Ground 18 – Summer 2012 – Health by Ground Magazine

Landscape Architect Quarterly 06/

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Round Table Designing for Health Features Therapeutic Roots Landscapes that Heal CSLA/OALA Awards

Publication # 40026106

Summer 2012 Issue 18

Contents

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Up Front Information on the Ground Health:

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Round Table Designing for Health MODERATED BY NANCY CHATER, OALA

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Therapeutic Roots Redefining patient care through landscape TEXT BY DENISE PINTO

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Landscapes that Heal A selection of public and/or institutional healing landscapes in Ontario COMPILED BY ADRIENNE HALL AND ROB WALKOWIAK

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CSLA Awards

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OALA Awards

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Technical Corner Weed Control in Turfgrass TEXT BY TODD SMITH

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Notes A Miscellany of News and Events Artifact Green Immersion TEXT BY LORRAINE JOHNSON

Summer 2012 Issue 18

President’s Message

Editorial Board Message

President’s Message

Editorial Board Message

I am taking this opportunity to introduce myself as the new President of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects. I celebrate the unique position that we, as members, have in defining our profession through selfgovernance, as found in the OALA Statement of Purpose: “Landscape Architecture is the profession which applies artistic and scientific principles to the research, planning, design and management of both natural and built environments. Practitioners of this profession apply creative and technical skills, and scientific, cultural and political knowledge in the planned arrangement of natural and constructed elements on the land with a concern for the stewardship and conservation of natural, constructed and human resources. The resulting environments shall serve useful, aesthetic, safe and enjoyable purposes.” (Approved by the OALA Council, January 17, 1984.)

The notion of health resonates throughout the field of landscape architecture. With the growing awareness of connections between access to nature and well being at the individual and community scale, we thought it was timely to explore the broad topic of health. Linking landscape and health is not new; Olmsted observed in the 19th century that experiencing or simply viewing nature reduces the stress of daily urban life. Even earlier, medieval hospitals were often built around a courtyard garden which was seen to have healthful benefits. A close association between landscape and nature brings our work right into the middle of ongoing and persuasive research about the impact of outdoor green space on mental and physical health. New research is being produced, as noted in Lorraine Johnson‘s review of the recent book Your Brain on Nature (see review on page 42).

Traditional landscape architecture includes a multitude of professional expressions only limited by the creativity and drive of our members. As a profession, we opted to manage our own affairs 43 years ago. It was through our governance model that we updated the Association’s Strategic Plan and, last year, we completed the first of a three-year implementation horizon. This plan is founded on our mission statement: “to promote, improve and advance the profession of landscape architecture and maintain standards of professional practice and conduct consistent with the need to serve and to protect the public interest.“

Moving from the scale of the garden to the scale of the park, streetscape, and open space networks, landscape architects play an important role in tandem with urban design to foster public health at the community level. Our Round Table participants discuss a range of practices with a focus on health at a variety of scales. To get out and experience a landscape designed with the intention of healing, the article “Landscapes that Heal: A selection of public and/or institutional healing landscapes in Ontario” provides a helpful guide to Ontario sites, many of which have been designed by OALA members. Denise Pinto visits the grounds of a former London asylum to explore the changes under way as the agricultural/garden features of the original healing landscape are being repurposed in an urban village redevelopment. Jennifer Mahoney profiles Shawn Gallaugher’s work as he forges a niche market in the design of outdoor gyms integrated within residential gardens. Promoting outdoor exercise is grounded in studies that have found that participants “who exercised in natural environments reported feeling more revitalized and energetic than their counterparts, with a decrease in feelings of tension, confusion, anger, and depression.”

We have defined a vision: “to advance landscape architects as recognized professionals and respected leaders in physical environment planning and design whose expertise contributes to creating healthy, safe and livable communities and sustainable landscapes.” And we have identified a key strategic direction: “to raise the profile of the Landscape Architecture Profession.” We were pleased to address each of our five stated goals in 2011: #1: Build awareness of the value of Landscape Architects through increased marketing and communications to both internal and external audiences. #2: Create opportunities for Landscape Architecture professionals and protect the profession. #3: Create a government relations program that advocates for the Landscape Architecture profession. #4: Offer a vibrant continuing education/ professional development program. #5: Engage members and improve their perception of the value of the profession. Moving forward, I encourage members to communicate your views, so that I can assist Council in ensuring our decisions on your behalf reflect your views. I would be pleased to hear from you. JOANNE MORAN, OALA PRESIDENT@OALA.CA

Not all landscape practices are healthy, though, so Todd Smith’s article about a new generation of “bioherbicides” that are replacing the old toxic variety of weed killers is good news. What is a weed anyway? Smith advocates for a “collective ponder” about our attitude towards weeds in turf grass, a cultural question about biodiversity and health worth considering. You may want to get outside and stretch on the grass to ponder this issue of Ground—let us know what you come up with. NANCY CHATER, OALA, AND ROB WALKOWIAK CO-CHAIRS, EDITORIAL BOARD

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Editor Lorraine Johnson

2012 OALA Governing Council

OALA Editorial Board Nancy Chater (co-chair) Vanessa Eickhoff Eric Gordon Jocelyn Hirtes Fung Lee (on maternity leave) Leslie Morton Kate Nelischer Denise Pinto Maili Sedore Todd Smith Netami Stuart Victoria Taylor Rob Walkowiak (co-chair)

President Joanne Moran

Art Direction/Design www.typotherapy.com

Councillors Alana Evers Jonathan Loschmann

Advertising Inquiries advertising@oala.ca 416.231.4181

Vice President Morteza Behrooz Treasurer Sarah Culp Secretary Doris Chee Past President Glenn O’Connor

Associate Councillor—Senior Jonathan Woodside

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.

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.

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.

