Jules Morin Park, at 400 Clarence Street in Vanier, has been completely renovated. New features in the park include an NHL-sized outdoor rink, field house, wading pool, soccer field, playground, gateway weathervanes, and a parking lot.
The final pieces are now in place with the arrival and installation of shade structures for the pool life-guards. The new pool has plenty of terraced picnic space overlooking it, and many new trees as well as existing ones, which were carefully incorporated into the new design.
The new park and field house was officially opened on February 17 this year by Mayor Jim Watson, and can accommodate training and classes, community meetings and events. It was designed by grc architects.
In February the Senators hosted a practice at the Jules Morin Park rink. This, as part of the renovations, has been adorned with hockey-player cutouts, modeled on the table game figures, shown dressed in uniforms in Senators’ colours.
The new accessible playground has a wide variety of play-structures. Benches are placed to provide seating with a good view of playground activities for caregivers less energetic than their charges.
A lovely touch is the weather vanes, positioned at the entrances to the park. These were designed by us in collaboration with Evolution Professional Design Consultants Ltd. Made of laser-cut steel, these hark back to the old name of the park (Anglesea Square) and the old Brébaut School, along with other local historic features, and of course the park’s long association with sports.
A less obvious but also whimsical feature is the decorative stainless steel grate covering the water supply pipe to the wading pool. This shows a stylized map of the Lowertown area before the urban renewal of the 1960’s, with Jules Morin Park at the centre.
