56
Landscape Architect Quarterly
10/
06/
Round Table Who is Public Space For? Features Going Home to a Drowned Landscape
A Spirit Garden for Alderville First Nation
16/
Publication # 40026106
Regreening the Moonscape
Winter 2021 Issue 56
20/
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 Aaron Hirota Shawn Watters
Upcoming Issues of Ground Ground 57 (Spring) Explore
Associate Councillor—Senior Chen Zixiang
Deadline for advertising space reservations: January 12, 2022
.56
Editor Glyn Bowerman
2021-2022 OALA Governing Council
Photo Editor Jasper Flores
President Steve Barnhart
OALA Editorial Board Saira Abdulrehman Tracy Cook Eric Gordon Mark Hillmer Helene Iardas Eric Klaver Sarah Manteuffel Nadja Pausch (Chair) Dalia Todary-Michael Stacey Zonneveld
Vice President Stefan Fediuk
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 Outdoor lounge and dining area, surrounded by a matrix of native and non-native shrubs and perennials. Photography by Tom Arban See page 22 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 © 2022 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 Cameron Smith Secretary Justin Whalen Past President Jane Welsh
Associate Councillor—Junior Jenny Trinh Lay Councillor Karen Liu Appointed Educator University of Guelph Nadia Amoroso Appointed Educator University of Toronto TBC University of Guelph Student Representative Tatijana Vukovic University of Toronto Student Representative Natasha Raseta OALA Staff
Ground 58 (Summer) Impact Deadline for editorial proposals February 10, 2022 Deadline for advertising space reservations: April 6, 2022 Ground 59 (Fall) Food Deadline for editorial proposals April 14, 2022 Deadline for advertising space reservations: July 13, 2022
Executive Director Aina Budrevics Registrar Ingrid Little Coordinator Juleen Anderson
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.
.56
Advisory Panel
Advisory Panel Message and a Call to All for Contributions In an effort to streamline the editorial process for Ground, and after much deliberation, the Editorial Board has decided to dissolve the Advisory Panel. Ground would like to express heartfelt thanks to Panel members, past and present, for their contributions to over 50 issues of the magazine. This was a difficult decision, but one we are confident will maintain the energy and imagination necessary for future issues. What is needed most, at this time, is a robust and diverse Editorial Board and contributing writers. Anyone interested in joining is encouraged to email magazine@oala.ca, Subject Line: Volunteering. You do not need to be an OALA member or landscape architect to contribute to either the Editorial Board or the magazine, and anyone who expresses interest will be seriously considered.
Contents
Up Front Information on the ground
03/
Home: Going Home To A Drowning Landscape
06/
TEXT BY DOUGLAS ROBB
Round Table Who is Public Space For? MODERATED BY NADJA PAUSCH, OALA 10/
A Spirit Garden for Alderville First Nation: Q&A with Terence Radford TEXT BY GLYN BOWERMAN 16/
Regreening the Moonscape: Greater Sudbury’s Remarkable Ecosystem Restoration
20/
TEXT BY STEPHEN MONET, OALA, AND TINA McCAFFREY
Designing Home Perspectives on Residential Landscapes
22/
INTRODUCTION BY ERIC GORDON, OALA, COMPILED BY STACEY ZONNEVELD, OALA
Design by Detail Plant-Based Bathing
President’s Message
Editorial Board Message
President’s Message
Editorial Board Message
2022: The Year of Landscape Architects The New Year is a time to look forward. With all 2022 before us, time seems bountiful to complete our goals. After the holiday break, I hope that you feel as recharged as your Association’s team, represented by dedicated volunteer Councillors, along with our talented staff.
During the holidays, home is at the forefront of our minds. It is the season for coming together. For me, a recognition of privilege and a deep sense of gratitude for where I am able to call home has been heightened over the past two years—particularly as the temperatures drop and daylight shortens. Winter is a season of slowing down, reflection, and rest, where many of us spend more time indoors. Many of us also embark on an annual pilgrimage, returning to the landscapes and houses in which we grew up to celebrate family, community, and shared values. The season reminds us home is not a building: it is who we are.
Before looking forward, I want to reflect on our successes in 2021. It was a remarkable year for all of us at OALA, despite the circumstances. There was a story published in May’s issue of Municipal World by Councillor Cynthia Graham on “The New Medicine: How COVID-19 Made Parks Essential to Healthy Cities.” We also received great coverage across numerous outlets, including Niagara’s CKTV, the Windsor Star, Mark and Ben Cullen’s podcast Green File, and the Brian Crombie Hour that aired on radio and TV. More recently, a number of stories have appeared which reflect peaked interest in the work of landscape architects. We have also had success in our pursuit of a Professional Practice Act. Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath endorsed this goal in a greeting prepared for the 2020 Annual General Meeting. This past year, we have met with members of all parties who have also expressed their support. Furthermore, Attorney General Doug Downey, whose Ministry is responsible for the OALA file, has agreed to formally meet with us for the first time.
26/
TEXT BY VICTORIA TAYLOR, OALA
Notes A miscellany of news and events
30/
Artifact Fireside Chats
42/
TEXT BY ERIC KLAVER, OALA
Winter 2021 Issue 56
I am pleased to announce we are growing our staff, as Council had approved a new position in our 2021 budget. A new full-time permanent position has been created: Membership Services Support Administrator. Your Council has also developed a theme framework for the new 2022-2026 Strategic Plan, to ensure our messages and activities are fresh and clear. A call for proposals was issued in early December for a new communication and public relations plan. It will also help with our business plan’s tactical approach for messaging as we head into an election year, both provincially and municipally. Finally, I truly thought we would have the majority of COVID issues behind us. Unfortunately, we are not completely over this pandemic and your Council has decided to continue with a virtual Annual General Meeting on April 28th, with the hope a larger, in-person educational Conference can happen later this year. I hope everyone will continue to stay safe and enjoy the outdoors. STEVE BARNHART, OALA, CSLA OALA PRESIDENT PRESIDENT@OALA.CA
But what happens when we cannot return home? Douglas Robb explores this question as he discusses an upcoming hydropower project in British Columbia and its impacts on the surrounding landscape. When infrastructure projects, climate change events, or forced displacement from our home landscapes occurs, what is the impact on our identity and sense of place in the world? It is a question we should all consider as professionals working on stolen land. These questions also relate to the theme of the Round Table, which explores how we can better design public space to meet the diverse needs of all users, including unhoused members of our communities. As we discuss, the ways in which our public spaces are designed and utilized are often a result of public policy, which in many ways are an extension of our societal values. As Adri Stark comments, our society is changing, and the way we utilize public spaces is as well. Designing parks and public spaces to be less hospitable to diverse uses does not solve complex problems, it exacerbates them; when our designs acknowledge and empower the most marginalized members of our communities, we all benefit. As landscape architects, we have a responsibility to create safe, welcoming public space for all. For those of us with the privilege of feeling generally safe and welcome in the public realm, this requires a continual unlearning and questioning of our perceptions. The past two years has seen not only an influx of use in public and natural spaces, but in our private home landscapes as well. Once secondary, sometimes neglected outdoor environments have become vital extensions of our primary living space due to the pandemic. A handful of prominent landscape architects working in the residential sector answer questions about their experiences over the past few years and trends in the industry. On behalf of the entire Ground Magazine Editorial Board, we wish you a safe and restful holiday season. NADJA PAUSCH, OALA, CSLA CHAIR, EDITORIAL BOARD MAGAZINE@OALA.CA
Up Front
03
.56
01 01 01/
Oenothera biennis (common evening- primrose) in bloom on the GRIT Lab.
IMAGE/
Courtesy of GRIT Lab
02/
Three sedum morpho-types: broadleaf-, rigid-, cylindrical-form. Broad-leaf sedum species have a waxy, cup-like form, providing immediate interception and evaporation.
IMAGE/
Courtesy of GRIT Lab
Up Front: Information on the Ground
GREEN ROOFS
companion planting Green roofs have become an integral part of sustainable building practices in Toronto over the past decade since the adoption of the bylaw in 2009. One of the primary rationales is their contribution to stormwater management, alleviating the pressure on aging and inadequate urban water systems through localized water retention. In parallel, green roofs have been incorporated into strategic municipal documents that advocate for the protection or restoration of biodiversity, compensating for the massive loss of vegetative cover. Although studies have correlated plant endurance and diversity with water availability, little attention has been given to the ways in which green roof plants mediate the water cycle. To do so, three fields of study, biology, hydrology and landscape architecture, were joined together, at the University of Toronto GRIT Lab, to study plant physiology and transpiration mechanism in relation to water retention and design decisions.
02
A GRIT Lab study published in 2017 quantified stormwater management relative to four design factors: growing media composition (mineral aggregate versus wood-based compost), media depth (10 cm versus 15 cm), plant selection (sedum versus grasses and forbs), and irrigation treatment (none, daily, on demand—soil moisture sensor activated). Unsurprisingly, irrigation proved to be the most critical factor to runoff reduction, with daily irrigation decreasing retention by 10 per cent from 70 per cent. In second place was the growth media composition, where the biologically derived outperformed the mineral media. The small difference in depth did not prove to be significant, nor did plant selection.
Up Front
.56
04
03 03/
Achillea millefolium (white yarrow) in bloom on the GRIT Lab.
IMAGE/
Courtesy of GRIT Lab
So, as long as on-demand or no-irrigation and biologically-derived media are used, planting design can be left to meet other environmental objectives such as aesthetics and the provision of pollinator habitat. These findings left our research team seeking a more nuanced understanding of plant function in relation to the water cycle. The profession’s preference for pre-seeded sedum mats has kept sedums and forbs separate in green roof planting design. Associated with rapid establishment, sedums require no maintenance nor irrigation to maintain 80 per cent minimum cover, which is the bylaw’s requirement. On the other hand, grasses and forbs, even the hardiest ones, require supplementary irrigation and nutrients to maintain cover and diversity, as well as annual maintenance. This difference in cost may contribute to this trend, however certain assumptions may also be at play. For example, despite the great numbers of projects using mineral media, our
studies show that sedum thrives far better in biologically derived media. The other assumption that has shaped industry practices is that sedum and forbs cannot be mixed. Certainly, the pre-vegetated mat made of non-biodegradable polymer geotextile presents a barrier to roots. However, our findings show that, once combined, sedums and forbs have complimentary characteristics. Plants retain water through three different mechanisms: water consumed through the roots which remains in the biomass, water transpired through the leaves during photosynthesis, and water intercepted by the leaves which then evaporates off the surface. In our experiment, we sampled three species of each plant community: grass-forb-wildflower; and broad, rigid, cylindrical-form sedums. Soil moisture and biomass were measured daily, and transpiration was calculated using a leaf porometer to measure moisture conductance from leaf stomata. Interception
Up Front
rates during rain events were collected by removing surface water from leaves with laboratory tissues, measuring difference in weight between dry and wet tissue. We discovered that the two plant types respond to environmental conditions in different, but mutually beneficial ways. Broad-leaf sedum species, such as Sedum ellacombianum, kamtschaticum and spurium have a waxy, cup-like form, providing immediate capture and evaporation, intercepting 70 per cent more water than forbs. However, sedum transpiration rates are low compared to grasses and forbs, which transpire 130 per cent more with significantly less cover.