Ground Advisory Panel Upcoming Issues of Ground Ground 19 (Fall) Time Deadline for advertising space reservations: July 23, 2012

Cover Renderings of Bridgepoint Health Centre, Toronto. (Courtesy of Stantec Architecture/KPMB Architects, Planning, Design and Compliance Architects, HDR Architecture, Diamond Schmitt Architects, Design, Build, Finance and Maintain Architects.) See page 20.

Associate Councillor—Junior Inna Olchovski

Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly is published four times a year by the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects.

Appointed Educator University of Guelph Sean Kelly

Erratum:

University of Toronto Student Representative Todd Douglas

The photographs on pages 12, 13, and 17 of Ground 17 (Mobility issue) should have been credited to Metrolinx and VIVA. We regret the error.

Ontario Association of Landscape Architects 3 Church Street, Suite 407 Toronto, Ontario M5E 1M2 416.231.4181 www.oala.ca oala@oala.ca Copyright © 2012 by the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects All rights reserved ISSN: 0847-3080 Canada Post Sales Product Agreement No. 40026106 Ground is printed on 100 percent post-consumer, processed chlorinefree paper that is FSC certified. The paper is manufactured by Cascades in Canada with 100% postconsumer waste using biogas energy (methane from a landfill site) and is EcoLogo, FSC® and Processed Chlorine Free (PCF) certified.

Lay Councillor Linda Thorne Appointed Educator University of Toronto Elise Shelley

University of Guelph Student Representative Najib Najjar OALA Staff Registrar Linda MacLeod Administrator Aina Budrevics Coordinator Joanna Wilczynska

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Ground 20 (Winter) Chill Deadline for editorial proposals: August 31, 2012 Deadline for advertising space reservations: October 22, 2012

Andrew B. Anderson, BLA, MSc. World Heritage Management Landscape & Heritage Expert, Oman Botanic Garden Victoria Lister Carley, OALA, Victoria Lister Carley Landscape Architect, Toronto John Danahy, OALA, Associate Professor, University of Toronto George Dark, OALA, FCSLA, ASLA, Principal, Urban Strategies Inc., Toronto Katherine Dugmore, MCIP, RPP, Waterfront Project Manager, City of Thunder Bay Real Eguchi, OALA, Eguchi Associates Landscape Architects, Toronto Donna Hinde, OALA, Partner, The Planning Partnership, Toronto Ryan James, OALA, Landscape Architect, Peterborough Alissa North, OALA, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto, Principal of North Design Office, Toronto Peter North, OALA, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto, Principal of North Design Office, Toronto Cecelia Paine, OALA, FCSLA, FASLA, Professor and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, University of Guelph Nathan Perkins, MLA, PhD, ASLA, Associate Professor, University of Guelph Jim Vafiades, OALA, Senior Landscape Architect, Stantec, London

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01 REDESIGNING AID

projects through education 04

Global population has exceeded the seven billion mark and, according to the World Bank, eighty percent of the world’s people— mostly in the developing world—face a severe lack of access to basic needs, development planning, and overall community organization. These are the people with the most to gain from well-designed landscapes, yet these are also the people who have the least access to them. Though there are many who would lend a hand, a key challenge lies in co-ordination. Humanitarian aid needs professionals who are able to lead and integrate multidisciplinary projects responding to health, food and water, shelter, and safety issues. Landscape architecture can contribute to the solution, yet at present the “market” for humanitarian aid exists without substantial involvement of the profession. This needs to change. The idea of “humanitarian landscape architecture” could be a critical asset in the world’s most disadvantaged places.

Ideally, humanitarian landscape architecture is a concept that should be worked into professional development, and introducing projects through education is the first step. An example of a landscape architecturebased humanitarian project comes from the University of Guelph.

Up Front: Information on the Ground

Simbiosis 2010 was a collaboration of Canadian and Nicaraguan students, several NGOs, academics, professionals, government, and the community of Barrio Grenada. Over three weeks the students— both Canadian and Nicaraguan—lived in the community they were working in, alongside the people they were working for. The initial days gave the young designers a chance to explore and understand the

In May 2010, a group of eleven University of Guelph landscape architecture students landed in Managua, Nicaragua, to take part in a ground-breaking development project: Simbiosis 2010. The intent of the project was to design and construct an urban park in Barrio Grenada, one of Managua’s many marginalized neighbourhoods and a place where community space was nearly nonexistent.

neighbourhood and cultural context and the site itself—a community park that had been left undeveloped for more than twenty years. During the first week, teams of students from both countries joined together to engage in the design of the park, engaging the community’s participation to understand their desires. A list of available recycled and donated materials provided the foundations for construction. Each day, students received feedback from community members, and critiques and evaluations of their designs from professionals and leaders. By the end of week one, each team presented their solutions to a panel consisting of the design 01/

This constructed park playgrond in Managua, Nicaragua, was designed and built by University of Guelph students working with local students and the community.

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Suzanne May and Larry Harder

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Park inauguration celebrations.

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Larry Harder

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Concept images.

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Suzanne May

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Mosaic of a Barrio concept park to street interface.

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David Duhan

Up Front

professionals and local community members, and a final design was chosen.

The seven acres of vegetable gardens also supply the correctional centre’s kitchen. “In season, we’re using food from the gardens daily in the facility’s meals,” says Stadey, noting that they plant “pretty much everything”—carrots, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and more, for a total of roughly sixty varieties.

