1867 CONFEDERATION
1824 Burlington Canal dredged within Harbour created first as navigable waterway
VIEW (IN TIME)
1912 Dominion Steel Casting Company (DOFASCO)
1846 Official City Status
1812 War of 1812 and Battle of Stoney Creek
Iroquois Confederacy of Five (later Six) Nations called the bay (Macassa, meaning “beautiful waters”)
VIEW HAMILTON
Burlington Canal
1792 John Graves Simcoe names bay Burlington Bay (later renamed Hamilton Harbour)
Lake Iroquis drains to current Lake Ontario & forms Iroqouis Plains
1917 swimming in Harbour health outcry
amalgamation
1994 visible and measurable water quality improvement in Hamilton Harbour (Sheila Copps harbour swim) Bayfront Park Opens (capped Lax Lands)
1970s Internal Joint Commission (governs water usage in Great Lakes Basin) recognize need for action - start of greater public awareness
2015 Randle Reef Stage 1 begins 2017 STELCO (US Steel) purchased by Bedrock Industries
VIEW (IN SPACE)
VIEW HAMILTON Pier 8 as Park
2007 STELCO files for bankrupcy & purchased by US Steel
Tall Ship Festivals & expansion of Waterfront events
The Hamilton Harbour shoreline is largely natural and public to the north and west, and a hard, manufactured, and industrial edge to the east and south. These opposing conditions meet in a confluence at Pier 8. VIEW Hamilton frames these spectacular views, while creating a public open space that embodies these two distinct experiences: the URBAN and the WILD
MANUFACTURED
NATURAL
VIEW Hamilton brings together the natural and the manufactured – both central to Hamilton’s socio-cultural identity – to create a vibrant and unique public space along the Hamilton Harbour shoreline. A welcoming and inclusive civic space, VIEW Hamilton celebrates and amplifies these themes, creating a waterfront experience that is authentically Hamilton, serving as a catalyst for the emerging Pier 8 waterfront neighbourhood as well as Hamilton’s on-going urban renaissance.
ecological control underway 1952 current lift bridge built over Burlington Canal (rail) 1958 Burlington Skyway bridge 1 opens
1870s Iron & Steel industry starts
The Niagara Escarpment and the wetlands and adjacent meadows of the Hamilton Harbour connect the contemporary city with its geologic past. At the human scale, the steel industry has greatly contributed to the economic vitality of the city and its civic identity as the ‘Steel Capital of Canada’. Both of these systems have played a pivotal material role in the morphology of the shoreline which now defines the edge of Pier 8, and the Waterfront Promenade Park
past | present | future
1945-1952 WWII causes spike in industry introduction on heavy pollutants into harbour
present day
MEADOW & MARSH
FIRST INHABITANTS
BUSINESS
SHIPPING MANUFACTORIES
POLLUTION STEEL SHEET PILES
LOSS OF ECOLOGY
STEEL FACTORIES WOOD WHARF ESCARPMENT NATIONAL IDENTITY SETTLEMENT CIVIC IDENTITY
RECLAIMING WATERFRONT EFFICIENCY ESCARPMENT FILL GLOBAL PUBLIC ACCESS
CREATION OF LANDSCAPE GEOLOGIC
COLONIZATION
10,000 BC
INDUSTRIALIZATION
1600 first explorers (Étienne Brûlé & Lasalle)
1791 Dominion of Upper Canada
1815 establishment by George Hamilton
1792 John Graves Simcoe names bay Burlington Bay (later renamed Hamilton Harbour)
Lake Iroquis drains to current Lake Ontario & forms Iroqouis Plains
1912 Dominion Steel Casting Company (DOFASCO)
1846 Official City Status
1867 CONFEDERATION
1824 Burlington Canal dredged within Harbour created first as navigable waterway
POST-INDUSTRIAL HYBRID
1970 POP 296,826
2017 POP 536,917
