Alongside the new condos going into the old Royal Connaught Hotel in Hamilton, an entirely new Gore Park will start to emerge this summer in a roughly $7-million, three-phase project the city hopes will give Hamilton that post-Steeltown boost it's been trying to achieve for the past decade or so.
Born of a transportation study of an adjacent portion of King Street, the Gore Park revitalization process blossomed into a project of its own, the details of which were hashed out over several years of public meetings.
"This space is as old as Hamilton itself," says Le'Ann Seely, supervisor of park planning and development for the city, "and the people of Hamilton care deeply about how it is handled."
The project's
first phase will include some pedestrianization from James to Catherine Street along the park's north edge, as well as along King Street on the south border, refurbishing the cenotaph, the construction of one large and several smaller memorial walls to recognize Hamilton's veterans, relocating the statue of Sir John Macdonald, and the planting of trees.
"We hope it will achieve a high-quality downtown area that is representative of the economic strength and civic pride of Hamilton," Seely says of the entire project, which includes two as yet unfunded phases. "The economics of place-making suggest that public realm improvements that are pedestrian-focused are good for the economics of a city. Pedestrianization connects people with a place, making the place feel important and a destination, versus a space they rushed past on their way somewhere else. People therefore become more aware of a space and what is in it, and near it, which is good for business."
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Le'Ann Seely