Weeks two and three involved implementation. These final weeks brought the design to reality with the students and many members of the community working together to construct the park. The work was hard, but progress was incredible, and the design came to life. Barrio Grenada had its park. 06

The three-week journey of Simbiosis 2010 not only created the park, but created a group of people who had grown as individuals. Each person involved gained remarkable experience working in a challenging environment. Designing an urban park may have been the goal, but a large part of the design process involved being able to communicate, collaborate, and dynamically respond to the needs of the community. Simbiosis 2010 became a catalyst for community revival and change. Larry Harder, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Guelph and one of the founders of Simbiosis, summarizes the project’s success: “With the bringing together of students of design from two countries, a social enterprise company, NGOs, professionals, academics, government, and, above all, a motivated community, Simbiosis 2010 explored the role of landscape architecture in the developing world and demonstrated the power of collaboration to engage, empower, and transform a disadvantaged community in a way that was also transformative for each of the participants.” Organizations such as Architecture for Humanity and Engineers Without Borders show how integral professions can be in humanitarian work. There is dramatic potential for landscape architects to become leaders given the spatial and site design needs of many in the world. The skills that landscape architects provide can be brought to the places that need them most. TEXT BY JILLIAN BAILEY AND DAVID DUHAN, BLA GRADUATES (2012) OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH. THIS MANUSCRIPT WAS PREPARED AS PART OF THEIR FINAL COURSEWORK, WITH GUIDANCE AND EDITING BY DR. ROBERT CORRY.

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HEALING GARDENS

growing food and skills The landscape of the Thunder Bay Correctional Centre has come full circle. Before it became a medium-security facility for offenders sentenced to two years less a day, it was a working farm, and it has now returned to its roots. Here, inmates are involved in horticulture, growing food and aboriginal medicine plants as part of the centre’s greenhouse and garden program. The facility, which sits on 1,000 acres of land, has approximately seven acres of vegetable gardens and another five acres of medicinal plants, all of which are planted and cared for by inmates. “This is a working program geared towards teaching inmates skills while also providing an environment grounded in horticultural therapy,” explains Sandy Stadey, supervisor of the program, who has worked at the centre for 29 years. The garden project started in the spring of 2004 and, since then, close to 200 inmates have gone through the program. Each year, between 35,000 and 40,000 bedding plants are seeded by hand in the greenhouse and then donated to community gardens, nursing homes, schools, and other institutions in the area. Negotiations are under way for the correctional centre to start growing ornamental plants for Thunder Bay parks. “While it’s an in-prison program,” notes Stadey, “we’ve blended our program to make connections with the community.” Last year, pumpkins and squashes grown at the facility were donated to northern reserves, a particularly striking example of community outreach considering that approximately 80 percent of the inmates at the facility are aboriginal. “What they grew,” says Stadey, “they were able to send back to their home communities.”

Stadey and her husband are both organic farmers, and the gardens at the centre are based on organic principles. “Because we’re organic,” she explains, “we need a lot of compost.” Thus, in partnership with local farmers, who donate manure, more than 30,000 kilograms of compost are produced every year on-site. All of the kitchen and grounds waste at the facility is recycled in this way; any compost not needed for the garden is donated back to the community. Along with vegetables and compost, the gardens serve an important spiritual role in the facility as well. With assistance from a Manitoulin Island elder, Stadey introduced the aboriginal practice of “Three Sisters” plantings—corn, squash, and beans—and medicinal beds of significant ceremonial plants such as sage, sweetgrass, and tobacco. In a “healing forest,” a tree is planted for every graduate of the garden program. The therapeutic benefits of the work extend far beyond the garden, according to Stadey. She recounts stories of inmates who have left the facility and found jobs in the horticultural industry, and notes that many speak about a newfound desire to grow food when they get out: “They say how good they feel about being healthy and contributing something, taking ownership of something.” Perhaps the most powerful testimonial to the value of the program, though, is that Stadey, who also supervises inmates in the laundry in the winter months, has had phone calls from former inmates once they’ve left the correctional centre: “They’ve phoned me at the institution to ask how the pumpkins are doing. In 29 years, I’ve never had someone call to ask how the laundry’s doing…” TEXT BY LORRAINE JOHNSON, AUTHOR OF CITY FARMER AND EDITOR OF GROUND.

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OUTDOOR GYM

designing for exercise Innovation often results from the combination or fusion of two different ideas to create something people just can’t live without. Think of the “clock radio” or “mobile e-mail,” for example. Shawn Gallaugher, a landscape designer active in both Toronto and Muskoka, has combined his passions for landscape design and fitness to develop innovative landscapes that contribute to his clients’ physical and mental well being. 08

With a growing practice in and around the Muskoka area, where he designs landscapes for a large number of healthconscious clients and professional athletes, Gallaugher discovered that many of his clients spent a significant portion of the day training throughout the summer months, often leaving the serenity of their cottages to exercise at a small local gym or in their basements. Being a fitness enthusiast himself, Gallaugher saw the opportunity to apply a form of bootcamp-style exercise circuit to the landscape, encouraging clients to train outdoors, on their own properties, while strengthening their connection to the land. According to a study published in 2011 by the U.K.-based Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, in collaboration with the European Centre for Environment and Human Health, exercising in an outdoor open space provides a connection to nature and helps refresh one’s mental and physical health, increasing energy levels and satisfaction by a greater margin than indoor physical activity. Study participants who exercised in natural environments reported feeling more revitalized and energetic than their counterparts, with a decrease in

feelings of tension, confusion, anger, and depression. The study also revealed that participants reported greater enjoyment and felt more inclined to repeat the activity. The gardens and landscapes Gallaugher designs don’t read like the outdoor gyms or equipment circuits that are becoming increasingly common in landscape architecture. His approach is unique in that natural features are introduced or taken advantage of to allow an exercise circuit to be performed in the landscape. With his fitness background, Gallaugher first assesses his clients’ fitness level and attempts to understand their goals. The design of the fitness program and the landscape go hand in hand. The exercise programs are unique in that they are a direct response to topography and site conditions, allowing the landscape to be experienced on a completely different level. Gallaugher’s clients report improved fitness and better results when exercising outdoors, as the landscape components allow for an endless combination of exercises and variations on the routines. Various levels of difficulty are integrated into the landscape design, making the workouts appropriate for people of all ages and fitness levels. The workouts cover a circuit over the property and typically include movement, stretching, and muscle conditioning. Some programs encompass the surrounding environment as well, such as hiking, cycling, walking, and running along local trails and roads. Clients with lakeshore properties are able to incorporate swimming and paddling into their routines. Some properties present unique topographical features that can be integrated, such as a steep grade for cardio exercise or a rock cliff for climbing. 07

