Last week saw the official opening of Corktown Common, the 18-acre park that's a central element of the revitalization of the West Don Lands. Corktown Common will serve an important role in Toronto; the park's built on an 8.5m-high berm that should block the Don River from overflowing, hopefully preventing the kind of scenario we saw in July 2013. Corktown Common's much more than a flood-prevention device, though; it's a serene, well-thought-out oasis in a part of town that will be a hive of activity in the next couple of years.
The Common has play areas for kids, a wide, sloping picnic-friendly lawn surrounded with lots of benches for sitting and relaxing, and naturalized sections like an urban prairie and a marshland, all landscaped with over 120 plant species, 90% of them native to the Don River Valley (and many of them loved by bees and butterflies).
Waterfront Toronto officially opens Corktown Common [Canadian Architect]
How landscape architects are designing for super-storms [Azure]
What's going up in the West Don Lands? [Curbed Toronto]