05
.56
at two spatial and time scales: at a local level, transpiration increases urban cooling, and at the scale of the hydrologic cycle, the elapsed time between rainfall event and evaporation potentially reduces the storm’s rainfall intensity. Ultimately, these scientific experiments help to re-centre the conversation on the role of the landscape architect in green roof planting design— which would otherwise be determined by green roof manufacturers—and the ways in which we can enhance the environmental benefits of living green infrastructure.
05
With respect to stormwater management, the benefit of intermixing sedums, grasses, and forbs is allowing for plant mechanisms to operate at different timescales and under various weather conditions. This provides both immediate and continuous stormwater retention. In other words, intercepted water evaporates quickly following a rain event which plays a role in reducing peak surface flow. On a longer time scale, water which infiltrates into the soil and is taken up by plant biomass transpires hours to days later in conjunction with photosynthesis. This delay is important 06 04-05/
Collection and measurement of intercepted water on a broad-leaf sedum.
IMAGES/
Courtesy of GRIT Lab
06/
The leaf porometer attaches to a single leaf to measure stomatal conductance, the rate at which water vapour exists from the leaf into the atmosphere.
IMAGE/
Courtesy of GRIT Lab
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: THIS ARTICLE IS BASED ON THE PHD AND MSC RESEARCH WORK OF JENNY HILL AND MARISA FRYER, RESPECTIVELY, AND THE SUPERVISORY WORK OF PROFESSORS JENNIFER DRAKE, SCOTT MACIVOR, AND LIAT MARGOLIS. TEXT BY SAMANTHA MIOTTO, A SECOND YEAR MASTER OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE STUDENT, STUDYING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO AND RESEARCH ASSISTANT AT THE GRIT LAB, WORKING UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF LIAT MARGOLIS.
04
Going Home
TEXT BY DOUGLAS ROBB
.56
06
Going Home
07
.56
02
The act of retuning to one’s home is a timeless and universal experience that spans diverse cultures, societies, and communities—both human and nonhuman. It is a driving force behind the rhythms of everyday life, from the seasonal migration of people and animals across vast distances, to the familiar patterns of one’s daily commute (at least, before the COVID-19 pandemic forced many of us to remain homebound). Going home can be an uneventful routine or a profound experience, particularly after a long period of separation. Yet, as demonstrated by the unprecedented wildfires and more recent catastrophic flooding in British Columbia, homelands around the world are rapidly being transformed by climate change—and, increasingly, climate change mitigation measures. These transformations beg the question: what happens if it is no longer possible to return home? What if, by some overwhelming force, the place that we once called home is altered beyond recognition? What does this mean for our identity and sense of place in the world? These questions were on my mind during my recent PhD fieldwork along the Peace River in northeastern British Columbia, also known as Saaghii Naachii in the local 01
01/
Forest clearing and landscape preparation works within the Site C reservoir inundation zone.
IMAGE/
Douglas Robb
02/
Digital rendering of proposed Halfway River Bridge.
IMAGE/
BC Hydro / YouTube
Dane-zaa language. The headwaters of the Saaghii Naachii/Peace River originate in the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and flow east through subalpine spruce forests, mixed-wood foothills, and boreal grasslands toward the Peace-Athabasca Delta: Canada’s “cold Amazon” and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This east-west flow is unique amongst Rocky Mountain river systems, producing temperate microclimatic conditions found nowhere else in Canada above the 55th parallel. As a result, the Saaghii Naachii/Peace River has served as a vital artery for plant, animal, and human migration since the last Ice Age. It is a haven of biological and geological diversity, and an important cultural and spiritual landscape for Indigenous peoples. Often considered peripheral by Canada’s predominantly southern population, the Saaghii Naachii/ Peace River is a place of unparalleled beauty and biodiversity, home to countless human and nonhuman communities.
Going Home
.56
08
consultation and disrespect for First Nations was not excusable half a century ago; it should be criminal now”.
03 03/
Construction of the Cache Creek Bridge at Bear Flat, September 2021.
IMAGE/
Arlene Boon / Twitter
04/
Save the Peace Valley sign.
IMAGE/
Douglas Robb
05/
Paddling the Saaghii Naachii/Peace River. The hazy air is due to the wildfires that ravaged in the Pacific Northwest during summer 2021.
IMAGE/
Douglas Robb
05
However, this homeland faces great danger. In the late 1960s, construction of the W.A.C. Bennett Dam flooded nearly 200,000 hectares of subalpine forest in the upper reaches of the river. This tremendous act of environmental violence drowned critical wilderness habitat for plant and animal species and displaced the Indigenous peoples who resided along the Saaghii Naachii/Peace River for generations. Over the span of a few short years, these communities found themselves in a world utterly transformed by settler colonial imperatives to “modernize” and “improve” so-called frontier landscapes (as northern British Columbia was deemed as recently as the late 1960s). Little attention was paid to questions of social and environmental impacts; according to Dennis Izony, former Chief of the Tsay Keh Dene First Nations writing for the Vancouver Sun, “inadequate 04
And yet, a similar story is currently unfolding approximately 100 kilometres downstream from the W.A.C. Bennett Dam. In 2015, the government of British Columbia approved the construction of the Site C Dam: Canada’s newest hydropower project and the largest hydroelectric dam currently under construction in North America. Despite decades of opposition and negative international media attention, the project was framed by the provincial government as a necessary part of British Columbia’s lowcarbon transition strategy and an important part of Canada’s overall decarbonization agenda (the veracity of these claims has been challenged by Indigenous groups, environmental organizations, academics, and experts formerly engaged in the dam’s approval process). Like the Bennett Dam, Site C will drown hectares of critical wildlife habitat and infringe on Indigenous treaty rights, resulting in an unprecedented number of significant social and environmental impacts—the most of any hydroelectric infrastructure project in Canadian history. Yet, for the time being, it is still possible to visit this landscape, as I did in the summer of 2021. Travelling through the landscape is a sobering experience. As I paddled toward the Site C Dam through a soon-to-be-flooded section of the Saaghii Naachii/Peace River valley, the conceptual and epistemic forms of violence I explore in my dissertation became overwhelmingly real. The air around me was thick with smoke from hundreds of wildfires that burned across British Columbia, stinging my eyes and blurring my vision. Despite being in the middle of a wide river valley, I felt claustrophobic at the thought of all the water in the future reservoir pressing down on me. How does one describe the injustice of knowing that everything they can see, hear, touch, and smell will soon be drowned by an artificial lake? The writer Andri Snær
Going Home
Magnason offers the word angurværd— or “tender-sadness”—to describe the melancholic nostalgia he experienced when a pristine valley in the Icelandic highlands was flooded by the Kárahnjúkar hydroelectric dam. Similarly, in her book Saudade: The Possibilities of Place, author Anik See employs the Portuguese word saudade (for which there is no English equivalent) to describe her sensation of longing for a place that is gone and can never be revisited. These words carry a profound sense of loss, but do not adequately capture the complex feelings I had as I paddled down the river, nor do they reflect the anger and frustration expressed to me by the individuals who call this landscape home. Perhaps, as my former graduate student D’Arcy Hutton suggests, the most appropriate word to describe the actions taking place along the Saaghii Naachii/Peace River is topocide, or the deliberate destruction of the unique qualities of a place, akin to an act of war. My relationship to this place is fundamentally one of an outsider. However, over the course of my research, I have encountered dozens of individuals (some human, some nonhuman) whose families have lived in the Saaghii Naachii/Peace River valley for generations, and who have experienced firsthand the cumulative effects of industrial activities on their homeland. Evidence of these effects are ubiquitous in both subtle and dramatic ways. Upstream from the Site C Dam construction site, massive land-clearing works and highway upgrades are rewriting the land in anticipation of the future reservoir. Pipelines traversing the river valley indicate the omnipresence of intensive oil and gas extraction. Strange lines along the riverbank reveal traces of fluctuating water levels caused by the regulated outflow from the W.A.C. Bennett Dam, scouring the shoreline of vegetation. (The amount of water in the river is no longer determined by seasonal precipitation or melting snowpack as it once was, but rather by provincial demand for electricity: higher demand equals more water).
09
.56
06
In large and small ways, the cumulative impacts of industrial activities have dramatically transformed the landscapes of the Saaghii Naachii/Peace River region and, in doing so, have made it impossible for many individuals to return to the homes they once knew. What responsibilities do landscape architects bear in this process? Infrastructure such as the W.A.C. Bennett Dam and Site C, like other renewable energy projects, are often justified and legitimized through progressive agendas of sustainable development that permeate contemporary design discourse. Yet narrow definitions of sustainability—to the exclusion of broader social and environmental justice considerations— can result in dangerous ideological pitfalls and, in this case, the destruction of human and nonhuman homelands. As landscape architects, we must ask ourselves: who will live in the places we design? Or, conversely, when designing a landscape, whose homes might we (inadvertently) destroy?
06/
Construction of the Halfway River Bridge as seen from the current banks of the Saaghii Naachii/Peace River.
IMAGE/
Douglas Robb
07/
Fluctuating water levels scour lines into the riverbank.
IMAGE/
Douglas Robb
NOTE: MY PROJECT IS SUPPORTED BY THE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE CANADA FOUNDATION (LACF) NORTHERN RESEARCH BURSARY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA (SSHRC).