Once Gallaugher has an exercise program for his client, the conceptual design process begins with the organization of landscape features to define an outdoor exercise circuit. For example, light bollards or a banded paving pattern establish distance markers for performing warm-up exercises. Paving materials and their spacing take the form of a ground ladder for stepping and jumping. Posts and railings are used for stretching. Accessory buildings or architectural features such as exposed beams may be used to attach ropes or resistance bands for armstrengthening exercises. Bars may also be attached to buildings, arbours, or trellises for dips, pull-ups, and other resistance exercises. Another of Gallaugher’s techniques involves designing retaining walls at differing heights to open the program up to various levels of challenge. These walls are used for running training, power training, and cardio training. Gallaugher strongly believes that because the majority of people today live in urban areas, it is even more important for them to find ways to connect with the environment and get enough exercise. According to Gallaugher, there is the potential for outdoor open space within urbanized environments to effectively accommodate complete outdoor exercise programs. The key lies in designing spaces that are multifunctional, combining the aesthetic and healing properties of the landscape with elements of an outdoor “green gym.” TEXT BY JENNIFER MAHONEY, A WRITER AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURAL INTERN.

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Pumpkins grown at the Thunder Bay Correctional Centre were donated to northern reserves.

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Sandy Stadey

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Shawn Gallaugher demonstrates exercises in the designed landscape.

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Bob Dunlop

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MODERATED BY NANCY CHATER, OALA BIOS/

NANCY CHATER, OALA, IS CO-CHAIR OF THE GROUND EDITORIAL BOARD AND AN ASSOCIATE WITH THE PLANNING PARTNERSHIP. JANE ELIGH-FERYN GRADUATED FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH WITH A MASTERS IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE IN 1986. SHE WORKED AS A PARKS PLANNER WITH METRO TORONTO PARKS FROM 1986 TO 1989, THEN AS A SENIOR CONSULTANT WITH ECOLOGISTICS LIMITED IN WATERLOO FROM 1989 TO 1996. SHE IS THE PRINCIPAL OF ELIGHFERYN LANDSCAPE PLANNING AND DESIGN, BASED IN STRATFORD, AND IS ACTIVE IN RESTORATION PROJECTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION. CURRENT PROJECTS INCLUDE WORK WITH HURON COUNTY SCHOOLS AND THE MASTER PLAN/ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION PLAN FOR THE HISTORIC FRYFOGEL TAVERN IN PERTH COUNTY. VIIVE KITTASK, OALA, COMPLETED A BACHELOR OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO. AN ASSOCIATE AT VERTECHS DESIGN INC. SINCE 2000, VIIVE HAS TWELVE YEARS OF EXPERIENCE WORKING ON A VARIETY OF PROJECTS IN THE FIELD OF HEALTHCARE, INCLUDING RESIDENTIAL-SCALE HEALING GARDENS, COMPLEX INSTITUTIONAL PROJECTS, AND COMMUNITY SETTINGS. THE FIRM’S GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF UNIVERSAL ACCESSIBILITY AND EXPOSURE TO NATURE CONTRIBUTING TO THE HEALTH AND WELL BEING OF ALL, WERE DEVELOPED FROM ORIGINAL RESEARCH. THESE PRINCIPLES VIIVE APPLIES TO ALL HER WORK. SHE HAS RECENTLY DIRECTED SIGNIFICANT COMMUNITY REVITALIZATION PROJECTS INCLUDING THE CENTRE FOR ADDICTION AND MENTAL HEALTH’S QUEEN STREET REDEVELOPMENT IN TORONTO. PAUL YOUNG, OALA, HAS MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN URBAN DESIGN, STREETSCAPE AND PARK DESIGN. HE IS THE PRINCIPAL OF PUBLIC SPACE WORKSHOP, A SMALL CONSULTING OFFICE SPECIALIZING IN PARTICIPATORY PLANNING AND DESIGN. THE WORK FOCUSES ON NEIGHBOURHOOD AND OPEN SPACE PLANNING, AND PLANNING FOR ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION. PAUL BELIEVES THAT SUSTAINABLE AND HEALTHY COMMUNITIES EMERGE FROM AN INCLUSIVE DESIGN PROCESS. HIS URBAN DESIGN EXPERIENCE IS COMPLEMENTED BY 14 YEARS OF WORKING IN HEALTH PROMOTION AT THE SOUTH RIVERDALE COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTRE IN TORONTO.

Nancy Chater (NC): I want to start by asking about your conceptual frameworks and what vocabulary you find useful to describe your approach to health, healing, and landscapes in your work. There are a number of terms being used in the literature about landscapes and health, such as biophilia, attention restoration theory, and nature contact. Do you relate to those terms? Viive Kittask (VK): My approach has been shaped by working closely with the principals at Vertechs Design Inc., Mary Jane Lovering and Inese Bite. They conducted original research in the early 1980s to examine long-term care facilities and why the outdoor spaces at these facilities were not being utilized by the residents. Their research led to the development of a series of principles that have been implemented in all of the firm’s work for the past 31 years. Mary Jane Lovering is also a physiotherapist and completed studies in gerontology. Her healthcare background together with landscape architecture has allowed us to address many of the needs of the various user groups throughout our projects. NC: What are some of those principles or guidelines?

