ST. LAWRENCE COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE - Building Grounds
Urban Plaza, above average overall (score 42, rank ~81th percentile). Strongest: edge activation; weakest: natural comfort.
Photo by Ruggero Carrara via Google Places · cached 5/9/2026
ST. LAWRENCE COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE - Building Grounds scores 41.7 / 100. Strongest dimensions: enclosure / eyes on park and connectivity. Weakest: amenity diversity (11.9). Border-vacuum risk is elevated (36). This score is a transparent reading of Jane Jacobs-style vitality factors, not a definitive judgment.
Area · 0.56 ha
Weighted across six dimensions · confidence 66%
Scores are not bell-curved. Percentiles and expected scores provide context without changing the underlying model.
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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
ST. LAWRENCE COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE - Building Grounds works because its edge activation score (38) is in the top tier and its amenity diversity (12) is also top quartile.
What limits this park
ST. LAWRENCE COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE - Building Grounds is held back by natural comfort (25, bottom quartile): only 0% canopy means little summer shade; border-vacuum risk is also elevated (36).
Most distinctive characteristic
Most distinctive feature: exceptionally low natural comfort (25, bottom quartile).
Jacobs reading
ST. LAWRENCE COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE - Building Grounds sits between an urban social park and an ecological retreat: moderately useful for both, exceptionally suited to neither.
Tradeoffs
- Connectivity (61) significantly outpaces natural comfort (25): 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.
Typology classification
Classified as Urban Plaza: 5627 m², paved (0% canopy), 9.5 buildings/100 m
Edge Activation
Within 100 m of the park edge: 21 active uses (transit_stop, cafe, restaurant, retail, community) and 5 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 1 mapped paths/walkways and 6 sidewalk segments within 50 m; 15 street intersections within 100 m; 36 transit stops within a 400 m walk; 3 estimated access points across ~336 m of perimeter. moderate edge density, small superblock penalty applied. Source coverage: centreline, pedestrian_network, transit_osm.
Source: Toronto Centreline V2 + Pedestrian Network + OSM transit stops
Amenity Diversity
1 distinct amenity types in the park (community_centre). Diversity, not raw count, drives the score so a park with many distinct activity types can outrank a larger park that repeats the same use.
Source: Toronto Parks & Recreation Facilities + OSM amenity tags
Natural Comfort
Natural-comfort components for this park: 0.0% estimated tree canopy; nearest waterbody ~468 m. Reading: exposed. Source coverage: waterbodies. 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
32 buildings within 25 m of the park edge (18 mid-rise, 5 low-rise, 9 tower); avg edge height 29.6 m (~10 floors); 9.5 buildings per 100 m of 336 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 18 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" that 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 (1 types · 1 records)
- community centre
Nearby active-edge features (59)
- community: St. Lawrence Community Recreation Centre0 m
- cafe: St. Lawrence Cafe5 m
- retail: Royal Foodland9 m
- parking lot10 m
- parking lot16 m
- restaurant: Subway20 m
- retail: Gingko Floral Design27 m
- retail30 m
- parking lot37 m
- restaurant: Miyaki Sushi39 m
- restaurant: Pizza Nova41 m
- restaurant: Shawarma House42 m
- restaurant: Cluck Clucks Chicken44 m
- transit stop: Princess Street49 m
- transit stop: Berkeley Street55 m
- parking lot58 m
- cafe: Berkeley Cafe62 m
- transit stop: The Esplanade67 m
- retail: Dollarama70 m
- retail: LCBO71 m
- community: Jamii72 m
- transit stop: Princess Street83 m
- transit stop: The Esplanade83 m
- transit stop: Front Street East87 m
- parking lot89 m
- restaurant: The Burger's Priest90 m
- transit stop: Front Street East100 m
- cafe: Starbucks103 m
- retail: No Frills105 m
- retail: Pet Valu130 m
- transit stop: Berkeley Street133 m
- parking lot137 m
- cafe: Rooster Coffee House141 m
- restaurant: Kinton Ramen141 m
- restaurant: Firehouse Subs143 m
- retail: Polyform144 m
- restaurant: Tahini's145 m
- retail: Rogers146 m
- retail: The Ten Spot146 m
- transit stop: Lower Sherbourne Street149 m
- restaurant: Pumpernickel's150 m
- transit stop: Ontario Street154 m
- transit stop: Ontario Street156 m
- retail: Italinteriors159 m
- retail: Sub Zero Wolf168 m
- retail: bulthaup168 m
- transit stop: The Esplanade168 m
- retail: Kiosk172 m
- transit stop: Front Street East172 m
- retail: Crown Cleaners174 m
- retail: J.S. Hair Salon175 m
- retail: Klaus by Nienkamper181 m
- transit stop: Parliament Street184 m
- retail: St. Lawrence Pro Hardware185 m
- retail: The Chesterfield Shop186 m
- transit stop: Mill Street193 m
- restaurant: Tacorrito196 m
- transit stop: Lower Sherbourne Street197 m
- retail: Rabba198 m
Park profile
Five-axis radar across the structural dimensions.
Citywide percentile ranks
Across all Toronto parks in the dataset.
- Overall vitality81th
- Edge activation91th
- Connectivity76th
- Amenity diversity80th
- Natural comfort8th
- Enclosure76th
Most similar parks
Closest in metric space across the five structural dimensions.
- Sunfield ParkCorridor / Linear Park44
- Northumberland PlaygroundUrban Plaza46
- Dane ParketteNeighbourhood Park48
- Regan ParkUrban Plaza44
- SIR WILLIAM CAMPBELL HOUSE MUSEUM - Building GroundsUrban Plaza40
Most opposite parks
Furthest in metric space. Useful for recognising what kind of park this isn’t.
- Trca Lands ( 26)Ravine / Naturalized Park27
- Toronto Islands - Muggs Island ParkRavine / Naturalized Park25
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park28
- Rouge ParkRavine / Naturalized Park26
- Rouge ParkWaterfront Park25
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.
p71 citywide · p75 within Urban Plaza
Source: Google Places API · match medium (0.79 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 ST. LAWRENCE COMMUNITY RECREATION CENTRE - 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.
- 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.