urban life within a field of possibilities
image: February 23, 2018 A cultural, landscape study.
Mack Phillips, in spring 2018.
Unless otherwise noted, photos taken with a Lubitel 2 on Kodak T-Max purchased second-hand in St. Edmund’s Township, ON and an iPhone 6 purchased from VidÊotron on Mont Royal Street.
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introduction
While the Champ des Possibles has not been formally designated as such, large areas of land directly north and west of the site have been – what makes this more urban than the office buildings and repurposed factories and warehouses adjacent to the site?
The Metropolitan Community of Montreal (CMM) has
identified “Areas Reserved for Optimal Urbanization”
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– vacant
or underused areas within the Montreal Metropolitan region with those on the Island of Montreal as having the greatest potential. Meanwhile, statistics show that while the population of Montreal is slowly increasing, the physical size of built-up area is shrinking. The CMM has nevertheless encouraged municipalities to focus on “consolidating the existing urban fabric... containing public services, which are close to infrastructure and mass-transit facilities… [and] creating planning tools better adapted to integrating a wide variety of dwelling types and prices.” In spite of the current conditions of the city, the planning departments’ idea of optimal urbanization includes tax revenue-generating projects such as housing and commercial developments. Any brief walk about Montreal will however reveal that the lack of housing and commercial space is far from being a problem for the city – in some areas of the city one could rent half a city block should they so desire. This then opens up the question: how else can these reserved areas be optimally urbanized?
image: The space where everything is possible https://amisduchamp.com/ 3
image: February 23, 2018
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The case of the Champ des Possibles in Montreal’s Mile
End neighbourhood presents a exemplary case to study the factors that led certain community members to formally oppose the redevelopment of the site and preserve its freedom of use. The property was purchased by the City of Montreal in 2009 from CP who gave a local community non-profit organization permission to administrate and promote the site. The Friends of the Champ des Possibles had campaigned for the potential of wilderness (or, ecological diversity) and the social attractiveness of the unplanned nature of the site. The ethos of the site at its conception was less that of a laissez-faire urban park and more of a open-ended design to allow for many future and unforeseen uses.
The site has two distinct cultural landscapes – the life
(ecological and social) within its boundaries and the social events and meetings of the Friends of the Champ des Possibles which happen off-site. I am interested in the question of whether the nature of possibility as promoted in the site is inherent through the land or whether it is a social construct. To observe the site over the span of two months during late winter will surely render limited results as people are much less likely to linger outdoors. However, it will most importantly identify the dominant, year-long uses of the site from the seasonal ones which can be inferred from firsthand accounts and the internet. The cultural landscape of the Champs des Possibles ultimately presents a prime example of alternative and case-specific land uses within the urban context of Montreal.
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map: Goad’s 1907 Fire Insurance Map the ponds were apparently an important assessment to underwriters.
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a brief urban history
The earliest available contextual plan of the site shows
the area of the Champ des Possibles (in white) bordering what was planned to be Alma/Albina Street and a Canadian Pacific Railway siding that ran from the main subdivision south to Laurier Avenue. This dates from 1897. Much of this area around the site is noted as being “marsh land” and “full of ponds”. The area surrounding it is roughly classified as wooden structures, however the invididual structures are not yet shown. By 1907 it appears that CPR had constructed a rail yard on the site, while much of the surrounding area was somewhat sparsely populated. Amidst this industry the Carmelite Sisters held their ground in their stone-walled convent to the south. In 1939, the railyard branches out to de Gaspé Avenue and Henri-Julien Avenue and wooden coal sheds line its periphery. The neighbourhood has picked up by now, with many new brickfaced wooden houses, factories and warehouses filling in much of the old marshland. In 1955, scrap metal yards replace much of the obsolete coal sheds next to the site. Railway traffic slowed down, industries moved, warehousing practises changed and between 1965 and 1975 a row of ten-storey clothing factories were built along Avenue de Gaspé. The remaining land saw no similar construction and was left vacant, no longer used by the CPR. Ignored, the site gradually became overgrown and saw no further claims of space until 2009.
