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Landscape Architect Quarterly
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Round Table The Course of Creativity Features Maintaining Messiness
CSLA Awards
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OALA Awards
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Slow Landscapes
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Summer 2020 Issue 50
Masthead
OALA
OALA
About
About the OALA
Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly is published by the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects and provides an open forum for the exchange of ideas and information related to the profession of landscape architecture. Letters to the editor, article proposals, and feedback are encouraged. For submission guidelines, contact Ground at magazine@oala.ca. Ground reserves the right to edit all submissions. The views expressed in the magazine are those of the writers and not necessarily the views of the OALA and its Governing Council.
The Ontario Association of Landscape Architects works to promote and advance the profession of landscape architecture and maintain standards of professional practice consistent with the public interest. The OALA promotes public understanding of the profession and the advancement of the practice of landscape architecture. In support of the improvement and/or conservation of the natural, cultural, social and built environments, the OALA undertakes activities including promotion to governments, professionals and developers of the standards and benefits of landscape architecture.
Councillors Cynthia Graham Cameron Smith Justin Whalen
Upcoming Issues of Ground Ground 51 (Fall) Pattern
Associate Councillor—Senior Leah Lanteigne
Ground 52 (Winter) Myth
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Editor Glyn Bowerman
2020–2021 OALA Governing Council
Photo Editor Jasper Flores
President Jane Welsh
OALA Editorial Board Kanwal Aftab Shannon Baker Trish Clarke Jasper Flores Eric Gordon Mark Hillmer Eric Klaver (co-chair) Phaedra Maicantis Nadja Pausch (co-chair) Katie Strang Dalia Todary-Michael Sarah Turkenicz Andrew Taylor
Vice President Kendall Flower
Web Editor Jennifer Foden Social Media Manager Jennifer Foden Art Direction/Design Noël Nanton/typotherapy www.typotherapy.com Advertising Inquiries advertising@oala.ca 416.231.4181 Cover Mechanized River Valley Access. Image courtesy of Dialog/CSLA. See page 18. Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly is published four times a year by the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects. Ontario Association of Landscape Architects 3 Church Street, Suite 506 Toronto, Ontario M5E 1M2 416.231.4181 www.oala.ca oala@oala.ca Copyright © 2020 by the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects. Contributors retain copyright of their work. All rights reserved. ISSN: 0847-3080 Canada Post Sales Product Agreement No. 40026106
Treasurer Steve Barnhart Secretary Stefan Fediuk Past President Doris Chee
Associate Councillor—Junior Chen Zixiang Lay Councillor Peter Hersics Appointed Councillor Liat Margolis
Deadline for advertising space reservations: October 14, 2020 Deadline for editorial proposals: July 17, 2020
Appointed Educator University of Guelph Brendan Stewart Appointed Educator University of Toronto TBC University of Guelph Student Representative Devon Kleinjan University of Toronto Student Representative Morgan Quinn OALA Staff Executive Director Aina Budrevics Registrar Ingrid Little Coordinator Sarah Manteuffel (outgoing)
See www.groundmag.ca to download articles and share content on social media. See www.groundmag.ca for a digital, searchable, archival database, listing all articles, authors, subjects, key words, etc. published in Ground over the years.
TO VIEW ADDITIONAL CONTENT RELATED TO GROUND ARTICLES, VISIT WWW.GROUNDMAG.CA.
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Advisory Panel
Andrew B. Anderson, OALA – Inactive Member, BLA, MSc. World Heritage Management Landscape & Heritage Expert, Oman Botanic Garden John Danahy, OALA, Associate Professor, University of Toronto George Dark, OALA, FCSLA, ASLA, Principal, Urban Strategies Inc., Toronto Real Eguchi, OALA, Eguchi Associates Landscape Architects, Toronto Donna Hinde, OALA, FCSLA, Partner, The Planning Partnership, Toronto Ryan James, OALA, Senior Landscape Architect, Novatech, Ottawa Alissa North, OALA, Associate Professor, University of Toronto, Principal of North Design Office, Toronto Peter North, OALA, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto, Principal of North Design Office, Toronto Nathan Perkins, MLA, PhD, ASLA, Associate Professor, University of Guelph Victoria Taylor, OALA, Principal, Victoria Taylor Landscape Architect, Toronto Jim Vafiades, OALA, FCSLA, Senior Landscape Architect, Stantec, Toronto
Contents
Up Front Information on the ground
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Flow: Maintaining Messiness
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TEXT BY TYLER ALLEN BRADT, OALA, AND JASMEEN BAINS, OALA
Round Table The Course of Creativity MODERATED BY SCOTT TORRANCE, OALA 10/
CSLA Awards
President’s Message
President’s Message
Editorial Board Message
When Ground editor Glyn Bowerman asked me to write this message, he started with what has become a standard greeting of this time: “Hope you are doing okay” and added “during this Great Unpleasantness.” “Unpleasantness” as we experience a constant underlying stress about health, livelihood, isolation and how that has dramatically interrupted everything about the flow of our daily lives. It also describes well the pain evoked by the unjust murder of George Floyd and the exposure of our collective complacency towards racism.
This was supposed to be a celebratory issue in two ways: in these pages we are celebrating members and firms that have received OALA and CSLA Awards while also celebrating a milestone for Ground—our 50th issue. This is the first issue produced under lockdown due to COVID19, and in so many ways it has put a damper on this and many other occasions where we should be honouring ourselves and others. I was looking forward to meeting with colleagues I don’t otherwise get to see through the year at our AGM in London.
For my full Black Lives Matter message, please see page 32.
As a theme in this issue, Flow is covered in its manifold interpretations from the most direct of connections, water, to the flow of materials traced from source to market, and to the more abstract concept in our Round Table—the flow of ideas and how they drive and energize our creative process and output. It’s the latter interpretation of the theme which has been on my mind, and I am sure the minds of many others recently.
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OALA Awards
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Book Corner Slow Landscapes
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TEXT BY VICTORIA TAYLOR, OALA
Notes A miscellany of news and events
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Artifact Ground’s 50th issue TEXT BY GLYN BOWERMAN 42/
Landscape Architects role in public health and resilience How do we stay grounded and connected to our creative flow during this time? One way is to connect to nature. Much has been written about this lately, and has highlighted the important role of landscape architecture and our power as designers to promote health and recovery. A recent CNN article entitled Parks Matter More Than Ever During a Time of Sickness articulates this well. Richard le Brasseur (Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, Dalhousie) reminds us of the legacy of Olmstead and how his understanding of the connections between space, disease control, and public health influenced his design of urban park systems that not only allowed stagnant waterways to flow but immersed visitors in “restorative and therapeutic natural landscapes.” First Virtual Conference and AGM The OALA has adapted to our ‘new normal’ and successfully delivered keynote presentations in May, and held our AGM on June 23rd, where over 270 members registered. We also announced our Awards virtually for the first time, with a wider audience receiving the news. You will read more about the award recipients in this issue. I want thank our amazing staff who worked tirelessly to make this transition a success. ‘Why Ontario needs a Practice Act for Landscape Architects’ I encourage you to refer to and distribute this one page summary about how a practice act would reduce red tape and risk of litigation, ensure ethical practices, and allow Ontario landscape architects to have similar standing as the majority of US states. It has been sent to several key MPPs and circulated to the membership (see April and May Progress Posts). Please share it to make politicians aware of what landscape architects do and why we need a practice act.
Summer 2020 Issue 50
Editorial Board Message
While the Round Table was held in the days when the Coronavirus was working its way through other countries, by now the creative process has been turned on its head for many people. Creativity could be thought of as taking the uncertainty of beginnings, bringing an idea into focus, and then finally achieving a tangible goal. Our studies, which prepared us for practice, and the environments we work in, are ideally stable matrices that allow the the creative process to flourish. All of this stability has now been undermined and replaced by uncertainty. Every single aspect of one’s day is challenged by a sense of threat, when parents have to not only provide but somehow deliver curriculum and engage kids whose own life is upside down, when technology supplants the typically frictionless environment of the studio, our creative sensibilities are submerged by basic survival and the trivialities of getting through yet another day. This issue was conceived and the theme developed in recognition that, every once in a while, we need to look at our profession, our work, with a little less gravity and commemorate good work, taking advantage of what is supposed to be the season of “living easy.”
Stay well and remember that the OALA is here to support you.
Our wish for all our readers is twofold: that you can find a peaceful place to enjoy this issue in the spirit that it was created by all who have given their precious time— our generous authors, editorial and production design team—and that each of you remain safe, well, and persevere so that in a year’s time, if all goes well, we can better appreciate the privilege of practicing our life’s work in each other’s company.