VK: Every project is addressed individually and we look at the specific user group and what their needs are. We want to create user-friendly environments that alleviate stress. Therapeutic landscapes are intended to accommodate all levels of ability and address problems or challenges associated with vision, hearing, mobility and cognitive impairments, and changes associated with the aging process. Principles include microclimate conditions such as shade, absence of wind and heat traps, avoidance of architectural barriers, and selection of appropriate site furniture. Design of wide walkways to accommodate two-way travel alleviates the concern of those unsteady on their feet. We create accessible environments that can be viewed from the indoors. A strong integration between inside and outside is important, especially for those unable to get outdoors. Overall, we want to foster independence and create spaces that will motivate the residents to use the landscape for various activities. NC: Paul, tell us about your work in terms of your approaches to health and healing. Paul Young (PY): In terms of theoretical models, I borrow quite a bit from public

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health, which takes into account a broad range of factors that impact health—it could be whether or not you have employment, it could be access to green space, it could be access to services like healthcare or counseling. The Healthy Community Model is recognized by the World Health Organization and it’s been picked up by organizations around the globe. If we drill down into community design, picking up on the importance of feeling safe and comfortable, as Viive mentioned, but taking it outside of the institution and into the community, we then look at how people are interacting with their communities. Public health research indicates that we’re designing our communities in a way that is having a negative impact on our health. The other model I like to borrow from is the “healthy communities process,” which looks at the idea of collective action in which professionals and the community work together to find a solution to a problem, blending community development with what we call determinants of health. So whether you have a job, whether you have a certain level of education—these are determinants of health. The physical environment affects health, so, for example, we know that the health status of people in rural and suburban areas is much lower than in more urbanized, walkable communities. NC: You’re addressing health more at the scale of planning and community design, such as walkability, pedestrianfriendly environments. PY: Yes, most of the work I do is on active transportation, promoting walkability, cycling, blading—any kind of non-motorized activity—for health-related reasons. That is typically community planning, but then you get to the street-design scale. We can designate a street as a bikeway, but the details—how you make it comfortable for cyclists—that’s where I think landscape architects can contribute quite a bit. NC: The need to get people outside and to encourage people to be active are a couple of the basic starting points for that relationship between landscape and health.

PY: And recognizing the role of public policy. Public health campaigns tell us that people need to eat their veggies, get their exercise, and quit smoking. But it’s been a discussion under the umbrella of “lifestyle choices”— almost like blaming the victim. There are reasons why people don’t bike— distance, safety... And this comes back to public policy. NC: Jane, tell us about your Stratford hospital garden and your work in the health arena. Jane Eligh-Feryn (JEF): You were talking earlier about making hospital gardens and special needs facilities very accessible and safe. I’ve done a lot of work on schoolyard design and workshops with students and communities, and then implementing schoolyard design. It seems to me that one of the problems is that we’ve made all these spaces too safe. When I work on hospital courtyard designs, I’ve often worked with physiotherapists and occupational therapists and nursing staff. What they’re asking for is levels of difficulty, levels of complexity. I think it’s the same in the schoolyards; there has to be visibility, there has to be a sense of safety and security in the schoolyard, but there has to be intrigue and access to

nature and complexity that makes it interesting enough that students are actually engaged with nature. I was involved with a one-acre native plant park in Stratford called Meadow Rue Corner. It became a series of paths with a number of different plant communities interlinked. One day I met a woman who was schizophrenic. She and I started chatting and she said, “You know, whenever I feel a schizophrenic episode coming on, I come here, because I know that it’s one place in the city that I can come and ground myself.” That really said a lot to me about the fact that this very complex, very rich, very kind of chaotic space was also a very healing space. I would say that what informs me in design is allowing those layers and opportunities for safety and accessibility with increasing levels of complexity and making the accessibility more and more difficult so that people have to work a little harder to get there and enjoy it and use the space. 01/

Grand River Cancer Care Centre.

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Vertechs Design Inc.

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wasn’t a lot of empirical evidence that said, if you have access to a tree you’re going to be healthier. But now there is.

There is an emphasis in urban design on creating spaces such as very safe streets where visibility is there, but my concern is when there’s nothing vital, nothing alive, nothing that’s challenging to young people as they make their journey to school, or play after school. Even parks and playgrounds tend to be very sparse. There’s clear visibility and there’s quick access if a bully’s chasing you—for sure, those things are very important—but in terms of actually engaging with nature, that doesn’t seem to be coming into the picture. I don’t think it’s designers’ fault; I think it’s policy—schoolyard policy, parks design policy... VK: I think that school board budgets play a big role. Currently, we’re working on a school project where there’s the desire to create more interesting outdoor spaces for the students, but there are budget constraints and concerns about liability. Introduction of natural features like boulders and logs for balance beams often gets deleted in favour of manufactured components because of the liability issue. Sometimes where we want to add another level of challenge we’re asked not to, resulting in much less exciting and challenging landscapes for the kids. JEF: I think that is changing to some extent. When you put in one of those big, heavy manufactured climbers, you’re talking a hundred thousand dollars sometimes that schools are spending on those great big plastic and metal climbing structures. If there’s budget for that kind of thing, budget isn’t really a reason not to plant trees and shrubs and put in stone pathways and make it a little grittier, a little dirtier, so to speak.