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“Initially drawn to the field as a site to work outdoors, take up space, and experiment with sculpture, I found something in the Canadian Pacific Railway lot that was close to freedom. This vacant field was an expansive stretch of overgrown land, open to the sky and accessible to city-dwellers.�
quote: Emily Rose Michaud
image: Roerich garden hop growing - Roger Latour, 2010
The Champs des Possibles is the largest open space
within the Mile End neighbourhood of Montreal. It has had a few names, notably the St. Louis Yard, the CPR Mile End Yard, the Macguire Meadow, lot #2334609, and the Champ des Possibles. The City of Montreal acquired the property in 2009 from the CPR and designated it as renaturalized, open space.
image: Champ des Possibles, 2018 Google Earth aerial image 8
In 2014, the Canadian Pacific Railway Company mistakenly
assumed that it still owned the land, razed a small section of the site, and built a short spur. The site was unproductive, unkempt, and thus the CPR seized the opportunity to make the best use of the land. The citizens, les Amis du Champ des Possibles, and even Mayor Coderre decried the violation – this was one possibility that was not allowed. Les Amis du Champ des Possibles was created as a community, non-profit organization in 2009 and acts in direct stewardship of the site alongside the municipality.
images: CPR ‘sacks’ the Champs des Possibles in 2014
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observations
Friday, 10:00, -4ºC, cloudy with breaks. The 55 St. Laurent stops at St. Viateur E. the whole bus exits and climbs the stairs to the Ubisoft office. Few people seem to notice my note-taking. After a string of warm days what snow that had recently melted has turned to ice and left a layer of black gravel on the sidewalks. The rink has also frozen again, showing large patches of gravel that look as if the frost had heaved them from under the ice. No one is skating, of course. Most people are on their way somewhere, cutting through the site on the new pathway at the southeast edge of the site. Most of the traffic is directed to the edges of the site. Few people linger or even cut through the middle, usually dog-walkers, groups of children, and their attendants. Only the areas of open ice slow passersby down, as the city does not salt all informal the paths on the site. Along the northeast edge there exists another set of contrasting edge conditions. Where the Champ des Possibles meets Avenue Henri-Julien, a single chain strung between two posts holds a spraypainted sign reading “ZONE EN RENATURALIZATION”. Here, wild grass spills out onto the sidewalk and passersby must often avoid the low-hanging branches of young trees reaching out over the sidewalk. On the opposite side of the street, the twostorey stone wall of the Carmelite convent itself can hardly restrain the nature inside – the mature trees reach over the wall at nearly double its height.
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10:09. Someone cuts over the railway tracks just before a CP engine passes by. The path along the southeast edge of the site is surprisingly popular. It looks to be fairly new, has been paved with rubber mulch and furnished with stone benches, flower gardens and LED streetlights. This small section definitely feels like a city park – clean, new and with no rough edges. In a certain sense these types of cultural landscapes are proliferate and contribute heavily to urban culture and collective identity. Some people take their dog to walk here. Most people look twice at any Friends of the Champ des Possibles sign or initiative. Some smoke, some text, some eat their lunch and most avoid the mud and the dog feces. The southern, designed part of the site feels much more comfortable, much more controlled. People use it much more and are generally happier using it too. Usually only the adventurous types cut through the field, those not wearing heels or shoes of any value.
map: quick sketch map from first visit
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On the site one feels not only removed from the city, but also not quite surrounded by nature. I can take notes without being interrupted and find enough space to be comfortable, however people can see me and know that I am present. The exhaust from the neighbouring building substitutes the sound of the wind one might expect in late March, and makes a strange contrast amongst the birdsong and police sirens. This space is primarily transitory landscape. Seldom is it inhabited for more time than is necessary to cross from one side to another. It best for being alone, or when small groups need privacy or distance in their business.
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note: Repeat – previous shot was double-exposed – passerby remarked that I had chosen “un beau sujet” and I agreed but forgot to forward the film.
