VFA worked with TDSB and an active school parent committee to develop a Master Plan for this well-loved school site, based on the parents’ vision of granting students more access to nature, urban gardening, and social opportunities. A beautiful, elevated timber boardwalk trail that meanders through a naturalized slope on the school grounds was built, as a means of providing the students access through this sensitive area, while limiting foot traffic on the eroding slope. The boardwalk was built on helical piles (to limit disturbance to existing mature trees) and features enlarged lookout areas which can be used for both social and educational purposes by the school. A new switch-back pathway was also built to provide an accessible route up to the new boardwalk. The project also features a new senior playground, replacement of the existing terraced garden bed walls (with new timber and precast walls), a new timber stage, storage shed, line painting games, a new porous pathway loop around the playing field, basketball courts and extensive native planting throughout the schoolyard.
