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Toronto Parks Atlas
Glenn Gould Park, site photograph
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Urban PlazaType:Walkable Mid-Rise Neighbourhood Park (enclosure-leaning)Casa Loma

Glenn Gould Park

Urban Plaza, in the top tier overall (score 49, rank ~92th percentile). Strongest: enclosure; weakest: natural comfort.

Photo by Svetlana Kolesnichenko via Google Places · cached 5/9/2026

Data updated

Glenn Gould Park scores 49.1 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and connectivity. Weakest: edge activation (29.8). Border-vacuum risk is low. This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors, not a definitive judgment.

Best fordaily passing-throughpocket meetings

Area · 0.19 ha

What's here

Recreation
Playground
Facilities
BenchesPublic art

Getting around

Paths

36 m of mapped path. Too little surface tagging to say how much is paved.

Too little path mapped to check for steps.

Seating

Not enough mapped seating to assess (2 benches mapped).

Arrival

Nearest parking 36 m away. None of the 8 nearby lots records whether it has accessible spaces.

Path, seating and parking data comes from OpenStreetMap and reflects what volunteers have mapped, not a survey. Absence here means nobody has recorded it. This section does not assess wheelchair access: the relevant OpenStreetMap tag is present on well under 1% of Toronto paths.

Vitality Score
49/100

Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 66%

Data Confidence
49.1 / 100

Data confidence: moderate

Citywide
92nd
of all 3,753 parks
Among Urban Plaza
86th
same primary typology
Expected for similar parks
38
median in pocket Urban Plaza (n=352)
Performance gap
+11
raw − expected · context confidence high
modest overperformer

Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.

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Street context. Park polygon highlighted on the citywide map. Connectivity, transit, and edge conditions read at a glance.
Glenn Gould Park, aerial top-down view
Top-down view. City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px. Reads the park’s footprint, paths, treed area, and edge conditions from above. City of Toronto Orthophoto · cot_ortho most-current MapServer · cached 5/9/2026.

Boundary: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

Public art in this park

Near the park

Numbers match the pins on the map. Works near the park are within 30 m of its edge.

Explain this score

Where did the 49 come from? Each weighted contribution against a neutral 50 baseline. Green = pushed up; red = pulled down.

Download JSON
What pushed this score up or down vs a neutral 50weight × score
Edge Activation30 · p86
-5.0
Border Vacuum Risk12 (risk)
+3.8
Amenity Diversity32 · p84
-3.7
Enclosure / Eyes on Park86 · p92
+3.6
Connectivity64 · p82
+2.8
Natural Comfort34 · p19
-2.5

Sum of contributions = the headline score. A negative bar means that dimension dragged the park below the city-wide neutral baseline.

Why this park works

Glenn Gould Park works because its enclosure score (86) is in the top tier and its edge activation (30) is also top quartile (30 mid-rise buildings frame the edge with passive surveillance).

What limits this park

Glenn Gould Park is held back by natural comfort (34, bottom quartile): only 0% canopy means little summer shade.

Most distinctive characteristic

Most distinctive feature: exceptionally high enclosure (86, top decile).

Jacobs reading

Glenn Gould Park sits between an urban social park and an ecological retreat: moderately useful for both, exceptionally suited to neither.

Tradeoffs

  • Connectivity (64) significantly outpaces natural comfort (34): well placed in the city but offers little shade or ecological respite.
  • 9 nearby towers cast wind and shadow without contributing canopy: passive surveillance is plentiful but human-scale comfort is not.

Performance in context

  • A modest overperformer for its urban plaza typology (+11 vs the median in pocket Urban Plaza).

Typology classification

confidence 70%
Urban Plaza

Classified as Urban Plaza: 1939 m², paved (0% canopy), 30.6 buildings/100 m

Edge Activation

25% weightpartial 60%
29.8 / 100

Within 100 m of the park edge: 7 active uses (transit_stop, retail) and 3 dead/hostile uses (parking_lot). Active edges keep "eyes on the park" through the day; parking lots, blank institutional walls, rail and highway frontages drain street life.

