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Landscape Architect Quarterly
Round Table Cost and the Civic Soul
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Features Costs and Benefits
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Activating an Edge
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A Safe Bet: Investing in Green Infrastructure
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Publication # 40026106
Fall 2015 Issue 31
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A NEW DIMENSION IN URBAN PAVERS Transpavé provides landscape architects with a full array of urban grade paving solutions for heavy and light traffic as well as pedestrian applications. Transpavé large dimensional pavers incorporate peripheral grooves to maximize the interlocking effect for long-term stability. Upgrade to urban grade and you’ll see the difference. To schedule a product presentation, contact Devin Stuebing, CET at (647) 938-1656.
Find out more by viewing New Dimensions in Urban Landscaping at transpave.com/video.
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Contents
Up Front Information on the Ground
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Cost: Round Table Cost and the civic soul
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Moderated by Denise Pinto
Costs and Benefits Bang for your buck
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Coordinated by Graham MacInnes
Activating an Edge The Wilson Street Promenade
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A Safe Bet Investing in green infrastructure Text by Vincent Javet
New Ground Embedded: An interview with Ferruccio Sardella interview conducted by Victoria Taylor, OALA 24/
Research Corner Nature benefits in cities: a research round-up on mental wellness Text by Kathleen L. Wolf, Ph.D 28/
Notes A miscellany of news and events
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Editorial Board Message
President’s Message
Editorial Board Message
This fall, the landscape architecture programs at the universities of Guelph and Toronto opened their doors to new and returning students. The OALA provides outreach at both schools by visiting in the fall/winter and providing in-class presentations with an overview of the profession and of the OALA. As at the end of the 2015 spring semester, the universities had graduated a combined total of 96 students of landscape architecture—future landscape architects! Our Association is proud of its strong ties to the BLA and MLA programs at the universities and provides annual financial support in the form of student scholarships, endowments, and lecture series sponsorship. The popular OALA Annual Golf and Ski Day events generate these funds. Thank you to the many volunteers and attendees who make these annual events a success.
This issue we take a look at the idea of cost. Our clients pay a specified cost for our professional services; when the project imparts benefits to the users, it has worth or value. Value is generally more of a subjective qualification yet it also has a “dollar” value to it. We can’t escape these connections between cost and value and worth and price.
The OALA remains committed to providing meaningful member programs, resources, and advocacy services. The OALA Fees & Services Guide Task Force was established in 2013 to create a set of guide booklets that will assist members in communicating to potential clients what landscape architects do, the range of services offered, how to retain the services of a landscape architect, and how to create reasonable budgets for fees and expenses. The Guidelines for Standard Written Contracts Task Force and the Guide to Design Competitions Task Force are also working to generate new, up-to-date resources that will become part of the Association’s tool box available to all members. This series of information guides, with the following working titles, will be rolled out in 2016: Part 1: OALA Guide to Landscape Architectural Services; Part 2: Fee Guide for Landscape Architecture Services; Part 3: OALA Guide to Standard Written Contracts; and Part 4: OALA Guide to Design Competitions.
We always value input from readers, and so we did an e-mail blast to the membership and received some great examples of “bang for your buck.” The most valuable landscapes aren’t always the most costly.
Our Round Table participants met at Toronto’s City Hall to discuss how knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing can affect decisions about investment in landscape and the public realm. Former Editorial Board Chair Denise Pinto moderated this panel discussion between an environmental planner, poet laureate, practising landscape architect, and academic as they recast cost as value.
text by Claire Nelischer
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President’s Message
Artifact Remembrance TEXT by lorraine Johnson 42/
The OALA has moved to a new office space in the same building, suite #506, while all other contact information remains the same. The move to a new, larger suite offers a better layout, supportive of opportunities to host meetings, gatherings, and other events that have typically been held off-site due to capacity issues. Independent staff offices replace the previous open concept studio setting, resulting in greater staff autonomy and comfort. Staff and the broader membership will surely appreciate the change and make use of the new multi-purpose office space. Members are encouraged to drop-in and visit staff at the new office space! Sarah Culp, OALA oala President
Fall 2015 Issue 31
Ontario’s Greenbelt is estimated to provide approximately $2.6 billion dollars in ecosystem services every year. By attaching a value or worth to this natural capital, we are able to understand the cost and value of green infrastructures and help our clients make decisions regarding their inclusion in designs. Vincent Javet looks at recent research. We hope you find the issue valuable! Todd Smith, OALA Chair, Editorial Board
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Editor Lorraine Johnson
2015 OALA Governing Council
Photo Editor Todd Smith
President Sarah Culp
OALA Editorial Board Shannon Baker Doris Chee Michael Cook Eric Gordon Ruthanne Henry Jocelyn Hirtes Vincent Javet Han Liu Graham MacInnes Kate Nelischer Denise Pinto Tamar Pister Phil Pothen Maili Sedore Todd Smith (chair) Netami Stuart Dalia Todary-Michael
Vice President Doris Chee
Art Direction/Design www.typotherapy.com Advertising Inquiries advertising@oala.ca 416.231.4181 Cover The Colour of Stone by Adrienne Hall and Owen McCabe. Photograph by Emily French. See page 20. 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 © 2015 by the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects All rights reserved ISSN: 0847-3080 Canada Post Sales Product Agreement No. 40026106
Treasurer Jane Welsh Secretary Chris Hart Past President Joanne Moran Councillors David Duhan Sarah Marsh Sandra Neal Associate Councillor—Senior Katherine Peck Associate Councillor—Junior Maren Walker Lay Councillor Linda Thorne Appointed Educator University of Toronto Peter North Appointed Educator University of Guelph Sean Kelly University of Toronto Student Representative Jordan Duke University of Guelph Student Representative Chen Zixiang OALA Staff Registrar Linda MacLeod Administrator Aina Budrevics Coordinator Ross Clark
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.
Upcoming Issues of Ground Ground 32 (Winter) Creatures
Ground 33 (Spring) Scale Deadline for editorial proposals: January 11, 2016 Deadline for advertising space reservations: February 1, 2016 Ground 34 (Summer) Question Deadline for editorial proposals: March 7, 2016 Deadline for advertising space reservations: April 18, 2016 Ground 35 (Fall) Edges Deadline for editorial proposals: June 6, 2016 Deadline for advertising space reservations: July 13, 2016 Ground 36 (Winter) Data Deadline for editorial proposals: September 12, 2016 Deadline for advertising space reservations: October 10, 2016
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Advisory Panel
Andrew B. Anderson, BLA, MSc. World Heritage Management Landscape & Heritage Expert, Oman Botanic Garden John Danahy, OALA, Associate Professor, University of Toronto George Dark, OALA, FCSLA, ASLA, Principal, Urban Strategies Inc., Toronto Real Eguchi, OALA, Eguchi Associates Landscape Architects, Toronto Donna Hinde, OALA, Partner, The Planning Partnership, Toronto Ryan James, OALA, Senior Landscape Architect, Novatech, Ottawa 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 Nathan Perkins, MLA, PhD, ASLA, Associate Professor, University of Guelph Jim Vafiades, OALA, Senior Landscape Architect, Stantec, London
’s environmental savings with Cascades paper Ground is printed on paper manufactured in Canada by Cascades with 100% post-consumer waste using biogas energy (methane from a landfill site) and is EcoLogo, Processed Chlorine Free (PCF) certified, as well as FSC® certified. Compared to products in the industry made with 100% virgin fiber, Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly ’s savings are: 15 trees 55,306 L of water 158 days of water consumption 838 kg of waste 17 waste containers 2,178 kg CO2 14,566 km driven 25 GJ 113,860 60W light bulbs for one hour 6 kg NOX emissions of one truck during 20 days www.cascades.com/papers
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the Rockies—where the importance of place making, resilience, and sustainability are imperatives. With the city on one side and the backdrop of mountains on the other, the new course-based Master of Landscape Architecture program at the University of Calgary will be uniquely situated.