JANE WELSH, OALA, FCSLA OALA PRESIDENT PRESIDENT@OALA.CA
ERIC KLAVER, OALA CO-CHAIR, EDITORIAL BOARD MAGAZINE@OALA.CA
Up Front
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A direct connection to water is made using stepped seating.
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Kamila Grigo
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Infiltration area incorporated into a roundabout. Design: Sankt Kjelds Plads by SLA.
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Kamila Grigo
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The landscape between Copenhagen University’s Søndre Campus and adjacent residential buildings borrows the language of the nearby conservation area and wetland.
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Kamila Grigo
03 BLUE INFRASTRUCTURE
embrace the water
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Up Front: Information on the Ground
The surface hydrology of southern Ontario has drastically been altered by human activity over the past 200 years. The region falls within the St. Lawrence Lowland, a physiographic classification used to describe the depression created by glaciation and characterized by the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River as they flow imperceptibly into the Atlantic Ocean. And yet, in a landscape shaped by water and ice, establishing a meaningful connection to water in the collective psyche of present-day inhabitants is a tenuous affair when only traces remain of the myriad streams and ponds that once covered this part of the province.
A former industrial port, Copenhagen has in recent decades transformed itself into a healthy and climate-resilient city. The blue infrastructure projects that permeate the Danish capital across scales and typologies demonstrate how equitable access to water can be woven into urban fabric aesthetically, sustainably, and playfully. From homes, to streets, to public institutions, water pervades all aspects of Copenhagen life. The city’s newer residential waterfront neighbourhoods, situated on former port, industrial or waste lands, are created from an updated vernacular harbour architecture where berths are reconfigured as suntanning and fishing terraces, and where footbridges span canals that manage surface run-
Up Front
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On a blustery October day, this bathing station was well used. Design: Kastrup Søbad by White Arkitekter.
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Kamila Grigo
off and delineate mid-rise apartment building extents. Water is part of domestic life, and an enduring connection with it is maintained, whether visually from within buildings, or literally from platforms and docks that form public open spaces. City streets are being reconfigured in multi-functional ways for stormwater management and climate mitigation. In 2011 and 2014, Copenhagen suffered major storm events that caused significant flood damage to private and municipal infrastructure. As part of its climate adaptation strategy, the city chose “blue� solutions rather than expand its storm sewer system. A network of 300 projects comprising roads that have been reprofiled to convey stormwater 05
Up Front
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A detention road that protects against flooding during extreme rain events and inserts park amenities into the surrounding community. Design: Scandiagade by 1:1 Landskab.
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Kamila Grigo
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One of the Ørestad canals that run beneath the M1 metro line. Platform design: The Three Islands by ORT.
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Kamila Grigo
superficially, roads that detain water, and public open spaces that act as larger detention areas is planned to spread over the city. Two recently completed projects have redesigned a collector road and a local street to function as detention roads during extreme rain events and as urban park spaces when dry. Even elevated transit corridors harness the infrastructural, ecological, aesthetic, and recreational aspects of water. The Ørestad canals that run beneath the M1 metro line handle stormwater from adjacent streets; the canals are connected to a large wetland that absorbs run-off before excess is discharged into the harbour, and though they are a more structured extension of the wetland, the canals are host to fish and waterfowl.
The canals allow for kayaking and boating in summer and for ice skating in winter. Three platforms at the water’s edge provide seating, windbreaks, and staging areas, all within reach of apartments and a school.
make the stations accessible, and lighting facilitates safe night-time enjoyment. Crowded and joyfully animated in summer, the stations provide shelter for solitary meditation or storm watching in winter.
Located at the edge of the city core, university campuses synthesize the typologies of park, garden, and urban wild. Benefitting from a relatively greater amount of open space, the campus landscapes serve students as well as inhabitants of adjacent residential neighbourhoods. Secondary circulation networks are softer and more permeable than main, accessible routes, and informal planting palettes use hardy species indicative of local ecologies. Most striking is the celebration of the movement of water through canals, rills, and mirror pools. Stormwater management ponds are not isolated or fenced off—they are integral to the landscape.
These precedents can be adapted to southern Ontario’s increasingly densifying waterfront municipalities as a means of developing a progressive urban relationship with water. A new surface hydrology can replace the existing, dysfunctional drainage system with one equal to the task of climate adaptation, all the while fostering an equitable, meaningful connection to an essential resource. It is possible to build cities that embrace the water.
At once exalted and egalitarian, bathing stations offer everyone a visceral experience of Copenhagen’s larger bodies of water. Basic stations have enclosed swimming areas, springboards, and ladders, while the more elaborate ones include change rooms, washrooms, play equipment, docks, and platforms of varying heights. Ramps
For additional images and an animated visualization that depicts how these precedents could be deployed in the City of Toronto, visit the online edition of this issue. TEXT BY KAMILA GRIGO, A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT PASSIONATE ABOUT BUILDING RESILIENT CITIES AND VIBRANT COMMUNITIES THROUGH THE DESIGN OF PUBLIC URBAN SPACES. SHE HAS A BACKGROUND IN VISUAL CULTURE AND HISTORY AND PREVIOUSLY WORKED IN THE HIGHER EDUCATION INDUSTRY. HER ACADEMIC INTERESTS INCLUDE VISUAL REPRESENTATION, EXPERIENTIAL AESTHETICS, AND THE INTERSECTION OF CULTURAL AND ECOLOGICAL PRODUCTIVITIES. KAMILA HAS SERVED AS GUEST CRITIC AND LECTURER ACROSS THE GREATER TORONTO AREA, AND HER WORK HAS APPEARED IN SEVERAL LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE PUBLICATIONS.
Maintaining Messiness
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TEXT BY TYLER ALLEN BRADT, OALA, AND JASMEEN BAINS, OALA
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Maintaining Messiness
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The discipline of landscape architecture has long strived to assign order to inherently chaotic systems. Medieval cloister gardens and the Persian Charbagh shut out the natural world, creating a perfect green quadrant of lawn. Capability Brown created illusions of nature on the grounds of his wealthy clients, and Frederick Law Olmstead furthered this idea by recreating landscapes based on paintings and ideas of the sublime. Landscape architecture has moved slowly towards a more natural system of ecological design with the popularization of designers such as the late Michael Hough and Michael van Valkenberg. What has remained consistent through time is the necessity of maintenance in order to preserve an idealized image of what we design: a garden or landscape that only changes in the ways we want. As former gardeners and maintainers of the Evergreen Brickworks (2012-2013), and currently as designers in the field, we have unique insight into how maintenance and design are part of a constantly evolving relationship, particularly when designing a space meant to promote the natural native landscape.
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In discussing the Brickworks landscape, we will focus on the site managed by Evergreen: a national not-for-profit which is under different management (and pressures) than the City-operated Weston Family Quarry Garden designed by Michael Hough in the 1990s. This space, designed by many hands from various firms including DTAH, The Planning Partnership, and Claude Cormier, and operated by Evergreen, is connected to the Quarry gardens beyond, yet feels like a separate place. Numerous buildings‑—some housing facilities and some still sitting empty—and a large amount of official programming mean this site is at least partially occupied for for one event or another much of the time. These events include large weddings, beer festivals, farmers markets, summer camps, and the daily restaurant and garden centre. While the buildings are meant to showcase
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Scenes from the Evergreen Brickworks.
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Tyler Allen Bradt
Maintaining Messiness
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long term, the level of maintenance that is required to achieve this aesthetic—a maintenance typology that has yet to be truly established.
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Different manufactured environments at the Brickworks sustain a variety of native ecologies.
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Tyler Allen Bradt
sustainable retrofitting solutions, the design of the Brickwork gardens was meant to be a showcase of native ecotypes, with each garden having a theme or specific purpose relating to the native ecologies: a Fall garden (late flowering perennials), a meadow garden (tall grasses), a seed source garden (species with seed sources for birds). While these gardens used exclusively native species and focused on promoting important ecological functions, the landscape remained a place of program and, as such, an inherent tension always existed here between “messy ecosystems and orderly frames,” as first introduced by Joan Nassauer’s article of the same title in 1995. Though Evergreen strives to showcase native plants and their benefits, the landscape must cater to those who use the space, who pay to host events here or support the organization through donations. Donor politics plays a part here as well, whether intentional or not. With many of the gardens now named for a donor or organization such as the Tiffany Commons, or the Butterfly Garden supported by Duncan and Joyce Phillips, there is an unspoken need to keep these spaces more pristine so as not to draw the ire of the donor.