Source: OpenStreetMap: cafes, restaurants, shops, schools, community centres, transit, parking, highways, rail. All data sources.

Connectivity

20% weightmeasured 85%
64.0 / 100

Connectivity blends paths, intersections, transit, entrances, and edge density. This park has 4 mapped paths/walkways and 14 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 5 street intersections within 100 m; 5 streetcar or LRT stops, 3 bus stops within a 400 m walk; 2 estimated access points across ~179 m of perimeter. edge density is healthy, no superblock penalty. Source coverage: centreline, pedestrian_network, transit_osm.

Streets within 25 m4
Intersections within 100 m5
Paths/walkways (50 m)4
Sidewalk segments (50 m)14
Transit stops (400 m)8 (0 subway/GO, 5 streetcar/LRT, 3 bus)
Estimated entrances2
Edge connections / 100 m perimeter2.23
Park perimeter179 m

Source: Toronto Centreline V2 + Pedestrian Network + OSM transit stops. All data sources.

Amenity Diversity

20% weightmeasured 75%
31.7 / 100

3 distinct amenity types in the park (playground, bench, art). Diversity drives the score, so a park with many distinct activity types can outrank a larger park that repeats the same use. 1 public artwork in the park and 1 nearby add a bonus for the number of works.

Source: Toronto Parks & Recreation Facilities + OSM amenity tags. All data sources.

Natural Comfort

15% weightinferred 36%
33.5 / 100

Natural-comfort components for this park: ~1.4% effective canopy (0.0% from contiguous tree polygons + scattered tree density); nearest waterbody ~1033 m; 2 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (2.0/ha). Reading: exposed. Source coverage: waterbodies, street_trees. Impervious surface is approximated (Toronto's authoritative layer ships only as a raster GeoTIFF).

Canopy coverage0.0%
Canopy area0.00 ha
Inside ravine system0.0%
Water surface inside park0.0%
Nearest water (if outside park)1,033 m
Estimated green100.0%
City-mapped trees inside polygon2
Tree density2.0 / ha
Cover diversity (Shannon, 0 to 100)0.0
Sample points used17

Source: Toronto Treed Area + Ravine + Waterbodies + Street Tree Inventory. All data sources.

Enclosure / Eyes on Park

10% weightmeasured 80%
86.4 / 100

55 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (30 mid-rise, 16 low-rise, 9 tower); avg edge height 25.3 m (~8 floors); 30.6 buildings per 100 m of 179 m perimeter (strong frontage density); edges lean tall but still framed; 9 towers ≥ 40 m within 25 m of the edge. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 30 mid-rise edge buildings.

Buildings within 25 m55
Buildings within 50 m55
Avg edge height25.3 m (~8 floors)
Tallest edge building68.3 m
Mid-rise (3 to 7 floors)30
Low-rise (< 3 floors)16
Towers (≥ 13 floors)9
Frontage density30.65 per 100 m perimeter
Mid-rise share of edge55%
Tower share of edge16%
Blank-edge share (proxy)0%
Park perimeter179 m

Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights). All data sources.

Border Vacuum Risk

10% weightpartial 60%
12.0 risk

Border-vacuum factors within 50 m of the park: parking_lot. Jacobs warned that highways, rail, parking lots and blank institutional edges act as "vacuums" that suppress foot traffic and isolate the park from its neighbourhood.

Source: OpenStreetMap: highways, rail, parking. All data sources.

Equity Context

contextinferred 15%
50.0 / 100

Equity Context requires inputs not yet loaded for this park (Toronto Neighbourhood Profiles). Score is held at a neutral 50 with low confidence. Read with caution.

Source: Not loaded yet: Toronto Neighbourhood Profiles. All data sources.

