MILDRED HALL COMMUNITY PARK

Yellowknife, NT

2006

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The new park is a triangular niche on the north- west side of Franklin Avenue, Yellowknife’s Main Street. It faces directly south with a north wall serving as a wind break and climbable screen to the adjacent basketball courts. Benches sit around a one-foot by one-foot concrete tile mosaic chessboard, part of the games area. The wall’s staggered, geometric lattice pattern plays with light during the course of the day, marking the passage of time and conveying images and patterns which have a myriad of meanings for those in the park. The wall reminds some of crosses, others a line of Inukshuks. These wide cultural interpretations mark it as an effective piece of urban art, a sculptural piece which provides an animated backdrop for thinking, playing, and participating in community life

 

The wall represents a small step towards claiming the street back from the strictly utilitarian movement of vehicles to a place which contributes to the identity and image of a city that is a great place to live and enjoy.