As designers, though, we are aware of how real ecologies operate. We don’t often make allowances for, or take into consideration that natural landscapes will act natural in our designs. Landscapes constantly move towards entropy—through growth, pollutants, competition, and changing microclimates. Though planting plans are created with the expectation of evolution (trees will grow, invasive weeds will be removed), how often are plans for management, tolerances for increased and unexpected diversity, and flexibility to change included in designs? Scope, knowledge, or difficulty restrict us designing past inspection timelines determined by the client. At the Brickworks, a dedicated summer gardener in addition to weekly community gardening groups weren’t enough to maintain constantly shifting ecosystems in a static state. Natural, dynamic landscapes in urban settings are messy, not idealized versions of untouched wilderness. Do we need to embrace the aesthetic of messiness or do we need to develop a better methodology of designing for change? Maintenance and planting strategies need to evolve over time to best fit reality. In our experience at the Brickworks, design needed to occur regularly in order keep the gardens aesthetically pleasing and functional native systems. If a plant was failing in a particular location, it would be replaced with something else, rather than be replanted. If a plant was able to compete with invasives, they were inter-planted with species that could compete. In this way the Brickworks functioned as a constant experiment rather than a one-time solution; maintenance
As mentioned above, landscape architecture has been moving towards a natural aesthetic in the last few decades. The Highline by James Corner Field Operations, for example, or Corktown Commons by Michael Van Valkenburgh and Associates are perfect imports from our favourite rural escapes in appearance. What is unseen is the level of planting design and, more importantly in the 06
Maintaining Messiness
evolved in response to weekly changes and became a cyclical, experimental strategy of trial and error. The original plant lists for the gardens were developed jointly by landscape architects at DTAH and Evergreen staff. Great effort was undertaken by these designers to find and use species that are rare in Ontario, especially in urban landscapes. This attitude towards the planting palette provided an incredible opportunity to find and use plants rarely seen in Toronto—though, in the implementation, concessions were required due to plant availability at local nurseries.
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When we started as gardeners, the planting was in the second and third year, and much of the landscape was not yet established. While perennial species take at least a year to truly root themselves into a landscape and spread, shrubs and trees take even longer to establish. Within this time, many of the gardens were already being taken over by invasive species, in addition to opportunistic native species. Only a single season after installation, gardens such as the spring flowering garden, reliant on many species more comfortable within a forest environment than an open plaza, barely resembled the original design intent of bellflowers and geraniums. Originally, an attempt was made to remove all species not intended to be there and to replant those from the original lists. But, over the course of the year, it became obvious this was not a sustainable practice. We had to make decisions as
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to what was most important: retaining the original design intent or developing a garden that required less maintenance and included species that could establish themselves more permanently. We observed in situ microclimates, optimal growing conditions, and spaces with varying degrees of activity and determined specific gardens that would receive a higher level of care and maintenance in comparison with the rest of the site based on factors such as aesthetic or location. We found new opportunities as well. For instance, Cottonwoods and Trembling Aspens began to sow themselves within gardens across the site. Rather than removing these to retain the original plant lists, we mostly allowed them to remain. These are fast-growing, resilient native species growing on their own and establishing perfectly to their growing conditions. As such, they are among the few species capable of surviving in competition with invasive trees like Tree of Heaven and European Buckthorn. We therefore felt it important to nurture this natural evolution. We also determined differing maintenance styles for different areas of the landscape. The highly public and formal round gardens called Tiffany Commons, located at the main forecourt, received additional maintenance and an attitude towards “cleanliness,” retaining as many of the original plant lists as possible while allowing for new infill planting. At the edges of the property where the site borders Mud Creek, the rail lands, and Bayview Avenue, a laissez faire strategy was taken leaving these gardens “messy.” Maintenance focused only on removing invasive species and general infill planting, allowing volunteer groups to plant additional perennials and shrubs that had performed well in-situ. On one occasion, we determined some invasive species might be beneficial to the landscape. The steep northern slope, just beyond the buildings, had suffered a small slide and was prone to erosion. It had native trees and shrubs, but these were seedlings and unestablished, making the slope vulnerable. In the open space between trees and shrubs grew an enormous colony
of Canada Thistle (not actually native to this country). Rather than attempt to remove these plants, they were cut off at the base, so the long taproots of these thistles, usually the reason they are so maligned, would help hold the soil together while the trees and shrubs established. Now, years later, the native plants are beginning to shade out the thistle while their own root systems build a network to hold the soil together. If landscapes are constantly evolving, why are they treated as static architecture? Our experience working at the Brickworks showed us a landscape that functioned more as a constant experiment than a one-time design solution. We suggest the involvement of designers in the field needs to also be constantly evolving. Expectations of our design needs must acknowledge that change will and should occur. Developing maintenance plans and alternative solutions for different scenarios could be worked into designs and scope. Solutions that allow for ease of maintenance tend to favour simplistic planting palettes and schemes that don’t allow for the diversity necessary for healthy or interesting ecosystems. We know the issues associated with monoculture planting schemes and we are trying to move away from such designs. As our designs increase in complexity and diversity in order to improve long-term resiliency, our maintenance regimes should adapt as well. It is our role as advocates for ecology to ensure our naturalistic design notions endure into the future by embracing the entropic value of landscapes. The evolution of maintenance should work in conjunction with evolution of the ecology. As designers, we should be designing for the entire lifecycle of the landscape rather than for a finished landscape experience. This includes maintenance strategies and programs projecting multiple years into the future and incorporating annual assessment and adjustment requirements.
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TYLER ALLEN BRADT, OALA, CSLA, IS A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT AND ECOLOGIST BASED IN TORONTO. HE IS A DESIGN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT AND PROJECT MANAGER AT THE PLANNING PARTNERSHIP.
JASMEEN BAINS, OALA, CSLA, IS A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT PRACTICING IN TORONTO, BUT ROOTED IN PACIFIC NORTHWEST ECOLOGIES. SHE IS A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT AND PROJECT MANAGER AT PMA LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS.
Round Table
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design ideas and the environments that nurture them MODERATED BY SCOTT TORRANCE, OALA
Round Table
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Moriyam and Teshima Architects
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Carol Phillips
Round Table
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Moriyam and Teshima Architects
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Carol Phillips
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NONI KAUR IS AN AWARD-WINNING MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARTIST AND EDUCATOR. KAUR’S WORKS ARE AN EMBODIMENT OF HER RESPONSE TO INTERSECTIONAL IDENTITY ACROSS CULTURES AND COMMUNITIES. HER IMMERSIVE, REACTIVE, MULTI-SENSORY INSTALLATIONS BRIDGE GAPS BETWEEN GENDER, CULTURE, THE BODY, AND THE NON-HUMAN WORLD. KAUR’S WORK HAS BEEN FEATURED IN INTERNATIONAL VENUES INCLUDING: THE HAVANA BIENNALE, CUBA; THE ASIAN ART BIENNALE, DHAKA, BANGLADESH; THE FUKUOKA TRIENNALE, ASIAN ART MUSEUM, JAPAN; WHITE COLUMNS, NEW YORK; THE HENIE ONSTAD KUNSTENTER, OSLO, NORWAY, AMONGST OTHERS. KAUR LIVES AND WORKS IN TORONTO, AND WAS THE RECIPIENT OF THE OALA/GROUND AWARD AT THE 2019 GROWOP EXHIBIT AT THE GLADSTONE HOTEL.
DEANNE MIGHTON IS A PASSIONATE AND DEDICATED URBAN DESIGNER AT THE CITY OF TORONTO WHO HAS WORKED WITH A VARIETY OF STAKEHOLDERS BOTH PRIVATE AND PUBLIC TO ENSURE CHANGES TO OUR URBAN LANDSCAPE ARE INNOVATIVE, TRANSPARENT, AND WELL INTEGRATED INTO THE EXISTING CONTEXT, AND CONTRIBUTE TO A PROGRESSIVE VISION FOR THE CITY’S FUTURE. DEDICATED TO A PHILOSOPHY OF COMPACT URBAN FORM, TRANSIT-SUPPORTIVE COMMUNITIES, ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION, SUSTAINABLE BUILT FORM AND INFRASTRUCTURE, AND THE CONSERVATION OF THE CITY’S EXISTING CHARACTER AND HERITAGE. SHE WORKS TO BALANCE AND SHAPE A VARIETY OF COMPETING INTERESTS IN THE URBAN LANDSCAPE TO ACHIEVE A COHESIVE WHOLE.
BRIAN PORTER IS AN INDIGENOUS ARCHITECT FROM THE ONEIDA NATION. HE HAS BEEN WORKING SIX NATIONS RESERVE FOR THE PAST 24 YEARS WHERE HE HAS BEEN THE PRINCIPAL OF TWO ROW ARCHITECT, A SOLELY ABORIGINALLY OWNED AND OPERATED ARCHITECTURE FIRM. BRIAN HAS WORKED ALL OVER CANADA, THE UNITED STATES, AND MANY DIFFERENT FIRST NATION RESERVES.
