It’s almost here: Mulock Park’s official opening weekend!
Over the past few months, we’ve shared some sneak-peek glimpses of Mulock Park in our newsletters. We now invite you to visit this 6.47-hectare PLANT project for real on its opening weekend (Friday, September 18 – Sunday, September 20). You’ll find the full itinerary of Grand Opening celebrations and events in this Town of Newmarket release. Hope to see you soon at Mulock Park!
Gearing up for Mulock Park’s opening (fourth post in a series)
In summer, the ‘wet plaza’ at Cedar Circle is a play area for kids and a spot where adults can enjoy a refreshing stroll. In winter, it converts to an ice rink that links to a woodland skate trail.
Water, in the form of ice, sculpted much of Ontario. Newmarket is situated on the northern edge of one of the province’s most significant landforms: the 160-km-long Oak Ridges Moraine, which stretches east from the Niagara Escarpment to the Peterborough region. The way that soil and boulders were deposited by advancing and retreating glaciers, shaping the local landscape, was a key inspiration for the water features designed by PLANT for the Town of Newmarket’s Mulock Park. All these features incorporate large boulders, and together they tell a site-wide story about the importance of preserving clean water supply. We’re sharing images taken in July, when water-feature testing was conducted in advance of planting completion.
The ‘wet plaza’ at Cedar Circle is tucked into a slope just north of the historic Mulock House. In summer, when jets of water spray within the plaza’s ring of boulders, it’s a play area for kids and a spot where adults can enjoy a cooling stroll. In winter, the plaza converts to an ice rink that provides access to a woodland skate trail.
The main entrance to Mulock Park is at the corner of Yonge Street and Mulock Drive. PLANT’s design transforms this naturally marshy portion of the site into an enhanced, water-cleansing wetland, accessed via a pedestrian bridge. Linked to and just east of this bridge is the Riverine feature: a block-long fountain with braided streams and shallow pools threading through naturalized planting. With shallow water splashing around its smooth stones, the Riverine invites visitors to take their shoes off and cool their feet on a hot day. Meanwhile, the sound of flowing water helps to create an idyllic ambience in the part of the park closest to a main street.
The Riverine – shown here early in the planting process – is Mulock Park’s block-long fountain. Its boulders and meandering curves allude to the actions of advancing and retreating glaciers, which created the Oak Ridges Moraine.
A third water feature is a deeply carved boulder fountain at the centre of Mulock Park’s historic garden. This area is a partial reconstruction of the renowned formal garden that existed when the site was a private estate owned by the Mulock Family, and includes heirloom peonies transplanted from that garden.
Throughout this 6.47-hectare public park, rain gardens and infiltration manage all stormwater and protect downstream water in the moraine.
Flowing water splashes around small, smooth stones in the Riverine, inviting park visitors on hot summer days to take their shoes off and cool their feet.
Media: Are you interested in covering this story? Please reach out to Town of Newmarket at corporatecommunications@newmarket.ca for more information.
Gearing up for Mulock Park’s opening (third post in a series)
Mulock Park’s Hollow Log Play Park combines the story of a forest’s regenerative life cycle with many different types of play environments for active fun.
Welcome to the Hollow Log Play Park, the third in PLANT Architect Inc.’s series of posts leading up to the late-summer opening of the Town of Newmarket’s 6.47-hectare Mulock Park. While most of this project involved transforming the extant portion of a private estate into a new community destination for culture, recreation, and connecting with nature, the northwest corner of the site had already been converted to a neighbourhood park several decades earlier. Part of what was formerly Jim Bond Park will soon have a new role as Mulock Park’s top spot for kids. A great place for climbing, swinging, exploring, and happily learning with water and sand, the Hollow Log Play Park – like many other parts of Mulock Park – tells an ecological story. Its subject: the regenerative life cycle of the forest.
Areas within the playground represent various parts of a fallen tree that generates new forest growth as it decays.
Collectively, the playground’s zones represent a fallen tree, nurturing new forest growth as it decays. The tree’s tunnel-like hollow trunk can be climbed from inside or out; sculptures of giant mushrooms spring up where wood would break down and fertilize the soil; a big branch, split open down its centre, invites kids to pump water at one end and watch it flow through the channel and into the ground. (Thanks to Earthscape for beautifully and safely bringing our concept for the Hollow Log Play Park to life.)
Nearby, a stand of trees provides a quiet, shady spot to rest on a bench and cool off after tearing around the playground.
Kids can climb and swing from the ‘nest of branches’ play structure while their caregivers take a seat nearby.