PY: Picking up on your notion of safety, only 25 percent of kids now walk to school. It used to be much higher. Now, three quarters of the kids don’t experience weather, they don’t experience direction or wayfinding, or the physical activity of walking. There was a survey done of 6,000 kids in Ontario, which found that 85 percent of them would prefer to walk or bike to school. The desire is there, but we haven’t made it easy. JEF: I did a series of workshops last year in Huron County schools. I was hired to go in and do environmental education workshops around creating habitat, using native plant material, and looking at connectivity within the landscape. Then I did a design charrette with these different schools and the kids did the design. They had to go out and do the inventory, they had to look at where the sun and shade were, where all the utilities on the site were, where the connections were with other natural areas. Then we did design. I took the designs and massaged them and turned them into something that the schools could work with. But the kids came up with wild and crazy and wonderful things. They want the stuff that I grew up with: playing in ravines and climbing trees… I think there is truly a disconnect between society and nature. I think that’s a serious problem, a serious health concern. I find that’s one gift that landscape architects can bring to the table: that understanding, that appreciation, that sensitivity to our relationship with nature. PY: There’s some great research coming out now that actually corroborates the link between nature and health. Richard Louv wrote a book called Last Child in the Woods, and I believe he coined the term “nature deficit disorder.” When I was in school, there

VK: We’re working on the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Queen Street Campus redevelopment in Toronto. It’s all about integrating the institution with the urban fabric and bringing the community into the CAMH campus. The idea of de-stigmatizing mental healthcare and integrating clients at this facility with their neighbourhood is very important. Removing physical barriers such as the walls that once enclosed the site and welcoming retail opportunities helps create a normalized environment. I think landscape plays a big part in that process. NC: Is there anything that we would see in the CAMH development in the streetscape design or the landscape designs around the buildings that looks distinctly different from any other new development? I’m wondering if there’s anything particular to ideas about facilitating or fostering mental health, or if what we’re describing is “good design,” as in good, overall urban design that promotes health for everyone. VK: I think it’s good urban design that promotes health for everyone in terms of the streetscape design. We also designed a courtyard for one of the campus buildings, which was designed for a geriatric mental health population, an adolescent group, and a daycare, all within the same courtyard. The daycare play area itself is enclosed with a fence to contain the children, but the geriatric and adolescent groups are meant to mix and mingle. The space has been created so that both groups can use the space simultaneously. Our design intent was to create a courtyard

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The gardens at the Grand River Cancer Care Centre are a part of the healing process.

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Vertechs Design Inc.

Round Table

with a residential, home-like feel so that it doesn’t feel institutional, though there were many safety factors that needed to be addressed. Ease of visual supervision throughout the courtyard was a key factor in the design. One of the biggest challenges that I hear about, from folks who are working in the mental health sector, is stigmatization. I think the role of the street in addressing that is really important. I think planners, urban designers, and landscape architects have an understanding, but the health sector can have a limited view: “Oh, public space... we could have a bench maybe.” VK: We recently completed two rental townhouse projects in Regent Park [in Toronto]. The idea is that while the front yards of those townhouse units are relatively small in scale, each unit has its own private space which overlooks the public realm. These add to the element of safety when residents sit on their front stoops to watch the action on the streets and so interact with their community. PY: I hear in public space workshops, can we have more benches? Can we have a public washroom? These are things that are important. We’re trying to get people out experiencing nature and physical activity, and they can’t find a washroom. JEF: As [author] William Whyte identified, it takes very simple components—give people something to sit on, give people something to look at, give people something to eat, give people a washroom! If you can include these very simple design principles, you suddenly have places where people want to be. NC: In much older, even medieval, hospital garden design, the cloister or enclosed garden was important. The separation for privacy and safety and a kind of segregation had positive aspects. A different approach is the CAMH one with an emphasis on integration, connectivity, and natural surveillance. Is the enclosed garden still being designed in healthcare settings?

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VK: It’s a matter of creating opportunities for both, to create public spaces that staff, visitors, patients, and the community can all use as well as private spaces for a distinct client group. I’m thinking of the New Oakville Hospital for which we prepared the illustrative landscape master plan. The old model, and we see this a lot at existing hospitals throughout Ontario, is the “hospital in the parking lot.” There’s very little thought given to the pedestrian realm, how cyclists are accessing the site and where they’re going to park their bikes. Moving forward, all of our hospital campus designs are very much geared toward the pedestrian, the cyclist, active transportation, while still accommodating vehicles, but looking at ways to integrate the landscape with the parking that is necessary. JEF: In the past, psychiatric hospitals were almost always built with huge grounds. Look at Humber Psychiatric Hospital and the Homewood in Guelph; there were many psychiatric hospitals in Ontario that were built mainly around the turn of the century that were all built on big properties with big, park-like settings. There was a kind of understanding or belief at that time, that access to nature had a healing effect. Now, in these hospitals where we have to create smaller spaces because land is at a premium, it’s still important to provide that opportunity to get outside, whether it’s in a protected courtyard or whether you have the luxury of a little bit more space. VK: St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton is being constructed on a significant site atop the Niagara Escarpment. A large component of the landscape consists of playing

fields, baseball diamonds, and tennis courts for the community to use. The idea of de-stigmatizing the mental healthcare facility is key, of inviting the community in and creating a venue where local baseball teams can practise or neighbours can walk along the escarpment trail. PY: I think that the concept of having a hospital out in nature was fueled by the idea that cities were inherently unhealthy. Then we had this flight to the suburbs in the 40s, 50s. Now we’re coming around to the idea that cities can be quite livable. How can we make our cities more like the nature that we want to immerse ourselves in? NC: Clare Cooper Marcus, one of the early landscape architect advocates and writers on health and landscapes, writes about a

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The gardens at Belmont House, a long-term care facility in Toronto, were designed to create a “homelike” atmosphere.

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Vertechs Design Inc.

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St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton.

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Vertechs Design Inc.

Round Table

turn back to connecting with nature in hospital landscape design in the 1990s. She posits that patient-centred care began a rebirth of looking at outdoor spaces and making connections to health, citing research by Roger Ulrich and others. Would you agree with that analysis, or are there other factors in your experience that have led to a re-orientation to landscape design?

JEF: Even when we talk about making areas accessible for people with mobility issues, providing textural surfaces is still important. It’s part of therapy to climb slight rises and slight declines and walk on surfaces that have different textures. Patients going through physical or occupational therapy have to learn to adapt to a range of conditions.