Waterfront Trail 1950 City officials deem 1960s economic and 1980s improved Opens Hamilton Harbour unfit for industrial boom pollution controls cultural and environmental recreation and shut down all 1990s beautifi cation and 2001 hamilton awareness and connections beaches ecological control underway amalgamation 1945-1952 WWII causes 1952 current lift bridge 2015 Randle Reef 1994 visible and measurable water spike in industry built over Burlington Stage 1 begins quality improvement in Hamilton introduction on heavy Canal (rail) 2017 STELCO (US Steel) Harbour (Sheila Copps harbour swim) pollutants into harbour purchased by Bedrock 1958 Burlington Skyway Bayfront Park Opens Industries bridge 1 opens (capped Lax Lands) VIEW HAMILTON Pier 8 as Park 1970s Internal Joint Commission
1939 QEW Complete
1910 Steel Company of Canada (STELCO)
1826 first bridge built over Burlington Canal
1812 War of 1812 and Battle of Stoney Creek
Iroquois Confederacy of Five (later Six) Nations called the bay (Macassa, meaning “beautiful waters”)
1908 Eastwood Park Opens
VIEW HAMILTON
ENVIRONMENTALISM & NEW RENAISSANCE
1900 POP 51,561
1800 POP 600
10,000 BC end of last glaciation (Quaternary Glaciation & Wisconsin Glacial Episode)
RESTORATION
ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS
1917 swimming in Harbour health outcry
1870s Iron & Steel industry starts
(governs water usage in Great Lakes Basin) recognize need for action - start of greater public awareness
2007 STELCO files for bankrupcy & purchased by US Steel
Tall Ship Festivals & expansion of Waterfront events
HARBOUR ROOM
TO BURLINGTON/ TORONTO
TO SKYWAY ACROSS HAMILTON HARBOUR TO STEEL & INDUSTRY
WATERFRONT TRAIL PROMENADE
HISTORIC PLAY
URBAN PLAZA
FOREST
LENS WETLAND
SLOPING MEADOW
VISTA GARDENS
WEDGE LAWN
UPPER PROMENADE
VIEW TERMINUS PLAZA VIEW TERMINUS PLAZA FUTURE PARK PAVILION 6M WIDE MULTI USE TRAIL MOORING BOLLARDS
INFORMAL GATHERING SPACE INDUSTRIAL TERRACES
INFORMAL GATHERING SPACE
SECURE BIKE PARKING
OPTIONAL VIEW PLAZA
ELECTRICAL SERVICE WITHIN TERRACES FORMAL GATHERING SPACE
PUBLIC ART SHADE STRUCTURE
ALTERNATIVE SHADE STRUCTURE LOCATION
HYDRATION STATION ENERGY EFFICIENT LIGHTING
SLOPED WALK
FUTURE PUBLIC ART
INTERPRETIVE PUBLIC ART SECURE BIKE PARKING
VEHICLE BARRIERS ENERGY EFFICIENT LIGHTING
SLOPED WALK
FORMAL GATHERING SPACE
SLOPED WALK
PIER 8 ESCARPMENT
WOODLAND SEATING BENCH
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT SPILL-OUT USES
TO SKYWAY
ENERGY EFFICIENT LIGHTING
MOORING BOLLARDS PROMENADE WOODLANDS WOODLAND TERRACES INFORMAL PLAZA
FUTURE GREENWAY
CONNECTIVITY WITH FUTURE GREENWAY
1:450 0
01
10m
20m
VIEW FROM CITY
JOHN ST. N
N
VIEW FROM CITY
HUGHSON ST. N
WOODLAND SEATING BENCH
WOODLAND TERRACES
TO ESCARPMENT WOODLAND SEATING BENCH
HMCS HAIDA
DOWNTOWN HAMILTON COOTES PARADISE
BAYFRONT PARK
PIER 4 PARK HARBOURWEST MARINA
HARBOUR ROOM
PIER 8
PROMENADE WOODLANDS
EASTWOOD PARK
WEDGE LAWN
FOREST
URBAN PLAZA
PIER 8 ESCARPMENT HISTORIC PLAY
WATERFRONT TRAIL PROMENADE LENS WETLAND
UPPER PROMENADE
HMCS HAIDA
VISTA GARDENS
SLOPING MEADOW
CIRCULATION pedestrian multi-use [& service] vehicular stairs
HARDSCAPE TYPOLOGIES plaza small plaza upper promenade terraces
PASSIVE
ACTIVE
WOODLANDS
WALKING
BIRD WATCHING
RUNNING
NATURE TRAILS
BIKING
TERRACE SEATING
DOG WALKING
SEATING
INFORMAL SPORTS
INTERPRETIVE ART
CLIMB
NATIVE PLANTING
JUMP
ORNAMENTAL PLANTING
LOOKOUT SUNBATHING PICNIC
02
BOAT MOORING
The north section of the park is URBAN, including a series of flexible, open plazas, interspersed with an expansive lawn, wetland and meadow. Materials include stone, steel, and softgrid grass pavers, emphasizing the site’s postindustrial urban character, which is contrasted by views to the woodland shoreline to the north. The east section of the park is WILD, where enclosure and immersion in native woodland plantings offers respite, contrasted to views of the imposing steel factories and Skyway Bridge east across the harbor.
