Pioneering Green Communities
The past two years of work with ReWilding and many of the communities around Lake Simcoe has been a huge opportunity for growth at DoUC. We’ve had the chance to contribute to exciting projects and activities, meet so many amazing people and most importantly, see the impact our designs have had on the community. These experiences have been rewarding for us in many ways, but it’s always nice (and humbling!) to receive some outside recognition.
We were excited to learn this week that both the Pine Beach and Centennial Park public spaces are recipients of the 2016 Pioneering Green Communities Award from the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority. The award is meant to recognize initiatives that foster and strengthen connections between the natural and built environments.
The central goal of both of these projects was to repurpose underused spaces in a way that brings nature, community and the built form together in a balanced and symbiotic way. Stormwater collection and management was at the foundation of the designs, with Pine Beach also taking on a new function as town square for the community, and the Centennial Park design playing an interesting role in nature/human conflict resolution for visitors and Canada goose populations.