BIO/
07
DOUGLAS ROBB, IS A PHD CANDIDATE AND VANIER DOCTORAL SCHOLAR IN THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. HE CURRENTLY TEACHES IN THE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE PROGRAM AT UBC’S SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE + LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO’S DANIELS FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, LANDSCAPE, AND DESIGN. WDOUGLASROBB.COM
Round Table
.56
Designing, programming, and maintaining inclusive space for everyone
10
Round Table
.56
11
01 MODERATED BY NADJA PAUSCH, OALA BIOS/
DIANA CHAN MCNALLY (SHE/THEY) IS A FORMER FRONTLINE WORKER WHO IS CURRENTLY EMPLOYED BY THE TORONTO DROP-IN NETWORK, WHERE SHE OVERSEES ADVOCACY INITIATIVES AND LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR 56 ORGANIZATIONS ACROSS THE CITY OF TORONTO SUPPORTING UNHOUSED PEOPLE. AS SOMEONE WITH LIVED EXPERIENCE OF SOCIAL SERVICES AND BEING UNHOUSED, DIANA’S WORK FOCUSES ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND EQUITY ISSUES FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS, AND SHE IS PARTICULARLY INVOLVED IN RIGHTS PROTECTIONS FOR RESIDENTS OF ENCAMPMENTS. SARA UDOW IS AN URBAN AND CULTURAL PLANNER AND ENGAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST. AS CO-FOUNDER AND PRINCIPAL OF PROCESS, SARA IS DEDICATED TO DESIGNING AND DELIVERING COLLABORATIVE, CREATIVE, AND EQUITABLE PLANNING PROCESSES THAT LEAD TO MEANINGFUL AND INCLUSIVE OUTCOMES.
02
Sara Udow: It can’t just be landscape architects, planners, and architects sitting at their desk and doing site visits, et cetera, and then engaging with some people about a project. You need intensive and inclusive engagement approaches, so you actually understand the issues at play.
ADRI STARK IS A PROJECT MANAGER AT PARK PEOPLE, A NATIONAL CHARITY THAT HELPS PEOPLE ACTIVATE THE POWER OF PARKS. SHE IS CO-AUTHOR OF PARK PEOPLE’S CANADIAN CITY PARKS REPORT—AN ANNUAL PUBLICATION THAT EXPLORES PARK TRENDS, CHALLENGES, AND LEADING PRACTICES BASED ON A SURVEY OF MUNICIPALITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY. BRYCE MIRANDA, OALA, CSLA, IS AN EXPERIENCED LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT AND URBAN DESIGNER, WHO IS A PRINCIPAL OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE WITH DIALOG IN THE TORONTO STUDIO. BRYCE’S CURRENT WORK IS FOCUSED ON DESIGN DEVELOPMENT OF URBAN AND CAMPUS ENVIRONMENTS INCLUDING STREETSCAPES, INSTITUTIONAL BUILDINGS, PARKS, URBAN REVITALIZATION, AND TRANSPORTATIONRELATED URBAN DESIGN. FOR OVER A DECADE, HE HAS LED SOME OF THE MOST INNOVATIVE PUBLIC REALM PROJECTS—CREATING SPACES THAT BRING COMMUNITIES TOGETHER IN INNOVATIVE AND SUSTAINABLE WAYS. NADJA PAUSCH, OALA, CSLA, IS THE GROUND EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBER AND CHAIR. NADJA WORKS AS A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT AT A MULTIDISCIPLINARY DESIGN OFFICE IN TORONTO.
01/
Encampment site at Trinity Bellwoods Park
IMAGE/
Elena Berd
02/
Defensive design – Spikes installed to prevent people from sleeping on vents
IMAGE/
Tai Huynh
03/
Bench at Grange Park - middle armrest serves as defensive architecture
IMAGE/
Jeremy Gilbert / Flickr
03
Nadja Pausch: The ways our public spaces are designed and utilized are a reflection of our societal values. Everybody should feel at home in the public realm. But, to be truly inclusive and equitable, these spaces need to be located, designed and programmed, operated and maintained to meet the diverse needs of the whole population, and this includes unhoused members of our communities. If our parks, streets, and open spaces are not universally welcoming and don’t meet everyone’s needs, we can’t really call them equitable, or perhaps even “public.” During the pandemic, for various reasons, many unhoused people chose to live in parks. The outlawing of certain shelters and forcible removal of those living in encampments has brought this issue to the forefront of public consciousness. What are the greatest barriers to improving equity in the public realm, and how might these barriers be addressed?
Someone said our field works from rendering to ribbon cutting, and we let go from there. But public spaces and their uses change. With the encampments, we need to shift with the times. We’re in an affordable housing crisis, instead of trying to keep people out we should create more inclusive spaces for everyone. Diana Chan McNally: The City of Toronto treats public space as if it’s defending private property. Specifically, their private property, in which they get to define and set the limits on what is acceptable use of a space. In a sense, we’re privileging municipal bylaws over much higher, superseding laws at the federal level—which include the Charter, as well as the National Housing Strategy Act— about the right to housing and meaningful engagement with people to define and decide what their services, housing, and supports actually look like. It’s picking and choosing which laws the City upholds, and, legally speaking, their actions aren’t really lawful. The City has legal obligations to uphold the right to housing,
Round Table
.56
12
As for the need to shift how we think about parks and public space, a lot of municipalities still think of parks as places for recreation where you play baseball and walk your dogs. The reality is parks are now places that intersect with the most pressing issues of our time. They can be a place for more systemic change and solutions. NP: What are some of the design features in the public realm which (intentionally or not) exclude unhoused and other vulnerable populations from public space? BM: There’s a whole world of hostile architecture. The most common example is the bench with an armrest strategically placed to prevent someone from sleeping on it or deterrents on top of exhaust grates to stop people resting on them for heat.
04
and they’re failing to do that when they clear out encampments. By United Nations and international law standards, these are houses. Bryce Miranda: I think our definition of a park has changed, and should be changing over time. Parks began with cemeteries in the mid-19th century, but evolved into public spaces to deal with the industrial age and terrible living conditions. In the digital age, we’re still dealing with a lot of the same issues. We have overcrowding. People can’t afford housing. We need to rethink the function and use of the park, which, currently, is a place of respite for people without places to live. Adri Stark: The distinction between parks and housing is rooted in colonial definitions of what a park can and should be. I always return to Jesse Thistle’s definition of Indigenous homelessness, which highlights that home can be so much more than a bricks and mortar shelter over your head.
05 04/
Tents in Moss Park
IMAGE/
Bryce Miranda
05/
An out-of-order fountain
IMAGE/
Bryce Miranda
06/
Naloxone (in case of overdose)
IMAGE/
Bryce Miranda
To the question of barriers, working closely with municipalities, and specifically parks department staff, a lot of folks are trained as natural resource managers and are more focused on the environmental side of things. It’s not always that their intentions are in the wrong place, it’s often that they’re completely lost when it comes to understanding the housing crisis and how they might engage with folks living in parks. 06
DCM: A lot of what is, or isn’t provided is very telling about who is considered a park user and what the “public” actually means at a policy level. We see that hostile architecture in every park in Toronto. But we also see the elements of a park which facilitate people’s health and wellness, including having and maintaining accessible bathrooms, withheld from people living in encampments for basically the entire pandemic. And while we technically have infrastructure for accessing running water, that also is not maintained, there are many unusable water fountains. The City is actively withholding things that are absolutely rights and that people need to stay well. It’s done on purpose to discourage people living in encampments. It’s by design. People are forced to use the bathroom outside and aren’t able to practice any kind of basic hygiene—terrible enough, but violence during a pandemic.
Round Table
13
.56
We’re prioritizing spaces for recreation and dogs, and privileging resources for single-family homes and condos. We don’t understand, to the fullest extent, who and what a park user is, which absolutely must include the people who live in them. SU: A lot of our research focuses on having active parks. Having “eyes on the street” or in parks makes it a space where people feel safe. But a lot of people living in a park actually want privacy. So, we must rethink our perceptions of what good design is and what we learned in school. Also, Cheryll Case and Cheyenne Sundance talk a lot about using parks for food security and urban agriculture. There are community garden programs, but they don’t exist in the way they used to, or could. We need to transform parks not for leisure but for actual necessity and need. AS: In terms of what’s missing from parks, I love the term Cara Chellew uses of “ghost amenities”—things that should be in parks but aren’t. These are things people require to meet basic needs, but they benefit literally everybody. One of the most extreme examples we’ve seen of defensive design is parks being completely fenced off to the public and patrolled by security guards. Cities do this, and say it’s for environmental remediation. It’s obvious what the real motivations are, and the narrative around environmental remediation contributes to a lot of hostility between housed and unhoused folks, because it perpetuates a blame dynamic where unhoused people are accused of destroying the environment. And that’s ridiculous because us housed folks have a way bigger environmental footprint than someone living in a tent in a park. There’s also defensive maintenance practices. I spoke with someone who experienced sheltering in Grange Park and they said sometimes sprinklers would go off really early in the morning. It was a clear defensive tactic to push people out of the park.
