus on these neighbourhood parks that often receive minimal design energy but are pivotal to the everyday lives of many Toronto residents. This project is one of two situated projects undertaken by the University of Toronto team. For this project, we focused on the historically under-served areas along the Black Creek Subwatershed as a starting point.

Mikaela Magtanong