Monday, June 21, 2010

Beneath our feet


This inlaid paver pattern on Kent Street in front of the Hudson condo towers shows how a simple design can be effective for pedestrians and viewers from upper floors of the condos.

Most refreshingly, it broke out of the normal square patterns usually used, where some different coloured or textured blocks are substituted for others to make a pattern that keeps the overall rectilinear rigidity inherent in the blocks. In this pattern, the base blocks were laid over the whole area and then a saw cut was made in curvilinear pattern for the constrasting dark blocks to be inserted.

Iregular shaped blocks are not widely used in public spaces. Below are 'flagstone' type pavers with a cobble border and wider paver border.


3 comments:

  1. Any idea when we should see fancy paving on Preston? I look forward to that project being 100% complete!

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  2. Once the final coat of asphalt is laid, the work crews return to cut out the crosswalks and lay the cement or paver crossings. All intersections will have cement or paver crosswalks.
    The long awaited for fancy starburst paving patterns at the intersections and gateway points has been abandonned. Some of this was technical -- finding a cement or asphalt that could be coloured and laid economically -- and some financial -- the BIA was obligated to maintain the intersections forever, and the cost was unknown.
    It is apparently not easy to pave intersections due to the volume of trucks and buses turning, the number of personholes in the street, etc coupled with frost heave = trouble.
    thanks for reading

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  3. Interesting.. That's too bad about the star pattern, but understandable. Thanks for the info!

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