The Design Brief

The Design Brief prepared by the park redesign steering committee is now available on the Documents page. As Gary wrote when introducing it to the Friends, "This document represents many (many!) hours of labour (with a spattering of blood and tears) by the intrepid steering committee members, and our writer, Jessica Humphreys. We have done our best to gather the
community's suggestions, through various means of consultation, and translate these into a document that clearly communicates our community's vision to the city and prospective park designers. This document will form the core of the next phase of this process -- the hiring of a design firm to take us into the real nitty-gritty of redesigning and redeveloping our park.

We still hope to have this park redesign and construction done by the 2012 summer season ... you can of course expect plenty more opportunities for formal community input as things move forward ... and of course the longest (informal) community meeting of all is just getting going -- our spring, summer and fall in the park!"

The Brainstorming Fair

The brainstorming fair on Feb. 13 was a great way to get the community dreaming about what they want for the “new” park. About 50 neighbours of all ages showed up and wrote and drew pictures in answer to our open questions about what they loved about the park and what they wanted to change. People imagined a perfect day in the park and got to think about childhood play. We took the words and drawings and attached them to green balloons, creating a floating forest of dreams that was anchored to the Fairley Taxi. Mindy made portraits of neighbours with their ideas. People commented how good it was to get together in the dead of winter, and it seems that everyone is looking forward to enjoying an improved park. Not this summer, but as soon as we can get there!

We also had 35 responses to the online survey version of the brainstorming questions. The steering committee is now hard at work turning the community’s vision into a design brief, so that we can work with the City to select a park designer and really get things underway.

Here are some more pictures of the brainstorming fair, thanks to Mindy.

Brainstorming survey

We had an amazing turnout at the brainstorming fair today! For anyone who missed it, or anyone who was there who wants to share some additional ideas, we've created an online survey version. Feel free to pass it on to your friends and neighbours. The survey will be open until the end of the day on February 20 We are still getting responses and have extended the survey until the end of the day on February 27!

A full report on the brainstorming fair is coming soon!

Come Dream Up Our New Park!

Margaret Fairley Park Brainstorming Fair
Sunday, February 13th, 2011, 3-6pm, Drop-In
Kensington Gardens, 45 Brunswick Avenue

Join us for this family friendly event in which we'll play, dream, and imagine our new park.  Come meet your neighbors, have some snacks, and join in on brainstorming activities that will help spark our imaginations.  Following the meeting we'll gather all of our ideas for a proposal for the renewal of the park.

Margaret Fairley Park Revitalization Process

Introduction:

The City of Toronto has set aside money for a revitalization of Margaret Fairley Park. Our City Councillor is encouraging us, the community, to take the lead in the park redesign process, and has informed us that “anything is possible.”

We held a community meeting in October 2010 to kick-start the process, and then set up a steering committee to plan the community consultation and design process.

The Process:

Our City Councillor’s office and City staff have advised us on the set of steps a community like ours must go through in order to undertake a Park redesign:

Steps	Tentative Timeline
1) Set up a Community-led Design Process	· Initial Friends of Margaret Fairley Park community meeting Oct. 24, 2010 (advertised through HVRA & FMFP Listserves, and posted notices in the park. Attended by 17 people) · Steering Committee established Nov. 2010
2) Prepare a “Design Brief”: A visioning document, with the community’s big ideas about what we would like our park to be. It will not get into specifics (e.g. exact play-ground equipment), but will lay out broad principles to guide the design process.	· Community Meeting Feb. 13, 2011 (advertised through Listserves, HVRA newsletters, and household flyers) · Design Brief prepared by mid-March 2011.
3) Hire and work with a designer firm: This process is carried out in partnership with the City, through a formal hiring process. The designer’s job is to conduct further community consultations and, using the design brief as a guide, turn our ideas into a specific design for the park.	· Hiring complete by June 2011. · Community Consultations through Summer 2011. · Final design ready by November 2011.
4) Construct the new park: Once a design has been agreed upon, the City hires a construction company to put the new park in place.	· Hiring complete by Feb. 2012. · Construction through Spring 2012.
5) Enjoy what we’ve created. Depending on what we design, this may include ongoing community coordination of certain events/activities.	· Summer 2012 to Forever

The February 13, 2011 meeting is to gather big ideas … to make us think outside the bounds of our park as we know it … to discuss what our ideal park would look like. These ideas will be used to write the Design Brief and bring those dreams closer to reality.

For more information, please see margaretfairleypark.blogspot.com, or email fmfpark@gmail.com. Please contact us to join the Friends of MF Park Listserve.