DAVID DUNCAN HOUSE - Building Grounds
Ravine / Naturalized Park, above average overall (score 42, rank ~82th percentile). Strongest: natural comfort; weakest: enclosure.
Photo by David Duncan House via Google Places · cached 5/9/2026
DAVID DUNCAN HOUSE - Building Grounds scores 42 / 100. Strongest dimensions: natural comfort and enclosure / eyes on park. Weakest: amenity diversity (0). Border-vacuum risk is low. This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors — not a definitive judgment.
Area · 5.35 ha
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 63%
Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.
Street context
Park polygon highlighted on the citywide map. Connectivity, transit, and edge conditions read at a glance.
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
Explain this score
Where did the 42 come from? Each weighted contribution against a neutral 50 baseline. Green = pushed up; red = pulled down.
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
What limits this park
Most distinctive characteristic
Jacobs reading
Tradeoffs
- Natural comfort (82) significantly outpaces connectivity (43) — restorative but hard to reach for daily use.
Performance in context
- A modest overperformer for its ravine / naturalized park typology (+6 vs the median in large Ravine / Naturalized Park ravine).
Typology classification
Classified as Ravine / Naturalized Park: 100% ravine overlap, 43% canopy
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 9 active uses (transit_stop, restaurant) and 4 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: OSM POIs (amenity/shop) + Toronto Building Footprints + land use
Connectivity
Connectivity blends paths, intersections, transit, entrances, and edge density. This park has 0 mapped paths/walkways and 17 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 2 street intersections within 100 m; 22 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 0 estimated access points across ~942 m of perimeter. low edge density — significant superblock penalty applied. Source coverage: centreline, pedestrian_network, transit_osm.
Source: Toronto Centreline V2 + Pedestrian Network + OSM transit stops
Amenity Diversity
No amenities recorded — score is 0 until inventory is loaded.
Source: Toronto Parks & Recreation Facilities + OSM amenity tags
Natural Comfort
Natural-comfort components for this park: 42.6% estimated tree canopy; 100.0% inside the ravine system; nearest waterbody ~277 m; 10 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (1.9/ha). Reading: ravine-cooled. Source coverage: treed_area, ravine, waterbodies, street_trees. Impervious surface is approximated (Toronto's authoritative layer ships only as a raster GeoTIFF).
Source: Toronto Treed Area + Ravine + Waterbodies + Street Tree Inventory
Enclosure / Eyes on Park
10 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (4 mid-rise, 5 low-rise, 1 tower); avg edge height 18.1 m (~6 floors); 1.1 buildings per 100 m of 942 m perimeter — thin frontage — significant blank-edge share; edges are at a Jacobs-scale walkable mid-rise (3–7 floors); 1 tower ≥ 40 m within 25 m of the edge. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 4 mid-rise edge buildings.
Source: Toronto 3D Massing (building footprints + heights)
Border Vacuum 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" — they suppress foot traffic and isolate the park from its neighbourhood.
Source: Toronto Street Centreline (highways) + rail layer + OSM landuse + building footprints
Equity Context
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: Toronto Neighbourhood Profiles
Amenities (0)
No amenities recorded for this park.
Nearby active-edge features (41)
- transit stop — Moatfield Drive0 m
- parking lot0 m
- transit stop — York Mills Road13 m
- restaurant — Gilaneh21 m
- transit stop — Moatfield Drive41 m
- transit stop — Don Mills Road52 m
- transit stop — Don Mills Road55 m
- parking lot57 m
- parking lot63 m
- transit stop — York Mills Road67 m
- parking lot75 m
- restaurant — Darband76 m
- restaurant — Pizza Nova97 m
- restaurant — Subway103 m
- restaurant — Casa Manila104 m
- parking lot106 m
- parking lot107 m
- parking lot112 m
- transit stop — 900 York Mills Road128 m
- parking lot131 m
- parking lot138 m
- restaurant — Popeyes139 m
- parking lot139 m
- restaurant — Captain's Boil148 m
- parking lot154 m
- parking lot159 m
- restaurant — Robo Sushi161 m
- restaurant — Cucina Di Paisano167 m
- parking lot169 m
- parking lot170 m
- parking lot170 m
- parking lot174 m
- retail — The Colour Field174 m
- retail — Saltwater Pros175 m
- restaurant — Taftan Kebob178 m
- transit stop182 m
- restaurant — Firehouse Subs185 m
- retail — Custom Care Cleaners192 m
- transit stop195 m
- parking lot196 m
- restaurant — Fox & Fiddle198 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality82th
- Edge activation86th
- Connectivity41th
- Amenity diversity38th
- Natural comfort93th
- Enclosure17th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park44
- Garland ParkParkette42
- Adam'S Creek RavineRavine / Naturalized Park42
- Massey Creek WatercourseWaterfront Park45
- City Wide Open SpaceRavine / Naturalized Park43
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- ALEX WILSON COMMUNITY GARDEN - Open Green SpaceUrban Plaza59
- Leslie Grove ParkParkette68
- Withrow ParkNeighbourhood Park50
- Ramsden ParkRavine / Naturalized Park43
- Sonya'S ParkUrban Plaza60
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.
“Elegant fine-dining mainstay known for its art deco decor, prime steaks & seafood entrees.” — Google editorial summary
p53 citywide · p60 within Ravine / Naturalized Park
- match flagged for human review — confidence dampened
Source: Google Places API · match needs_review (0.67 composite confidence) · last refreshed 5/9/2026. Privacy contract. Measures public attention, not occupancy.
Human activity signals
Programming, social attention, temporal rhythm, and nearby pedestrian / cycling flow. An experimental aggregate layer that complements the spatial scores — partial coverage, partial confidence.
Activity reading: no inputs available. The strongest signal is public attention / mentions. Source coverage: google-places.
Does this score feel accurate?
Your read of DAVID DUNCAN HOUSE - Building Groundsmatters. 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.
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.
- Add or open more entrances and improve sidewalk continuity around the park. More permeability means more spontaneous use.
- Diversify what people can do in the park — playground, washroom, water, shade, performance, sport, garden — even small additions raise this score.
Data sources
- City of Toronto Open Data — Parks (Green Space)Polygon boundaries, official names, types.
- Parks & Recreation FacilitiesInventory of in-park amenities (washrooms, fields, rinks…).
- Toronto Pedestrian NetworkSidewalk segments around and through parks; estimated park entrances.
- Toronto Centreline V2Street segments + intersection nodes near park edges; trails and walkways.
- Toronto 3D MassingBuilding footprints + heights for edge-building counts, frontage density, and tower-in-the-park risk.
- Toronto Treed AreaTree canopy share inside park polygons via stratified-grid sampling.
- Toronto Waterbodies & RiversWater surface inside parks + nearest-water distance for cooling.
- Ravine & Natural Feature ProtectionRavine overlap as a cooling / natural-comfort signal.
- Toronto Street Tree InventoryTree count + density inside park polygons.
- Neighbourhood Profiles(Pending) Equity context proxy.
- OpenStreetMap (Overpass API)Cafés, restaurants, retail, transit stops, parking, highways, rail.