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“Landscape inveigles. Trees and highways, rivers and villages, hills and urban sprawl become more than view or setting altered by weather or slant of light or ideology... Analyzing landscape slams traditional academic inquiry against serendipity and intuition. Always analysis begins in just looking around, noticing the nuance that becomes the portal.�
quote: Stilgoe, J. Landscape and Images.
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What is to be read in this landscape?
John Stilgoe defines landscape as being “not cityscape, but essentially rural, essentially the product of tradition�. Landscapes are always inherently cultural to a certain degree. Stilgoe focuses mainly on rural landscapes, where he sees the best balance between human interaction and scale of the land. Still, one could venture that most urban areas are also the product of tradition though at a much different rates of change. The tradition within these areas of the city is often dense, diverse and fickle. In one of his few pieces addressing the city, he finds it important to distinguish between the words city and urban. City, in this sense, refers primarily to the people of the city or the civitas, whereas the word urban, from Latin urb, refers to the physical fabric of the inhabited landscape. Stilgoe argues that both terms are outdated and no longer are relevant in the way civic traditions shape our built landscape due to patterns following 19th-century industrialization. What is left out in the urban-rural divide is the fringe. Here, at the edge of town, temporary structures are constructed under the presumtion that better or different uses of land will eventually supercede them as traditions change. Arguably, the Champ des Possibles has remained as such a fringe space or terrain vague since it was surveyed in the late 1800s. Though the current rural-urban fringe of Montreal has long since moved on, the site remains an isolated element of this condition within a highly urbanized area. More than most other sites in the area, the Champ des Possibles bears strong resemblances to that of a rural landscape. Understanding this, its cultural landscapeis notably different from the areas around it.
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note: The municipality uses the site to the south as a snow dump, attracting children, families and curious adults during the late winter.
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image: 1/?s f/11 ISO Whose renovation is it anyways?
lawn >>>> champ >>>> swamp
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weeds, garbage, landscape
With spring in full force, melting snow begins to reveal the Champ again. Of all seasons, this is certainly not the optimal time for studying landscape and culture. In general, people tend to spend as little time as possible outdoors and few people spend more than a second or two to linger in the area. If one cannot observe how people directly use the site, can one comment on the culture? The only presence that seems to linger on the site is the snow, however gradually this begins to reveal layers of garbage and dead, bent or dormant wild grasses and other unruly vegetation. There is a link between these spaces and weeds – weeds are not unlike garbage. According to Roger Latour, the site has the highest range of biodiversity in the the area, second only to Mont-Royal. Specimens from all over North America found their way to the site via the train yard’s freight cars and following its disuse in the 70s these seeds grew to reclaimed the site. These species are often quick to establish themselves in post-industrial sites, and eventually made room for a greater range of plant species. Besides the bee nest box, this amazing biodiversity is not activating the site at this time of year. On two stretches of where the sidewalk meets the Champ there are a few remaining chipboard signs indicating that this site is a ZONE EN RENATURALIZATION. The signs themselves bear witness to the force of nature and disorder – they have to be replaced every other year.
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image: Lots of tests and unfinshed graffiti tags – this is a place to practise.
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image: Doggie bags that missed the bin – this is a place to run free. This is also one of the two trash receptacles that the Friends of the Champ des Possibles manage.
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étudié et selon la toxicologue Monique Beausoleil de l’INSPQ, les contaminants situés à plus d’un mètre dans le sol ne sont pas dangereux pour un usage public de type parc sans aires de jeux (Entretien, Monique Beausoleil, 2015). Il y a donc une contradiction entre la réglementation basée sur des concentrations et le discours de la toxicologue Monique Beausoleil qui admet que la situation spécifique de ce site est sans danger. Le danger semble être associé à des interventions qui sortiraient les contaminants de leur confinement actuel (Entretien, Monique Beausoleil, 2015; Robinson et coll., 2006). Considérant que les réseaux souterrains d’eau ne sont pas atteints pas la présence des contaminants (Dessau, 2009), tout porte à croire qu’il serait préférable de laisser les contaminants qui sont situés sous un mètre de sol en place. Selon ce scénario, les interventions d’aménagement à faire devraient se concentrer sur les contaminants présents en surface et ne devraient donc pas creuser dans le sol là où il y a des contaminants à plus d’un mètre. 99-te-28 99-te-23 99-te-03
99-te-02
99-te-10
99-te-09
Étain Plomb
Arsenic
99-te-13
Arsenic Cuivre Plomb
99-te-32
Arsenic Arsenic
99-te-34 te-09-18
Plomb
0m 1m
99-Po-28
?