Media:Are you interested in covering this story? Please reach out to Town of Newmarket at corporatecommunications@newmarket.ca for more information.
Gearing up for Mulock Park’s opening (second post in a series)
Nestled into the hillside, the Skate Pavilion and Cedar Circle’s ice rink/water-play area are lower in elevation than Mulock House, which is the focal point of the landscape in this part of Mulock Park.
The Skate Pavilion, a structure key to transforming former private estate lands into the Town of Newmarket’s Mulock Park, gets its close-up in our second in a series of posts leading up to the late-summer opening of this all-ages community destination.
The pergola bridging the Skate Pavilion’s west volume (shown) and east volume leads to Mulock Park’s skate trail/walking trail and will serve year-round as a shaded seating canopy.
In addition to public washrooms, the Skate Pavilion houses mechanical and ice-surfacing equipment for “Cedar Circle,” a woodland skate trail/walking trail and winter rink/summer water-play pad. Our starting point in designing this building was to consider how it would relate to the heritage Mulock House – the site’s newly restored and renovated historic home, featuring a gallery in partnership with the Art Gallery of Ontario and food services space. Set into the landscape downhill from the house, the curved Skate Pavilion frames the park’s amphitheatre-bordered rink/wet plaza, contributing to a sheltering sense of enclosure in this part of the site. The pergola that connects the pavilion’s divided volumes marks the entry to the 340-metre skate trail and serves year-round as a shaded seating canopy. The Skate Pavilion plays a pivotal role in helping visitors navigate the 6.47-hectare park, but at the same time, its split massing and modest cedar-shake cladding ensure that the grand old house retains pride of place. From the upper floors of Mulock House, visitors will see the Skate Pavilion’s green roofs.
The presence of the pavilion diminishes quickly as you move to the adjacent walnut grove.
Media: Are you interested in covering this story? Please reach out to Town of Newmarket at corporatecommunications@newmarket.ca for more information.
Newmarket’s 16-acre Mulock Park will open this summer. In this post (first in a series): a Glass Hall sneak peek
The peaked form of the patio’s glazed roof echoes the profile of the adjacent Glass Hall roof, which is clad with a mix of glazing and cedar shakes. · Photo: Stephen Evans Photography
Mulock Park has been a big part of our lives at PLANT since 2019, when the Town of Newmarket selected us to master-plan the transformation of a former private estate into a public hub for culture, recreation and connecting with nature. The Town subsequently chose us to direct the project’s progress from plan to reality, and now Mulock Park is in the final stages of construction.
As Newmarket gears up for the park’s official opening this summer, we’re kicking off a series of posts highlighting individual feature areas within this something-for-everyone destination. We’ll start with the Glass Hall – the park’s new, four-season greenhouse conservatory and its adjacent outdoor spaces. But first, a bit of background on the remarkable site that is now Mulock Park.
In the 1870s, this land and more than 200 additional acres became the summer home of Sir William Mulock – Cabinet minister, provincial court justice, University of Toronto vice-chancellor, agricultural researcher, and much more besides. His descendants lived in the manor house until 2018, when they sold the extant core of the estate to the Town. (Much of the land had by then been sold and redeveloped as a residential district.) Extensive public consultation conducted after the Town had acquired what was then known as the Mulock Property determined that the site should be converted to a public park, with an emphasis on retaining as many of its beautiful mature trees as possible, while creating spaces that would support a dynamic range of community activities.
PLANT's master plan proposed a network of focal areas that would embody aspects of the site through its millennia of history, ranging from a riverine water feature inspired by region-wide glacial moraine formation to a heritage garden that recalls Sir William Mulock’s internationally acclaimed peony garden. Other areas now nearing construction completion throughout the site include a woodland skate/walking trail (the Woodland Loop) and a Hollow Log Play Park that, in its representation of the various parts of a fallen tree, tells story of a forest’s regenerative life cycle.
The Glass Hall is a four-season conservatory with a covered patio to the south. To the north, it shares a courtyard with the Artist Studio.
The feature area that’s first up in our countdown to Mulock Park’s opening is the Glass Hall. The fully enclosed glass-roofed volume in the photo above is a year-round space for community events that will be a lush, green oasis even in the deep freeze of Canadian winter. In the warmer months, the plants will spill out onto the glass-roofed covered patio. On the other side, sharing a courtyard with the Glass Hall is the Artist Studio, an adaptive reuse of what was once the Mulock Property’s stables. The versatile courtyard will host events and educational programming, and can also provide space for temporary outdoor art displays. (We’ll have more to say in another post about the site-specific permanent public artworks that have been commissioned for places throughout Mulock Park.)