Education
new graduate program Until recently, students interested in studying landscape architecture in Alberta typically would have gone to the States or the closest institutions at the University of British Columbia and the University of Manitoba. As of the fall of 2015, however, students now have another option: the Faculty of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary has added landscape architecture to the mix of graduate degrees offered by this multidisciplinary graduate design school that currently delivers the only accredited
Up Front: Information on the Ground
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programs in architecture and planning in Alberta. The school is also distinguished by a sizable cohort in post-professional environmental design degrees, at both the Master’s and PhD levels. Thus, this much anticipated graduate landscape architecture program fits naturally into the rich design milieu that the faculty has forged for more than 40 years in Calgary. The new program is significant for design education not only in the province of Alberta, but also across Western Canada. As a rapidly urbanizing community, Calgary and region presents a living laboratory for students interested in exploring the pressing issues of urbanization. The city also sits within a dynamic setting where the Prairies meet
When the program is fully built out there will be 45 students. The diverse curriculum is structured around studio, theory/methods, and technology sequences that cover three years of study. The support to mount this new program is substantial, with the hiring of four new landscape architecture faculty over the next three years. These new hires will join the two registered landscape architects on staff: Dr. Bev Sandalack, Associate Dean (Academic), who serves as the director of the landscape architecture program, and myself, Dr. Nancy Pollock-Ellwand, Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Design. Architecture and planning faculty are also teaching courses. 01-02/
The University of Calgary has added landscape architecture to the mix of graduate degrees it offers.
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Courtesy University of Calgary
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The Mobius Curve as it is being relocated
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Real Eguchi
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Thousands of ash trees have been removed because of emerald ash borer, and thousands of native replacement trees have been planted.
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Real Eguchi
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Painting by Barbara Eguchi, OALA, of one of the entrances to the Guild Inn that is being demolished; the planter is being relocated.
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Barbara Eguchi
The landscape architecture program is situated in a faculty in which students have international study opportunities (with semesters abroad in Barcelona and Melbourne); a workshop fully equipped and staffed for physical fabrication in a complete range of materials; Block Weeks in which international and national experts lead intensive classes in design throughout the academic year; a vibrant guest lecture series called Design Matters; senior studios held in collaboration with industry partners; and a community-based alliance with the City of Calgary, called makeCalgary, which involves students in everything from Days of Service to academic conferences. Alberta has produced many well-known practitioners who have made considerable design contributions to this region and beyond for many years. The new Calgary program in landscape architecture thus builds upon fertile ground and a rich tradition and history. Text by Nancy Pollock-Ellwand, Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary.
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art in the park “Where art meets nature.” This expression crops up again and again in association with Toronto’s Guild Park and Gardens, a 36-hectare park nestled between Kingston Road and the Scarborough Bluffs, at the far eastern end of the city’s waterfront. A rare combination of Carolinian forest and cultural artifacts, the centrepiece of the site is the Guild Inn, a Period Revival building dating from 1914. The Inn is owned by the city of Toronto; the Guild Park and Gardens is owned
by Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), and maintained and managed by the city. The Inn, originally a summer estate for Boer War Colonel Bickford, was built to have dramatic views over Lake Ontario. From 1932-1978, owners Rosa and Spencer Clark operated it as “The Guild of All Arts”—a haven for artists. Over time, the grounds filled with architectural follies salvaged from the redeveloping downtown and sculptures from notable artists such as Frances Gage and Sorel Etrog.
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of the jurisdictions operating on the site. (John Mason estimates that at least 15 city departments are involved in running the park.) With the park management plan as a guiding document for all involved divisions to refer to, goals can be aligned for the best use of resources. The plan recommends that a working group of city and TRCA stakeholders be formed to advise on the management plan and meet periodically to help alleviate local concern and create community buy-in.
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Since 2001, the Guild Inn has been shuttered and in decline, a stark contrast to the carefully maintained garden beds of the Guild Park and Gardens. There have been a number of unsuccessful development proposals for the Guild Inn and, in 2011, it was placed on Heritage Canada’s Top Ten Endangered Places list. Things might be changing with the November 2014 release of The Guild Park and Gardens Management Plan, a collaboration between the City of Toronto, TRCA, and consultants The Planning Partnership and ERA Architects. The plan inventories the significant cultural and ecological assets of the park and establishes management guidelines, identifying priority issues such as emerald ash borer (which is killing the site’s ash trees), trail management, cultural interpretation, lighting, waterfront views, and the need for an overall master plan that embraces the relationship between ecology and cultural history inherent in the landscape. John Mason, President of Friends of Guild Park and Gardens, is cautiously optimistic about the management plan, which he sees as the first to map the park’s cultural assets from an environmental perspective. Nancy Chater, OALA, of The Planning Partnership was part of the consulting team retained to deliver the plan. She sees it as an important step in navigating the complexity
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The “Osterhout” log cabin was constructed circa 1855 by pioneers who farmed the site.
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Friends of Guild Park and Gardens
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The Greek Theatre was designed by Ronald Thom using white marble remnants of the Bank of Toronto building (1912-1966).
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Friends of Guild Park and Gardens
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However cohesively the management plan approaches the park, it does not cover the Guild Inn, which is part of a separate development application recently approved conditionally. The Guild Inn Estate will consist of a low-rise, 2,915-square-metre banquet hall, restaurant, and community centre, with the original Bickford House at the intersection of two large wings. Ruthanne Henry, OALA, Senior Project Coordinator with Parks, Forestry and Recreation—Capital Projects, and a member of the Ground Editorial Board, describes the development as a priority that has temporarily put other elements of the management plan on hold while it is in process. The development is a large project that will facilitate the preservation of some parts of the rambling Guild Inn, while irrevocably changing others. For example, the exterior of the original house will be restored to its 1932 appearance, while the interior will be adapted to host the restaurant. It is clear that both the city and residents in the surrounding neighbourhood see this park as a special place—a park that can and should be a destination within the city. John Mason supports the new development, but would like to see more public input in a more timely fashion. During a visit to the site in July, foundations were being built for sculptures that are being moved from the parking lot to a forested area. “We just found out about this,” says Mason. He recognizes that the number of community meetings he would like to see is more than average for a suburban ward, but thinks it is necessary for a destination park. “Parks are managed on a ward by ward basis,” he says, “and money is allocated for our ward as if it had an ordinary park. To be a destination park, Guild Park needs more resources than the city is allocating for it.” For Ruthanne Henry, the steps to keeping the Guild a destination are in the management plan: “The intention… is to preserve the cultural and natural resources
of the site; celebrate the story of this unique landscape through narration, and increase access to the site.” Nancy Chater thinks that the decisions made in the eventual master plan will shape the future of the site. From a design point of view, the location at the top of the constantly eroding Scarborough Bluffs is challenging. The unstable edge makes getting a good view of the lake potentially dangerous. Chater believes one way of handling this could be with a distinctive waterfront overlook, suitable for a destination park. She’s also curious to see a design for the transition between the trimmed lawn around the Guild Inn and the unmanicured forest that makes up much of the park. Real Eguchi, OALA, a principal of Eguchi Associates Landscape Architects, has been the first to tackle the design challenges of the site through the firm’s project to move those 15 sculptures ahead of the upcoming development. Once they’re in place, the sculptures and follies will be distributed along a walkway on the west edge of the park, just outside the manicured lawn in the shade of the forest. Eguchi doesn’t know yet if the new walkway will be a permanent home for the artifacts, but he says the principles expressed in the management plan influenced the siting: “[They were located] such that visitors might experience a greater sense of culture and nature aligning themselves.” If the recent management plan is followed, this is something we’ll see more of as Guild Park continues to develop. Text by Katie Strang, a recent graduate of the Masters of Landscape Architecture program at the University of Toronto.
