Students from the School of Urban and Regional Planning transformed parking spaces on Bond Street into a mini park for the community to use, with a bike tune-up station, seating areas and a mini farmers’ market.
The project was organized in recognition of Park(ing) Day, a global initiative to bring attention to how cities are designed and built, and done in partnership with Urban Minds, a Toronto-based non-profit with a mission to create meaningful ways for youth to shape equitable and sustainable cities.
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Students came up with a wide range of ideas and many of them centred around the need for more seating, public art, greenery, cycling facilities and providing food to bring people together.
“Park(ing) Day is a chance for us to demonstrate solutions and show how we can be creative with spaces,” said urban planning professor Zhixi Zhuang.
The afternoon-long activation was also a chance to show how Bond Street, where the school’s office is located, can be transformed into a more pedestrian-friendly space that showcases faculty and students’ work within the school.
“Cities are for people, not for cars,” Zhuang said. “In this prime location, downtown in front of the school, we could have a space for people to socialize, to rest or even simply just enjoy this environment.”