07 07/
Protesters hold up a banner above Nathan Phillips Square demanding pandemic housing relief
IMAGE/
Michael Swan / Flickr
08/
Needle Drop (users can safely deposit needles)
IMAGE/
Bryce Miranda
08
BM: There’s also design based on how much time you are spending in the park. It’s okay to enjoy the park, but only for a certain period of time, and if it’s any longer, hostile architecture is introduced to make you leave, like making benches with no backs so you can only sit comfortably for a certain period of time before you carry on. NP: How can public space be designed, programmed, and managed to be more inclusive and welcoming to all? SU: We talked about washrooms. Other things people need if they’re outside for a long time, or if they’re unhoused, includes the digital space: getting WiFi in parks and outlets to plug your phone in. DCM: A broad swath of the public uses drugs, and we know the drug poisoning and overdose crisis is affecting people across identities, but we still don’t want to
have that conversation, because we’re still stigmatizing drug use. We’ve argued for a long time for sharps disposals for needles, to keep them off the ground—always a point of contention with many people living in the neighborhood, or casual users of the park. From a public health perspective, it’s good policy. Not just in the context of people who use drugs: many people live with diabetes, so a sharps disposal unit would be helpful. In Los Angeles, they have a program near Skid Row called the Mobile Pit Stop, which is kind of a bathroom, with running water, a facility to wash your hands, and a place to dispose of medical paraphernalia like needles. It’s a well-used program with a many good public health outcomes for everybody. It’s also monitored by a staff person, so someone using the space will not overdose and die—something that happens in our parks with some frequency in unattended porta-potties. These are human lives being lost unnecessarily because we’re not putting
Round Table
features in the public space which would actually keep them safe. BM: For people living in tents, everything they have is in there, and security is a real issue. If they leave their tent, there’s a chance they’ll lose things, or it’s removed by the police. Maybe there’s some way to protect their belongings, like lockers, to give people a sense of security. And we need a system where police are not there to extract you but to protect you. AS: On the programming side, parks can be valuable spaces for public education, which I think is a huge component of helping potentially hostile people who otherwise might call 311 to complain about folks living in “their” park have a bit more understanding. Take the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal. They do work in Cabot Square—a gathering place for unhoused folks, particularly the Inuit community. They have a full-time Indigenous social worker in a pavilion in the park who acts as a mediator, helping to engage housed people in public education, as well as provide support if there’s anything onsite that requires it. Pre-pandemic, they had a program called “Indigenous Fridays,” where different community members (who might be precariously housed themselves) led workshops. The executive director said this helped shift perceptions of the park,
14
.56
and people started seeing it as a vibrant community space, rather than a place to avoid. Initiatives like that, aiming to bring together housed and unhoused folks to address stigma and shift perceptions, are valuable. DCM: With my role at the Toronto Drop-In Network, we’ve been given license by the City to run drop-in programs within parks. This is something we’re going to try to initiate, and it absolutely can be a space where we address people’s real needs, whether they are living there or not. We can create a space to gather together (difficult to do indoors right now), access needs, and do community building. We’re taking baby steps to understand there is a diversity of people who use parks, and there’s a lot of ways we can leverage the space to create inclusivity and community. But there’s still a lot of bad design and logic, and a lack of programming in place. SU: In our engagement work, we often speak to certain people, community organizations, and non-profits who are using public space in different ways. And it’s important because it shifts our thinking. We were working in Victoria as an artist residency, and they had a controversial park redesign proposing a children’s playground. Why wouldn’t you want a playground? Well,
in Victoria, there’s a bylaw that, if there’s a playground, you cannot camp overnight in a park. This park is home to a lot of unhoused community members, so it was basically saying “you have to leave now.” The City hadn’t done engagement specifically with the people living in the park. I think it was well intentioned, as it often is. They had pop-ups, art signs, saying “tell us what you want to see in the park,” all that fun stuff. But there was no conversation with the actual people living there. So we led a separate workshop with members of the unhoused community, a non-profit, and City parks and planning staff, and talked about what they wanted to see in the park. A lot of it goes back to harm reduction. NP: Are there any public spaces that shouldn’t be designed to accommodate unhoused people, and, if so, why? DCM: I don’t think so. But I’ll just point to universal design: which is to say we should be taking into account as many stakeholders as possible and not excluding anyone on purpose. It’s not for us to define what is public. SU: It’s about shifting that question. We do a lot of work and talk with BIAs, and they’re experiencing more homelessness than ever, and they want enforcements and security. They’re worried about their small business, et cetera. But I think people just don’t know what the other options are, and how to create spaces shared by everyone, so they turn to enforcement as their only option. The real question is “what are the opportunities for better design?” NP: What changes to policy, planning processes, or design standards are required to ensure the public realm welcomes and accommodates everybody? Are there systemic changes needed to reach this goal?
09/
The line for take out food at The Good Shepherd stretches down Queen Street, around the block.
IMAGE/
Michael Swan / Flickr
09
Round Table
10 10/
Portable shower for homeless in San Francisco
IMAGE/
Eddie Codel / Flickr
SU: From a policy perspective, I’m sure there’s lots of bylaws and things to change. The problem I have is with planning in general: we don’t look at things long-term. We look from rendering to ribbon cutting, as I said, and that’s it. And one thing Park People does really well, and we do some of too, is public life studies, monitoring spaces, and learning about how a space’s use is constantly changing and shifting. But too often we look at public spaces as static, not evolving. BM: Things like the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act have been successful, when that became mandatory to meet code. Whatever you’re designing must meet the basic standards of the accessibility guidelines. So, you can implement a number of guidelines and codes that meet the basic requirements necessary for people to live. If a public space meets those requirements, we’re successfully supporting unhoused people. SU: We have a very flawed system for statutory public meetings. We all know the people who come out are often those who have the time, resources, and money to make their voices heard.
15
.56
Ensuring we’re speaking to people who are marginalized or equity-deserving communities who can’t make that time and space to come out is important. We often pay people for their work and hire local community members to get involved and engaged. We reach out to community organizations and give them funds to help speak to their communities, because they know how to get great feedback and advice we wouldn’t be able to.
As for fire safety, often, through my work, we’ve advocated that the City adopt a set of standards through the Faulkner Inquest, which followed the death of Grant Faulkner in Scarborough in an encampment fire, and they have repeatedly refused to enact these recommendations—which are not coming from advocates, they’re from the office of the chief coroner. What are we actually providing people that will reduce these situations?
DCM: The municipality doesn’t have an onus to do that. At a bureaucratic level, we need to change how we frame engagement— understanding it’s an extremely high-barrier. Finding the information for these meetings, let alone having the technology and time available to participate (because they’re mostly online now), really does bring out a certain segment: folks with enough privilege to be there. And, generally, the folks who come out will oppose. It’s always very skewed. Our idea of engagement at the municipal level has to change, and feedback from designers like Process and folks like yourself could help the City rethink how it defines engagement. That’s something designers can do: leverage the City, if you’re engaged in an RFP or something, to push for better engagement, as opposed to a linear, one-dimensional, inaccessible public consultation meeting.
And while fires have definitely happened in the past, the issue is being leveraged as an excuse to move people out of these spaces. In your own home, if something isn’t safe, we don’t say “you can’t be in your house anymore, get out.” We have a double standard because, again, we’re not considering encampments housing. We’re using “fire safety” to push people out, instead of doing what you would do if someone were housed: provide fire-safe equipment like a smoke alarm.
AS: Can every municipality please remove their bylaw prohibiting camping in parks? In B.C., there have been supreme court challenges forcing municipalities to overturn these bylaws, and it’s time for every municipality in Canada to get on board with that. Also, I know a lot of tension comes up around fire safety—fire departments are always mad about structures in parks—so that stands out as an area where we need some innovative, proactive collaboration with fire safety folks, landscape architects, and parks department staff to figure out a workable solution. DCM: The no-camping bylaws are contrary to federal law, and yet municipalities are ignoring that.
It’s also important to apply equity, antiBlack racism, and anti-colonialist lenses. Who’s living in parks? 31 per cent of people who are unhoused identify as Black. Almost one-third of people actively living in parks identify as Indigenous. A lot of unhoused people live with a disability. We have to incorporate these strategies into our planning processes and design; it should be mandatory across the board.
THANKS TO NADJA PAUSCH FOR COORDINATING THIS ROUND TABLE.
A Spirit Garden for Alderville First Nation:
16
.56
Glyn Bowerman: To begin, I wanted to ask how the Spirit Garden came together? Terence Radford: The City of Kingston started conversations with Alderville First Nation around 2013. My understanding is Alderville originally came to them about the City being their traditional territory, Alderville’s history in that area, and how they ended up out in Rice Lake. They were originally talking about a plaque, and the City came back and said, ‘Look, we can do better than a plaque, let’s talk about a commemorative piece.’ So they worked with Alderville for four years about what this piece might be and where it would be located. They had elders and community members come out and look at a number of sites and landed on Lake Ontario Park as the preferred location. They put out requests for qualifications to get interest from artists, and shortlisted three in early 2018. I was one of the three chosen to do conceptual options.
Q&A with Terence Radford TEXT BY GLYN BOWERMAN
We worked for a full year on that and had three meetings with Alderville. Two of them were smaller, mostly with the Chief, some council members, and members of the community. Then, we had one larger public open house at the community centre, where we each presented whatever we prepared and were given an opportunity for feedback from the larger community of Alderville. Then, we had time to revise before we did our final submissions in late 2018. They reviewed those and assembled a committee
01 01/
A group gathering in the Spirit Garden during the opening ceremony listens intently to Chief Dave Mowat speak. The focal point of this gathering space is composed of a native Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) planting and seven irregular field stones, representing the seven grandfather teachings.
IMAGE/
Courtesy of Trophic Design
02/
The Manidoo Ogitigan “Spirit Garden” features a plethora of native plant species chosen in collaboration with the Alderville Black Oak Savannah team. Pictured here; native Black Cohosh (Actaea racemose) in the foreground, and Woodland Sunflower (Helianthus divaricatus) behind.
IMAGE/
Courtesy of Trophic Design
This summer saw the opening of a public art and landscape installation in Kingston, Ontario, meant to welcome the Alderville First Nation (residing in Rice Lake) back to their traditional territory. The City of Kingston worked with Alderville to find the appropriate commemorative site, space, and design. Métis landscape architect and artist Terence Radford was commissioned to work with the community to design the project, and the Manidoo Ogitigan, or Spirit Garden, was realized at Lake Ontario Park. 02
A Spirit Garden for Alderville First Nation:
17
.56
03
of Indigenous artists from across Ontario, Alderville Chief Dave Mowat, and community members. We moved into detail design and development of the artwork from the beginning of 2019, until the summer of 2020: refining the work in close communication with the community. We reached consensus between the City and Alderville and were able to begin construction in the summer of 2020. We completed construction this summer in 2021. GB: And this concept of a “spirit garden,” or Manidoo Ogitigan, is this a traditional First Nations idea? TR: It was built into the original request for qualifications and the request for proposals (RFP) for the art piece, which the City worked on with the Alderville community when they wrote it. That’s kind of unique in itself: I don’t always see input from First Nations when RFPs go out, even when dealing with Indigenous content in public spaces. But they had consulted with the Nation on what was going into the
RFP and what the vision for the art piece would be, and it outlined things like having a gathering space, and the importance of the environment being addressed in whatever the final artwork was. So, when I applied with my initial concept, I wanted to do something that was more of a land-based artwork than a traditional sculptural form—both because I’m a practicing landscape architect, and because my work as an artist has heavily focused on the environment. All three artists had gardens, or components of the environment, built into their final piece because of the way the RFP was originally written. But the piece itself isn’t a traditional form in any way. It’s really a byproduct of me learning about the history, my conversations with community members, and the fact that the Black Oak Savanna is such an important landscape in Alderville. GB: How does the project speak to the history of Alderville First Nation?
