Design Review of Hinge Park Based on The Seven Cs Framework for Evaluating Natural Play Environments

Photos from PWL Partnership

This presentation provides an introduction to a new community park that is generally referred to as Hinge Park, although has not been formally named by the Vancouver Parks Board. This park is located next to the 2010 Olympic Athletes Village, or what is now known as the Southeast False Creek Neighbourhood. Overall this park is a wonderful example of a master planned site that provides unique elements for play and relaxation.

The presentation includes a unique site tour created using Google Earth Pro, and it describes the park design elements and how they support the broader design goals of the community. There is also discussion of the artificial habitat island (or beer island as it is often called), the planning policies of the city that are supported by this project. The presentation also describes the Seven Cs, an evidence-based framework for evaluating the quality of natural outdoor play spaces for children. Several lessons for the City of Toronto are also suggested.

This presentation was delivered in an urban park planning class in the Master of Urban Planning program at Ryerson University in Toronto.





The following slide summarizes my own personal evaluation of this space:

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Seven Years of Cartography

This year will mark my 7th year as a professional cartographer. I am full of gratitude for every hour I have spent creating, and still love the meditative, balanced practice that forms the art and science of designing maps. The following two videos encapsulate a selection of my knowledge and practice to date and I hope these learnings may benefit my fellow spatial analysts, cartographers, designers, creators or anyone who wants to make the world a better place for future generations. If you only watch one, I suggest you watch the second video about walkability as I think it captures my current thinking very well while the longer lecture includes more specific design advice for aspiring mapmakers.

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City of Vancouver Greenest City Action Plan Review

This is a class presentation I delivered in the Masters of Urban and Regional Planning program at Ryerson University. This course is called "Planning for Sustainability" and we were instructed to provide a critical review of a municipal sustainability plan. I selected the City of Vancouver Greenest City Action Plan because I think it is an outstanding case study that uses specific goals and measurable indicators. This plan is also highly relevant to the current municipal election featuring Gregor Robertson and the Vision Vancouver Party. Thanks for your feedback!

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Pecha Kucha Presentation: Mapping Healthy Built Environments

I am very grateful for having had the opportunity deliver a Pecha Kucha presentation at the British Columbia Society of Landscape Architects Annual Conference called 'Depth of Field’. My goal for this presentation was to convey my love for maps and my belief that GIS should be utilized more widely in the practice of landscape architecture to analyze multiple scales and layers of context surrounding site-specific work. I illustrated my talk with many maps I created at the Human Early Learning Partnership and other exploratory projects I created out of personal interest. Please post below the video if you have any questions or comments!

 

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