Originally pitched as an activity evening for at-risk teens and tweens, it has become a popular event for families with young children, and an opportunity for local teens to gain volunteer hours for high school.

We continue to offer structured and unstructured physical activities, food and fun for residents of all ages. Adult supervision provided.  Parents are always welcome.

The WNP is every Wednesday from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

This week at the WNP: Ball hockey (weather permitting).

Meet in Heron Park on Clover Street this Saturday at 9:00 a.m. and help clean up our community.

Groups of residents will be fanning out through the neighbourhood to clean up Heron Park, Timmermans Park and Kaladar Park. We hope to also clean up near the OTrain pathway, along Sawmill Creek and in the area between Bank Street and Brookfield Road.

Supplies will be handed out in Heron Park. A light lunch will be provided after the clean up.

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*The other design options shown here are only meant to be understood as ideas at this stage.*  The image below explains the methodology used to create these options; (for example, how community members’ ideas are integrated into the design process).  We hope to attract many more people to participate and get involved in the discussion of a new Community Centre so that we can continue to look at different design ideas and options in the future.

All the design options will be posted and updated here.  Please click on the links below the colourful Design Option Symbol to view the pdf’s.  We would like to encourage everyone to post comments on the website in response to these projects.  Please make sure to comment on the projects you ‘Like’, as this will help us understand which ideas are working best.  Also, don’t hesitate to tell us what else these design options might need? What is missing? What you would like to see?

Kitchen Central: Connecting Social Space

No Lift Required: Rethinking the Ramp

*Updated.

Expansion Where Necessary: Minor Adjustments

Updated.

Stacked Up! A New Horizon

Updated. Unfinished version.

Community Orchard: Fruit and Nut Trees

Blossom image by Flickr.com user Ms Oddgers

When: Tuesday, March 20th at 7:00 PM

Where: Heron Park Community Centre (Corner of Clover Street & Richard Ave)

What:  Share your ideas as we consider planting a Community Orchard later this spring.

Join fellow community members who are interested in creating a Community Orchard here in Heron Park.  For a bit more background on what has been done so far (spoiler alert: not much apart from getting permission from the City) you can read the article in the Spring 2012 Herald or download this short summary: Heron Park – Community Orchard Info.pdf [1.5 MB]

We will be posting the results of the community meeting on this website (heronpark.ca) so that you can follow our progress.

Hope to see you there!

The HPCA is conducting this survey of the Heron Park community to see and determine what size and type of Community Centre facility would be appropriate for the neighbourhood.  Please follow the link below:

Click here to take survey

Survey Monkey is the world’s leading provider of web-based survey solutions, (it’s also free to use if you keep your survey under 10 questions!)  This online survey will not take very long (about 5 min.), so if you have some time, please help us out by answering the following 9 questions as they will be very useful for documenting the need for a new community building.  Make sure to add all your personal ideas and suggestions to the comments section at the end as this is potentially the most important part of the survey.  Thank-you for your time!

Option #01 – ‘T’-Axis

*The central location of the washrooms and the ‘T’ axis for the building circulation space (i.e. Foyer and Corridor) are the two main elements that make this design proposal so effective.*

Washroom location:

(1) they provide easy for access from the both interior and exterior spaces.

(2) they are close to gymnasium, (could incorporate change rooms).

(3) close to multi-use/ foyer / gathering space.

‘T’ axis for building circulation:

(1) provides a quick path through the building from north to south. (This is especially useful in summer months when people are moving back and forth across the park; from the baseball field to the pool for example.)

(2) The east-west axis could be widened quite largely to double as foyer / hall / or any type of assembly space.  (The Multi-use rooms to the south could have moveable partition walls to connect to the foyer allowing a bigger open space when necessary)

(3) Also, the east-west axis leads people to the gym at the back of the Community Centre from the entry, which a) would be a nice visual feature, and b) keep loud sounds from gym distant from the front lobby and other multi-purpose rooms.

Other Rooms:

Kitchen: If it was located between the daycare, a multipurpose room, and the foyer / hall/assembly space, then it could serve all these different spaces and the different activities they host.  (Additionally, kitchen preparation space could expand into one of these rooms if it was needed for a larger event).

Staircase: could be added to the main foyer space to provide access to quieter rooms above:  (ie. Games room, exercise room, meeting rooms, study, or more multipurpose).

Option #02 – Multi-Purpose Room (Gym) in the center

*This design puts the multi-purpose room directly in the centre of the Community Centre.*

The atrium/gathering room: is the first space you would experience when you arrive from the entrance  located on the corner closest to Clover Street.  From this space, one could either go directly into the large multi-purpose room (gym) or over to the daycare/youth games room on the south end of the building that looks over the baseball field.   Attached to this daycare/games room is a lowered mudroom that could be used as a skate changing space.  However, this room wouldn’t only be used for this purpose as ‘putting on your skates’ is only a seasonal task and also doesn’t necessarily require the standard privacy  factor as people usually only put on their skate here and do not need to change their clothes.

The idea of putting the multi-use room in the centre was to emphasize the fact that it could be used for multiple, changing things and that people entering the Community Centre would see these events as soon as they entered the building.  Also, the central location would allow the sounds and views from this room to resonate throughout the building creating an overall lively atmosphere.

Option #03 – Stacked Up!

To add four storeys on top of the existing field house is likely a bit of an exaggeration, but what if the existing structure could support a second storey?  Is this an option worth looking into further?

Option #04 – Community Orchard

This design does not directly involve the Community Centre building but instead proposes a new community orchard space just north of the park. 

Option #05 – A couple ideas from our young designers!

Click on the link below to see a short time-lapse video of these design being built.

BIG! Site Model: Programming the Community Centre from A Student on Vimeo.

This time-lapse video shows the interactive model-building process used for planning a variety of new Community Centre design layouts. Members of the community help design the building by arranging different rooms and space on a large (4ft x 8ft) site model.

For more information on how to get involved, please join us on Wednesday nights at the Field House.  Or in the meantime, take a look at the new category in the left column on the website entitled, “New Community Centre Design,” for some recent examples of some of the collaborative work that has already begun.

We encourage everyone in the community to post any examples, images, links, etc., they think might be useful.  Online versions of these Case Study examples are found in the New Community Centre Design category in the left column.  Hardcopy versions can be viewed  at the Field House.  We will continue to make more booklets as new examples are posted.

1/ Creating their own models and designs,

2/ Adding comments and ideas with post-it notes,

3/Sketching and drawing options on the model,

OR/ designing in whatever way you would like.

Every Wednesday night a series of time-lapse photos are taken of this model with a digital camera to document the different design options proposed by members of the community.