03/
Spirit Garden illustrative plan
IMAGE/
Courtesy of Trophic Design
A Spirit Garden for Alderville First Nation:
.56
18
04
TR: When I designed the piece, Chief Mowat, who’s an historian and worked for Trent University in Peterborough, provided us with some pretty extensive research and papers he wrote about the history of Alderville, which gave us a really good foundation for who the Nation was, their history in relation to the City of Kingston, and drove the incorporation of a lot of elements in the piece. Specifically, we incorporated three wampum belts into the artwork, heavily influenced by the research Chief Mowat conducted with regards to the importance of the 1764 Covenant Chain wampum belt and the Niagara treaty, as well as the Chief Yellowhead wampum belt. That belt talks about the extent of the territory of the Mishi Saagiig [Mississaugas], traditionally: the teaching that goes along with it talks about the seven council fires, and specific animal representatives associated with each nation that held one of these council fires. The final belt we chose was the Dish With One Spoon, after conversations with community members, who felt strongly about it.
There were also a number of teachings I received from elders, especially Rick Beaver, who was one of the key members I spoke with extensively over the years, which drove the preparation of things like the medicine wheel design in the paving. Then, there was the selection of plant material. I worked specifically with one member, and we built the planting plan together, based on her knowledge of plants native to the Black Oak Savanna typology. We picked plants we both knew would do well in the soil types and hydrology of the site, but would also fit in a very public area, and have some sort of aesthetic interest or specific teaching opportunity. GB: A lot of engagement went into this project and, as you said, it’s unique when Indigenous communities are at the head of the table. Are there lessons here for the landscape architect profession? TR: I only moved to Ontario in 2017. I am incredibly lucky that one of my first major projects after moving was making this commemorative public artwork with the
Alderville First Nation. Part of me coming to Ontario and starting out on my own was that I had done work with First Nations communities, both as a landscape architect on the west coast, and within the Aboriginal Friendship Centre organization. I had experiences working with First Nations and Indigenous communities and organizations and I knew the types of conflicts that could arise. So, when I came out, I really wanted to work with communities again, but also address some of the barriers I had observed. And probably the biggest barrier is the timeline of a project. I give the City of Kingston a lot of credit because the timeline for completion was originally late 2018, but they realized that was not a realistic goal. They let the community take the lead—ultimately defining how long the engagement process was. It turned from a one-year long proposal/selection/ construction process to a four-year one, and that was driven by Alderville, who we always looked to for the time and frequency of meetings. We were respectful of both their capacity for engaging on a project, as well as events in the community. Often, an elder or
A Spirit Garden for Alderville First Nation:
someone might pass away during a project, and that’s an event that often will stop work in a community while they conduct ceremony and go through personally processing the loss. We wanted to ensure we were respectful of events like that, and weren’t trying to push for something to be completed on our timeline, but work with them and keep open communication to realize a project they were really invested in and felt ownership of. GB: The theme for this issue is “Home.” I know home can be a fraught idea when we’re talking about colonized spaces, so I was wondering how you hope the Spirit Garden creates a sense of home for the Alderville First Nation, as well as general visitors to the park. TR: That heavily drove the project. The City of Kingston was always devoted to the idea that the commemorative public artwork and space would become a new home for the community, while in Kingston. When we did our initial opening during the summer on National Aboriginal Day, the summer solstice, we spoke a lot about the space being a new home for Alderville in the City, and how the garden, gathering, and ceremonial space we created was welcoming for them—a home away from home. That was a very small gathering. But the sentiment was mirrored when we had a larger opening here in the fall, where we could bus out a number of people from the community,
19
.56
including elders who helped choose the site. The Chief and elders commented on the fact that the space made them feel at home when they were there, and they felt welcomed and safe. Our hope is we continue building that relationship with Alderville, continue bringing community members to this space, keep it as a home for them, and let that guide its development. Because it’s a living piece, and will require stewardship and guidance over the next several years. One thing we weren’t counting on when we designed the piece, although it was a hope, was how the community in Kingston engaged with it. Queen’s University and St. Lawrence College (across the street from Lake Ontario Park) have both adopted it as an outdoor teaching and learning space: bringing classrooms out, especially when they have knowledge keepers visiting or presenting to the classes. We came out one day to do maintenance and there were 30 people sitting in the piece. We asked them who they were, and it was a geology class with a knowledge keeper from Tyendinaga teaching them.
06
07 04/
The medicine wheel gathering space is comprised of various elements including armour stone seating. Two rings of twelve stones each, twenty-four stones in total reflect the 24 nations of the Niagara Treaty.
IMAGE/
Courtesy of Trophic Design
05/
Manidoo Ogitigan is an intimate gathering space for reflection, ceremony, and teaching. Pictured here Chief Dave Mowat of Alderville First Nation addressing the crowd.
IMAGE/
Courtesy of Trophic Design
06/
The Dish with One Spoon unit paving pattern defines the “tower landing” at the southern access of the site as well as the “Chancel” at the northern access of the site and represents the treaty between several nations including the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee.
IMAGE/
Courtesy of Trophic Design
07/
The dimensions of the art piece are based on the actual dimensions of the Methodist Church located in Alderville. This has been deconstructed and overlayed with the symbolism of the medicine wheel creating four potential points of entry aligned to the cardinal directions.
IMAGE/
Courtesy of Trophic Design
BIO/
05
GLYN BOWERMAN IS A JOURNALIST, EDITOR, AND PODCASTER IN TORONTO. HE IS THE HOST OF THE SPACING RADIO PODCAST, WHICH FOCUSES ON URBANIST ISSUES IN CANADIAN CITIES, AND GROUND MAGAZINE EDITOR.
Regreening the Moonscape:
20
.56
Greater Sudbury’s Remarkable Ecosystem Restoration TEXT BY STEPHEN MONET, OALA, AND TINA McCAFFREY
The United Nations declared the period between 2021 and 2030 the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and challenges everyone to prevent, halt, and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide. The City of Greater Sudbury is familiar with degraded ecosystems and their recovery. Decades of nickel smelting, starting in the late 19th century, left a footprint on the local landscape measuring roughly 82,000 hectares that was mostly devoid of vegetation. Soil on the hillsides eroded leaving exposed bedrock knobs that darkened over time from the constant assault of air-borne pollution. Soil pockets between these bedrock hills were also left bare, creating frequent dust storms—to the great annoyance of local residents. Plants could not survive the onslaught of frequent sulphur dioxide fumigations from smelters, the high soil acidity that eased the uptake of soil-borne metal particles into plant tissue, and the ongoing soil erosion that further reduced soil fertility and organic matter. On some sites, absence of vegetation and organic matter created the ideal situation for ice crystal formation at the soil surface that lifted developing tree or shrub seedlings, leaving roots exposed. In the early 1970s, astronauts training for the Apollo 16 and 17 missions came to Sudbury to examine geological features associated with meteor impacts, such as the one that created the Sudbury Basin nearly two billion years ago. The presence of astronauts clambering on barren, rocky hillsides with makeshift equipment designed for moon exploration created an irresistible urban myth: astronauts were training in Sudbury because the landscape resembled the
surface of the moon. Soon, Greater Sudbury’s landscape earned the unwelcome nickname of ‘moonscape.’ To generations of Sudburians, this landscape was home. This dire situation was initially addressed in the 1960s through everincreasing regulatory pollution control by the provincial government. In 1972, Inco (now Vale), built what was up to then the world’s tallest freestanding structure: the Superstack. It significantly reduced, but did not eliminate, incidences of sulphur dioxide fumigations at ground-level. Ongoing smelting and emission capture improvements by industry further reduced local sulphur dioxide levels to the point where many plants could now survive. Elevated levels of certain metals in the soil, however, from decades of aerial deposition from the various smelter stacks, still posed a barrier to plant growth, especially when combined with the low soil pH. In the early 1970s, researchers from Laurentian University discovered that the application of crushed limestone (referred to locally as ‘liming’) at the rate of 10 tonnes per hectare was sufficient to reduce soil acidity, and thus the uptake of soil metals, to allow plant growth. Further, sowing a grass/legume seed mixture and applying a custom fertilizer mix resulted in a rapid development of a healthy sward into which pine seedlings could be planted the following year. These four steps: ‘liming,’ fertilizing, sowing a grass/legume seed mix, and tree planting became the regreening formula used to this day to kick-start the ecosystem recovery process. In 1973, a local
Regreening the Moonscape:
02
03 01-03/
Three photographs showing time series change from 1981, 2008 and 2018 from the same location near Coniston, City of Greater Sudbury.
IMAGE/
Courtesy of the City of Greater Sudbury
04/
Crews placing the lime bags to achieve 10 tonnes per hectare application rate
IMAGE/
Courtesy of the City of Greater Sudbury
advisory committee (VETAC - Regreening Advisory Panel) was formed to enhance and coordinate collaboration between industry, municipal, provincial and federal governments, Laurentian University, and the community. After five years of research and site-specific trials, the municipality launched its Land Reclamation Program in 1978. This Program, now known as the Regreening Program, was developed to scale up the research trials, and, since inception, has allowed thousands of temporary workers and community volunteers to apply the regreening formula to barren lands. The Program also works collaboratively with Vale, a mining company with operations in Greater Sudbury, to annually determine areas where
01
21
.56
liming, fertilizing and seeding can be done by helicopters. Forty-three years and many awards later, municipal efforts have resulted in the planting of over 10 million trees and shrubs on tens of thousands of hectares of formerly barren and semi-barren land. Local mining operators have planted at least an additional 4 million seedlings.
throughout the formerly barren lands. Plant species from these forest floor mats are already spreading several meters from their original placement and will eventually colonize the surrounding areas, bringing well-needed biological diversity to the developing forest. Numerous animal species, from frogs to bears, now claim habitat on formerly barren land. Even certain forest habitat-specialists, such as the winter wren, long-eared owl, and ovenbird nest in some areas of the recovering forest.
Decades of applying the regreening formula resulted in maturing stands of conifers. Although mixed with varying proportions of some deciduous species that colonized on their own, the resulting ‘forest’ was still relatively impoverished in terms of fungi, plants, and animals. To redress this problem, a Biodiversity Action Plan was developed with industry and community input and released in time for the launch of the United Nation’s Year of Biodiversity in 2010. The Action Plan, written in plain language, addresses the many ways in which biodiversity intersects with Greater Sudbury’s ecological recovery and community aspirations in terms of natural systems. Over the past decade, the Regreening Program has increased the number of tree and shrub species to 75. The Program has also added its Forest Floor Mat initiative, which seeks to transplant forest floor vegetation, hand dug from healthy forest areas to be developed due to highway widening or mine exploration. The vegetation mats are then watered and introduced to sufficiently mature tree stands that originate from planted tree seedlings. Since 2010, the Regreening Program has successfully introduced forest floor mats to an area roughly the size of over a dozen NHLsized hockey rinks (2.1 hectares) scattered
Now, children in Greater Sudbury have no memory of the infamous ‘moonscape’—a landscape that is rapidly vanishing locally. The Regreening Program now offers online initiatives and materials targeted at school-aged children to educate them on past conditions and the great effort required to bring about ecological recovery. The VETAC Advisory Panel also administers the annual Ugliest Schoolyard Contest that has been running locally since 2005. Each year, local schools vie for the opportunity to win substantial funding to naturalize their schoolyard with trees, shrubs, and some hardscaping. Greater Sudbury’s damaged landscape has been transformed from ‘moonscape’ to living landscape with the tireless, collaborative efforts of the community, sustained financial support from industry and government, and applied research from local post-secondary educational institutions. At the start of this international Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, Greater Sudbury serves as a world-class example of how dreams can become reality.
