Centre For Local Research into Public Space (CELOS)
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You are on the [Dufferin Grove Reno Check 2025] page of folder [Research Library ]
For the cover page of this folder go to the The Dufferin Grove "northwest corner" renovation ribbon-cutting
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ribbon-cutting party 2025: fixes still needed
rink reopening sign in 1993
At the end of January, park friend and architecture grad (and shinny hockey player) Elizabeth Antczak made a display showing some of the fixes that still need to be done. It would be good if there was at least a timing commitment for each of the problems. No response from capital projects staff when they were asked, so far.
We put the display up above the fire place. That's a spot that had a hand-drawn Christmas tree drawing until the end of January, now replaced by a red-and-gold "Year of the Snake" calendar cover.
After putting the display up on January 31, it disappeared six times (we replaced it every time).
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CAPITAL ISSUES: JANUARY 2025
The DTAH redesign of the rink building and surrounding area is pretty cool. It could have been even better if they'd had more access to the facts e.g. what direct rink users and the diverse park users care about, what hands-on (local) staff knew. correspondence
Doors
There are 10 doors in the main room of the NW corner building. That may be why it feels a bit like a hallway.
main room: 3 doors on west and northwest side
main room: 2 doors on northeast and centre east side
main room: 2 doors southwest corner
main room: 1 door west side PT staff room
Main room: 2 doors on southeast corner
Northwest door installed in reverse
lock on the wrong side, emergency exit sign wrong
crash bar wrong side
door openers often broken
The main east-facing doors and the main west-facing door have an automatic door opener button that breaks often and has to be repaired. The doors seem to be too heavy for the mechanism.
Almost all glass in doors has been covered up with paper blinds so no one can see inside.
paper window covering on skate room door
paper window covering on park-view kitchen door
paper window covering on inside kitchen door
Windows
All the street-facing windows have their blinds down all the time. What's the big secret?
Outside: west side looking north
Outside: west side looking south
Outside: south and east
the kitchen windows and door
the plan, as originally presented to the community resource group (CRG)
During the community planning input sessions, people were were shown this plan of the kitchen. But since the building opened, the blinds have always been down, on the windows and also on the doors. What's the message here?
Lighting
Lights in the main room can't be dimmed by rec staff, they're always on maximum brightness. And every day they automatically go off at 8 pm. Why? Staff must switch them on again after a few minutes, but then they still can't be adjusted for brightness.
lighting can't be adjusted
Washrooms/Plumbing
The washrooms are very narrow (except the accessible one). The first set of toilet paper dispensers pulled out of the wall, and were then replaced by better plastic dispensers from a different company. But where they are placed is hard to reach. That means that bits of toilet paper are ripped off when people try to pull on the roll. So there are always bit of toilet paper on the floor. That's one reason why the bathrooms often look messy.
original dispenser, only one left
toilet paper in a bad place
a needle disposal in every washroom
dishwasher broken
washing machine not secured to floor
red sign on: people hide there for hours
Storage
kitchen: top shelves too high
shelves above the gas fireplace
shelves in the main room
A ladder is needed to get up to many shelves but most rec staff are not allowed to use one.
Tamara in their half of the storeroom
plywood barrier: makeshift zamboni driver office in behind
Program area problems
messy skate room
The skate room has no shelves for sorting the different sizes. That may be one reason why skaters have complained about the lack of sizes and skates often being dull -- the skate inventory is not orderly.
snack bar window
The snack bar has a written menu but no way of displaying what's available -- and there are only a few things anyway, no hot soups or chili or mini-pizzas as there formerly were -- but skating makes people hungry!
Some comments
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