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Professor Alan Ackerman, who played an instrumental role in the 2013 efforts to keep the University of Toronto Back Campus free of synthetic turf, identifies discrepancies in the meaning of a Pan Am legacy. “The government’s concept of legacy is providing facilities for people to use beyond the games,” he says. “The university’s concept of legacy is infrastructure for University of Toronto students. I think legacy has to do with the idea of heritage. I wish people would think more about the environmental legacy.”
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pan am legacy After years of preparation, the Toronto 2015 Pan Am and Parapan Am Games were held this past summer. More than 400 events, 217 Canadian medals, and two CN Tower fireworks shows. And just like that, they’re gone. So, what have they left in their wake?
The City of Toronto’s Host City Showcase Program funded 27 projects to “leave a notable legacy and long-term community benefit well after the Games.” But the games and its legacy are divisive amongst urbanists. Some see major sporting events as irresponsible spending of public funds that could be used in more productive ways to serve the community. Others view these events as opportunities to build needed infrastructure, heighten a city’s international profile, and unite the community.
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The West Don Lands neighbourhood of Toronto was home to the Athletes’ Village during the Pan Am Games. The Planning Partnership/Brett Hoornaert
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There is no doubt that the games have left permanent marks on the physical, social, and cultural landscapes of the GTHA. For example, one of the major funding recipients of the Host City Showcase Program was the Pan Am Path, a network of more than 80 kilometres of multi-use trails through Toronto. The idea for the path was developed by members of the CivicAction DiverCity Fellows program, who were eager to leverage the games to improve public space: “We were interested in creating a meaningful and lasting legacy for residents, beyond new sports facilities,” says Friends of the Pan Am Path Executive Director and co-founder James Gen Meers. The Pan Am Path proved to be popular with city councillors on both ends of the political spectrum, and was approved by council in 2013, receiving $1.9 million in funding. “Under Mayor Ford, the city was so divided,” says Gen Meers. “This was a way to bridge the city and connect it, to create a unified experience.” The Pan Am Path will be completed by 2017. From there, Friends of the Pan Am Path will develop a 5- to 10-year legacy plan to ensure its continued growth. The organization hopes to be able to connect the path to the GTHA, create viable commuter routes for cyclists, and complement Toronto’s 15-year ravine strategy. “If it didn’t continue after the games,” says Gen Meers, “it wouldn’t be much of a legacy at all.” Through the political support, funding, and deadlines provided by the Pan Am Games, Friends of the Pan Am Path was able to build active transportation infrastructure into
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Toronto’s landscape, and contribute to the city’s cultural life. “There’s a lot that’s positive to come out of Pan Am,” says Gen Meers. “The games helped to institutionalize public space as a place to come together and celebrate the city.” For example, another recipient of Host City Showcase Program funding is the new Pan Am Aquatic Parkette in Centennial Park at Exhibition Place, which provides Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood with a welcome public amenity, designed by Terraplan Landscape Architects. Not all Pan Am legacy projects are widely celebrated. The University of Toronto Back Campus was an open green space abutting University College and Hart House. Used for years as an active and passive recreational facility, and a social gathering place, the site became the focus of major debate in 2013 when the university proposed a plan that would replace the green with two synthetic turf, fenced-in, field hockey pitches.
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Professor Alan Ackerman opposed the plan and spearheaded a campaign against it, Keep the Back Campus Green. He garnered support from others on campus and began to collaborate with the Daniels Faculty, the Faculty of Forestry, landscape architects, architects, and others. The campaign quickly gained traction: a Change.org petition gathered more than 5,000 signatures. Notable Toronto activists and urbanists Margaret Atwood, Robert Allsopp, Ken Greenberg, and many others joined the cause.
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The Pan Am Path is one significant legacy of the games.
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The University of Toronto Back Campus is now covered in synthetic turf.
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Friends of the Pan Am Path
Keep the Back Campus Green
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Vaughan and Ackerman both express disappointment in the resulting synthetic turf. “It no longer feels like a student common,” says Vaughan. “It feels like an athletic facility. People used to lounge and picnic there. You don’t go onto a sports field to do that. It changed the way the landscape absorbs people, not just how it absorbs water.” “We need places to loaf,” says Ackerman, referencing Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, which he says he has taught for years but holds new meaning for him now. “We need places where play is unstructured. It’s true that it wasn’t used intensively before, and my feeling was, good […] It’s okay to have space where you can wander around and think.” The Back Campus isn’t the only Pan Am facility to implement synthetic turf. The CIBC Hamilton Pan Am Soccer Stadium, now called the Tim Hortons Field, post-Pan Am, replaced the Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton’s Stipley neighbourhood. The venue seats 24,000 and will become the permanent home for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats football team.
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In 2010, Hamilton City Council voted to build the Pan Am stadium in the West Harbour area, adjacent to the new West Harbour GO Station that Metrolinx planned to open in time for the games. In preparation for the new stadium, the city spent more than $8 million buying and demolishing homes and businesses in the Barton Street and Tiffany Street area. 14
Keep the Back Campus Green maintained that the environmentally responsible choice would be to retain the grass. Grass is permeable and helps to remove carbon dioxide, they argued, whereas synthetic turf is energy intensive to produce, is made from fossil fuels, requires substantial irrigation, and needs to be treated with biocides to combat algae growth. Ackerman also notes that many professional sports teams are moving away from synthetic turf over concerns for athletes’ health.
Meanwhile, the university argued that the Back Campus was degraded and not being used to its full potential. It believed synthetic turf would allow for longer play seasons and provide facilities that meet the standards of the International Field Hockey Federation. Furthermore, the plan had already received support from the government, and the university would only be required to cover 44 percent of the $9.5 million cost for the pitches. Toronto MP Adam Vaughan, then Ward 20 councillor, worked with Keep the Back Campus Green to advocate for a cultural heritage landscape designation that would block the university’s plan. After passing at the Heritage Committee, Vaughan’s motion failed at council after a full day of debate.
However, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats voiced opposition to the West Harbour site, and the city reversed its decision in 2011, instead moving ahead with rebuilding the Ivor Wynne Stadium in its original location, leaving the West Harbour site vacant. Now, the city plans to sell the unused lands.
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The Pan Am Path includes art along with infrastructure. Friends of the Pan Am Path The West Don Lands development was designed for walkability. The Planning Partnership/Brett Hoornaert
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To accomplish this, Waterfront Toronto financed the public realm and developers will contribute funds to cover the expenditures as buildings are constructed. “The Pan Am Games created a tremendous opportunity to develop the West Don Lands,” says Peter Wilson, Vice President of Project Delivery for Infrastructure Ontario. “It accelerated what would have otherwise taken 15 years to complete. It acted as a catalyst for development in the surrounding area […] There’s no question this was a city building exercise. It represented an opportunity to revitalize what was an industrial brownfield site and create a neighbourhood that reflected the local area.” During the games, the Athletes’ Village was home to more than 10,000 athletes, coaches, and team officials. Now begins the conversion of the Athletes’ Village to its “legacy state” of condominium housing. Temporary partitions will come down, new flooring and kitchens will go in, and residents will be welcomed in the spring of 2016.
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“There was a high design standard that you can see in the legacy of the West Don Lands,” says Leinster. “It’s going to elevate how we think about public space, and it’s setting a new standard in Toronto for public realm design. Because god damn it, we deserve it!”
