MACKENZIE HOUSE - Building Grounds
Urban Plaza, above average overall (score 41, rank ~79th percentile). Strongest: edge activation; weakest: natural comfort.
Aerial — City of Toronto orthophoto, ~8 cm/px source · cached 5/9/2026
MACKENZIE HOUSE - Building Grounds scores 40.9 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and edge activation. Weakest: amenity diversity (0). Border-vacuum risk is elevated (36). This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors — not a definitive judgment.
Area · 0.06 ha
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 56%
Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.
Explain this score
Where did the 41 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
- 19 nearby towers cast wind and shadow without contributing canopy — passive surveillance is plentiful but human-scale comfort is not.
Typology classification
Classified as Urban Plaza: 556 m², paved (0% canopy), 77.2 buildings/100 m
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 28 active uses (restaurant, retail, transit_stop, community, cafe) 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 7 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 8 street intersections within 100 m; 41 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 0 estimated access points across ~102 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: 0.0% estimated tree canopy; 1 city-mapped trees inside the polygon (1.0/ha). Reading: exposed. Source coverage: 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
79 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (44 mid-rise, 16 low-rise, 19 tower); avg edge height 24.9 m (~8 floors); 77.2 buildings per 100 m of 102 m perimeter — strong frontage density; edges lean tall but still framed; 19 towers ≥ 40 m within 25 m of the edge. "Eyes on the park" come strongest from the 44 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, parking_lot, 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 (80)
- parking lot4 m
- parking lot24 m
- restaurant — PomAnar Grill & Juicery28 m
- retail — Hakim Optical34 m
- restaurant — Jazz Bistro34 m
- retail — Hakim Optical Factory Outlet35 m
- retail — Butterfield and Robinson Travel36 m
- parking lot40 m
- restaurant — Senator Restaurant41 m
- restaurant — The Senator Restaurant42 m
- retail — Discount Textbooks58 m
- parking lot59 m
- restaurant — Burrito Boyz61 m
- retail — Paramusic Records61 m
- retail — Victoria Copy & Printing61 m
- retail — Rock Da House Barbershop67 m
- cafe — Twilight Cafe67 m
- community — Toronto Met Catholics68 m
- restaurant — Subway72 m
- restaurant — Hokkaido Ramen Santouka76 m
- retail — Jewellery & Diamond Center76 m
- retail79 m
- restaurant81 m
- retail83 m
- retail85 m
- restaurant — Egg Club86 m
- retail88 m
- restaurant — KFC89 m
- retail — Digital Xpress90 m
- transit stop — Church Street91 m
- retail — Classic Nails & Spa94 m
- restaurant — Taco Bell99 m
- retail — Notebook Depot101 m
- restaurant — Subway107 m
- cafe — Starbucks110 m
- retail — INS Market114 m
- restaurant — Tahini's121 m
- restaurant — Martini Bar122 m
- restaurant — Odd Burger124 m
- restaurant — Krispy Kreme127 m
- transit stop — Church Street131 m
- restaurant — Fran's Restaurant136 m
- restaurant — Jack Astor's137 m
- restaurant — Paramount Middle Eastern Cuisine and Bakery138 m
- restaurant — Khazana139 m
- restaurant — Asian Bowl140 m
- retail — Downtown Jewellery Mart140 m
- restaurant — Kanpai Snack Bar140 m
- retail — Spellbound Salon140 m
- restaurant — Popeyes140 m
- retail — EB Games140 m
- restaurant — 3 Brewers140 m
- parking lot144 m
- retail — Hop on-hop off Toronto bus tours tickets and first stop145 m
- restaurant — Alpha’s Shawarma145 m
- restaurant — Burger King147 m
- retail — Money Mart150 m
- cafe — Tim Hortons152 m
- highway — Yonge Street153 m
- restaurant — Delhi Momos153 m
- restaurant — Chachu's153 m
- retail — Stag Shop155 m
- transit stop — Sankofa Square Elevator161 m
- transit stop — Sankofa Square Entrance163 m
- retail — Henry's167 m
- transit stop — Toronto Eaton Centre168 m
- restaurant — Jack Astor's172 m
- restaurant — Spring Sushi172 m
- retail — Urban Outfitters174 m
- highway — Yonge Street174 m
- restaurant — Fast Fresh Foods175 m
- restaurant — Szechuan Express175 m
- cafe — Starbucks176 m
- restaurant — Akashiro176 m
- highway — Yonge Street176 m
- restaurant — Sbarro176 m
- retail — Dundas Market176 m
- transit stop — Dundas Street179 m
- restaurant — Kabul Express Authentic Afghan Grill180 m
- restaurant — Milestones180 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality79th
- Edge activation96th
- Connectivity39th
- Amenity diversity30th
- Natural comfort14th
- Enclosure94th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- Glen Davis RavineRavine / Naturalized Park42
- HODGSON PUBLIC SCHOOL - Building GroundsNeighbourhood Park41
- Ed And Anne Mirvish ParketteUrban Plaza45
- Sally Bird ParkUrban Plaza45
- Douglas GreenbeltWaterfront Park42
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space — useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Trca Lands ( 26)Ravine / Naturalized Park27
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park28
- Toronto Islands - Muggs Island ParkRavine / Naturalized Park25
- Rouge ParkWaterfront Park25
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park26
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 MACKENZIE 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.
- 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.
- Increase canopy and reduce paved area. Shade and water features extend usable hours and seasons.
- Mitigate border vacuums (highways, rail, parking) with active programming on the still-permeable edges and treat the hostile edge as a design challenge.
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.