View facing west, with the Artist Studio in the adaptively reused Mulock Property stables to the rightViewed from the east, the roofs of the Glass Hall and its covered patio nestle into the trees.
And as we wrap up this introductory post, we’ll mention that a separate, related project, guided by PLANT's master plan, is also nearing completion. +VG Architects leads the restoration and transformation of the Mulock House heritage residence. This project features a second-floor gallery in partnership with the Art Gallery of Ontario and a cafe and food service hub for the park.
The Glass Hall’s glazed roof floods the interior with light.The transparency, wood structure, and cedar-shake cladding of the Glass Hall complement Mulock Park’s wooded landscape.
Sky-high landscapes at Concord Canada House (kids and dogs welcome)
Vertically and horizontally, the residents of high-rise buildings in high-density districts often live at some distance from green space. But when podium-level landscapes in these buildings offer amenities comparable to those of a neighbourhood park, that changes the situation dramatically. We’re excited to share our newly completed work at Toronto’s Concord Canada House.
Southeast-facing view from upper podium of the island in the lower podium’s pond. Wintertime removal of the island’s ‘dock’ enables skaters to loop around the frozen pond.
Situated near the CN Tower and the Rogers Centre, this complex comprises two condominium towers, 79 and 81 storeys tall, on a mixed-use podium. Its residents can take their kids to the playground, walk the dog, and even go for a skate – all without leaving the building.
Jogged pavers bordering the pond contribute to the Canadian Shield landscape concept.
Central to the lower of Concord Canada House’s PLANT-designed podium amenity levels is a Canadian Shield-themed water feature that transforms from a summer pond to a winter skating rink. In summer, a ‘dock’ extends out to the pond’s planted, granite-sided island. In winter, the dock’s removal enables skaters to loop around the frozen pond. Offering spectacular views of Lake Ontario, the lower podium boasts a promenade walk, bench planters with fire pits, a barbecue zone, lounge seating near the pond’s edge, and canopied dining areas.
There are multiple objects to climb in the playground’s ‘water’ and ‘shore’ areas. Integrated lighting ensures that this outdoor space can be used even on late winter afternoons, when evening sets in early.On the upper podium, planter-integrated bench seating and a tall transparent wall separate the dog park (foreground) from the playground.
The upper amenity podium prioritizes kids and dogs, with visually connected but physically separate zones for each. Expanding on the cottage-country theme, the playground slopes down from a ‘shore’ outfitted with a slide and an in-ground trampoline to a ‘lake’ with several climbable elements – including a sunken rowboat and a log pile. The dog park features boulder-studded off-leash space and unobstructed posts, connected to concealed plumbing infrastructure that offers dogs all the relief of a trip to a conventional ground-level park. Completing the upper podium is picnic seating area overlooking the lower podium.
PLANT also designed Concord Canada House’s streetscape, which negotiates grade changes and introduces lush greenery in large planters to soften the edges of an intensely urban environment.
First Avenue: the kitchen sequel
Our relationship with this residence started in the garden and then moved upstairs – and now the action has shifted to the kitchen. We’re talking about the work we’ve done over a 15-year period for two wonderful three-peat clients. We redesigned their garden in 2011 and the dining area and upper floors of their home in 2020, and just recently we renovated their kitchen.
The kitchen’s new cherrywood archway conceals closet space and the fridge/freezer.
Their townhouse occupies space in a high-ceilinged 1870s building that was originally a dairy. Several decades ago it was vertically divided into three tall, narrow living units. When we renovated the dining area and upper floors, the building’s round-headed windows and our clients’ amazing art collection prompted us to treat the interior as a wood-lined ‘cabinet of curiosities’. We deployed a suite of techniques for framing the distinctive windows, all executed in cherrywood: a wood arch lines the window frame in the dining area; a bulkhead-concealing wood band extends up and over the living-area windows; and in the den, floor-to-ceiling wood panelling surrounds the window.
Thin, white-painted steel shelving provides a light, modern counterpoint to the substantial millwork.
We’ve now extended the ‘cabinet’ concept into the kitchen, in a way that meets the owners’ request for more storage space and minimal visual clutter. Previously, open shelving lined the kitchen walls. Now, a deep, window-framing cherrywood archway near the entry conceals a closet, pantry shelving, and the refrigerator and freezer. White-painted open steel shelving set into the lower portion of the arch provides a light, modern counterpoint to the substantial millwork.