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“Every decade there’s been some idea of what we should do with this area,” says Rob Fiedler, president of the local North End Neighbours neighbourhood association. “Our waterfront might wish for something like the West Don Lands.” Indeed, the West Don Lands development in Toronto, a mixed-use neighbourhood that hosted the Athletes’ Village during the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games, sets a new standard. According to landscape architect David Leinster, OALA, a partner at The Planning Partnership, “The West Don Lands represents a paradigm shift in how new communities are designed and built. Waterfront Toronto wanted to create a walkable, liveable neighbourhood where the quality of public realm took priority over other objectives.”
The Planning Partnership joined forces with PFS Studio to produce the West Don Lands Public Realm Master Plan, following the 2005 Precinct Plan by DTAH and Urban Design Associates. The team is also responsible for the design of streets and parks throughout the new neighbourhood. Infrastructure Ontario acted as the project manager in realizing the Athletes’ Village. The team’s objective was to create a new neighbourhood that reflected the beloved characteristics of Toronto’s best, established neighbourhoods, including large street trees, wide sidewalks, and integrated public art. “It was important to Waterfront Toronto that the public realm be built in advance of the private development, which is different. It means that parks and public spaces are available to residents from the start,” says Leinster. “It was a design-led process instead of an infrastructure-led process.”
Aside from the sports themselves, many will remember the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games for being a driver of development and providing needed facilities and infrastructure across the GTHA. The often-lengthy approvals and building processes in Ontario were forced to speed up to meet hard deadlines, and bold moves were made. A few years from now, not many people will be able to rattle off Canada’s medal counts, but they will be enjoying bike rides along the Pan Am Path. They’ll stroll through the streets and parks of the West Don Lands. And they may be embroiled in yet another battle to repair and improve one of Toronto’s public spaces, armed with lessons learned from the 2015 games. Text by Kate Nelischer, a Senior Public Consultation Coordinator at the City of Toronto, and a member of the Ground Editorial Board.
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The Back Campus prior to the Pan Am Games had living turf and was a popular community gathering space for informal activities. Camilla Akbari
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A public conversation—held in conjunction with Doors Open, at Toronto’s City Hall council chambers—regarding the value of investment in the public realm 01/
The City of Toronto hired award-winning photographer Robert Burley to document natural parks and wild places, such as Charles Sauriol Conservation Area, for a project titled An Enduring Wilderness.
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Robert Burley, courtesy City of Toronto
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I think it’s going to be an exciting conversation with so many interesting perspectives. We have a landscape architect here today, Marc Hallé. We have a public policy maker with a deep commitment to environmental education and environmentalism, Jane Welsh. We have an educator, Jane Wolff, and we have a poet, Pier Giorgio Di Cicco. Between all of the stories they’ll weave, I think there is going to be some crossover where we can find common ground and think about how we, as citizens, can take this conversation further. Let’s start with Jane Welsh. Moderated by Denise Pinto BIOS/
Pier Giorgio Di Cicco is a former poet laureate for the city of Toronto. He’s a team member and co-author of the Imagine Toronto Report for Toronto and the province of Ontario. He was the official moderator for the 2005 International Metropolis Conference, and the Toronto host for the World Association for Major Metropolises. His latest book is Municipal Mind, Manifestos for the Creative City. Marc Hallé, OALA, is an Associate at Claude Cormier et Associée in Montreal and a lecturer in landscape architecture at McGill University. He has a background in both civil engineering and landscape architecture, holding a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the University of Toronto. Although based in Montreal, Marc works extensively on the firm’s projects in Toronto, including Sugar Beach, the Evergreen Brick Works, and the upcoming revitalization of Berczy Park. denise pinto is former chair of the ground editorial board. Jane Welsh, OALA, is the acting project manager for Environmental Planning in the Strategic Initiatives, Policy and Analysis unit of Toronto City Planning. Her 25 years of municipal planning experience includes development and implementation of new leading-edge initiatives such as the Toronto Green Standard, Green Earth Bylaw, Ravine Protection Bylaw, and the Residential Apartment Commercial Zone. She is also responsible for policy tools for natural heritage protection, biodiversity, climate change, energy, and sustainable development, and preparation of environmental policies for the Toronto Official Plan. Jane has a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree from the University of Guelph, and a Master’s of Science and Planning from the University of Toronto. She is on the Governing Council of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects and serves as treasurer. Jane Wolff is an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. Her research work investigates the hybrid landscapes that emerge from interactions between natural processes and cultural intervention. Her subjects have ranged from the Western Netherlands and California Delta to post-Katrina New Orleans, the shoreline of San Francisco Bay, and the metropolitan landscape of Toronto. Her projects have the same aim: to develop a language for these difficult and often contested places that can be shared among a wide range of audiences with a stake in the future. Based on the premise that proposals for the future must be inspired by an understanding of past and present, her projects translate documentary information into tools for design. Jane Wolff holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard and Radcliffe colleges, and a Master’s Degree in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Denise Pinto (DP): The value of open space—what an inscrutable topic! It is so much more than just costing and estimating: it’s about human experiences, it’s about how people with lots of different backgrounds value, understand, use, and talk about the public landscapes around us.
Jane Welsh: My presentation today includes photographs and selected quotations. The photos were created by award-winning landscape photographer Robert Burley, and the quotes articulate the extraordinary and intangible value of the ravines, waterfront, and natural places of the city. We have about 8,000 hectares of parkland in Toronto, and about half of that is natural parklands. Recently, we’ve investigated all the environmentally significant areas in the city; there are 68 new areas. We’re proposing to designate them in the Official Plan amendments we’re making this fall [2015]. We need to protect these areas, recognize them. As Robert Fulford noted in his book Accidental City, ravines are to Toronto what canals are to Venice, hills are to San Francisco, and the Thames River is to London. They are the heart of the city’s emotional geography, and understanding Toronto requires an understanding of the ravines. Jamie Romoff is the general manager of Parks, Forestry and Recreation, and she writes: “Toronto’s parks, trails, and ravines are among the city’s greatest assets, and important resources for individual and community health. These spaces enrich the lives of Torontonians, and it’s critical that we all work together to protect and enhance them.” These landscapes are also connections to our past, and often industrial areas have been restored back to nature. Our best example is the Don Valley Brick Works, a former quarry and industrial site that supplied many of the bricks that built the homes of Toronto. In 1987, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority acquired it for 14 million dollars. They began restoration in 1994, and that restoration has included naturalized ponds and restored buildings in a partnership with