99-te-11
Arsenic
99-te-12
Cuivre Étain Plomb
99-te-16
99-te-31
99-te-19
Étain Plomb
99-te-20
0m 1m 2m 3m
Profondeurs
déchets solides
Plomb
99-te-33
hydrocarbures Pétroliers (hPet)
Arsenic
Plomb
hydrocarbures aromatiques Polycliniques (haP)
2m 3m
métaux lourds
Figure 42 : Schéma de la répartition des contaminants
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image: Caroline Magar’s Landscape Architecture master’s thesis, entitled Conception of an Intervention Plan for the Public Rehabilitation of Contaminated Urban Wasteland in Montreal, 2015 .
image: Copy of Roger Latour’s 2014 poster for his annual Bioblitz event.
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After some research into the champ, I was surprised to find the incredible amount of interest in the site. I was not the first and am certainly not the last student or academic to write on the champ. These people have been captivated by the idea and the potential of the site, as I too had been at the outset (including Roger Latour, Emily Rose Michaud, Owen McSwiney, Cynthia Hammond and Caroline Magar). These figures have thoroughly identified the presence and possibilities of artists, community groups, plants and animals, heavy metals, and history. While these studies have very effectively addressed the ephemeral, natural and artistic potential of the site, they do not consider how the site is used on a daily basis, especially by those who are unaware of the various aforementioned presences and potentials on the site. Conducting this study during the shoulder season of late winter and early spring presents a problem and conversely an opportunity – as few people use the site as they do during the summer, the traces of alternative uses become starkly visible. This is evident in the footpaths through the snow and mud, but most revealingly through the assortment of waste, garbage, trash, detruitus, etc. on the site. In some cases, it is hard to tell whether or not certain objects are intended to be there or have truly been discarded. This is how the Champ operates for most of the year (approximately late November to early May). What can the waste say about the way the site is used and viewed? Over the three months I documented the landscape and the waste on the site. On four of these occasions I mapped my own route and noted the positions and types of refuse as they were found on the site. These maps have been illustrated on the following pages.
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image: Ice rink.
image: “ZONE EN RENATURALIZATION”.
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image: Cigarette butts frozen in all levels of ice – this is a place to relax.
image: This will all be cleaned up soon.
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image: While this may look like waste, they are suaully used for children’s activities.
image: It is unclear why one cannot walk here, some have ignored the sign.
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image: This construction waste marks a two-month site residency in late March.
image: What appears to be household waste topping off a city-owned trash receptacle.
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Summary of items left on-site: Beer cans Burnt Logs Burnt chipboard Cardboard “ZONE EN RENATURALIZATION” chipboard signs Baseboards, other construction waste Doggie bags Coffee Cups Newspapers, flyers Used spray paint canisters Bags of household waste Cigarette butts Food packaging Pizza boxes Wood pallets Tires Children’s crafts Leather glove Tourist brochures Bee nest box (without the sign it might look like trash) “NE PAS PASSER” signs Takeout bags, containers Gatorade, pop bottles Latex gloves Rusted, broken I-beam 1/4” EPS foam Paint can, stir stick Condoms Watering can 2018 Dodge Durango SUV (momentarily abandoned) 36
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image: The Friends of the Champ des Possibles maintains an active online presence.
images: Google reviews of the champ. The champ has a 4.5/5 rating, whereas no-one has bothered or been able to comment publicly on nearby parks.
