Gorilla Park

Gorilla Park’s rebirth is as much a story of community resilience as design. After the Mile-Ex green space was razed in 2013, locals fought for nearly a decade to reclaim it. When they did, landscape firm Civiliti helped shape its comeback with a plan rooted in ecology and memory. The site’s signature wildness remains, but now it’s anchored by thoughtful interventions: a Corten-steel pavilion for gatherings, bleacher seating that nods to its rail-yard past, and a rain garden that captures runoff from nearby streets. Working with a biologist and forest engineer, the team used the Miyawaki method to cultivate dense, fast-growing mini-forests—already home to frogs and rabbits. For the neighbourhood, the real victory came when the trees finally arrived: a living symbol that the forest they lost had, at last, returned.