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Waterloo Park Vision
As the city’s most important open space since 1890, Waterloo Park has proven its resilience and adaptability in meeting the demands of a growing, changing population. Over the years however, the park has divided into two segregated spaces—the east side, resembling a classic 19th Century pleasure park, and the west side marked by dense forest coverage. Unless these two halves of the park can be fused into a singular, coherent place, the park will continue to lack the clear identity it needs to be the iconic open space for the city as it evolves into the future.
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Location
Waterloo, ON
Scope of Work
Master planning framework vision for Waterloo Park West and schematic design for the Festival Area
Project Size
47ha (116ac) historic park, including new 11.5ac Festival Area
Role
Design Team Lead, Landscape Architecture
Client
City of Waterloo
Collaborators
Mott MacDonald (Engineering)
PUBLIC WORK Design Team
Marc Ryan, Gerardo Paez, Seven Xiru Chen, Ben Watt-Meyer, Andy Wisniewski

With the design of the new Festival Area, Waterloo Park is now poised to take on its next programmatic adaptation for the 21st century and confirm its identity as a focal point of civic life in Waterloo. The vision builds upon the existing assets and spatial qualities of the park to provide a highly functional public space that serves the needs of the community while providing a strong new identity for Waterloo Park. The master plan for the West park presents a series of distinct elements working together to fuse the park into one legible entity: The Festival Heart, The Festival Area Frontage and Green Rooms, the new park entrance, and the Interior Promenade, which links all the elements in a continuous pathway.

The Festival Heart—defined by a decisive clearing in the forest—is the principal outdoor performance area in the park and builds upon the its long-standing history of hosting festivals, concerts, and community events. Reduced to its most flexible, functional, monumental, and sublime aspects, the clearing gives a strong structure to the park and a memorable setting for diverse events and experiences. This Festival Heart is a multi-functional green space agile enough to host the many demands for passive and active recreation—whether filled with a 5000+ concert crowd, or standing empty the following morning, the Festival Heart always offers a point of gravity for park visitors.

The Interior Promenade is the central axis within the Festival Area as it connects the east and west parts of Waterloo Park. A crossing of Laurel Creek leads visitors into the Festival Area via the Interior Promenade. This generous promenade functions as a public space in its own right, able to host temporary markets, kiosks, and events. The alignment of the promenade sets up interesting views towards the Service Centre and Beacon Hill, leading visitors to the nexus of social activity in the park. Along the promenade, asphalt surface markings provide wayfinding and park information and a collection of moveable planters can be arranged informally as social seating. Temporary events and market stalls can be arranged along the promenade with integrated power hook-ups embedded in the surface.