Douglas Park Spirit Square

The mildly controversial, $815,000 Douglas Park Spirit Square in the City of Langley will have a grand opening on June 12th. I’m very excited to see the project completed for a few reasons. First, Downtown Langley didn’t have any formal gathering place for events, protests, etc. The square will bring this to the city. Also, and I know this was the controversial element, Douglas Park was pretty much grass with odd travels running through it. It was pretty much serviced as the “back yard” of the apartment building that back onto the park. The addition of a band shell will help make the park more of a civic centre of Langley. There is one disappointment: I don’t think the band shell goes far enough. I was part of the design charrette for the square. The end goal of the process was to see a more formal park that went right to the street on Douglas Crescent with water feature, more pavers, etc. While on the south side of the band shell an earth berm was to be constructed to give a natural seating area for events. Also, the lighting and planting in the park was going to be updated and formalized. I would love to see Douglas Park become the heart of Langley, a destination for people. I would also like help reinforce and support the Langley Downtown Master Plan. I took some pictures of the square last night...