VK: I think all the work that we do is patient-focused, but it goes beyond the patient, to also addressing the needs of the staff, visitors, the community, and the administrators. Landscape maintenance is a huge factor, because if these healing landscapes in healthcare settings are not maintained, then they end up looking derelict and, in turn, nobody wants to use them. We design relatively low-maintenance landscapes. We’ve also worked on many projects that are right downtown, where space is at a premium and there’s very little, if any, landscaped streetscape at ground level. The solution in many cases is to design roof terraces and upper-level courtyards that can be easily accessed.

VK: Within the rehabilitation gardens we have designed, typically there is one flat, accessible route and then different paths with varying paving materials, such as lawn, limestone screenings, or pea gravel, combined with ramps and stairs, so that there are choices for patients and therapists to work on rehabilitation goals and learn how to negotiate surfaces and grade changes.

NC: Is there any difference between designing for wellness and designing for people who are ill? JEF: The Alzheimer’s gardens have to be contained because Alzheimer’s patients tend to wander and they are inclined to eat things. So you have to make sure you don’t have toxic plants...even mulch can be a problem. I think it’s important to understand what population you’re designing for. VK: It’s important to create sensory experiences that stimulate individuals and can be used as a rehabilitation tool for people in institutional settings. We create landscapes with seasonal interest to assist with orientation to time and season. Creating spaces that appeal to all of the senses is important, regardless of the client group.

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Neighbourhood Design and Health PY: Public health departments are publishing compelling research studies that provide a good foundation for landscape architects. ”Healthy Toronto by Design” just came out. It talks about community design planning. In the case of Toronto, they’ve estimated that by getting traffic down by 20 percent, you can save approximately 200 lives a year. In Los Angeles they reduced the traffic by about 25 percent during the Olympic Games—they boosted the transit, they provided extra buses, and they restricted cars going in—and they saw the hospital admission rates go down 40 percent for kids with asthma. It goes back to what we were talking about regarding patient-centred care. In healthcare institutions, you need to ask people, what is your life like and how can we make it easier and better in this institution? The same approach goes for cities and park design; how can we make our cities more responsive to people’s needs? I think the key is to actually incorporate people into the design process. JEF: Isn’t that true for everything? I’m thinking of the schoolyard situations as well—the kids and their parents have a chance to be involved in making decisions. You’ve got a product that you know they’ll use, but they’ll also take care of it, they’ll respect it, there will be less vandalism.

PY: Yes. However, good front-end consultation is often the piece that gets chopped. And post-construction engagement is almost non-existent. Instead, let’s create a garden for people to then decide what they want planted, then have them plant and have a programming commitment to coordinate the gardening program. We could be providing opportunities for people to be engaged all along. JEF: Some hospitals have horticultural therapy. If that can be incorporated in the design, I think it would go a long way to helping the patients. VK: Raised beds for people who can’t bend or lower themselves to the ground are important to the healing garden. But again, it’s very group-specific and projectspecific because if there isn’t a program that uses the space, it will become an empty and unsightly raised bed. Consultation with user groups is critical. Getting support from the institution, finding out exactly what their programs are and how they intend to use the space, and designing specifically for those programs results in a successful healing garden. PY: Healthy spaces, I think, do require some involvement beyond the design. The maintenance, programming, and partnering with other organizations are crucial aspects. JEF: As designers, we have to understand that from the get-go. You know, who are we working with, who will be maintaining it, who will be facilitating it and making sure that there’s an ongoing budget? VK: There’s no such thing as a no-maintenance landscape. [laughter] WITH THANKS TO ADRIENNE HALL FOR TRANSCRIBING THIS ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION.

Therapeutic Roots

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TEXT BY DENISE PINTO

An historic asylum in London, Ontario, that redefined patient care through landscape

The trees stand in a row, staggeringly tall, with glistening branches on a late spring day. In the distance a yellow brick building is framed at the centre, like a classically drawn perspective. Along with the spreading open lawn beyond, the allée seems strangely inconsistent with where I am standing: on the grounds of the former London Asylum for the Insane. With dappled light filtering through the canopy, I imagine that patients walked these rows of maple and ash gaining serenity, and that the comfort of this landscape made a place for those misfits, cast out for mental trauma, ineptitude, or in some cases divergent thinking.

I’m with local landscape architect Ron Koudys, OALA. He is a recently retired professor from Fanshawe College, which borders the London Psychiatric Hospital Lands, as this place is called today. I’ve asked Koudys to help me interpret the site, which is being redeveloped for use as an urban village. Equipped with a handful of historical references of London from Koudys’ personal collection, we begin our tour. Where we are standing would have been a monumental main building surrounded by a plantation of elm, black walnut, and spruce. Now, the infirmary is the central brick structure, its windows and doors boarded-up with metal plates. When the institution opened in 1870, it would have been entirely fenced-in to keep outsiders from making the patients into curiosities, but today the sight lines have been opened, many trees removed, and the modern buildings of Regional Mental Health Care London fan out in a palmate pattern.

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At the London Asylum, however, the history is laid out a little differently. The superintendent who was most notable for the reform of the London Asylum, Dr. Richard Bucke, had grown up on an expansive farm right next to the eventual site of the asylum. His large family and surroundings had instilled in him the value of enduring landscape. Writing of his boyhood in his old age, and adopting a third-person voice, Bucke mused that his “pleasures were as simple as his labors.” He’d tended cattle, worked the fields and, as he put it, “assisted in such labor as lay within his power.” When Bucke took over the reins of the institution in 1887, he set out to offer patients opportunities that were within their powers, too. Continuing the progressive approach developed by his predecessor, Dr. Henry Landor, Bucke saw the asylum as a place where troubled minds could be redirected to the pursuit of good work— much of which attended to the landscape.