PLAY
TIMELINE REFERENCE
WINTER INTEREST
URBAN MEETS WOODLAND
COMMUNAL GATHERING PERFORMANCE
SOFTSCAPE TYPOLOGIES forest woodland shrubland lawn
WATER SYSTEMS pier 8 bioswale wetland stormwater
SITE LAYERS The visually juxtaposing character of the urban and the wild is underpinned with thorough consideration for park function in a variety of layers. Accessible routes connect the upper and lower promenades of the park and permeate within its inner spaces, whilst service vehicle and multiuse trail connectivity are shared immediately adjacent to the waterfront edge. Hardscape and softscape landscape types are distributed throughout providing varied opportunities for active engagement and passive enjoyment. Sustainable stormwater systems connect the hard and soft, and the site with the Harbour.
garden meadow wetland
03
URBAN PLAZA The northern section of the park is a site of activity, play, and gathering. Features include the Wedge Lawn, the Urban Plaza and walled seating terraces, Historic Play, the Lens Wetland and sloping Meadow, the Vista Garden, and the Harbour Room. The northern section is designed to accommodate everyday neighborhood activities, as well as community events and festivals. Large and small events will utilize the plazas and shoreline, zones where vendors can set up tents and ships can dock. The lawn and terraces support informal gathering and provide access to food trucks stationed along the southern street edge. Evening events activate the lawn, where music and movie nights make use of the barge and shade structure as a stage location, allowing for increased distance between audience and performance. In winter the Waterfront Promenade Trail can be kept clear and movable firepits can be positioned on the barge as a unique post ice skating destination.
High Efficiency Promenade Lighting Sloped Meadow
The Lens Wetland is the focal element in an interconnected sustainable hydrological system which operates below the Urban Plaza and Historic Play. In combination with the structural soil wells of the plaza and promenade trees, stormwater infiltrating through the permeable paving surfaces is collected in subsurface trenches and conveyed to the Lens Wetland. Stormwater entering the wetland is treated through natural processes of biofiltration before outfalling into the Harbour. This rise and fall in water level is representative of the ephemerality of natural wetlands, and contributes to the subtle reference of its underlying historic narrative
Permeable Paving (Accessible Route)
Optional Tree
Bollard edge high efficiency lighting
Lens Wetland behind Historic Play
Softgrid Paving Silva Cell
PROPERTY LINE
SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS
Mooring Bollards
+ 77.80 PROPOSED GRADE
6.00 M waterfront trail promenade
+ 77.15 100yr OB WAVE
ON HARBOR OUTFALL TO HAMILT + 76.60 EXISTING GRADE + 76.00 100yr HWL
+ 74.75 NWL
SCALE: 1:50
04
PROMENADE WOODLANDS
ENVIRONMENTAL IMMERSION The eastern section of the park is a site of respite and natural wonder. Woodlands of native birch and aspen colonize gradually sloping landforms. Tiered stone terraces with inset wood seats define the edges of the landforms and frame intimate plazas that include the soft-grid paving, drifts of trees, and arced wooden benches. Seating at the south end of the park provides an experience of enclosure and immersion in the woodlands - a unique front door to the park and waterfront beyond.
VIEW Hamilton offers opportunities for a wide range of daily activities and programmed events both during day and night, and seasonally throughout the year - passive enjoyment within the east wild woodland promenade and active engagement along the north urban promenade.
RIBFEST
FARMERS MARKET ICE CREAM CARNIVAL
BIRDWATCHING STROLLING
YOGA GATHERING TELLING TALES WINTER WARMING
PICNICING
RELAXING
WOODLAND ESCARPMENT Shear faces are cut from the landform massing - shards that reference the escarpment geology. Slopes planted with hardy shrubs and evergreen trees offer winter and fall interest amongst the dormant forests. Accessible paths traverse these woodlands and frame harbor views.
INDIVIDUAL
TALL SHIP FESTIVAL ICE FEST
ART SHOW
LARGE CONCERT
SMALL PERFORMANCE
COMMUNITY MOVIE
COMMUNAL