Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The Brunswick-College parkette is shabby, rundown and hard to maintain. It is a garbage trap that fails to complement its prominent location or properly serve its diverse community. While the parkette is shunned by the majority of those who might use of it (local residents, the staff and clients of Kensington Health Centre and Kensington Gardens long term care facility and local businesses, as well as tourists and passers-by) the majority of the few people who do use the parkette, day and night, are members of Toronto's homeless community.

The Brunswick-College parkette site is jointly owned and administered by Kensington Health Centre and City of Toronto, Parks and Recreation. While both are aware of the parkette's problems and in favour of its improvement, plans for the parkette's re-design will need to be approved by both (as well as by Toronto City Planning and Heritage Preservation services) before they can be executed. And - very important! Since funding is bound to be limited, the winning design will be practical as well as imaginative. It will appeal to all of the parkette's potential users - as well as its present users - but it cannot be extravagant!

(From competition brief)