Around us, parking lots abound. The circulation for the current facility hugs the edge of Highbury Avenue to the west, instead of starting at the allée where we entered. The route now is more direct, but lacks the grandeur of the original entrance—one of a handful of characteristic features that has garnered the attention of the province. As Infrastructure Ontario evaluates its heritage land holdings, hospital properties in Kingston, Brockville, Penetanguishene, and Gravenhurst (to name a few) have appeared on the radar as possible candidates for reinvestment. What’s said of the difference here, in London, and what pushes my interest in the London Psychiatric Lands, is this: the landscape is symbolic of a remarkably different approach to care than was typical for its time.

At the time, Bucke was thought to be an outright radical, with an unusual approach to care. Patients were encouraged to tend to the land (approximately eighty cultivated hectares) and the food they ate was produced by their own hands. Crops such as cabbage, tomatoes, onions, and radishes were all plentiful. There was even a patientrun cannery to preserve food for winter meals and for sale at the London market. Bucke’s time was prior to prescription medication, and although alcohol was used widely in other institutions as a sedative, and control measures such as cold baths, restraint chairs, and spinning chambers were commonplace, Bucke famously renounced the use of alcohol and ordered all the canvas straight jackets to be made into slippers. He spurned reliance on restraints and seclusion, instead offering an open-door policy with all but the clinically dangerous. Nearly two hundred patients were not only allowed, but encouraged to freely use the grounds.

In the late nineteenth century, the establishment of asylums like this one was part of a widespread movement to detain and segregate the “ill of mind and character.” The approach to asylum design in Ontario, borrowed from English and American precedents, was an off-shoot of jail architecture, making heavy use of barred windows and seclusion chambers. This followed the eugenics movement, which endorsed corralling the “mentally deficient” in order to purify the gene pool, forcing incarcerated patients to live out their days in abysmal holding facilities.

Koudys and I make a ring around the property, the purposeful views along the central north-south axis becoming more apparent. Around us, old orchards have been turned into soccer fields but their history flickers behind closed eyelids: 73 hectares of groves and pleasure grounds once filled with patients playing cricket in summers, ice skating and collecting maple sap when the snow fell. Records of the patients made available to the public show astonishing 02

self-selection. In a society where they were denied the opportunity to participate in normal routines, patients happily elected to join the work effort. At the end of the 19th century, patients were said to have tended cows and pigs, benefiting from fresh milk and meat, and the companionship of animals. Even as reliance on farming dwindled into the 20th century, and the city of London proper began to envelope the remote site, gardening remained a fast-held therapeutic engagement. The patients worked with gardeners to cover the grounds with perennial geraniums and maintain rows of willow hedges, most of which have been removed to accommodate vehicular routes and parking today. Though there aren’t any people around during our visit, Koudys and I consider how wonderful it would be if the idea were to have a resurgence. From asylum to urban village Today, the London Psychiatric Hospital Lands are being revisioned. The Ontario government, in partnership with the City of London, is actively re-working the land-use plans in order to preserve the history of the site. Currently in a secondary review stage, the proposal on the table is for an urban village with circulation routes that mimic the historic ones, and a new mixed-use core that will continue to intensify the street edge along Highbury Avenue. Wendy Shearer, OALA, was the landscape architect overseeing the conservation plan, and under the umbrella of MHBC Planning Ltd., she continues to consult on the redevelopment. She explains that the conservation

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plan was part of a government mandate to recognize and invest in the restoration of significant cultural spaces, and mentions that the London Psychiatric Hospital Lands have made the cut just as much for the legacy of humane care as for the historical architecture. Shearer’s specialty is in preserving historic traces, and she does this by translating the therapeutic uses of the grounds into a direction for future uses and aesthetics. She has recommended, for example, filling out the tree cover—adding maples, oaks, walnuts, basswood, and tulip trees, which, when mature, will approximate the scale of the elms that were obliterated by disease in the mid-20th century. She’s also recommended preserving a handful of remaining buildings such as the infirmary, horse stable, recreation hall, and a small interfaith Gothic church that may connect one day to a central gathering place in the community. “You can’t look at these sites as clean slates,” Shearer notes. “There are significant clues.” The original design of the allée, for instance, will become the backbone of a new circulation plan that emphasizes cycling and pedestrian connections to transit nodes at the north and south end of the site. In the Secondary Plan put together by MHBC, appropriate settings and views of the historic architecture are maintained by linear and curvilinear open space with intensive development focused at the site edges where there are major arterial roads. And as for urban farms? The specifics are still up in the air, but at least one of the concepts has a place for community gardens on the eastern boundary of the property. Though I’m heartened by this legacy of productive land, I’m curious as to whether its use in patient therapy is still alive in medical practice. Across town, I make a quick stop at Mount Hope Centre for Long Term Care, where patients and their families grow tomatoes and wildflowers on the institution’s grounds, one of Ron Koudys’ projects from years ago. Here, butterflies are plentiful. Photos on the wall show delighted residents with monarchs perched on their fingers. Patients who are well enough have, with the help of family and staff, planted vegetables, which they tend to under a broad, curving trellis. Brightly painted signs adorn plots of garden; a former garbage bin is now a planter. It’s a snapshot of how contemporary care is re-embracing gardening, family, and food at the centre of treatment. Just as Bucke encouraged the patients in his care to do more than a century ago, those who can contribute do as much as lies within their power. I would like to thank Ron Koudys, OALA, and Wendy Shearer, OALA, for their time and insight, and Dale Jardine at the Regional Mental Health Centre for providing historical resources. More information on the history of the London Asylum is available, via the 2008-2009 Public History students from the University of Western Ontario, at http://www.lib.uwo.ca/archives/virtualexhibits/londonasylum. BIO/ DENISE PINTO, A GRADUATE OF THE MASTER OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE PROGRAM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO, CURRENTLY WORKS AT HOK.

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Patients working in cabbage fields, 1880.

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