04
BIO/
STEPHEN MONET, PH.D., R.P.P., OALA, HAS OVER 28 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN VARIOUS ASPECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT. HE IS CURRENTLY MANAGER OF STRATEGIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING AT THE CITY OF GREATER SUDBURY. AMONG HIS MANY DUTIES, HE OVERSEES THE REGREENING PROGRAM, THE LAKE WATER QUALITY PROGRAM, AND THE EARTHCARE SUDBURY PROGRAM. HE IS A LICENSED LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT AS WELL AS A REGISTERED PROFESSIONAL PLANNER.
TINA MCCAFFREY, B.SC., HAS BEEN THE SUPERVISOR OF REGREENING WITH THE CITY OF GREATER SUDBURY SINCE 1994. SHE IS A GRADUATE OF LAURENTIAN UNIVERSITY’S BIOLOGY PROGRAM AND A NATIVE SUDBURIAN, WHO HAS EXPERIENCED THE REGREENING TRANSFORMATION FIRST-HAND. IN HER YEARS WITH THE CITY, SHE HAS SUPERVISED NEARLY 1,500 TEMPORARY JOB POSITIONS INVOLVED IN REGREENING, AS WELL AS THE PLANTING OF OVER 8 MILLION TREE SEEDLINGS.
Designing Home
22
.56
01
year ahead, paving materials are limited, and wood has been both expensive and difficult to obtain. Everyone wants their design built ‘first thing’ in the spring, so managing client expectations is critical. Kate Fox-Whyte Green roofs in general are a definite trend. 02
In honour of our “Home” issue, Ground reached out to a selection of landscape architects from regions across Ontario who work regularly on single-family residential projects. They were asked about the issues and opportunities they face in their work. Their responses offer a small crossprovince checkup on the state of residential design and practice: What are some trends and troubles in your field/business/design?
Perspectives on residential landscapes INTRODUCTION BY ERIC GORDON, OALA, COMPILED BY STACEY ZONNEVELD, OALA
Adele Pierre An increase in the number of clients looking specifically to work with a landscape architect. Clients know what they want in terms of design, and are willing to invest time and resources in the design process. As of September, I had enough design work lined up to stay busy right through spring of 2022. The challenge is the implementation of designs. Contractors have been incredibly busy this past year, so scheduling an installation is difficult. Pools are booking a
Martin Wade Progressive steps include things such as increasing our plant palette to utilize a much larger percentage of native plants, ensuring trees have sufficient soil-volume for healthy growth, introducing design features that provide protection from the sun (we are very aware of this need in our child-care and school playground designs), and designing to ensure sites are fully accessible. Many residential clients are interested in more contemporary, lowmaintenance materials that have longevity and lower carbon-footprints. Perry Grobe There is a greater emphasis on the use of hardscape, rather than using plant materials in residential-scale work. Outdoor living spaces have always been popular, but smaller lot sizes for new development often result in the inclusion of plants being of tertiary interest in the design. In smaller lots, too, there’s an even greater emphasis on the creation of privacy above what a traditional fence might provide, regardless of the site conditions necessary to provide this. There is, however, a broad-based, renewed
Designing Home
23
.56
interest in the incorporation of edibles (fruiting plants or vegetables) in the design of outdoor space. Once relegated to the ‘fringe’ of design requests, this type of program element is now very much top of mind. Virginia Burt Research has proven what we’ve intuitively known all along: we are happier and healthier with exposure to nature on any scale. “Rewilding” of outdoor spaces and creation of natural habitats that provide a haven for people, birds, and bees continue to drive projects. Pollinators are critical to our long-term survival, and we now know the many actions to be taken, from local to global. An ongoing challenge is encouraging young people to become landscape architects. Werner Schwar Troubles in Thunder Bay include having enough qualified contractors to do the work, resulting in long wait times and high quotes. Material availability and delivery has also become challenging. How have you seen residential landscape design shift, given the advancement of climate change and the need for sustainable practices among the general public? Adele Pierre Climate change is front and centre in the news, particularly flooding, and people want to know how to mitigate some of these effects through specific sustainable practices. It is not so unusual now to have a client ask for native plants, a green roof, or permeable pavement. A number of municipalities offer financial incentives for stormwater reduction, and I’ve found
04
funding on behalf of clients for permeable driveways and rain gardens. Kate Fox-Whyte In general, our clients are looking for more environmentally sustainable approaches to the design of their landscapes. We are suggesting, and clients are requesting, more native plants in their gardens, including plantings designed to support pollinators or specific species. We are using more sustainable material solutions, and I hope we will start seeing more options for recycled or reused materials. Martin Wade We are designing green roofs on house additions and laneway homes/ garages, incorporating bio-swales and infiltration beds, and utilizing permeable paving. Most of these interventions were previously in the domain of our commercial, institutional, and multiresidential projects, not the private residential sector. It’s quite exciting to see this change occur. Perry Grobe Mitigation of both of these issues might be of more primary concern in the public realm or larger scale work (forced to be through site approval) than at the residential scale. There is perhaps more knowledge that some native plants might be best, but they often run up against site limitations and client aesthetic demands.
03
05 01-02/
Forest Hill Residence - The landscape of this Modernist house was re-envisioned from a 1950’s grass lawn to a clean, sleek design utilizing a planting palette that is drought-tolerant and virtually maintenance free, and re-purposed natural stone.
IMAGES/
Martin Wade
03/
Part of a large garden that infiltrates all stormwater on a slope. Species include: Cornus, Carpinus caroliniana, Hydrangea paniculata and quercifolia, Thuja occidentalis. The garden also contains, Diervilla, Amelanchier, Hamamelis virginiana and assorted perennials.
IMAGE/
Adele Pierre
04-05/
Nestled in the Black Oak Savannah in West Toronto, an outdoor lounge and dining area, surrounded by a matrix of native and non-native shrubs and perennials, provides a true extension to the interior living spaces of a contemporary Art Collector’s residence.
IMAGES/
A-Frame
Designing Home
24
.56
Virginia Burt Grading and drainage have increased client attention as we see more volatile weather shifts that effect their properties and access. Greater awareness of food provenance, sustainability practices, and organic produce has activated the desire to grow one’s own food. Urban agriculture and the creation of raised beds and vegetable gardens has become much more prevalent. By definition, connecting people to growing their own food deepens their understanding of the cycles of nature. Werner Schwar Yes, much more interest in native plants and edibles, as well as rain gardens and habitat for pollinators, birds, and butterflies. How has the design of residential landscapes shifted or changed since COVID-19? Adele Pierre Given travel restrictions, many people are building pools, spas, cabanas, and outdoor kitchens. I thought there would be more interest in growing food, but that hasn’t been evident in my practice.
08
Kate Fox-Whyte Prior to the pandemic, landscapes were often thought of as secondary. Now, there is a huge shift in attention to private gardens, as people were looking for ways to engage with nature safely. Making the most use of existing outdoor space, no matter the size or location, became very important. Clients are also looking for their landscapes to fulfil multiple functions and serve many people. Martin Wade People are now thinking of their gardens as their sanctuary, or retreat from their home (now also serving as their office). Many of our clients are investing
06
06-08/
Matrix plantings tailored to the various microclimates on site provide a lush oasis for this contemporary Oakville residence.
IMAGES/
Tom Arban
significantly in their properties. The challenge is how to fit all of the client’s wish-list items into what is often a relatively tight urban setting, perhaps with mature trees governed by municipal and zoning by-laws. Perry Grobe The delivery of service had to change, in order to protect clients and designers from the potential of exposure. Client meetings, submissions, etc. have had to move to a virtual realm, and not all clients favour this approach. What sort of all-season design features have you used to allow your clients to enjoy their private yards, year round? Adele Pierre I like to think first of the plants. Given our long Canadian winters, it’s important to have beautiful views from inside the house. Evergreens provide structure, trees and shrubs with colourful bark look fabulous against snow, and seed- and fruit-bearing plants bring birds to the garden. Clients tend to look for colourful plants with lots of flowers, so it’s important to remind them that gardens should be interesting throughout the year.
07
Designing Home
Kate Fox-Whyte We’re including a lot more structures for shade and shelter. Many we design now have roofs that can open and close to adjust for the elements. We also often include a heat source—whether a fire bowl, fireplace, or heaters incorporated into an outdoor structure that allow for nearly all-season use. Martin Wade We are incorporating heated swimming pools in some cases, certainly year-round spas, covered and semi-enclosed outdoor rooms with infra-red heating, and of course outdoor fire features. Water features that run all year, by having either an aerator or a thermostatically controlled heater to keep water just above the freezing point, add a calming element to a garden, even when viewed from inside the house. Heated paving adds to the ease with which the gardens can be used.
25
.56
Virginia Burt All-season design for residential landscapes has always been important. These are the spaces we live in and look at every day. The global pandemic just created more attention. Creation of places to have social interaction with others in a safe, socially-distant manner, in all weather conditions, will continue to evolve. How are your designs relevant to today’s issues? Adele Pierre Wherever possible, I try to reduce the amount of impermeable surface. If the client is interested, a rain garden will be used in the design to infiltrate stormwater runoff. If not, plants can still be used to manage runoff. I use a wide diversity of plants in designs for several reasons: to increase biomass and biodiversity, to provide habitat for a wide range of pollinators, for shade, and to provide beauty. Kate Fox-Whyte The landscapes we create are designed and detailed to last. Good design is longlasting and a landscape that is long-lasting is sustainable. Virginia Burt We are committed to creating landscapes of meaning for human health. We strive to create inspiring spaces that capture the essence of beauty. We are dedicated to employing ecological and biophilic principles that focus on native plants and “rewilding.”