MATT PEROTTO WORKED AS AN ASSOCIATE AT HARGREAVES JONES LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE IN THEIR SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE BEFORE MOVING BACK TO TORONTO THIS PAST SUMMER AND NOW WORKS WITH HARGREAVES JONES AS A COLLABORATOR ON PROJECTS THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA. WHILE IN SAN FRANCISCO, HE TAUGHT AT THE ACADEMY OF ART UNIVERSITY’S SCHOOL OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND IS NOW A SESSIONAL LECTURER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO DANIELS FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, LANDSCAPE, AND DESIGN IN THE GRADUATE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE PROGRAM. ADRIAN BLACKWELL’S PRACTICE RESPONDS TO THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC FORCES INSCRIBED IN PHYSICAL SPACES, SPANNING PHOTOGRAPHY, VIDEO, SCULPTURE, URBAN THEORY, AND DESIGN. HIS WORK
Round Table
Scott Torrance: We’re talking about flow and creativity. It’s a mysterious topic. Some put the first idea they have on paper and move on, so it’s out of their head and into reality. Others want to gather all the information they can, sleep on it, and let their subconscious mind sort things out. The first question is what hobbies or activities do you use to support your creative process, relative to your profession? Things you do that are complementary to your day job. Adrian Blackwell: Going to a demonstration like I did against the Prospectors and Developers of Canada Association. I find the collective action of people very inspiring as a way to think creatively. I think creativity is about change in a political way, so activism is inspiring to me. Deanne Mighton: My husband and I have a renovation problem we’re regularly working and playing with. Also, I love gardening. So when I look at the landscapes’ details, I’m actually interested, mostly, to steal them for myself.
CONSISTS OF INTERVENTIONS THAT ADDRESS THE POWERS AND INTERESTS THAT SHAPE CONTEMPORARY CITIES, ALONGSIDE RESEARCH FOCUSED ON THE LOCAL AND GLOBAL EFFECTS OF NEOLIBERAL URBANIZATION. CAROL PHILLIPS IS A PARTNER WITH THE RENOWNED ARCHITECTURE FIRM MORIYAMA & TESHIMA ARCHITECTS KNOWN FOR REMARKABLE, INNOVATIVE CANADIAN AND INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS. CAROL IS DESIGN LEADER FOR MANY OF THE FIRM’S MOST VALUED PROJECTS. A GRADUATE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, CAROL GAINED EXPERIENCE IN SPAIN, WESTERN CANADA, AND HONG KONG PRIOR TO SETTLING IN TORONTO. THE MAJORITY OF HER AWARD WINNING WORK IS IN ONTARIO; SUCH PROJECTS AS THE VISITOR WELCOME CENTRE IN OTTAWA, THE MULTIFAITH CENTRE AT U OF T, AND THE ARBOUR HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED EXTENSIVELY. CAROL LECTURES AND SUPPORTS THE SCHOOLS OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN IN TORONTO AS A GUEST CRITIC AND LECTURER AND HAS BEEN A KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT SCHOOLS AS WELL AS PROFESSIONAL CONFERENCES. SCOTT TORRANCE, OALA, CSLA, ASLA, IS THE SENIOR DIRECTOR OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AT FORREC WHERE HIS PASSION IS TO CONNECT PEOPLE TO NATURE WITH HIS WORK. HE LIVES IN TORONTO WITH HIS WIFE AND THREE CHILDREN AND IS AN ASPIRING JAZZ GUITARIST, COMPOSER, AND PERFORMER.
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Brian Porter: I also had yard work down as a great love of mine. I’ve got about six acres that I look after on three separate sites. So I have an opportunity to plant trees, cut down and cull them, garden, and cut grass—chances to let some place naturalize. I get a lot of joy out of being responsible for that. And when everything you’re working on feels like it’s long term, it’s nice to be able to invest a couple hours and see what you accomplished and feel like a steward. Matt Perotto: When I’m trying to get the creative juices flowing, I like to explore ideas with sketching, whether I’m working at my desk or sitting in front of the TV. Creative ideas sometimes happen even while sleeping and dreaming, as funny as that sounds. But, in contrast to staying focused on working, I take breaks by playing music, I have an electric drum set at my house, and I play sports like hockey. In fact, I have a playoff game tonight.
Noni Kaur: I’m really into growth and decay. And my thing now is to watch mold and moss and plants decaying, or things like food going rancid. That really gets my juices flowing. So anything from different environments: taking walks in the bush or trails, feeling the sand, and just things falling apart. Carol Phillips: As it directly relates to my work, what gives me a lot of inspiration for architecture are the immersive experiences I get from traveling or camping, where I’m in an environment that is often unfamiliar. I always come back from backcountry camping or traveling to a different city with a heightened awareness of how place and the land impacts how you behave. On a domestic level, in my little urban patch of land, my husband and I have been planting as many trees as possible. In an urban environment, the garden is sensitive to light change as the trees grow and it is a lesson in relinquishing control observing how nature responds. ST: Do you have a specific creative process that you work through when you’re at your office or home studio to create the kind of work that you do? CP: I like to cook, without following recipes. Taking the raw ingredients or raw material of any project and trying to understand what’s possible. I try to understand what we’re dealing with—whether it’s the land, culture, urban environment, or even the constraints of a project—and trust the process of sketching and designing, what emerges off the paper, and let that information saturate the process. It’s about trying to create something genuine out of the material that we have. I dive into the material we have in front of us as a project and see what works. ST: Deanne, what do you find most challenging in terms of keeping that creative spark lit? DM: I work in a very bureaucratic system. So I find the emphasis on planning
Round Table
policy over the quality of built form and landscapes frustrating sometimes. There’s an attitude that those are details to be worked out, but we really work on a design before we figure out if it’s supportable or not. I like seeing connections between projects. I often try to point people to different examples of things done right, or where we can take an aspect and improve on it. And the best part is having collaborative meetings and being able to have free discussion about design, versus “does this fit policy X, Y, or Z?” ST: Brian, you graduated in the ‘80s, you’ve had a practice for quite a number of years, how do you keep getting out of bed and being excited about what you do? BP: The development experience for a lot of our clients is quite varied. We’re working for some where it might be the first capital project they’ve ever been involved with. For others, they’re seasoned veterans and they’ve been at it for a while. So we get a wide range. With the seasoned veterans, they’re often challenging us to be better, more technically sound, and to work towards things like net zero carbon emissions and LEED goals. And others are naive, but filled with enthusiasm you feel through osmosis. I bounce between those types of clients, sometimes on a daily basis. It’s hard not to feel some of that energy, to keep going, and try to make yourself better. I don’t really work, I just play all day. I tell people I’ve never worked a day in my life. That’s part of keeping things fresh: being happy with what you do. ST: Adrian, do you believe you can create space, or plan for creativity on demand, or do you feel that it’s something which happens naturally or spontaneously? AB: I think creativity often comes in response to specific problems. Necessity produces inventions. And so, when we’re confronted and we have to act, it provokes us to create new things. That’s the immediate inspiration for creativity. But we also need space and time. We need to carve that out of our schedules
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or practices in different ways. I think I was most creative in an early stage in my career, when I had a lot of time and fewer pressures. There are ways of organizing your life so things open up again, and you can be more creative. But this duality also makes me think about the luxury of creativity. It’s something which is often thought of as class-defined: that people who are wealthy enough that they’re not worried about basic necessities can afford to indulge in creativity. But I also think the opposite is true. The most inventive people don’t have those means, and are forced to solve problems. That may not always be held up as creativity, but it’s where the real creative work is done. Creativity is a kind of confrontation. To create real change, you need problems that provoke that change. But, whatever situation you’re in, you have to find a little bit of space to create. ST: For those of you who teach, how does that inform or add to your creativity? Does it augment, or take away some of your creative energy because you’re giving it out? MP: I enjoy teaching a lot. It allows me, in my own work, to rewind and get back to basics. I’ve always taught visual communication, but I’ve reworked the pedagogy in those specific courses to be a lot more about design process, rather than just the software. It’s almost therapeutic, in a sense, to get back to the raw, simplified process of working through some of the tools we use in the early phases of inventory analysis, all the way through to 3D modelling and visualization. I also find, in working with students, sometimes they bring up or question the process or the way we move through designing. Sometimes, those ensuing discussions have translated back into my concurrent work in the office. NK: I teach a course in studio practice where we get to play. I’m learning as much from students as they’re learning from me. It becomes a two-way conversation. And that really informs me in my practice. It reflects the ideas I would then put into my daily work and research.