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Evergreen, a non-profit group dedicated to restoring nature in urban environments. Valleys offer another view of the city, as this quote from Anne Michaels articulates: “Through these great sunken gardens you can traverse the city beneath the streets, and look up to the floating neighbourhoods, houses built in the treetops.” Our natural areas are very hidden. Another way to protect them is to spread awareness about them. The city hired Robert Burley to photograph our wild places, our natural parklands. These photographs are part of a collection entitled An Enduring Wilderness. They communicate the magic of the seasons, and as Margaret Atwood wrote in 1975: “Turn, look down, there is no city. This is the centre of a forest.” Can you imagine if that quote began the Official Plan? There is extraordinary and intangible value derived from parks and civic open spaces. The valley lands are not just parks; they’re shared with infrastructure—not only trails and rivers but highways, hydro corridors, rail lines, bridges, overpasses. There are more than 300 kilometres of trails throughout these parklands—pathways for movement, for people and dogs, for trains, for cars, bicycles. As Michael Ondaatje wrote in In the Skin of a Lion, there’s something ceremonial about the viaduct. Toronto is a city where certain places—a viaduct, the waterworks—become landmarks, just as the cathedrals of Europe or the pyramids in Egypt are. What you don’t see hidden in the valleys are countless kilometres of water pipes, sewer pipes, gas lines—all infrastructure necessary to the function and liveability of the city. As Jane Jacobs suggests: “Perhaps it will be the city that reawakens our understanding and appreciation of nature, in all of its teeming, unpredictable complexity.” Not so obvious is the fact that Toronto Water is spending five to six million a year over the next five years to rebuild portions of the streams, in order to protect exposed sanitary sewers, trails, bridges, stormwater outfalls, and aquatic habitat. As much as ravines define Toronto, so does the shoreline. Anne Michaels wrote a wonderful line: “In the heart of the city we can forget we live by water until between the office towers and city streets and trees we are surprised yet again by that sudden gasp
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of blue.” We have very urban waterfronts like Sugar Beach and also the spectacular Scarborough Bluffs, where the shoreline of Lake Ontario intersects with the ancient glacial Lake Iroquois, which covered most of Toronto more than 13,000 years ago. The famous pianist Glenn Gould once said that knowing he could “walk 17 miles through a ravine in the heart of Toronto and never directly see the city was of some comfort.” Of course, the natural areas actually perform many valuable ecological functions. They improve the quality of the air we breathe, they filter pollutants, they emit oxygen, and they improve the quality of the water we drink. The forests and meadows also enrich the city by providing habitat and shelter for many species of wildlife and fish. In Toronto we have more than 404 species of birds. One hundred and ten species of butterflies. Ninety-two species of fish. Thirty-eight species of mammals. Three-hundred-andsixty-four species of bees, and more than 200 species of spiders. Mayor John Tory provided a quote for this presentation: “The ravine system defines Toronto’s landscape and provides many important ecological benefits and recreation opportunities. It’s essential that we plan for the future.” Toronto’s chief planner Jennifer Keesmat states that “Toronto ravines are important public spaces. They’re critical to our identity and our well-being. As the city intensifies, we need to invest in these special places to ensure that they continue to function and flourish, and are well used whether for bird watching, mountain biking, cross-country skiing, or celebrating spring.” We expect to be a city of 3.4 million people by the year 2041, and in the past five years alone we’ve had more than 164,000 residential units proposed in applications. So we’re going to need to pay attention if we’re going to have this resource for this influx of people. I’d like to close with a quote from the naturalist Charles Sauriol: “As the years go on and the population increases, there will be a need for these lands and more. And in a life where so much appears futile, this one thing will remain.” DP: Thank you so much, Jane. These are such inspiring images from Robert Burley, set to some wonderful quotes from various writers and thinkers in Toronto. Our next
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speaker is Marc Hallé, who works as a landscape architect in both Montreal and Toronto, which has helped him to foster an appreciation of public space as a reflection of civic values that are unique to each, and it also allows for the cross-pollination and remix of ideas and techniques that ultimately inform evolving civic attitudes in return.Thank you, Marc, for joining us. Marc Hallé: As a practitioner, I’m going to talk about cost not only as something philosophical, but as something quite concrete and tangible. Many of you will remember the headlines in the paper last year about the pink umbrellas at Sugar Beach in Toronto and their cost. It was interesting to see the defence of the umbrellas by citizens. It was a strong turning point or barometer to measure how civic values are changing in Toronto. There’s a paradigm shift happening, and it’s quite dramatic. Some people saw Sugar Beach as an unused, gigantic waste of taxpayer money. There are people who believe this genuinely, and I’m not going to dispute it. But there are also people who live in Toronto, pay plenty of taxes, and are pleased that some of that money is directed towards making great urban settings like Sugar Beach. So there are quite vocal positions on both sides of the argument, and I’m trying to understand why there is such a difference. One idea is: maybe there are two kinds of velocities. Some people live at a speed that’s 80 kilometres an hour—people who drive cars, people who maybe have to commute over large distances. Those who are
oriented towards bicycling and walking have an average velocity of about eight kilometres an hour. Everything in the city is designed for 80 kilometres, for that scale of velocity: giant store signs, billboards, traffic lights...everything is scaled so that when you’re travelling at that speed, it’s safe. Whereas at eight kilometres an hour, you see differences in texture, a different scale of reference, a different attention to levels of detail. From maybe 1950 to the late twentieth century, speed was a big issue. Engineers tried to get water off the streets as fast as possible, roads are meant to be efficient and fast, and everyone was trying to get from point A to point B in a hurry. Why was speed so important? I think one reason is technology. Everything used to be land-based: people were in a hurry to get home and watch their favourite TV show or check the messages on their answering machine. Nowadays, for a younger generation, they have mobile devices and are not so fixed to geography, which means that place becomes more important because you have time to focus on a different scale. There’s a generational shift in attitudes and in values, and even in terms of format. Consider Instagram: it’s not a landscape format, it’s not a portrait format, it’s a square format, which
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E. T. Seaton Park, April 24, 2014
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Robert Burley, courtesy City of Toronto
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see themselves as creative in all fields of endeavour, we will not have liveable and sustainable cities. His notion of civic aesthetic has found popularity in forms ranging from the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee on Cities and Communities, to conferences on sustainability and urban planning. It’s my pleasure to welcome Pier Giorgio.
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is really good for looking at details. And this is what you’re able to see when you’re walking at eight kilometres an hour.
at how comfortable it was. And that’s the genius of Andrew Jones. He’s practical but also aesthetically sophisticated.
Going back to the Sugar Beach example, and the issue regarding the cost of the umbrellas there: in dense areas, there’s a lot more demand and a lot more stress put onto a park because it’s not only serving the local neighbourhood, but it’s also a sort of living room, a civic space for the whole city. Another issue in terms of value has to do with durability. These umbrellas were designed by Andrew Jones, an industrial designer from Toronto. They were fabricated in Toronto. And I was talking with him yesterday, and he says he took it as quite a compliment that people thought these umbrellas should have been made more cheaply, because the intention was to make them light, make them look like they were just cracked open that morning so they were fresh, and seem almost weightless. And he succeeded, but of course when you’re building for the public, durability is very important. I mean, people jump from one umbrella to the next, people stand on top of them, people pole dance on those umbrellas. They have to be engineered to be super strong structures, otherwise you’d have injury, liability issues, and also have to replace them on a more frequent basis.
On the other hand, there’s a high cost to going with cheap. For the opening ceremonies of HT0 park in Toronto, the chairs were brought in from Canadian Tire. In two or three weeks they all fell apart, and it was on the front page of the National Post. There is a cost you will have to pay in the long run.