09
Perry Grobe It has always been our practice to find enough suitable choices from the plant world to provide interest throughout the year. For smaller-scale work, this may result in forgoing the word ‘mass planting’ in any design. The inclusion of fruiting plants, plants that provide protection or cover to birds, pollinator species, and evergreens that are dwarf or with unusual forms are all part of bringing this character. Additionally, one local municipality near us permits the use of open wood fires, which, if tastefully and carefully thought out, permits extended use of outside spaces during the shoulder seasons, in addition to summer. 10
11 09/
Powder coated aluminum structures with retractable awnings provide much need shade and define the outdoor rooms on this contemporary Midtown Toronto terrace.
IMAGE/
Industryous
10/
A custom structure with infrared heaters, fireplace, AV and bug screens provides three season outdoor living.
IMAGE/
McNeil Photography
11/
Liberty Village residence
IMAGE/
Martin Wade
Werner Schwar Generally making productive use of space that suits a client’s needs, as well as incorporating green infrastructure and habitat enhancement to every project, where possible, is important to me to replace typical, manicured turf grass that currently serves no purpose other than perceived aesthetics.
THANKS TO ERIC GORDON AND STACEY ZONNEVELD FOR FACILITATING THIS SURVEY.
Design by Detail
26
.56
TEXT BY VICTORIA TAYLOR, OALA
2 mixed “grey” water pumped to raised gravel bed
3 filtered water gravity flow to hydrobotanic regeneration ponds
a. b. c. d. e.
swimming pool kid’s pool raised gravel filter bed hydrobotanic regeneration ponds pumps / testing room
2 c
1 “grey” water overflow from pool perimeter gutters
3
e
d 4 5
4 fully filtered and aerated clean water flow to testing room
a
5 clean swimming pool water pumped to supply nozzles at base of pools
1
b
Pool Filtration Diagram
01
Design by Detail
27
.56
02 01/
Pool Filtration Diagram
IMAGE/
Courtesy of gh3*
02/
Hydrobotanic fliter garden
IMAGE/
Courtesy of gh3*
03/
Borden Park Neptune filter garden
IMAGE/
Courtesy of gh3*
03
“My pond drains to the brook, to the creek, to a great and needful lake. The water net connects us all.” — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass. Alive, growing and changing, plants are the protagonists in the story of the outdoor natural public swimming pool, where contemporary design weaves together biology and aesthetics, and the role landscape architects play as land-based stewards. A plant-driven strategy in three dimensions, the design and maintenance of natural swimming pools (NSP) is the same as for our own gardens; we observe and become intimate with knowing the plants and their needs over time. Rather than pouring in a chemical soup from a bucket to kill life, removing ourselves from any obligation of care, we learn the language of clean water plants to create living, public swimming environments that are beautiful and safe.
Public interest in chemical-free, plantfiltered bathing grows as our concern grows for chemical pool treatment methods and the risks associated with exposure to the disinfection by-products (DPBs) of pool chemicals. According to Canadian design firm HCMA’s 2016 report on NSPs, swimmers can inhale pool DPBs that have vaporized above the water’s surface. “While safety measures have been established to ensure chemical concentrations remain within safe limits, there remains a lack of investigation into the full extent of these risks on human health despite the suspected carcinogenic properties.” “Landscape—like an animal or vegetal body—is always changing. So to think about a present, fixed ‘place’ is quite a strange way to translate our position on the earth.” — Catherine Mosbach, French Landscape Architect
Design by Detail
.56
28
spaces. The phenomenology of bathing opens all of our senses.” In the chapter on Ponds: Reflection and Depth, Pearson suggests these communal spaces are “a different kind of sensual and cerebral experience” that can “simplify the complexity of how we might live intimately in our bodies, community and relationships with other humans and nonhumans.”
04
06
05 04/
Borden Park hydrobotanic filter pond.
IMAGE/
Courtesy of gh3*
05-06/
The materials and porosity of Borden Park pool.
IMAGES/
Courtesy of gh3*
07/
Cross section diagram of the Borden Park pool.
IMAGE/
Courtesy of gh3*
08/
Hydrobotanic filter diagram.
IMAGE/
Courtesy of gh3*
07
In The Architecture of Bathing: Body, Landscape, Art, author, artist, and architect Christie Pearson takes us poolside to consider the spatial typologies and ecologies of bathing—the waterfall, the hamman, the spa, the pool, the pond, the sea, the spring, the banya, the jjimjilbang, the sento, and the sweat lodge. “As we look closely at these communal constructions,” Pearson writes, “their inextricability from landscape forms, bodily practices and cultural production emerges[...] Bathing environments emphasize tactility and body awareness, literally bringing us closer to materials and bodies than we are in other
Continuing to design chlorinated public pools as dead, sterile environments is counterintuitive to the regenerative path we are on as land-based practitioners. With over 20,000 public/private natural pools in Europe and Mexico, over 100 public NSPs in Germany, several in the United States, and a growing number of designers and contractors focusing exclusively on this work, there are many precedents to study. Canada’s first public, chemicalfree swimming pool opened in 2018 in Edmonton’s Borden Park. In 2008, when the park’s 1950s-era pool was designated for demolition, the City turned to the public for their input. An NSP was the people’s choice and, after a risk assessment phase to ensure the system would work in USDA Zone 4, the tender was issued and the contract awarded to Toronto-based gh3*. gh3*’s multi awardwinning design is a beauty of precision and porosity. The dry stacked gabion walls and transparent glass guardrails conceptually connect the technical filtering of the pool water through plants, sand, and gravel. The curation of the entire project over time hinges on the performance of the plants growing in the pool’s three constructed filtration gardens. “If there is not a person watching, caring for, and tending to the plants in the construction wetlands, the whole system fails,” says Cyndi Schlosser, Borden Park facility manager. Schlosser describes her experience managing this successful public project as a journey of learning to care for plants.
Design by Detail
29
.56
Specific plants are chosen to oxygenate the water and also process the swimmer’s own “biodomes” of natural bacteria, taking in the contaminants from our bodies as food. gh3* worked closely with German-based Polyplan for the Borden Park pool. Elise Shelley, director of landscape at gh3* and a speaker on the OALA’s online panel The Art + Culture of Bathing: A Landscape Perspective sponsored by VTLA and Park Street Solutions for World Bathing Day 2021, describes how Borden Park’s pool “involves a balanced ecosystem where plant materials, microorganisms and nutrients all come together within this gravel and sand filtering process to create living water. The granular and porous filtration is achieved by means of a biological/mechanical system or the constructed wetland and gravel filter, and in situ with zooplankton.” With no local or national bylaws to guide the design specifications, and with such strict guidelines for public pools, Shelley adds “a creative approach was required in order to realize the vision. gh3* ended up classifying this project as recreational waters. The building permit lists the project as a ‘constructed beach’ with variances, and the variances are the pools.” “Designing for life in the aquatic commons reminds us that public space design is not just about land.” — Christie Pearson, World Bathing Day 2021, OALA speakers event. NSP expands the opportunities to design with plants. The looped process is phased over time with pumps and gravity. Water pumps in the technical building convey collected water from the pool to the phaseone 2.5 metre-deep Neptune filter, a raised garden of sand and plants where water is distributed via nozzles onto the surface planted with Iris vesicolor (Blue Water Iris), Caltha palustris (Marsh Marigold), Alisma triviale (Water Plantain), and Carex lacustris (Lake Sedge). Slowly percolating down from the Neptune filter, the water treatment continues to the lower gardens: the hydrobotanical and submersive filters. The plants in these gardens are specified for depth and function. The hydrobotanical filter includes Eichornia crassipes (Water Hyacinth),
08
Pistia stratiodes (Water Lettuce), Lemna minor (Common Duckweed), Nymphaea var (Water Lily), and Stuckenia pectinata (Pondweed). The submersive filter includes Caltha palustris (Marsh Marigold), Scirpus acutus (Hardstem Bulrush), Phalaris arundinacea variegata (Variegated Reed Grass), Typha latiolia (Common Cattail ), and Polygonum amphibium (Water Smartweed).
BORDEN PARK NSP STATS: Architects and Landscape Architects: gh3* Budget: $14.4 Million Consultants: Polyplan (pool engineering), Morrison Hershfield (structural, mechanical, electrical, LEED, civil), Associated Engineering (gabions), BTY (cost) Contractor: EllisDon Pool Owner/Operator: City of Edmonton
While data is still being collected and assessed for Borden Park, the public health and cost benefits are becoming clear. When we plunge into the living water, we become part of a hydrological cycle of filtering and feeding. We consider our public bathing choices and the downstream effects. We relearn and expand our knowledge and skills around public pool design: slowing down to the pace of landscape to push our public agencies to consider more progressive options. Now is the time to pose the challenge to Waterfront Toronto in particular, as this public agency leads the design of two new outdoor public swimming pools for the Parliament Slip precinct, located in the city’s east end. With Edmonton’s example, this project can expand Waterfront Toronto’s Marine Use Strategy guidelines, realizing their goal for healthy outdoor recreation at the water’s edge and setting a higher standard for the way the public engages with water recreationally. Watch the OALA’s The Art + Culture of Bathing: A Landscape Perspective forum www.youtube.com/ watch?v=eBGZfcemFWo
Borden Park Awards: – 2021 Civic Trust International Award – 2021 International Architecture Award – 2020 Governor General’s Medal in Architecture – 2020 OAA Design Excellence Award – 2020 Fast Company World’s Most Innovative Companies In Architecture – 2019 RAIC Award of Excellence for Innovation in Architecture – 2019 City of Edmonton Urban Design Award of Excellence – 2014 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence Source: www.gh3.ca
BIO/
VICTORIA TAYLOR, OALA, IS PRINCIPAL OF VTLA STUDIO AND CO FOUNDER/ CO CURATOR OF ====\\DeRAIL PLATFORM FOR ART + ARCHITECTURE. VTLA.CA
Notes
30
.56
Notes: A Miscellany of News and Events
02
03
scholarship
01
01/
Blue Stick Garden
IMAGE/
Courtesy of Claude Cormier + Associés
02/
Sugar Beach, Toronto
IMAGE/
Industryous Photography
03/
18 Shades of Gay, Montreal
IMAGE/
Our American Dream www.ouramericandream.fr
nominations The CSLA is calling for nominations for the 2022 Governor General’s Medal in Landscape Architecture—“the highest honour bestowed on a landscape architect by the CSLA.”