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The bright, playful installations of Noni Kaur.
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Mercedes Grundy, CBC Arts
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AB: I really love the relationship between theory and practice I get in the kind of teaching I do. I guess that’s how I drifted away from practice: I wanted to be in a space where I was being intellectually challenged on a daily basis. ST: Most projects have constraints: budgets, timelines, clients, physical space, codes. How do you deal with constraints and how does it affect your creativity? NK: My work is ephemeral. It’s about decay, and I work with materials that are constantly breaking down. So I can be a nightmare for galleries and museums. As an artist, I think that’s always the biggest challenge, as well as working in situ. I go to the space and work on the spot (it’s all site specific), and I get curveballs from different directions. Anything from the lighting, to cracks in the floor that everything is just going to fall through. Or, because the work itself is a living piece, it’s going to create stains, and there are going to be bugs and bacteria that could go through the vents and into permanent collections. I’ve had these challenges and I think I thrive on that. That’s my rush. That is why I always go bigger and more complex. As for budgets, as artists, we live on grants most of the time. So, depending on the space and the organization, that would also dictate how big or ambitious I can get. CP: A lot of what we do is ultimately problem solving, which doesn’t really sound like creativity, but I don’t separate the two. Especially now, the world has such gigantic problems to solve that I think, if we can’t approach them with creativity, we have no chance of living gracefully with each other, or the planet. So I embrace constraints. And sometimes, in our process, they are incredibly oppressive. I’ve been involved in design-build projects where there are incredible timelines, huge restrictions and demands that have to be met, and if you don’t meet them you’re disqualified. But we get more creative when we have these almost impossible tasks. Oftentimes, I find some of our best work comes out of projects that have the most constraints.
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Sometimes too much freedom is overrated in the creative process. MP: That gets back to something Adrian said earlier about necessity producing invention. One of my first projects was a design-build with 18 buildings. We had a great concept for the landscape, but working with multiple architects, each with their own elements to work through, meant footprints continue to shift, and thus the landscape required continued revision. We came to a point where a creative solution to mitigate these challenges was needed and we decided to just let code and requirements for circulation around buildings dictate how the landscape looks. Grade change became formalized landforms and code setbacks were articulated in their geometry. I think there’s always a creative way to generate new, divergent ideas, born from what the restrictions may be. DM: I wholeheartedly believe limitations are good for the process, if they’re done in a transparent way that identifies the constraints, and show the design solutions and the trade-offs to the client, as well as the stakeholders.
BP: I usually talk about bead work when I think about limitations. What I like best about bead work is that glass beads are very cheap, abundant, and accessible. They get their value by the way they’re put together and arranged to make different patterns. It’s something anybody can do if they want. I don’t really like architecture that has solutions that aren’t accessible, or easily replicated—where the technology has got so tight and expensive that it doesn’t travel well. I prefer architecture made up of components that are affordable and make more sense, maybe they’re harvested locally, and they get their value from how they’re put together. I’m more interested in that than in exclusive solutions that can’t happen without star architects shining a flashlight in a dark room.
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Daniel Abad, Chris Mendoza, and Geoff Tanner building Adrian Blackwell’s “Isonomia in Toronto? (harbour)”, 2019, Toronto Biennial of Art.
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Adrian Blackwell
Round Table
CP: Sometimes the inventiveness is not even in the result, it’s in the process. I recall one example, working on a museum competition. There was a lot to learn and a large time constraint, so we decided a key problem at hand was how to fast track our understanding of the museum’s World War II focus. We brought a historian onto our team to teach us. We sat in a room and had them lecture us about the place and subject matter of this project for two solid days. Without the time constraint, we might not have brought this person into our process, but it generated so much creativity out of the team. Having people outside of architecture come and inform the process is amazing. BP: We had a client that wanted to invest in fairly high-tech medical imaging, and create this centre for sports medicine and rehabilitation. They asked us to put together some preliminary plans and renderings they could use to convey their idea, but they didn’t have a site yet. And I was really surprised that we couldn’t do it without having some idea about where the sun rose and set, where the prevailing wind was, whether there were any natural watercourses. I couldn’t even get started. I know what the technical requirements are. There was an idea about it being spalike, so there would potentially be some longterm accommodations. But without having the constraints, we didn’t get very far with it, and it ended up falling off the table. DM: Opposite of Tim Hortons, who just pulls the thing from the drawer and says ‘This is Plan F. Deal with it.’ ST: Well, that’s interesting. That’s one type of client, with a very prescriptive kind of approach, but is there an ideal client? DM: Someone who wants to make something of the place. As long as they’re open to having that conversation, including with stakeholders, neighbours, and area experts. When someone says they’re going to plunk down something generic, it never really goes well.
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MP: I’d say no, but it’s always nice to have a client that knows what their comprehensive goals are at the start of a project so that nothing new comes up which requires backstepping to reconceptualize the design; and if they know the internal and external stakeholders who are going to play a role, they provide that information upfront, so we can work with them from the beginning to avoid surprises later. NK: I don’t think there’s an ideal. I love the challenge. Being on your game all the time sparks the creative process, because then you problem solve. I think artists have to be on the edge all the time. If it’s too textbook, then you don’t evolve, the practice becomes almost stagnant. CP: If there’s a participatory attitude from the client, one who understands that they play a role, and brings their own accountability to the table to help to make decisions and solve problems, that’s part of the ideal process. I don’t necessarily mean design-by-consensus. What I mean is: in order to enable a complex project, you need a lot of people to understand how to work through that complexity and find a common goal. An ideal client for me, in that context, is a participatory one. ST: How do you foster creative culture in your workplace with others? MP: In our office, we foster an environment where everyone feels like a friend. It provides a level of comfort, especially with newer, junior designers who are just joining the team. And that translates back into the work setting, where everyone feels comfortable to participate in the design process. The other half is technology: we’re really open to using new technology for designing and collaborating. It pushes the boundaries for what and how we create. DM: City building’s a team sport. Good ideas are good ideas and they should be credited. I try, wherever I see them, to encourage and uplift them. (And will steal them from wherever).
ST: Carol, you’re the principal in your firm. Is it top-down, or is it a true team process? CP: It’s a combination of trusting your individual passion, but also listening, learning, and working with the people around you. I try to be genuine, in terms of seeking the essence of a project, and then guiding the process based on the integrity of the ideas and how they’re resonating with the project team. It’s about conducting, rather than just playing every instrument. But you do need someone there to help recognize what’s emerging from the noise. BP: We strive to get our organizational structures as horizontal as we can. Sometimes that’s hard to do with institutions that are used to a more corporate organization. But one of the things we like to do with our projects is gaming exercises, where small groups create three-dimensional representations. A lot of times, we’ll purposefully engineer the groups a little bit. We were doing a branch designed for an SPCA facility, and put board members with day-to-day staff, or staff with volunteers. We’d give them game pieces, stand back and watch them interact. A lot of them had never met each other, so to be able to see what each of them was bringing to the table, what their priorities and roles were within the organization was really interesting. We photograph all the solutions, and our job is to distill the best ideas, take the pieces we like best, and put them into the final product. It’s usually pretty successful, because each of those team members can see a little bit of themselves in that solution. It’s empowering to them, but they also see how other people bring their own priorities to the table. These participatory gaming exercises—having people participate in what the solution is—demystifies the architectural process.
THANKS TO NADJA PAUSCH FOR COORDINATING THIS ROUND TABLE.
CSLA Awards
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CSLA AWARDS Canadian Society of Landscape Architects Awards of Excellence— Ontario Region
The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects Awards of Excellence are given for outstanding accomplishment in landscape architecture. Congratulations to the following OALA members whose projects received awards.
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Project Name: Mechanized River Valley Access Consultant: Dialog Contact: Doug Carlyle and Jill Robertson Category: Medium-Scale Public Landscapes 03
Project Description: The Mechanized River Valley Access connects Edmonton’s downtown with its spectacular river valley. The large elevation difference and steep slopes of the river valley are part of its beauty, but make access difficult for those with mobility challenges. This project is an intuitive, barrier-free journey that includes a funicular, staircase, promenade and lawn, pedestrian bridge, lookout, and elevator to the valley trail. This is a remarkable urban space defined by placemaking and delight throughout all seasons.
