Toronto’s Dundas Roncesvalles Peace Garden has received a Downtown Achievement Award from the International Downtown Association (IDA). Based in Washington, DC, IDA is North America’s premier industry organization for Business Improvement Areas (BIAs) and other property-owning or business-owning groups who partner with municipalities to revitalize and sustain downtowns and neighbourhood business districts.
In 2018 IDA received a record-breaking number of submissions for its awards program and bestowed Pinnacle Awards, Excellence Awards and Certificates of Merit across six categories.The winning organizations represent cities in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and South Africa. The Dundas Roncesvalles Peace Garden, designed by PLANT Architect Inc., received an IDA Excellence Award in the Public Space Category.
Working with the Roncesvalles Village BIA and the City of Toronto, PLANT transformed a paved, triangular urban ‘remnant’ – formed by the acute intersection of Dundas Street West and Roncesvalles Avenue – into a gateway parkette and community gathering place that is part of the 1812 Binational Heritage Peace Garden Trail.
Completed in 2016, the Dundas Roncesvalles Peace Garden makes engaging and accommodating use of its compact site. The design integrates curved benches with planters containing urban native plants and historical species found in nearby High Park.
An artist from the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation and a non-Indigenous artist from the Roncesvalles area worked with young people from their communities to create designs reflective of heritage stories. Incorporated into the paving, these graphics commemorate both the Indigenous history of the area and more than two centuries of unbroken peace and friendship between Canada and the United States.
Dundas Roncesvalles Peace Garden
Team: Mary Tremain, Lisa Rapoport, Chris Pommer, Eric Klaver, Andrea Mantin, Jason van der Burg
