Eglinton Park Master Plan

An upsurge of residential development in Midtown Toronto will soon put added pressure on the area’s largest and already heavily used park. With its pool, arena, and multiple playing fields, Eglinton Park has been primarily a sports-oriented recreation hub. PLANT’s Master Plan introduces new ‘passive’ recreational elements, such as history-themed community gardens along a new central spine to anchor the park uses. Situated on a dry creek bed, this basin-shaped park is screened from view along its south edge, where the new Eglinton Crosstown LRT Line is about to add animation, traffic volume, and complexity to the streetscape. The Master Plan transforms the Eglinton frontage into an activated plaza with seating areas, planting, and water feature – a gathering place that draws people into the park. Linked by the central spine that traces the long-vanished Mud Creek, the park centre is an active gathering place including an interactive water feature, shade structure, gardens, dog park and playground to create a new nucleus of activity. The north frontage is reconceived as a soft-landscaped plaza for watching sports and other goings-on.