With Stage One of Ponsonby Park scheduled to begin in under a year, the Community-led Design (CLD) group has determined that a small celebration is in order.
The CLD group was formed after a public meeting held on Wednesday 16 March 2016. We have had our work enabled and funded by the Waitemata Local Board and we’d like to extend a big thank you to the board for this and for advocating so strongly and successfully for the whole site civic open space as their ‘One Local Initiative’.
The LandLAB concept design for Ponsonby Park will add to both the diversity and amenity of our community. It will be a venue for events and activities, and a much-needed rest stop where shoppers, visitors and locals can take time out to relax and revive before pushing on with their day.
It will be a place to meet old friends or make new ones, a place to give the kids somewhere to burn off some energy or to be entranced and gently calmed by nature. A place to meet for a picnic, a game of petanque, or simply somewhere to chillax and watch the world go by. Ponsonby Park will serve as a hub for community events and will have the ability to evolve over time as needs change and the local population defines new activities and patterns of use.
The dominant and important themes that have arisen from all the feedback we have received during our CLD work is the desire for both a place to ‘rest and relax’ and to build ‘social capital’.
A significant number of people desire a place that will encourage and foster meeting people and forming social connections.
All around the world there are stunning examples of how local urban open spaces add to the fabric of the community they serve. Paley Park, the High Line, and Auckland’s Silo Park in the Wynyard Quarter, all provide for passive and active recreation. Ponsonby Park will be our exemplar.
It’s an exciting time and it’s great to be underway, especially with such wonderful support and enthusiasm from the community. Another big thank you – this time to everyone who has been part of the journey so far. It’s good to have you with us.
Ponsonby Park – it’s going to be a brilliant! (JENNIFER WARD)
You can stay up to date or contact us at: www.254Ponsonbyrd.org or check us out on Facebook – Ponsonby Park.
* The LandLAB design for Ponsonby Park won the international ‘World Architecture News – Future Civic Category’ award in November 2018.