Public City’s Role

Landscape Architecture, Architecture

Team

GRADE Consulting,
SMP Engineering, Entuitive, AME Consulting

Location

Edmonton

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Mary Burlie Park is a renewal project in Edmonton’s downtown Boyle-McCauley neighbourhood, an inner-city community that is home to many diverse cultural organizations, social services, recent immigrants, and local businesses. The park is named after Mary Burlie a local figure known for her community service and direct support of vulnerable residents in the neighbourhood. On-site public engagement events and direct conversations with stakeholders, community organizations, local leaders, and the Burlie family focused on how the park is used now and what it needs to better serve the downtown community.

The design responds by clustering major program areas at accessible grades, opening sightlines, and treating amenities as core infrastructure. Lighting, planting, and circulation are designed to reduce dark corners, increase visibility, and make the park feel safe while remaining open and usable. The site is activated by amenities including recreational courts, a staffed public washroom, flexible paved space for community programming, and “Mary’s Window,” a water filling station and interpretive element drawn from stories of Mary Burlie’s care for her neighbours. The renewal positions water, activity, and dignity as non-negotiable public services and carries forward Mary Burlie’s legacy of direct care to the Boyle-McCauley community.