And an interesting thing to note: Andrew Jones, the designer from Toronto, took his experience from Sugar Beach and just won an important competition at Battery Park in New York City for designing the chair that will be used in the park. It’s called Flirt. The chairs are like flowers in the field. Not only are they designed to be beautiful, they’re also designed to be functional and comfortable. This was voted on by the public; they were invited to sit in the chair and were shocked
But even for a small amount of investment, you can get a big return for your money. For example, we did a project in Montreal, for a Business Improvement Association; it was just a simple installation, a ceiling of pink balls over almost two kilometres of St Catherine Street in downtown Montreal, where the street becomes pedestrianized. There’s been a tangible improvement. There are fewer social problems, there’s a reduction in vacancy, more economic activity, the community was involved in building this installation, and there’s more pride in the neighbourhood. People want to live there again. Returning to Toronto: it has now become a big city. Complex overlapping needs, 24 hours, and people who really enjoy being in the city and are not just forced to be here but choosing to be here. Before, Toronto was a city of private houses with private backyards. Now, with so many people living in condos and apartments, where do you go in your spare time to get outside of your condo or your house? There needs to be park space. DP: Thank you very much, Marc. I am going to jump from a park maker and landscape architect who can talk about costing and constructing public space, to a former Toronto poet laureate, Pier Giorgio Di Cicco. His tenure as poet laureate of Toronto began with his championing of the arts, and continued to his support of the proposition that until citizens
Pier Giorgio Di Cicco: This is about soul, my city’s soul. You still get people who complain that it was a waste of money to spend ten thousand dollars a year on a poet laureate for the city. There’s no point in telling those people that they got their money’s worth because there are people who are always penny pinching. A city cannot be great without taking risks. And if you glamorize risk aversion, you don’t have creativity, you don’t have civic trust. And without civic trust, you don’t have casual encounter. Without casual encounter there’s not really a lot of point to parks, because parks are a place for people to meet in a new way. There’s a lot of ugliness in many cities because the cost effective has won the day, no matter what the wonderful visionary planners and architects and landscape architects and people we have in Toronto and in many cities, say. But eventually even the cost-effective mentality comes to realize that without aesthetics you don’t really make good money in the long run. I wrote this about a city’s soul some years ago in a book: “A city’s soul is located in the architecture of the space between people, and is predicated by congruent aspirations and social commonality. The soul of a city is antecedent.” A friend of mine was speaking to me about Florence, a place where civilization was revitalized by a standard of care and design excellence, and he said, you know, Florence was already there before a building ever went up. The same is true of any city, any place, any population, any place where people can gather. The spirit comes there 03/
The site of Toronto park Sugar Beach prior to park construction
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Taka Munemoto
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first, and a city becomes great or falls apart because spirit is weak. When the spirit of the people is strong, the city thrives, it looks beautiful, they move well, they’re creative. The thing is, strategies to keep the civic spirit strong are important. And park land goes a long way to strengthening civic spirit because, as Marc just said, they’re like our community living room. I live on a hundred acres of farmland. I play urban consultant, but I retreat to a hundred acres of farmland. I used to drive to small towns for local culture throughout North America. You go there after business hours now and you’ll find those spaces evacuated. The Internet and Facebook have been an interiorization of social capital that’s been happening over the last ten, fifteen years. It’s very different from the park as a living room. The interiorization of technology has become lethal, and that’s a big problem. Go to any demographic zone in the urban archipelago, and wherever you go, all the cars are in the driveway, mom’s surfing upstairs, the kids are with the Xbox downstairs, dad’s at the sports screen, nobody is walking in the beautiful parks that our designers have designed with great inspiration, great intent, with great ingenuity, and with great benevolence on the part of the planning architect. Something to consider. DP: Thank you for your remarks Pier Giorgio. Our next speaker, Jane Wolff, was a professor of mine and a great shaper of my understanding of public space. Please join me in welcoming Jane Wolff. Jane Wolff: I’ve been looking at the value of Toronto’s public landscape through a different lens than what we’ve been hearing about. Not so much ceremonial spaces, which is what we usually think of when we say public space—like maybe a public square—but places that are more embedded in the everyday life of the city, and looking at how we inhabit them, about what they offer us, how they connect our own intentions and desires to forces that are beyond our control, forces that we often lump together under the word nature. I would like to talk to you today about the stories of three pairs of places that, looked at together, tell us a lot about the way we live here and a lot about the value of our public landscape, the landscape that we share.
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The first pair of places—the Scarborough Bluffs and the Toronto Islands—tells a story about how the landscapes we know change over time. The Bluffs are a product of something called isostatic rebound. As the glaciers left our part of the world 13,000 years ago, the ground began to rise. The bluffs were a part of the Toronto Islands and they’ve taken shape in the intervening 13,000 years because the lake erodes the cliffs and drags them bit by bit along the shallow margin of the shore. Part of what’s so interesting about the Toronto Islands is that even though they formed on a geological time scale, they’re also changing on a historical time scale, the scale that includes the emergence of the city, the scale that includes our own lifetimes. That change has come from different sources. A pair of big storms in the 1850s, when the city was still very new, severed an arm that used to connect the mainland to the islands. A more recent change is the construction of the Leslie Street Spit, which interrupted the migration of sediment to the islands, and now if the islands didn’t have reinforcement they’d wash away. So the transformation of bluff to island tells us a story that’s about process, that’s about permanence and impermanence. Strangely enough, the Toronto Islands, which we no longer see as ephemeral, are full of places built as summer cottages that are now inhabited year round. The Scarborough Bluffs include houses that were built to stay for the ages, because the bluffs looked so substantial, yet now they’re falling off the edge. Another story about transformation of land, this time by people, is also a story about a transformation of value, and it has to do with the Don Valley Brick Works and the Leslie Street Spit. The Brick Works produced an enormous amount of material that built this city. It operated for almost a hundred years as a quarry, and also as a manufacturing centre, and then it was taken over by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority in the 1980s. The Leslie Street Spit was an ancillary project to the St. Lawrence Seaway to address the need for a bigger harbour in Toronto. When the Seaway opened in 1959, it was exactly when Toronto’s downtown was starting to be transformed, so that degree of demolition of old buildings and excavation for new ones is what created the material that built the Spit.
The story of the Brick Works and the Spit is really a story about how one thing becomes another. The earth becomes bricks, the bricks become buildings, and then the buildings become new art. And in places that are transformed to create infrastructure, they’re created because we want to measure their value in dollars: How many bricks can we take out and how many ships can we berth here? Both these places have now been transformed into places of something we’ve come to value more recently, what we call nature. The abandoned Brick Works has been turned into a park and the headquarters for the environmental group Evergreen. And the Spit has become the site of primary succession, something we almost never see in the landscape, let alone in the city, where living things begin to emerge out of bare rubble. That’s how you get a different kind of value in the city. It’s a story about equality, infrastructure, and the public. The third story is also about those three things, but in a much more intimate way. It’s about our relationship to the lake. And it’s about two monumental installations without which we couldn’t actually live here in the numbers that we do. One’s very big, very visible, very beautiful—The RC Harris Water Treatment Plant. It’s where our drinking water comes from. The other one is equally necessary, but we don’t love it as well—the Ashbridges Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant, where waste is treated until it’s clean enough to go back into the lake. This is one of the most essential stories I can think of about our relationship to the public landscape, and about the relationship that every citizen has both to ecology and to infrastructure. We don’t always ask ourselves where the water comes from, where it goes, but as soon as the question arises it becomes apparent that each one of us couldn’t be more intimately involved with Lake Ontario. So, three different stories about the public landscape of Toronto. In one way or another they’re all about how we see ourselves in it, and that’s where our value comes from, I think—from being part of the picture. DP: Thank you so much Jane, and to all of our panelists. With thanks to Netami Stuart, OALA, for coordinating this panel discussion.
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Bang for your buck Coordinated by Graham MacInnes
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For this issue, Ground sent out an e-blast asking OALA members to send us examples of inexpensive design interventions that had a big (and positive) impact relative to their cost. Many thanks to all those who contributed. 5
A Place of Their Own In an arid schoolyard in downtown Toronto, a riot of colour hides around a corner, ready to surprise students. The Sensory Garden at Kimberley JPS sits between the music portable and library, and is completely hidden from the street. Two years ago it was little more than a weed-infested raised bed doing very little to improve the asphalt palette surrounding it. Today, thanks to a $200 donation of plant material, some free mulch, and the combined elbow grease of the entire student body, it is a show-stopping sensory experience. What makes this garden even more amazing is the way the children protect it. Unlike many schoolyard gardens that succumb to trampling and other assorted forms of abuse, at this school the children have taken ownership of the garden. When my daughter and I help weed the bed she watches my work carefully to make sure I’m not wrecking her plants. With research screaming that children need to be in touch with nature—to reduce the incidence and severity of ADHD symptoms, to sharpen cognitive abilities, and to increase compassion for the natural environment—I find it amazing how far $200 goes. Stephanie Snow, OALA President, Snow Larc Landscape Architecture Ltd.
