The Calgary Courts Phase II urban park (Harley Hotchkiss Gardens) was envisioned from the outset to provide a much-needed urban oasis in the heart of the city. The park is a contemporary, diverse, and meaningful public space that celebrates the natural beauty of Alberta while providing a passive open space for the enjoyment of all. The desire of the client was to create a park that embodied the characteristics of the Alberta landscape. This concept was the starting point for design exploration. Through this exploration the design team established the conceptual basis for the park was not to create a diorama but utilize a strong linear geometric north-south and east-west order in response to the urban grid and existing pedestrian movement while allowing the exclusively native plant material to provide the link to the Alberta landscape. The park is designed as a series of outdoor rooms established through the grid.  The grid is unified through consistent materials and language that relate to the historic COA and the new courthouse tower and is fractured when it collides with elements representing the natural landscape.

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The park was intentionally designed to have a human scale and texture creating a range of intimate and comfortable spaces with most of the seating oriented towards the sun to encourage four seasons use.  Utility corridors did not allow the planting of street trees, so the park responds to its urban edges with seating walls and a strong architectural edge with defined entry points.  The park is a unifying element for the precinct drawing in the surrounding buildings at grade and through the view from above which was an important aspect considered in the design of the park.  

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The park also has many diverse feature elements including the Sculptural Tectonic Plates which allude to the ice flows of the Bow River / formation of the Rocky Mountains, the simple soothing Granite Waterwall which provides white noise and beauty, The Commons with flowering trees, benches, picnic lawns and seating walls, The Joe Fafard sculptures galloping through the prairie planters, The Field of Champions sculptural blades that commemorate important Albertans and the re-integration of the historic artifact and plaque from the original 1888 courthouse.

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