Amenities (3 types · 4 records)

  • playground
  • bench
  • art

Nearby active-edge features (19)

  • transit stop0 m
  • transit stop: Avenue Rd at St Clair Ave West1 m
  • transit stop: Avenue Road12 m
  • transit stop: Avenue Rd at St Clair Ave West North Side31 m
  • parking lot36 m
  • transit stop: Avenue Road71 m
  • retail: Idol Convenience76 m
  • transit stop81 m
  • parking lot90 m
  • parking lot92 m
  • parking lot104 m
  • parking lot104 m
  • restaurant: Bistro Five 61108 m
  • retail: Longo's151 m
  • cafe: Starbucks156 m
  • parking lot159 m
  • parking lot164 m
  • transit stop: Avenue Rd at Heath St West177 m
  • parking lot184 m

Park profile

Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.

Edge ActivationConnectivityAmenity DiversityNatural ComfortEnclosureGlenn Gould Park
Edge activation, connectivity, amenity diversity, natural comfort, and enclosure, each 0 to 100.

Citywide percentile ranks

Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.

  • Overall vitality
    92th
  • Edge activation
    86th
  • Connectivity
    82th
  • Amenity diversity
    84th
  • Natural comfort
    19th
  • Enclosure
    92th

Most similar parks

Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.

Most opposite parks

Furthest in metric space. Useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.

Visitor signals

Public attention measured by Google Places aggregates. This proxies attention, not occupancy. Aggregate-only: no usernames, no review text, no extra photos beyond the cached hero.

high-confidence match
Visitor signal score42 / 100
41.7 / 100

p48 citywide · p43 within Urban Plaza

Volume (saturated)5
Density / ha55
Rating contribution78
Match dampener×1.00
Average rating
★ 4.1
out of 5
Ratings collected
24
total reviews
Photos uploaded
10
total contributors

Source: Google Places API · match high (0.97 composite confidence) · last refreshed 5/9/2026. Privacy contract. Measures public attention, not occupancy.

Human activity signals: not available

No activity signals have landed for this park yet. The model has scored its physical form but it can’t yet say how often it’s programmed, photographed, or walked through. See /data-ethics for what we will and will not collect.

Does this score feel accurate?

Your read of Glenn Gould Park matters. We’re testing whether the model lines up with how people actually use the park. Submissions are stored locally; no account needed.

Tell us how this park feels

We measure structure (canopy, edges, connectivity). You measure feeling. Both matter, and disagreement is itself useful civic data.

Rate this park on as many dimensions as you have an opinion about. 1 = not at all, 5 = strongly. Skip the ones you don't feel sure about. Aggregated only, no comments stored at the row level.

feels socially active
feels comfortable
feels safe
feels connected
feels welcoming
feels ecological / natural
feels good for lingering
feels family-friendly
feels culturally important
70%

What would improve this park?

Generated from the weakest measured dimensions: a starting point, not a prescription.

  • Activate the edges: encourage cafés, retail or community uses on the streets that face the park; replace blank or parking-lot edges where possible.
  • Diversify what people can do in the park (playground, washroom, water, shade, performance, sport, garden): even small additions raise this score.
  • Increase canopy and reduce paved area. Shade and water features extend usable hours and seasons.

Data sources

real Toronto data
  • City of Toronto Open Data: Green Spaces
    Polygon boundaries, official names, land classes. Boundaries are reconciled against OpenStreetMap (ODbL) for new and updated parks.
  • Parks & Recreation Facilities
    Inventory of in-park amenities (washrooms, fields, rinks…).
  • Toronto Pedestrian Network
    Sidewalk segments around and through parks; estimated park entrances.
  • Toronto Centreline V2
    Street segments + intersection nodes near park edges; trails and walkways.
  • Toronto 3D Massing
    Building footprints + heights for edge-building counts, frontage density, and tower-in-the-park risk.
  • Toronto Treed Area
    Tree canopy share inside park polygons via stratified-grid sampling.
  • Toronto Waterbodies & Rivers
    Water surface inside parks + nearest-water distance for cooling.
  • Ravine & Natural Feature Protection
    Ravine overlap as a cooling / natural-comfort signal.
  • Toronto Street Tree Inventory
    Tree count + density inside park polygons.
  • OpenStreetMap (Overpass API)
    Cafés, restaurants, retail, transit stops, parking, highways, rail.