New design features on the way to Waterloo Public Square
Posted Apr 26, 2022 12:04:00 PM.
Uptown Waterloo is getting a bit of a facelift with long-awaited add-ons coming to its popular public square.
These will help give the concrete look of the city's core a softer appearance.
It's taken 13 years, but a water feature will finally be added.
“It's been a long road to get here, I know. But, I'm very excited by what is before us now, ” said Councillor Tenille Bonoguore, who represents the Uptown ward at a Waterloo council meeting Monday.
The water feature was part of the original design plans from 2007, but was left out of construction because of budget constraints and LRT plans.
It will be put in front of the restaurant patio and look like “a wall of water that falls into stepped pools and then recirculates to fall again.”
Infrastructure for this feature, including pumps and filters, were installed in 2007.
Waterloo will also put five permanent leaf-shaped shade structures at the southern edge of the Square to shield the seating terraces.
They'll be made of reclaimed wood and steel.
Bonoguore said, “The Public Square as it is, can, on those hottest of days, just be really inaccessible. I think this is a start of a fantastic move towards helping make a great space that can used by more people, on more days, through more seasons.”
This year, movable shade structures with fabric umbrellas will be put in the Square that rearrranged for various events.
There are also plans to add wood-top seating and trees with raised planters along King Street that will provide additional shade in the summer and allow sunlight in the winter.
“This is just such a key piece of our efforts, not just in terms of helping the city be more livable as the climate gets a bit more extreme, but it's also helping all ages really have equal access to city amenities,” said Bonoguore.
The new design features come with a price tag pegged at $1.7 million, but developer of the nearby Barrel Yards, Silver Lake Developments Inc. has committed $500,000 towards the water feature.
Construction is expected spring 2023.
