Parkdale Plaza

Description

Our project was to design the plaza which surrounds the inverted profile of Mt. Peechee, designed by Brian Tolle Studio. The plaza uses gabion walls to gently slope upwards from the existing pedestrian path elevation to a flat plaza surface that forms the context for the sculpture. The plaza is framed by concrete benches that appear to sit on the gabion walls as shown. The lighting design is intended to achieve a series of  “datums of light” that are experienced as one moves through the project. The first such datum corresponds to the up-lit underside of the tree canopies that are planted immediately to the east and west of the plaza. Some sort of larger scale in-ground lights will be required to achieve this. The second datum is formed by up-lighting of the concrete benches, such that the angled undersides of the benches are illuminated and the horizontal seating portion stops light from spilling any further upwards. This gives the effect of producing a wash of light that terminates in a flat horizontal line at the underside of the seating surface. The in-ground bench lights are shown schematically in the detail sections and in the 3D mock up. The last datum would be formed by the sculpture itself. The sculpture’s top protrudes from the earth at guardrail height, and it will be lit from the inside so that light spills upwards from the plane of the guardrail. Brian Tolle Studio designed the sculpture’s integral lighting, tasking m+b with  providing power to the fixtures.