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cultivating virtual landscapes
As is often the case of outdoor spaces in Montreal, there remains the critique of disuse during the winter months. Certain individuals have made attempts to use the site during the winter, if at the very least to keep their presence visible. This year, the only formal outdoor presence was the Lion and the Mouse’s children’s play sessions every Thursday afternoon. In previous years, Le Petit Floride has used the De Gaspé site (where the outdoor ice rink is) to sell everything from Christmas trees to tea. The traces of use and culture of the champ are seen most online – beyond the catalogue of events on Facebook and the website, most past events leave little trace on the site. In doing so, those organizing events with the Friends of the Champ des Possibles make no permanent claim on the landscape leaving it unclear as to the intent of the landscape. The site is essentially that, a suspended and transitory cultural landscape. Though many have identified themselves in connection to the site, the reality is that few people continually occupy the landscape enough to claim a visible and marked presence to the passing emic or etic. This retains the indeterminate quality of the cultural landscape – the most permanent presences are the vegetation, snow and trash. Addressing the latter, the Friends of the Champ des Possible work hard to keep the champ clear of visible waste – this too is a possibilty that is not permitted. The next yearly garbage cleanup is scheduled for May and the next invasive species blitz for November. Fortunately for this study, even the city-owned trash receptacles are not emptied very often. Through analyzing the concentration and locations of garbage found on site, alternate temporary uses become apparent.
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image: The Friends of the Champ des Possibles 2017 annual general assembly at Temps Libre.
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image: Le Lion et la Souris is a community organizes that directs child-led outdoor play, often at the champ. As evident in their Instagram presence, kids love playing with just about anything.
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The idea of the site is important factor in understanding the social appreciation of the landscape. The rhetoric used in the creation of the champ includes motifs such as freedom, possibility, uncertainty, and open use and access. The property was zoned as open space and was given special exemption to many regulations on the use and maintainance of park lands due to the influence and responsibility shouldered by the Friends of the Champ des Possibles. In those fighting for just, open and fair uses of available land, the champ presents a dramatically successful case study. It is unclear if these opinions are formulated in direct contact with the site or instead from a mental image built from reading the blogs of local artists, activists and community groups. The idea that such landscapes can be culturally important is also not new, take for instance Mattias Qviström and Malmö’s Bernstorps Bog . While the bog appears to be forgotten and disused, Qviström’s research argues that it has served as an important cultural resource to the adjacent community in activities such as gardening, dumping, storage and recreation. He cites Torsten Hägerstrand in remarking that every landscape has a double character as a graveyard and a cradle of creation. The champ exhibits both of these qualities. Its magnificence rests in its uncertain social image, allowing it to be percieved as both a park and a bog. I do not mean to say we should reconsider the beauty of waste or glorify its image, but that it is neccessary in the creation of cultural landscapes and is at risk especially in urban areas against a new breed of urban puritanism. Lest we forget, our waste is our history.
You can contact the champ at lechampdespossibles@gmail.com.
