Bell Park
Sudbury, ON
Bell Park is a large park that stretches over 2.9 miles of land and boardwalk alongside Paris Street, connecting Science North to the Ramsey Lake boat launch site. This park is used for many Sudbury events due to its large open spaces, amphitheatre, concession stands, and unique, natural spaces. The Bell Park Main Beach area was divided into separate zones to analyze where certain activities would occur. The overall observation periods were very successful in quantity of users and variety of activities occurring. This area was observed on September 20th, 2020 for an hour in the morning, afternoon, and early evening. There are a few key factors that made Bell Park a successful that sunny day. The following are the six observed successful elements of Bell Park.
Figure 4.1: Bell Park Context Map (Kinnunen, Candice, “ Bell Park Context Map”, September 2020)
The weather has a significant impact on the success of a park. The overall weather conditions on this day remained consistently sunny with a temperature of 8 °C in the morning, 10℃ in the afternoon, and 16 ℃ in the evening. As the day passed the wind speed increased from 20 km/hr to 26 km/hr. According to Jan Gehl’s Life Between Buildings, the optimal weather conditions make the park more suitable for optional and social activities. Gehl states that “when outdoor areas are of high quality [...] wide range of optional activities will also occur because the place and situation now invite people to stop, sit, eat, play, and so on.”[1] The majority of the park users were engaging in activities located in the sun, such as walking, lying on the grass, playing on the beach, sitting on park benches, or interacting with the geese and seagulls. Other activities included playing at the tot lot, sitting on picnic tables, or feeding ducks off the shoreline.
Throughout the morning and afternoon, several users enjoyed a meal with family and friends at the park. Many users who stayed for 60 mins or less enjoyed a snack or meal while at the park. During the morning, there was a young couple with their child playing by the water. At approximately 10:35 am the family stopped to have a snack with their son and then continued to play. In the afternoon, a large family conversed by the water edge until they stopped to have a picnic on the grass together under a tree. (The same tree observed in the morning). As users would eat, seagulls would land and wait for food. They have come to learn that the users of the park will feed them or leave behind scraps. Two teenage females sat on the hill and had a snack whole watching over the park and water. Many users of the park stop to eat with company at picnic tables or on the grass within the park. According to William Whyte “food attracts people who attract more people.”[2] Bell Park is a successful place to enjoy a meal with friends and family.
The Ramsey Lake shoreline brought some park users together. During the morning at approximately 10:40am, a family stopped to feed the ducks. This same family moved up the shoreline to a young family playing on the beach and socialized for a few minutes. Later in the afternoon, a large family gathered by the shoreline to play with the sand, run on the grass, and look out onto the water. After a while, the family set up blankets on the grass to enjoy a picnic together. This phenomenon is called “triangulation,” according to William Whyte in his book The Social Life of Small Spaces.[3] Whyte states “exterior stimulus provides a linkage between people and prompts strangers to talk to each other as Interactions though they were not.”[4] When analyzing the Social Interaction diagram, we can see the most interaction occurred where there were people, birds, and water present.
Users chose a variety of places to sit and congregate within the park. The most common places included the beach retaining wall edge, under the tree on the grass, within the playground area, or in the gazebo on the hill. The main thing that these zones had in common was the “edge” that surrounded them. According to the Prospect and Refuge theory, this edge makes the users feel safe within the park. The edges are formed by the hills side the Tot Lot, the retaining wall behind the beach, the steep topography behind the beach benches, and by the trees surrounding the upper and middle pathway. According to the Prospect-Refuge Theory, people will occupy the edges of the park because they will feel safer with protection behind them and they are able to look into the space.[5] The steep topography also creates a stunning view of Ramsey Lake. At all times of the day, someone would be in the gazebo watching the view.
Sound
Bell Park is a well used park within Sudbury, ON. Popular zones include the beach, grass, boardwalk, and playground. The audio clip captures a moment in the morning sun at Bell Park.
The grassy area in front of the beach is heavily utilized by people and birds throughout the day. It is used for picnics, chasing birds, and Tai Chi.
Bell Park takes advantage of interesting topography by creating bridges with pathways underneath. The path underneath the bridge connects the playground and swing set area.
Bell Park was full of social interactions between people and birds. The birds have become familiar with the park users and use the same spaces as the people.
Throughout the day, users engaged in a variety of activities; which helped the park be more successful. According to the Affordance Theory: “a landscape with multitude of experiences creates a successful park.”[6] The type of activities varied throughout the day. However, the pedestrian and cyclist traffic stayed constant. In the case of Bell Park, the following activities were more frequent from most to least: Use of the boardwalk, playground, picnic tables, interactions with birds, grass activities (such as picnics are sitting), gazebo, benches, swimming, and kayaking. The boardwalk was the most common path chosen by pedestrians.
The users of the park had ample opportunities to interact but also have space between other users. The Proximity or Personal Space Theory states that users need to organize the physical space surrounding their body and need to keep a certain distance from others.[7] At times multiple users would stop to look out onto the Ramsey Lake water from different zones in the park. One young family stops to walk onto the beach, another sits on a park bench facing the water, two friends sit on top of the hill, and a user stands inside the gazebo on the hill. Many users could be in the same area and still remain isolated from other users.
Figure 4.2: Bell Park - Circulation (Kinnunen, Candice, “ Bell Park - Circulation”, September 2020)
[1] Jan Gehl, Life between Buildings: Using Public Space (Copenhagen: Danish Architectural Press, 2001), 12.
[2] Ibid.
[3] William Hollingsworth. Whyte, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (New York: Project for Public Spaces, 2018), 50.
[4] William Hollingsworth. Whyte, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (New York: Project for Public Spaces, 2018), 94.
[5] Annemarie Dosen and Michael Ostwald, “Prospect and refuge theory: Constructing a critical definition for architecture and design,” International Journal of Design in Society, 6. 9-23. 10.18848/2325-1328/CGP/v06i01/38559.
[6] Emilie Pinard, “Social: Public Space & Placemaking” (Class Lecture, Laurentian University, October 2020).
[7] Ibid.