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Slab Transplanting During the development process, the majority of a site’s vegetation is removed for construction, and landscape plantings are conducted after the buildings are in place. Henry Kortekaas and Associates Inc. developed a method to reduce the cost of development compensation while planting thriving natural vegetative communities. This method, slab transplanting, offers many benefits to the developer, while meeting the requirements of approval agencies. The process involves a steel plate attached to the bucket on a loader to create a larger bucket that can move slabs of vegetation. Existing natural vegetation on site can be moved before overburden is stripped to accommodate the desired development. This method can be used to transplant large areas of early successional, understory plants or small wooded areas. It can even be used for relocating whole ecosystems including their seed banks. This ensures that important ecological communities are moved as a complete and functioning ecosystem. This process decreases costs for the developer because they do not have to conduct extensive compensation planting. Vegetation relocated using this method has been proven to thrive very quickly as communities are moved together, and once relocated have twice as much soil from their original location. Henry J. Kortekaas, OALA Principal Landscape Architect, Henry Kortekaas and Associates Inc.
Full-Day Kindergarten The Full-Day Kindergarten (FDK) “Green Team” at North Bendale Public School, located in Toronto’s east end, had a vision to provide an outdoor inquiry-based classroom that connected the youngest students with nature. The school had a limited budget and an outdoor space that was predominantly asphalt. These young children were in need of shade, areas to gather, explore, build, create, act, and learn. The goal was to remove a portion of the asphalt in order to provide a variety of play experiences and surfaces. The space was transformed by replacing two existing asphalt areas with a multipurpose sand play area that provided shade and opportunities for cognitive development, and a space with a diversity of native shrubs and seating providing both social and inquirybased experiences. Connected to the sand play area are two large deciduous tree planters that will offer greater shade over time. In the meantime, the four tall posts that corner the sandbox can have a cover draped over them to give immediate, temporary shade. The school’s principal, who spearheaded the project, feels that “the students can engage in inquiry that extends the classroom into nature. It is a place where everyone can flourish and support each other.” Gail Bornstein Evergreen/TDSB Associate, School Ground Design Consultant
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Julius Aquino, OALA, and a neighbour transformed a small area of Toronto’s Pape Avenue into a temporary parklette.
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Julius Aquino
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Otium Outdoor Exercise Garden, designed by Shawn Gallaugher
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Shawn Gallaugher
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North Bendale Public School, Toronto
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Gail Bornstein
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Slab transplanting
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Henry Kortekaas and Associates Inc.
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Stealth Cabin Landscape Less is more describes the approach taken in the landscape design of Stealth Cabin. The name derives from the visual congruence between the cottage and its surroundings: it is as if the structure disappears into the forest. So, too, the adjoining gardens reflect the natural landscape character of exposed granite rock, hardwood hills, and majestic pine shoreline of the Muskoka region. The garden was inspired by native plantings. A photographic study of plant communities in the area gave clues to the plant selection and arrangement. Within the project, just 12 different plant varieties, mostly native to the area, were used to create a naturalized and mass planting effect. Grasses emulate an adjacent wetland, masses of groundcovers and
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Stealth Cabin landscape Shawn Gallaugher Otium Outdoor Exercise Garden Shawn Gallaugher
ferns can be identified in the greater woodland, and predominantly green plants with white flowers were featured, such as Cornus alternifolia, Galium odoratum, and Iris germanica. One splash of red from a massed planting of Monarda punctuates the green and white planting palette. The landscape allows the cabin to nestle as part of the wilderness, favouring a fluid transition from the tall grasses to airy ferns and on to the woodland perimeter of the lake. A gathering area by the lake was considered under a canopy of majestic pine trees that was open as a result of the acidic pine needles. Artificially arranging granite boulders and using granite rock slabs to step through the landscape was consciously avoided. As one goes across the landscape to the water’s edge, one experiences the irregularity of the land and the natural form of the lakeshore created by ancient glaciers. In concert with the landscape design, Shawn Gallaugher Design provided an outdoor exercise circuit to help the owners achieve a full-body workout to improve strength, cardiovascular conditioning, muscular endurance, co-ordination, flexibility, and speed. The light approach of the landscape design, primarily a planting solution with an outdoor exercise circuit, offers an opportunity to enjoy the natural qualities inherent in the region and supports the blending of the cabin (designed by Superkul Inc.) into its natural habitat. Shawn Gallaugher, Landscape Architectural Intern Shawn Gallaugher Design
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Otium Outdoor Exercise Garden Developed by Shawn Gallaugher Design, the concept of Otium Outdoor Exercise Gardens is that the landscape elements themselves are used as exercise equipment. (Otium is a Latin term that denoted the down time soldiers had between battles to train and pursue outdoor exercises.) There are many mental and physical health benefits to exercising outdoors. This modern townhouse has limited outdoor private space. However, an interior courtyard bordered by a brick wall is open to the air and offers a private walled outdoor space that is accessible from the interior of the townhouse. The clients required a space to reflect and support their active lifestyle, so the program for the small courtyard was large. Space was needed to set up two bicycles on trainers to ride in a stationary position, an area to set up two suspension training systems, and room for all the associated exercises so the couple could train together. A means of reflection was desired so that they could see their form while exercising. The exercise equipment needed to look organized when not being used. The client requested a water feature for relaxation, cooling down, and meditation, and greenery was needed to soften two stucco walls of the courtyard. Since the entrance to the courtyard was from a home office, the space would be used to take calls or meet with clients, and, after work hours, to entertain friends. All of this and more was accomplished in creating an Otium Outdoor Exercise Garden for the 200-square-foot courtyard space. All
Costs and Benefits landscape features were incorporated into the workout and used as exercise equipment. For example, an arbor and overhanging roof were used to support brackets for bands and suspension training systems while also acting to bring the ceiling of the space down to a comfortable scale. A bench is used to lift weights and for stepping and jumping exercises. A custom-designed stainless steel water wall feature was designed to offer a reflective surface for the clients to view their exercise technique. Shawn Gallaugher, Landscape Architectural Intern Shawn Gallaugher Design
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Pape Park and Play Sandwiched between Toronto’s Greektown and Pape Village BIAs, a small stretch of Pape Avenue is a thoroughfare not a destination: cars race up it to get to the bridge, down it to the highway, and park on it to access the main street. My neighbour and I wanted to reimagine the possibilities of creating flexible public gathering spaces for pedestrians on a minimal budget. On June 6, 2015, we took advantage of 100in1Day’s urban-intervention initiative and repurposed planter boxes, shrubs, patio furniture, and sod in order to convert the on-street parking stalls in front of our houses into a temporary parklette. Kids flocked to play with a giant homemade Jenga game, women from Newcomer Women’s Services dropped by to learn “Hanabi” from our friends at BoardAgain Games, and when our artist friend performed, sidewalk traffic stopped. The Greek café patrons across the street paused to listen to her music, and residents in the apartments above came out on their balconies. Even our local MPP and MP dropped by. My biggest worry in organizing this intervention was taking away parking from the business next door. The following Saturday, the owner came out to talk to my husband about our parklette. “No people today?” he asked. “Too bad. You should do that every weekend.”
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Vermont Square Park Completed in 2013, Vermont Square Park is a well-used community park in downtown Toronto. With the motto “good benches make good neighbours” in mind, we created what has become the backbone of the park: a twosided îpe wood bench on a galvanized steel frame. The double-sided Art Bench snakes through the site, serving both as fence and social convenor. It separates the dog run from the playground area, but rather than fencing and blocking off the two spheres, it joins them. Both sides of the bench invite lounging, and the top that bridges them is wide enough to sit upon, in order to straddle conversations on both sides. The bench also acts as a makeshift bleacher, facing the community theatre. The Art Bench transforms the notion of a fence from a barrier into an invitation to engage. The park also includes a natural play area. This section uses downed tree trunks salvaged from the City of Toronto’s Parks and Recreation unit. We cut into the trunks and inserted viewing holes, grills, and mirrors to encourage dramatic and imaginative play. PLANT Architect Inc.