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CALENDRIER 2017 - 2018 EN SURVO
CALENDRIER 2017 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Jan-Fév. - Petite Floride (animation hivernale terrain DeGaspé)/ Agora des Possibles Mars - Consultation citoyenne sur Viaduc 375 Avril - Charrette de design relatif à Viaduc 375 Mai - Semer la biodiversité (piétonnisation rue Cloutier)/ Agora des Possibles Mai - Plantation avec les élèves de l’école secondaire PGLO Mai - Corvée du printemps (nettoyage, ensemencement) Juin - Soirée de formation de la Patrouille Verte - début de l’entretien écologique Juillet - Visite découverte de la biodiversité du Champ des Possibles Août - Bioblitz Août - Tranchées de sol pour caractérisation supplémentaire du sol Septembre - Visite des aînés de la Résidence Le Mile End Octobre - Viaduc 375 Octobre - Visite offerte aux participants du Sommet Mondial du Design de Montréal Novembre - Corvée d’automne avec Katimavik (contrôle d’espèces envahissantes) Décembre - Assemblée générale annuelle 2017 Décembre - Soirée d’initiation à l’illustration botanique
CALENDRIER 2018 (prévisionnel)
image: Schedule from the Friends of the Champ des Possibles 2017 annual report.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
Janvier - 2e soirée d’initiation à l’illustration botanique Février - Séance d’information et de mise au point sur le plan de réhabilitation Mars - Bilan de la santé écologique du site Avril - Publication du nouveau Catalogue de la biodiversité du Champ des Possibles Mai - Corvée de printemps Juin - Relance de la Patrouille verte Juillet - Entretien écologique + Médiation Août - Entretien écologique + Médiation Septembre - Entretien écologique + Médiation Octobre - Corvée d’automne Novembre - Entretien écologique Décembre - Assemblée générale annuelle 2018
Evidential impossible activities of the champ: Public drunkenness
Parking
Bonfires
Storage
Littering
Camping
Dumping
Ignorant tourism
Dog walking
Quick lunch breaks
Cigarette, coffee breaks
Post-workout
Graffiti tagging practise
CP railyard reestablishment
Picnics
Public fornication 43
references Cosgrove, Denis E. Social Formation and Symbolic Landscape. Madison, Wis: University of
Wisconsin Press, 1998.
Hammond, Cynthia. “From Rust to Green: Postindustrial Urban Landscapes.” In Du Potentiel
Des Grandes Structures Urbaines Abandonnées = On the Potential of Abandoned
Large Urban Structures., edited by Jean-Pierre Chupin and Tiphaine Abenia, 2017.
Latour, Roger. “Emily: C’est Un Succès!” Accessed February 25, 2018. https://
floraurbana.blogspot.com/2010/05/emily-cest-un-succes.html.
Latour, Roger. “Flora Urbana.” Accessed April 1, 2018. https://floraurbana.blogspot.com/. “Les Amis du Champ des Possibles.” Les Amis du Champ des Possibles. Accessed February
25, 2018. https://amisduchamp.com/.
Les Amis du Champ Des Possibles. “Rapport D’Activités 2017,” 2017. https://amisduchamp.
files.wordpress.com/2017/12/rapport-dactivitecc81s_acdp_20171.pdf.
MacLean, Cameron, Megan Cohoe-Kenny, Margaret Fraser, and Gabrielle Doiron. “Le Lion et
La Souris.” Accessed April 1, 2018. https://lelionetlasouris.com/.
Magar, Caroline. “Conception d’un Cadre d’intervention Pour La Réhabilitation Publique
Des Friches Urbaines Végétalisées et Contaminées de Montréal: Le Cas Du Champ
Des Possibles.” Université de Montréal, 2015.
McSwiney, Owen, and Emily Rose Michaud. “Le Champ Des Possibles – The Field of Possibilities.” In DIY Citizenship: Critical Making and Social Media, edited by Matt Ratto and Megan Boler, 270. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2014. Michaud, Emily Rose. “About | À Propos – Le Jardin Roerich.” Accessed February 25, 2018. http://roerichproject.artefati.ca/about/. Nassauer, Joan Iverson, and Julia Raskin. “Urban Vacancy and Land Use Legacies:
A Frontier for Urban Ecological Research, Design, and Planning.” Landscape and
Urban Planning 125 (2014): 245–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2013.10.008.
Qviström, Mattias. “Landscapes out of Order: Studying the Inner Urban Fringe beyond
the Rural – Urban Divide.” Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 89, no.
3 (September 2007): 269–82. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0467.2007.00253.x.
Shaffer, Marie-Eve. “Une partie du Champ des possibles rasée.” Métro (blog). Accessed
February 25, 2018. http://journalmetro.com/actualites/montreal/576777/une-partie-du-
champ-des-possibles-rasee/.
Stilgoe, John R. Common Landscape of America, 1580 to 1845. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1982.
———. Landscape and Images. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005. 44