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Mechanized River Valley Access Courtesy of Dialog/CSLA
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CSLA AWARDS
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Project Name: Top of the World Highway Interpretive Plan Consultant: Vision Insight Group with Wendy Shearer Cultural Heritage Specialist Contact: Chris Grosset Category: Planning and Analysis
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Top of the World Highway Interpretive Plan Courtesy of Vision Insight Group with Wendy Shearer Cultural Heritage Specialist/CSLA
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Project Description: The Top of the World Highway is one of the nation’s most spectacular scenic drives connecting Dawson, Yukon, and Alaska across the Traditional Territory of the Tr’ondek Hwech’in. The landscape architects developed a culturally-rooted framework for communicating their memories, stories, and traditional practices at significant sites in the landscape. The Interpretive Plan approach demonstrates Reconciliation in practice.
CSLA Awards
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Project Name: Bank of Canada Head Office Renewal Consultant: DTAH Contact: John Hillier Category: Small-Scale Landscapes Project Description: The transformation for Canada’s Central Bank provided an opportunity to augment the public realm around the bank, improving and animating landscape and public amenities at a significant location in the parliamentary district. This new landscape edge improves the perimeter streetscapes and provides a new downtown public gathering space.
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Bank of Canada Head Office Renewal Courtesy of DTAH/CSLA
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CSLA AWARDS
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Project Name: Aga Khan Garden Consultant: Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects Contact: Thomas Woltz Category: Medium-Scale Landscapes
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Project Description: The recently inaugurated Aga Khan Garden, Alberta, is at the heart of the University of Alberta’s Botanic Garden. As the world’s northernmost Islamic garden, it interprets the conceptual and physical manifestations of traditional design principles within the context of Alberta’s climate, ecology, and culture.
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Aga Khan Garden Courtesy of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects/CSLA
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The Meadoway Courtesy of Perkins and Will/CSLA
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Project Name: The Meadoway Consultant: Perkins and Will Contact: John Slack Category: Planning and Analysis Project Description: Located within the Gatineau Hydro Corridor in Scarborough, Ontario, The Meadoway will transform 16 kilometres of highly maintained monoculture into one of the largest urban, linear greenspaces in Canada. Once complete, it will connect Toronto’s downtown with the Don River Valley and Rouge National Park. It will serve as a blueprint for revitalization, a world-class example of active, linear greenspace, and a precedent for future hydro corridor restoration.
CSLA Awards
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CSLA AWARDS
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Project Name: Manitoboggan Consultant: Public City Architecture Contact: Liz Wreford Category: Small-Scale Landscapes 40
Project Description: Where there are no hills, you build them! Manitoboggan at St. Vital Park is Winnipeg’s first universally-accessible toboggan slide structure. It represents the City’s commitment to barrier-free, social infrastructure. The project includes two toboggan slides, a lookout tower, a warming hut that doubles as a picnic shelter, and a ramp that meanders through an existing forest canopy to a wheelchair-accessible toboggan launch and viewing deck.
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Project Name: Square Dorchester - Réaménagement de la portion Nord Consultant: Claude Cormier et Associés Contact: Claude Cormier Category: Small-Scale Landscapes Project Description: The north portion of the historical Dorchester Square is the third phase of the renewal of the largest public space in downtown Montreal. The northern edge was cut off in the 1960s by the construction of an underground parking garage and the widening of a street. The project reclaims over 30 per cent of public space, turning constraints into opportunities by playfully incorporating a classic Victorian fountain, albeit with a twist and two distinctive arched pedestrian bridges.
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Square Dorchester - Réaménagement Courtesy of Claude Cormier et Associés/ CSLA
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OALA Awards
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2020 OALA AWARDS
Congratulations to all those honoured with 2020 OALA Recognition Awards, and special thank you to the OALA Honours, Awards and Protocol Committee (HAP) members: Doris Chee (Chair), Jane Welsh, Nelson Edwards, Jim Melvin, Stefan Fediuk, and Leah Lanteigne.
OALA Awards
OALA AWARDS OALA PRESIDENT’S AWARD: The President’s Award may be awarded periodically, at the discretion of the OALA President, in recognition of the contributions of an OALA Full Member who supports and advances initiatives and actions of the association and promotes the profession of Landscape Architecture in Ontario. The recipient must demonstrate exemplary service to the Association through a diversity of contributions and activities including but not limited to membership on OALA Council, leadership on committees, Council projects, programs or initiatives.
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Kendall Flower, OALA, CSLA The OALA has benefitted greatly from Kendall’s energy, ideas, and many voluntary contributions to the OALA. Kendall has been on Council for two terms and served as Vice President (2018-2020), Treasurer (2017-2018), and Chair of the OALA 2019 and 2020 conferences. She participated on the Municipal Outreach Committee, and chairs the Mandatory Education Committee and the Insurance Task Force. At the 2012 AGM, Kendall presented on the new Mandatory Continuing Education program, which was approved. The program commenced in 2015, and Kendall has chaired this committee through the first and second terms of reporting and auditing. OALA PINNACLE AWARD FOR LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURAL EXCELLENCE: This award acknowledges excellence in works by an OALA member and their exemplary overall body of professional work and accomplishments. Singling out specific projects to draw attention to a body of work which demonstrates outstanding professional accomplishment, this award promotes awareness of the recipient’s landscape architectural works and achievements among landscape architects, allied professionals, potential clients, and the public. Jim Melvin, OALA, FCSLA Jim has a tireless passion and commitment to the practice of landscape architecture, and he’s fiercely protective of the value of landscape architects as professional designers, city-builders, and placemakers. With over 35 years as a consultant and founding Partner of PMA Landscape Architects, Jim has been responsible for the conception and implementation of open space development, urban infill parks, community and park planning, and landscape designs for condominiums, long-term care residences, and schools throughout Ontario. He is also a highly active volunteer, giving time to the OALA and CSLA extensively over many decades,
including his recent contribution to the development of the OALA Fee Guide for Landscape Architectural Services, and serving on committees including HAP. OALA PUBLIC PRACTICE AWARD: This award recognizes the outstanding leadership of a member of the profession in public practice who promotes and enhances landscape architecture by working for improved understanding and appreciation of the work of landscape architects in both public and private practice. Jeff Bruin, OALA, CSLA Jeff is leader of the Parks Planning & Design Section at the City of London. As a public servant, he is responsible for managing and developing a safe, functional, and attractive parks and open space system that meets the needs of Londoners. He has successfully shown an ability to manage this portfolio with great skill, while ensuring the highest workplace standards and impeccable public service. His efforts have raised the appreciation and understanding of the skill set of landscape architects in public and private practice. David O’Hara, OALA, CSLA Having spent over 25 years working for the City of Toronto as a Park Planner, Landscape Architect, and Project Manager with the Parks, Forestry & Recreation Division, and as Museum Administrator and Manager at Fort York National Historic Site, David has played a key role in many significant initiatives that have helped shape Toronto, including the development of the Central Waterfront Secondary Plan and the Central Waterfront Public Realm Plan—both documents that helped set the stage for many of the projects being implemented across Toronto’s Central Waterfront today. He has also worked on plans for the Harbourfront Parks and Open Space System, the Fort York & Garrison Common Parks and Open Space System, and on master planning and restoration efforts in High Park.
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THE DAVID ERB MEMORIAL AWARD: David Erb was an outstanding volunteer in furthering the goals of OALA. The David Erb Memorial Award is a prestigious way to acknowledge an OALA member whose outstanding volunteerism over the years has contributed to furthering the goals and strategic plans of the OALA, as well as making a real difference to the OALA and its members. There are two recipients this year.
contribution to the profession begun while practicing in BC. There he was a Director and President of the BCSLA, its magazine editor, and a CSLA Governor. He chaired the 1999 CSLA conference organizing committee in Vancouver. Twenty years later, he took on a similar task working with his OALA Southwest Chapter colleagues to plan the 2020 OALA AGM and Conference in London. He’s served the chapter as its Chair since its rejuvenation in 2015.
Cynthia Graham, OALA, CSLA Cynthia began her career at the City of Hamilton as a summer student in 2003 and was subsequently hired as a landscape architect in 2005. Though she manages a team of 13 landscape architects/project managers, technologists and support staff, she finds time to mentor emerging professionals in the field of landscape architecture. She also sits on numerous boards and committees, as an OALA Councillor, a member of the OALA Examining Board, co-chair of the OALA Municipal Outreach Committee, a PDP reviewer, and a member of the Mandatory Continuing Education Committee. With the current OALA campaign to obtain practice legislation, Cynthia has met with her local MPPs to help influence action. At the national level, Cynthia has taken on the challenging role of Chair of CSLA Finance Committee.
THE JACK COPELAND AWARD FOR OALA ASSOCIATE LEADERSHIP AND CONTRIBUTION: Jack Copeland was an enthusiastic advocate for Associate members.
