A more ‘walkable’ Gore Park debuts in October
Surface will be extended to south leg of King Street
The oldest part of Gore Park, between James and Hughson streets, is in the process of getting a facelift.
Construction crews took over the Central Garden Block three weeks late. Despite the slow start, Meghan Stewart, landscape architect for the City of Hamilton, says they plan to have Phase 2, part of a multi-year development and restoration project called “Gore Pedestrianization Initiative,” completed by the end of October.
“You won’t see major changes like you did in Phase 1. They’re starting to do subsurface work including drainage and installation of catch basins, irrigation and electrical services,” she said.
“Concrete work will be done along with finishing touches and esthetics like planting trees and flowers.”
The purpose of the upgrades is to make the park more “walkable” — something Kathy Drewitt, executive director for Hamilton’s BIA, has been pushing for.
“The project is becoming a game changer for downtown Hamilton,” she said. “The park is not only a tribute to our heritage but also to the trend right now of more pedestrianized spaces, more walkability, these ‘complete streets.’”
Once the upgrades are complete it will seem like the south leg of King Street is part of the park — the road surface will be raised and flush with the park’s level. Drewitt says the ability to extend patios and sidewalks will be attractive to downtown businesses who will be able to “spill out” onto the street.
“We want to see that the utilization of the park and the side streets, the road allowance itself will be maximized once this whole project is done.”
Phase 2, at a cost of about $1.7 million dollars, will also feature a nine-metre-high beacon in the southwest corner of the park and another at the eastern end at Catharine Street. Stewart says the first beacon will be “fully installed” in Phase 2; the other will be included in Phase 3, in front of the Connaught.
“The beacons are meant to bookend the park and delineate the space,” she said. “They will be made out of the same materials as the Memorial Enclaves in Phase 1 with a similar esthetic — glass, metal and granite.”
Phase 2 included removing 10 ash trees. An assortment of 25 different trees will be planted in their place, including the Armstrong maple, beech and London planetrees.
“We’re trying to pick appropriate trees that hopefully won’t be impacted by diseases in the future,” Stewart said.
The city has already lost 11,000 trees to emerald ash borer. Thirteen trees surrounding the Queen Victoria memorial have remained, including 10 ash trees, at least for now.
Bill Longley, forestry supervisor for the city, said all 10 were injected with a pesticide solution in 2015 as part of a protection strategy to get the insect under control. But he says it’s “most beneficial” to inject the tree prior to infestation, which can occur three years before a tree will show signs of decline.
“Once a tree is injected, it has to be retreated the following year and then again biannually.”
As long as the trees appear to be healthy, they will remain.
“They’re in various states of decline because they’ve been exposed to emerald ash borer. It’s my hope these trees will give our new trees time to grow before they meet their end,” said Stewart.
Longley says 170 ash trees are on the 2016 protection list; three of them are in Gore Park. “We don’t know for sure they’re going to die … I have beautiful, healthy trees on the ash program and I’d like to try to save them.”