Evergreen Brick Works Case Study

As my selection for an urban park, I chose Toronto’s Evergreen Brick Works – a uniquely “urban” ecosystem located in the city’s core. Formerly Toronto’s chief brick manufacturing facility, Brick Works has since been converted into a wholly committed city park, devoted to the preservation of greenspace, integration of natural ecosystems into the urban environment and educational facilitation.
Among the ecosystem services, Brickworks largely focuses on supporting and cultural values in its identification as an urban park. Although entirely open to human interaction, Brick Works clearly defines its forefront goal as the preservation of both biodiversity and vegetation integrity. This goal, foremost, relies on a comprehensive understanding of Toronto’ waterway system, and its integral role in the city’s ecosystem functions: Toronto is outlined by a system of watersheds, which runs under and throughout the city’s grounds (an artistic interpretation of their path found within the Brick Works area is shown below.) These watersheds, however, have largely been paved over in the process of the city’s expansion and urbanization. The environmental ramifications of such actions are clear: Water that …show more content…
Most easily, local commerce is measured by the collective net profit produced as a result of the trade; however, the benefit of using sustainable resources in such trade is not as easy to monetize, and therefore is not entirely an accurate economic valuation. Following, I argue that Brick Works’ effort in monitoring water flow allows for monetary assessment, as one may consider costs saved from flood reduction and local area maintenance. Contrastingly, I find it hard to argue that one can monetize the value of Brick Works’ educational benefits, as the actions that they promote are a bit ambiguous and do not necessarily promote clear cut actions that may be monetarily