Andrew Wilson, OALA, CSLA Andrew is the Program Coordinator of Fanshawe College’s Honours Bachelor of Environmental Design & Planning degree (BEDP). As a professor in the degree, as well as Fanshawe’s Advanced Diploma in Landscape Design, Andrew teaches students the theory and practice of landscape architecture. He encourages qualified students to further their education in one of Canada’s accredited landscape architecture or planning programs and mentors others through the various paths to OALA registration. Since joining the OALA, Andrew has continued his voluntary
The Jack Copeland Award for Associate Leadership and Contribution recognizes the outstanding leadership and contribution of an associate for going above and beyond to assist fellow associates, including being an associate representative on OALA Council. Leah Lanteigne, OALA, CSLA Leah has contributed to the Association through her volunteer efforts as the Junior Associate Representative on Council, as an Associate Member on the Honours, Awards and Protocols Committee, and attending OALA and industry related events as often as possible. Being the Junior Associate Representative, Leah has also volunteered her time towards LARE exam information sessions to prepare fellow Associate Members from Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia for exam writing. She has additionally volunteered as an OALA Associate Member of the Urban Land Institute and regularly attends events and webinars. THE CARL BORGSTROM AWARD FOR SERVICE TO THE ENVIRONMENT: This award recognizes an OALA member or landscape architectural group, organization, or agency recognized by OALA whose practice promotes special or unique contributions to sensitive, sustainable design and use of the environment. There are two recipients this year.
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Brian Basterfield, OALA, CSLA Brian’s design approach aims at striking a balance between human use of the land and the natural environment. Brian established a private practice in landscape architecture and environmental planning in Peterborough, Ontario. Basterfield & Associates has become a versatile and flexible practice, widely known for its environmental advocacy province-wide. His firm produces projects ranging from intimate residential design to large scale open space master planning; always with an emphasis on integrating sound ecological and environmental principles. In addition to his projects, Brian has provided design mentorship at Trent University’s School of the Environment. For 13 years, his Ecological Design course has been conveying practical and proactive environmental design, planning and ecological approaches to urban growth. Michael Hensel, OALA, CSLA Since 1981, Mike has provided a wide range of landscape architectural services to both private and public sector clients. In the 1990’s, he pioneered a ground-breaking protocol for completing Traditional Knowledge Assessment work with First Nation Communities, starting with the Dokis First Nation and followed by the Chippewas of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation, Long Lake First Nation, and Batchewana First Nation. He is advancing the understanding of effects that projects within Traditional Land Use Areas will have on the associated health, welfare, and safety of the potentially affected First Nation Communities. His work in Traditional Knowledge Assessment mapping provides final written and graphic records related to documentation of traditional Land Use Areas and helps identify and mitigate impacts to community health and safety, environmental, cultural, social, and economic bases.
OALA Awards
OALA AWARD FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE TO THE ENVIRONMENT: This public outreach award recognizes and encourages special or unusual contributions for sensitive, sustainable design solutions leading to the improvement of environmental health, community livability, and human interaction in the environment. There are two levels of recognition that may be given at the discretion of the Honours, Awards and Protocol Committee. The Treaties, Lands and Environment Department at Chippewas of the Thames First Nation was founded as the implementing body for environmental and land use policies contained within their Comprehensive Community Plan entitled “We Make This Path by Walking It.” The Treaties Land Environment Department has, through the scientific studying of their natural resources, provided guidance for long-term interests and priorities in land use planning decisions for the community from an environmentally sensitive perspective since 2012. Most recently, in 2019, they successfully advocated for the conservation and protection of approximately 250 acres of wetland, prairie, and woodlands in the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation community, identified as habitat for species at risk. They are currently working on creating a Land Code for the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation. CERTIFICATE OF MERIT: ReForest London, for their years of action to improve the forest canopy of Ontario’s Forest City.
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ReForest London was founded in 2005 as a not-for-profit with a mission “to improve London’s environmental health through the planting of trees throughout the community.” After boldly daring Londoners in 2011 to undertake the Million Tree Challenge (MTC), a task with a clear objective to plant one million trees within the city, over 452,000 trees have been recorded on both private and public lands. ReForest London has left a lasting impression, ensuring that the “Forest City” continues to provide its inhabitants with clean air, a biodiverse environment, and more citizen advocates for environmental sustainability. OALA RESEARCH & INNOVATION AWARD: This award recognizes the outstanding leadership, research and/or academic achievements of a member or nonmember who, through scholarly activities and/or the development of innovative practices, academic papers, research, publications, books, e-applications, or public presentations, contributes to the knowledge base that furthers the advancement of the art, science, and practice of landscape architecture. Michael von Hausen, FCIP, CSLA, LEED AP Michael holds a BLA (honours) from the University of Guelph and a MLA in Urban Design, with a specialization in real estate development economics from Harvard University. He is the only landscape architect in history given the honour of Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Planners, and is a past-president of the BCSLA. He is also a LEED accredited professional and a certified Public Participation professional (IAP2). He has represented Canada on missions to Russia and China. He uses his teaching at Simon Fraser University and Vancouver Island University to explore the cutting edge of urban planning, economics, development, and design. He also facilitates the School of Development for the Urban Development Institute, Pacific Region, to provide him with further awareness and ground his designs in real-world economics.
OALA HONORARY MEMBER: The Honorary category of membership is for non-landscape architects who have performed notable service in advancing the course of landscape architecture in the Province of Ontario for whom Council wishes to recognize for outstanding contributions in their own fields to improving the quality of natural and human environments. Ian McAskile Ian is the owner and president of Maglin Site Furniture, Inc. In over 30 years of addressing the needs of landscape architects for quality site furnishings, Maglin has garnered a strong reputation for innovative, modern designs with clean and environmentally sustainable manufacturing methodologies. Many OALA members can attest to this dedication. More notably, Ian is often a public voice for landscape architects; where landscape architects can often be humble about their work, Ian quite refreshingly speaks out and promotes the work of landscape architects and the OALA, both personally and professionally year after year.
Book Corner
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Cover image: Detail, The Great Heap - 2,000,000 tons guano - Chincha Islands, 1865. Alexander Gardner. (Photography Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations); Detail of Sheep Meadow looking southwest, Central Park, circa 1905. Photograph by William Hale Kirk. (© William Hale Kirk / Museum of the City of New York); photo composition Jane Hutton; typography Sameer Farooq.” Courtesy of Routledge
Book Corner
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TEXT BY VICTORIA TAYLOR, OALA
In Reciprocal Landscapes: Stories of Material Movements, writer, teacher, and landscape architect Jane Hutton weaves together five intriguing tales of material procurement: fertilizer, stone, steel, trees, and wood. In doing so, she brings to life the characters who dug, cut, quarried, laid, and grew these common landscape construction materials. Hutton brings us, over a 150-year time span, on a series of well-researched, investigative journeys that link each material to its two “paired landscapes,” the landscape of material origin and the landscape of material placement, in five sites across the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Hutton’s materials/site choices are emblematic of design decisions through the growth of this epic metropolis: from the fertilizer chosen from Chincha Islands, Peru for Central Park’s Sheep Meadow in the mid 1800s to the wood chosen from Para, Brazil for the double chaise lounges located on the High Line in early 2000. The five story arcs move over time and geographies to redefine and expand the idea of the experience of a landscape to be more than just one place, and we are with her as we imagine our own participation as designers in these journeys that reveal the truths of “unequal dynamics of exchange”of labour, environment, and economy—that occur at both the giving and receiving end of these material transactions. From initial selection to extraction, processing to shipping, and final installation, Hutton draws out the embodied story in each material, emphasizing the interconnectivity of life and adding new layers of meaning to how
we think about the streets we walk on, the soils we buy, and the walls we touch. Reciprocal Landscapes: Stories of Material Movements is an important contribution to landscape architecture history and to contemporary design practice where trillions of dollars in material decisions are made, every day, using evaluation criteria guided by aesthetic desires and function. Without judging, Reciprocal Landscapes holds a mirror to the limited material research stage most design practices allow but don’t pick up the book looking for a quick fix, “better buy” guide. Instead, Hutton’s engaging storytelling, brought to life through field trip interviews, archival research, and photo collage, exposes the roots of a capitalistic value system that can change if the support is there. Each chapter in the book features a distinct material and it is Hutton’s introduction and epilogue that pull the content together as a call for reflection. Her stories expand the concept of materiality as connected “fragments of other landscapes” and pieces of other people. They inspire a shift where the embodied story of each material might come to life as an animated page on a product supplier website. As designers working in the anthropocene, we know our decisions have global ripple effects and we know the onus is on us to look deeper into our decisions and to steer our clients along. But where do we turn for answers? Apart from budget, local building codes, and pre-embedded values (of the firm or client), there are few restrictions that steer
design construction decisions to reduce impact. Hutton mentions Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) as a hopeful, peer-based driver of change, but how do we carve out time in a fast–paced design process to uncover what we should know? Where are the industry standards on supplier websites that can guide us? Instead of waiting until the construction detailing stage to start material specifications, what landscapes would we build if we had a richer concept of value and where material choices were critical decisions at the concept phase? Like a ‘slow food’ cook whose shopping list changes seasonally and who writes her menu based on local ingredients, could we slow design as we click through supplier options, taking pause to judge quality based on the one that reduces damage to fragile ecosystems or benefits community resiliency instead of one that merely meets budget or is the right shade of grey? When our notion of what is essential is being redefined every day, especially now, as the world resets to control the Covid-19 pandemic, thinking about the provenance of construction materials and the meaning each decision brings to each project, could not be more critical.