The cabinetry and the marble counter and backsplash smoothly round the curve that leads to the basement stair. Shoe and coat storage is tucked into this ‘back-of-house’ kitchen space.
The kitchen’s new, ceiling-high lacquer cabinetry and boldly veined marble counter and backsplash flow dynamically around a curve. A peninsula topped with the same Calacatta Borghini marble houses a sink, dishwasher, and storage, while providing additional counter space for meal prep and informal dining.
In this front-of-house/back-of-house floor plan, the area between the entry and the peninsula supports the social activities of cooking and dining, while the space that rounds the curve and provides access to the basement stair contains a coat-hanging niche and storage space for the owners’ shoes. For a couple who love to cook and entertain, it’s a convivial yet ingeniously efficient kitchen that puts every square inch to well-ordered use.
The kitchen is visually connected to the dining area, which PLANT redesigned in a previous round of renovations.The ‘front-of-house’ portion of the kitchen is designed for meal prep and informal dining.
Small but mighty – up front and out back
We love all sorts of landscape challenges, and we keep finding new ways to help urban homeowners maximize their enjoyment of their compact outdoor spaces. Our Gwynne Garden client wanted to move back into a narrow Victorian house that he had long rented out. He wanted order and cohesion restored to the tiny, overgrown front and back gardens, along with space that could function as an al fresco office and also host dinner parties. In the front and back gardens, radially arranged pavers in dark brown and reddish tones ripple outward around the woodland planting beds, edging them with precise curves.
Pavers radially arranged around curved planting beds, shown here in the front garden, is a treatment that extends into the rear garden, unifying the two spaces.
Our design team divided the rear yard into three zones: a patio next to the house, with a built-in covered seat; a middle zone where the patio narrows to a pathway between planting beds; and at the back, a slightly elevated dining platform. An existing fence, newly stained dark red, peeps through a new screen of thermally treated ash.
A taller new fence layered over the existing one frames the dining platform. As plantings mature, they will grow up around the platform.
It’s early days as yet for the plantings, but as they grow taller around the dining platform, they will enhance a sense of seclusion – in a yard that shares side access with one neighbour and is overlooked by several others.
Near the rear of the house, a built-in covered seat borders the patio.
Could your backyard use a Dragon?
Spring is here at last, and PLANT partners Lisa Rapoport and Chris Pommer are all set to enjoy patio season more than ever. Last year, much of their spring and summer revolved around the demolition of their old, on-its-last-legs laneway garage and the construction of its bigger, better – and much greener – successor: the garage/workshop dubbed the Dragon, for its ‘scaly’ texture as well as its singular colour.
The Dragon’s colour and shingled-all-over texture merge into the landscape: it’s loud and quiet at the same time.
PLANT has a long history of using conventional off-the-shelf materials such as shingles in unconventional ways. In the Dragon’s case, instead of using just one shingle shape, which is the usual way of doing things, our design team combined multiple standard shapes into an eye-catching repeating pattern. You can read more about the Dragon here on our website. And if your own garage – or house, for that matter – is looking a little lacklustre, consider the Dragon our calling card for a transformative update.
Natural light floods into the workshop portion of this laneway garage, which provides space for a car, bikes, and the creation of all kinds of art projects.The Dragon is always ready for its closeup.
PLANT gets Mic’d Up
The Architectural Course Union of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Department of Architectural Science presents a lively series of online interviews with its guest lecturers, called Mic’d Up with ACU.PLANT partner Lisa Rapoport was a recent interviewee. Here’s where to listen in on Mic’d Up interviews with Lisa and other design luminaries.
Media kits, anyone?
If you’d like a media kit and high-resolution images for Concord Canada House, First Avenue Kitchen, or the Dragon, please email PLANT's communications manager, Pamela Young, at pamela@branchplant.com.
Catch Lisa’s January 24 Toronto Interior Design Show session at the Keynote Stage
Last fall we were excited to announce that several PLANT projects were featured in Catherine MacIntosh’s Toronto Interiors book. If you’re at Toronto’s Interior Design Show on Saturday, January 24, be sure to join Catherine MacIntosh, PLANT founding partner Lisa Rapoport, and Odami partners Arancha González Bernardo and Michael Fohring in a Keynote Stage conversation moderated by Alison Garwood-Jones. The Toronto Interiors session takes place at 2 pm at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre North Building. IDS 2026 runs from January 22 to January 25.
First Avenue Residence is one of the PLANT projects featured in the Toronto Interiors book by Catherine MacIntosh.