Claude Cormier, the celebrated Canadian landscape architect behind iconic spaces such as Berczy Park and Sugar Beach in Toronto, or installations like “Pink Balls” and “18 Shades of Gay” in Montreal’s Gay Village, has established a scholarship for the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design Masters in Landscape Architecture program, at his alma mater, the University of Toronto. The annual “Claude Cormier Award in Landscape Architecture” will provide $500,000 to an MLA student in their final year, to cover their tuition and allow them to travel and enhance their studies.
Eligibility and assessment criteria are all detailed on the CSLA website, and the deadline for submissions is February 17, 2022, at 4 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
“This is an important moment for landscape architecture,” Cormier says in a U of T news release. “There is growing recognition that landscape architecture is not about selecting plants to adorn a building, but rather that landscape is integral to making meaningful places.
For more information, visit: www.csla-aapc.ca/awards/ gg-medal
“Landscape architecture is about drawing connections between people and buildings, connecting natural
Notes
31
.56
05
06
04/
Berczy Park, Toronto
IMAGE/
Industryous Photography
05-07/
Serious Fun book
IMAGE/
Courtesy of ORO Editions
07
04
ecosystems with urban environments, and positively steering the health of ourselves and our planet. “We need to support the next generation of landscape architects to discover new ways of designing for our built environment.” Third-year MLA student Agata Mrozowski is the award’s 2021 recipient.
new members
books
The Ontario Association of Landscape Architects is proud to recognize and welcome the following new members to the Association:
Sticking with the Cormier theme, readers will likely be interested in the retrospective book about the work of Claude Cormier et Associés, Serious Fun: the landscapes of Claude Cormier.
Shaun Barattia *
Kent Ford
Chloe Bennett *
Harmandeep Gill
David Bodnarchuk
Robert Gray
Steven Byrne
Darren Hoekstra
Cornel Campbell *
David Howerton
Myles Carbert
Zachary Hunter
Hugh (Hui) Chen *
Asuka Kono
Cynthia Chiu Chen *
Nicole Lamirande
Alessandro Colavecchio
Max Lazo
Jason Connacher
Andrea Legere
Hadi El-Shayeb *
Asterisk (*) denotes Full Members without the use of professional seal.
It’s written by Marc Treib, an historian and landscape architecture critic and professor of architecture emeritus at University of California, Berkley, and Susan Herrington, a United States-licenced landscape architect and landscape architecture professor at University of British Columbia. The book is full of big, brightly-coloured images’ of Cormier’s work, conceptual drawings, and inspirations, and it digs into methods and ideas behind some of the firm’s iconic works.
Notes
including the Town of Whitby, where he was the Chair of the Accessibility Advisory Committee (ACC). He also supported the Durham Region Transit Advisory Committee, and the Durham Youth Justice Committee through the Boys and Girls Club of Durham. In honour of Jeff Beaton, the flags flown at City properties in Pickering were at half-mast.
08
in memoriam Jeffrey Beaton, MLA, OALA, CSLA The OALA is saddened to announce the passing of Jeffrey Beaton. Jeff had been a full member of the OALA since November 2012. The Association was notified on September 30th 2021. Jeffrey graduated from the University of Western Ontario with an undergraduate degree in biology. He graduated from the University of Guelph in 2009 with his master’s in landscape architecture and became a full member of the OALA in November 2012. Jeffrey worked at AECOM until 2016, when he joined the City of Pickering. At the City, he held the position of Coordinator, Parks Infrastructure within the Operations Department, Public Works Section. In its memo to colleagues, Jeff’s coworkers noted that he was a caring, friendly and approachable person who enjoyed working alongside his colleagues to deliver key parks projects to our residents. Jeff also invested his time and talent to make his community a better place. As a resident of Whitby, Jeff was a member of the Governance Committee and the Board representative on the Lakeridge Health Foundation. He volunteered his time to many local organizations,
32
.56
In addition to his work within the community, Jeff was an active volunteer for the OALA. He was a reviewer for Associate PDP reports as well as an advisor to Associate members of the OALA. Jeff also organized and led local tours for landscape architects in Durham region and participated in many OALA Continuing Education and social events. Just this past summer, Jeff had requested a past issue of Ground quarterly magazine to ensure his library was complete. Services for Jeffrey were held in Timmons, Ontario.
petition OALA members have alerted us to a petition being circulated by NDP MPP for Spadina—Fort York Chris Glover, entitled “Protect Migratory Birds.” According to the petition, an estimated 25 million birds die in Canada, annually, in collisions with windows. This includes at-risk species. Some Ontario municipalities have standards requiring bird-friendly design, especially for commercial buildings, but they’re not universal. The petition wants the Ontario Legislature to incorporate the Canadian Standards Association’s 2019 “Bird Friendly Building Design” guidelines into the Ontario Building Code, and require bird-friendly materials to be incorporated in new residential and commercial windows. If you’d like to sign this petition, you can visit: www.chrisglovermpp.ca/protect_ migratory_birds
equity resources In the hopes of promoting diversity, equity, and understanding, Ground will be sharing resources for supporting, encouraging, and celebrating racial justice in the landscape architecture field. Here are a few selections: The Skin We’re In: a year of Black resistance and power by Desmond Cole, published by Doubleday Canada. “As a writer and editor in the realm of public space who happens to enjoy pretty much every privilege a person can have, it’s important for me to seek out perspectives from people with profoundly different lived experiences—especially those of people who experience systemic oppression, racism, and other forms of sanctioned, societal violence. In Desmond Cole’s award-winning book, he documents the many ways our governments, police forces, school boards, and white colonial culture contribute to and perpetuate anti-Black racism. Because this racism is so pervasive, Cole demonstrates, there’s really no aspect of our institutions or the public realm that is untouched by this ongoing injustice. As such, landscape architects, urban planners, advocates, and community leaders must always view the public realm through the lens of anti-oppression and racism, or the spaces and communities they contribute to will continue to perpetuate these injustices. The Skin We’re In provides such a lens, I’m certain it will be valuable and compelling for anyone who picks it up.” — GLYN BOWERMAN, GROUND EDITOR AND HOST OF THE SPACING RADIO PODCAST
If you’d like to go deeper, the CSLA is providing a Diversity & Equity Resources page on their website: www.csla-aapc.ca/mission-areas/ diversity-and-equity
08/
IMAGE/
Jeffrey Beaton Courtesy of the City of Pickering
HANDCRAFTED IN CANADA BESELT SQUARE TOP RECEPTACLE
EVERY PRODUCT THAT LEAVES OUR FACILITY IS A TESTAMENT TO OUR QUALITY CANADIAN CRAFTSMANSHIP AND OUR CONFIDENCE THAT EACH PIECE WILL EXCEL FOR YEARS TO COME
MODENA ALLMETAL BENCH
JEM CHAIRS
Wishb ne site furnishings
WISHBONELTD.COM | (866) 6260476
ECHO 15' x 35' (with Gable Roof)
ELEVATE ANY DESIGN PAVILIONS | PERGOLAS | SAILS
CMYK
0/0/15/65
Customizable designs. Built to last.
Ontario Representatives TM
solutions inc.
Spec today at openspacesolutions.com | shadeview.com 519.580.7053 | janet@openspacesolutions.com
M E T A L PA R K S T R U C T U R E S
®
Join Seating is a classic modern bench system that can be integrated into our custom planter and edging products. Featuring sustainable timber with an incredible lifespan, Join seating is quietly sophisticated with a timeless profile.
greentheorydesign.com/join
SKY TOWERS Sky Towers are inspired by wind, light, sound, and rain and were designed to provide children with as much social interaction as possible, giving them the unique opportunity to make new friends while enjoying a bird’s-eye view of the world. View more at Playworld.com/SkyTowers
NEW WORLD PARK SOLUTIONS P: 519.750.3322 • F: 519.304.3905 newworldparksolutions.ca Info@newworldparksolutions.ca
Playworld Systems, Inc. is a PlayPower, Inc. company. © 2019 PlayPower, Inc. All rights reserved.
LA Project
DTAH Yonge+Rich Condos
SHADE REIMAGINED Unique Shade Structures Privacy Panel Integration Various Sizes & Shapes Integrated Heating & Lighting All Aluminum Construction
800-268-7328
sales@hausersite.com
www.hausersite.com
Trusted by Landscape Architects for over 25 Years. • Business Insurance • Employee Benefits • Life + Critical illness • Home + Auto
Join hundreds of other Canadian Landscape Architects who insure with HUB Mumby
Find out more:
1-844-956-1733
Efficient drainage for sustainable urban design ACO Drain with cast iron grates ACO Systems, Ltd. · (877) 226-4255 · info@acocan.ca · www.acocan.ca
Interested in being involved with Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly? The OALA Editorial Board is looking for volunteers who can help out with various tasks, such as research, and writing. Any level of commitment is appreciated. Fun, satisfying work—and the best part, no need to attend meetings! To get involved, please e-mail magazine@oala.ca
URBAN PLAY
11 Hoyt Brooklyn, NY info@earthscapeplay.com earthscapeplay.com
|
1.877.269.2972
In collaboration with Hollander Design Landscape Architects
Artifact
42
.56
01/
IMAGE/
01
One of four fire pits available throughout the Ontario Place grounds, including this one at Trillium Park. Courtesy of Ontario Place
TEXT BY ERIC KLAVER, OALA
Our attraction to fire and its warmth is strong, especially in the dim winter months. What our distancing and serial lockdowns have also exposed is our need to meet, gather, and see others face to face is fundamental, and it’s critical to have public space within our cities as a venue for meetings to take place. At the intersection of these needs and desires has emerged the rise of the fire pit as not only a backyard feature, but as a vital component of park infrastructure.
One fire pit I’ve experienced was especially enchanting during these last two years, for all the previously mentioned reasons, and also because it is located within the incredible Trillium Park at Ontario Place, where the power of the fire is matched by the sublime beauty of the view of Lake Ontario. Sitting around this fire, I have been part of informal and spontaneous gatherings of friends and family, as well as the fire pit being the location for meeting with my book club, where the flames mesmerized, and inspired thought and some weighty conversation.
This place, this experience, had with no expense other than time, demonstrated to me how special Ontario Place is. It has shown how the experience of that particular setting is at once universal in its fundamental elements of earth, fire, and water and is at the same time unique in its location and immediate ecology. There’s no place like this place, any place.
BIO/ ERIC KLAVER, OALA, IS A MEMBER OF THE GROUND EDITORIAL BOARD AND A PARTNER AT PLANT ARCHITECT INC.
Distributed by: solutions inc.
TM