BIO/
VICTORIA TAYLOR, OALA, IS PRINCIPAL OF VTLA STUDIO AND CO FOUNDER/ CO CURATOR OF ====\\DERAIL PLATFORM FOR ART + ARCHITECTURE WHERE SHE ENGAGES WITH LANDSCAPE AS AN ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL PRACTICE THROUGH PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COMMISSIONS, CURATORIAL PROJECTS, TEACHING, WRITING, AND TEMPORARY INSTALLATION ARTWORK TO ANIMATE PUBLIC SPACE. VTLA.CA VICTORIA IS A MEMBER OF DESIGN CLIMATE ACTION’S EMBODIED ENERGY AND MATERIAL LIFE CYCLE READING GROUP. DESIGNCLIMATEACTION.ORG
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Notes: A Miscellany of News and Events 01
black lives matter books “As landscape architects, we have the power to design places that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. Insensitive design without those values can do harm to Black, Indigenous, and other racialized people in Canada. Recent events have made it clear to us that ignoring voices, including those of Black communities, creates pain and frustration that may ultimately impact the social aspect of the places and spaces that we create. It reminds us that, as an Association and as an industry, we haven’t always got it right, and have a long way to go. We can and will do better. We are committed to ensuring this conversation continues past the current news cycle and results in meaningful proactive action. But we will work on it together with the support and engagement of our members. The work of the OALA depends on the energy of its volunteers and we need your help to take this on.” — OALA PRESIDENT JANE WELSH
Be on the lookout for a new book by OALA member Walter Kehm. Toronto’s Accidental Wilderness: The Origin and Ecology of Tommy Thompson Park will explore how this beloved park and sanctuary went from a pile of rubble stretching out into Lake Ontario into a globally recognized landscape. The book will explore issues greenspace design and urban ecology from the perspective of the parks master plan and design principles. You can pre-order the book at Amazon.ca.
open streets An exciting development during the pandemic is that local governments across Ontario have been creating new spaces to safely walk, cycle, and exercise. The need to be able to social distance on public streets, as well as the need for alternative modes of transport to public transportation, has led to municipalities getting creative about implementing active transportation programs. In Toronto, under the ActiveTO banner, huge sections of the Lakeshore and Bayview Avenue have been closed to car traffic on certain days. The result has been tens of thousands of cyclists and pedestrians making use of the newly-minted (albeit temporary) public spaces.
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Accidental Wilderness cover. Robert Burley
open beaches Torontonians looking to beat the heat can now access many of the city’s waterfront refuges. On June 22, beaches like Bluffer’s, Cherry/Clarke, Kew-Balmy, Marie Curtis Park East, Sunnyside, and Woodbine all opened to the public. On June 27, ferry service opened to nonToronto Island residents, and July 1st saw the Centre Island, Gibralter Point, Hanlan’s Point, and Ward Island beaches once again ready for visitors. There have been concerns about overcrowding, and the two-meter physical distancing bylaw is still in place in public parks or squares for people who do not belong to the same household. There have also been complaints of crowds leaving large amounts of garbage behind. Please be proactive in taking care of these spaces, and choose your visits wisely, and avoid a possible $1,000 fine. Elsewhere, in Kingston, Breakwater Beach, Gord Downie Pier, Grass Creek Park, and Richardson Beach all opened in time for Canada Day.
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ppe printing
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Carolyn Woodland, OALA, FCSLA Courtesy of the CSLA
csla news
Protective masks. Courtesy of Flash Reproductions
The OALA congratulates 2020-2021 CSLA President-Elect Carolyn Woodland, OALA, FCSLA! Carolyn started her term as President Elect at the June CSLA AGM. For more information including Carolyn’s statement, please visit: csla-aapc.ca/society/ president-elect-statement-2020-election/
The printing service Ground relies on, Flash Reproductions, has been open for business throughout the pandemic. Without them, these pages would not be in readers’ hands. But, far more importantly, Flash has also gone to work using its resources to produce plastic face shields for healthcare workers. As Flash said in an email, “if we’re an essential business then we better make ourselves essential.” The effort is called Operation Canadian Shield, and you can donate to the cause by searching that name on GoFundMe.com.
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05
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ecological cities
06
main streets The Bring Back Main Street initiative has launched a Main Street Design Challenge. The initiative is a national research and advocacy coalition, spearheaded by the Canadian Urban Institute. CUI, in conjunction with the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada is calling on all Canadian resident place-makers to submit to the challenge their ideas for “innovative, responsible, sustainable, and resilient design solutions for Canadian Main Streets that can be implemented during the recovery and post-pandemic.” Submissions opened June 22nd, and there are multiple deadlines between July 17th and September 18th. Successful submissions with be included in a playbook, to be published on World Architecture Day, October 5, 2020. You can find out about the design challenge at bringbackmainstreet.ca.
The International Landscape Collaborative and Ryerson University are partnering for a two-day symposium and field trip for professionals, academics, and organizations to share experiences devising nature-based solutions to issues like climate change and urban growth. The event is planned for May 2021, and you can look to register here: landscape-collaborative.org/summit.html. Also, fill out the ILC’s Design Climate Survey at surveygizmo.com/s3/5215944/ Design-Climate-Survey. 08
new members
farewell sarah
The Ontario Association of Landscape Architects is proud to recognize and welcome the following new members to the Association:
After nearly five years of serving members, the OALA is saying goodbye to Coordinator Sarah Manteuffel who will be starting her Masters of City Planning at the University of Manitoba this fall. Sarah has been essential to the organization, as well as to Ground Magazine, and we’ll miss her. We’re truly grateful for the contributions she’s made to advance the association and are excited for her new endeavours!
Jasmeen Kaur Bains
Mansoor Ma*
Alasandro Bartolo
Karen May
Alexander Cassini
Yogeshwar Navagrah
Constantina Douvris
Laura Orlando
Rebecca Egger
Kyoung Bae Park
Rachael Fitkowski
Heather Anne Schibli
Cory Gray
Zachary Wolochatiuk
Debra Guenther
Grace Yang
Mark Hillmer*
Yingyi Zhao*
Gregg Kahan Katherine Kaari Kitawi*
Asterisk (*) denotes Full Members without the use of professional seal.
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Rue Ste-Catherine, Montreal, Quebec
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Princess Street, Kingston, Ontario
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Landscape Collaborative symposium.
IMAGE/ IMAGE/
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Courtesy of the Canadian Urban Institute
Courtesy of the Canadian Urban Institute
Courtesy of the International Landscape Collaborative Sarah Manteuffel Courtesy of the OALA
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your magazine hits a milestone
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TEXT BY GLYN BOWERMAN
It’s been one year since I became Ground’s editor. This is my fourth issue. So, when it comes to celebrating a remarkable 50 issues, I wasn’t sure what to say. What I can say is I’ve inherited a remarkable legacy from Ground’s inaugural editor Lorraine Johnson. She spearheaded this project: a big, beautiful, full-colour, print quarterly to cover anything and everything that OALA members care about. A tough sell in this era, but she sold it. Lorraine was the first person I reached out to when I got the job, and she continues to provide valuable advice.
I also want to say this magazine doesn’t happen without the dedication and passion of Editorial Board volunteers and OALA staff. Every month, they bring ideas and inspiration to the table—even virtually, in the grips of a pandemic. Their love of their craft is truly special to witness. Our graphic designer Noël Nanton of typotherapy is responsible for the consistently stunning quality of the pages you hold in your hands. These people work hard to bring you your Ground Magazine, and I’m going to use this space to say thank you. And if you’d like to join this team, don’t be afraid to reach out. BIO/ GLYN BOWERMAN, GROUND EDITOR
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