Preserving the Park-Like Aspect...

Original Campus layout in harmony with Cootes Paradise and the RBG

"McQuesten….was uncomfortable with the dubious strength of the agreement that purported to preserve the park-like aspect of McMaster campus. He foresaw it being ignored by future university governors and wanted the agreement enshrined in provincial legislation. A provincial act would then be required to make changes, establishing a significant roadblock to change, McMaster applied to the legislature for a special Act of Legislature validating the general scheme of building and landscape improvement and planting, as in the agreement dated February 11, 1932, between the Parks Board and McMaster Board."

Love, Sweat and Soil: A History of Royal Botanical Gardens from 1930 to 1981

Dr. Leslie Laking,

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Binkley's Pond, gone for parking

Jacob Binkley (1806-67), great grandson of Marx [Binkley], built the handsome stone house that still stands at 54 Sanders Blvd at the head of a ravine. The house was completed in 1847 and named Lakelet Vale, as it had a little spring-fed lake at the rear. Binkley's Pond, as it was known, was used for skating, fishing, and good times. It is now the Zone 6 parking lot at McMaster University on the west side of Cootes Drive. Loreen Jerome, The Way We Were "The House that Jacob Built" Ainslie Wood/Westdale Community Association of Resident Homeowners Inc. (AWWCA) http://www.awwca.ca/articles/ Skater's on Binkley's Pond circa 1917, now a McMaster parking lot

McMaster's Parking Problem: Next Level

I'm sharing a recent article published in the Dundas Star News about McMaster's plan to build a - get this - $17-million dollar parking structure. Seventeen million. Yes, $17,000,000.00 That's a lot of money to provide temporary shelter for vehicles of people who choose to drive to campus. We will be following this closely. Here's the article. Cootes Drive six-storey McMaster University parking garage under review Variances or amendment to zoning bylaw expected to permit parking structure Craig Campbell, Dundas Star News, Friday, March 5, 2021 Zoning bylaw variances, or amendments, could be required for a planned six-storey, 567-space McMaster University parking garage west of Cootes Drive, and north of Thorndale Crescent. University spokesperson Michelle Donavon said the $17-million structure on parking lot K at Westaway Road will help ongoing efforts to re-naturalize parts of the west campus, by moving some surface parking into the structure. “These plans will increa...

McMaster's Parking Non-Problem Problem.

Looking at McMaster University 's plan to build a $12-million dollar parking garage at the site of current Parking Lot K, west of Cootes Drive. The University Planning Committee minutes from March 18, 2020 cite the need to replace their 490-stall Ward Avenue parking lot by 2024. That's the only reason given. Let's do some math: $12 mil/490 spaces=$24,489.00 per stall, which is in line with rough pricing per stall in parking structures. In McMaster's 2011 Campus Master Plan (CMP’11), they identified lot K & 4 other campus sites for potential “Academic, research or residence *above parking structure* & Lot i as a “parking structure” site. Now it looks like Lot K loses the " Academic, research or residence" part and becomes just a "parking structure." But wait! The more recent Facility Services Capital Plan Update 2021/2022 has a $17-million price tag for the structure. That's almost a 42% increase on the March 2020 UPC’s $12 million. This p...

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