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Vernon Avenue This residential backyard garden incorporated a mix of concrete texture and pattern, alongside planting material, to create a unique space with simple and readily available materials. The strategy was twofold: to exploit the prominence of the concrete block garage that is only eleven feet away by flipping the garden’s focus from the ground to the wall, and to provide continuity from the family room through to the garden. The resulting patio ground surface is an “eye-test” of round concrete pavers. These standard pavers were placed in a strategic pattern, with planting areas to fill in the voids. The paver units were also placed upside down to expose the raw texture of their undersides. Using conventional materials in new ways allowed for an intervention that was economical without compromising design intent. PLANT Architect Inc.
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Pape Avenue temporary parklette in Toronto
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Vermont Square Park, Toronto
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Julius Aquino, OALA
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Courtesy Plant Architect Inc. Vernon Avenue backyard landscape design, Toronto Courtesy Plant Architect Inc.
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The Wilson Street Promenade
text by Claire Nelischer
Every city is home to interstices, where contrasting uses bump up against one another to form leftover spaces. These edge zones are often awkward to navigate on foot and difficult to negotiate psychologically—they tend to be under-designed and fall off our mental map of the city. But it was these in-between spots in Guelph’s downtown core that piqued the interest of two MLA students at the University of Guelph who sought to revitalize and re-imagine these spaces. Cyrille Viola and Calen Hamelin are the designers and co-creators behind the Wilson Street Promenade, a project that analyzed a pedestrian and vehicular underpass in downtown Guelph and activated the site through a one-day pop-up pedestrian festival. By reconceptualizing the underpass as a bona fide public space that could be designed
strategically and occupied intentionally, the Wilson Street Promenade project strived to breathe new life into the site and spark a conversation about what is possible in similar spaces. “The [Wilson Street Underpass] was one of the first things I saw when I drove into the city,” says Hamelin, who recently completed his MLA at the university. “It seemed like a void that was connecting landmarks in the city and it seemed underutilized.” The Wilson Street Underpass weaves under a train trestle to connect the southern portion of Guelph’s downtown core to a key northsouth arterial running through the city. Wilson Street borders the west side of City Hall and Market Square and is flanked by interesting, independent shops at its northern reaches.
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up markers and wrote or doodled on large standing boards their ideas of how to improve the city and the street. It was, by all accounts, a success. 02
But the portion approaching the underpass is curiously under-animated, with bare retaining walls and no significant pedestrian amenities. Due to its orientation and surrounding uses, Hamelin believed it had great potential in terms of making connections and fostering a sense of place. Encouraged by University of Guelph faculty members Lise Burcher and Sean Kelly, Hamelin and his classmate Viola embarked on an independent study project to research and analyze the current incarnation of the Wilson Street Underpass and propose design strategies to enliven the space. The team looked to various underpass precedents in other cities, including public art in Detroit and commercial activation in London, and developed a series of design interventions ranging from minor aesthetic improvements to total redevelopment. After completing the independent study, the pair reached out to contacts at the city of Guelph to see if they could take the project further. Their ideas were met with enthusiasm, and city staff soon agreed to incorporate a one-day pop-up pedestrian intervention on Wilson Street, led by Viola and Hamelin, as part of the existing John Galt Day celebrations on August 1, 2015. “Our first goal was to get people to think about how underutilized space can be further developed and improved, and our second
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goal was to make people realize the potential for this space and what could be done,” says Viola. With the support of the city and generous donations from friends, family, the public, and local businesses, Viola and Hamelin planned and realized the temporary pedestrianization of the Wilson Street Underpass. They thought about how to incorporate active and passive programming—from mounting temporary murals on the blank retaining walls (“canvases waiting to be used,” according to Hamelin), to installing sod, small trees, and café tables, to inviting vendors from the Saturday farmers’ market to set up temporary booths along the length of the pop-up park. On the big day, the Wilson Street Underpass— usually free of action with the exception of a few walkers moving from A to B—was abuzz with activity. Pedestrians strolled along soft sod and browsed vendor stalls offering cupcakes, corn-on-the-cob, and fresh-squeezed lemonade. Market-goers stopped to sit under an umbrella on “the beach”: a small sandbox with seating and shade. Children picked
At the August 1st debut of the Wilson Street Promenade, the underpass site was transformed into a node in a network of pedestrian routes and commercial and community spaces in the downtown core. Hamelin and Viola’s project exemplifies the power of the pop-up: demonstrating how low-risk, high-impact pilot projects have the power to transform the way we think and feel about public spaces in our city. “We really wanted to generate ideas for other urban spaces in Guelph and show citizens and other students that these things are possible with a little bit of work. We want to generate ideas of how urban space, or any space really, can be changed with a little bit of time and effort,” says Hamelin. BIO/
Claire Nelischer is a writer, walker, and planner who lives in Toronto, where she coordinates projects and outreach activities at the Ryerson City Building Institute.
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Wilson Street Underpass on the day of the pop-up festival
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Mural by Luc Palmer showing the Speed and Eramosa rivers
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Artwork by Natalie Schiabel mounted in the underpass
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A community board for people’s ideas
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The Colour of Stone by Adrienne Hall and Owen McCabe
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Emily French
Emily French
Emily French
Emily French
Emily French
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Supporting the systems that support us 01
health, greater community cohesion, and opportunities to advance social justice are difficult to evaluate concretely in monetary terms.
02 text by Vincent Javet
It is well documented that green infrastructure provides a wide range of social, economic, and environmental benefits. However, there are numerous limitations in monetizing many of these benefits in a coherent and compelling way. For example, improvements to human mental and physical
Nevertheless, a growing field of research is exploring the ways in which green infrastructure facilitates increased economic activity within our communities, some of which can be reflected in the market. These benefits include the direct, indirect, and induced job creation that results from capital and maintenance expenditures on green infrastructure. Other economic benefits reflected in the market include food production revenue and increased property values, with correlating increases in tax revenue. There are also welldocumented cost savings associated with buildings (such as conservation of energy) and cost savings for grey infrastructure (such as extending the life expectancy of paving systems through shading) that reduce and/or delay operational and capital cost expenditures. Benefits of this
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The Greenbelt provides numerous ecosystem services. Jeffery Carlson Wetlands are effective at regulating waste water, storing carbon, and providing wildlife habitat. Vincent Javet
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Aerial perspective of part of Toronto’s Don Valley ravine system and Evergreen Brick Works; the David Suzuki Foundation estimates that forests provide approximately $5,000/ hectare in ecosystem services per year.
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Sherbourne Common in Toronto provides an excellent example of modern stormwater management using green infrastructure technology.
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Jeffery Carlson
Vincent Javet Toronto’s City Hall green roof provides valuable outdoor amenity space and stormwater management in an otherwise impermeable and dense urban environment. Vincent Javet
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but associated benefits such as improved air quality, improved shading, greenhouse gas sequestration, reductions in the urban heat island effect, and opportunities to enhance biodiversity are not commonly captured in the market directly.
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nature may be monetized locally through government regulations such as minimum stormwater run-off standards or stormwater utility fees based on impervious area. At a large scale, green infrastructure also has the potential to significantly reduce capital and maintenance expenditures on grey infrastructure, such as facilities for stormwater management. In the early 1990s, for example, New York City devoted significant financial resources to protecting its drinking watershed rather than constructing new grey infrastructure to filter its water. The city has saved billions of dollars by avoiding the need for engineered filtration,
The David Suzuki Foundation, a nonprofit organization that focuses on rebuilding natural capital in urbanized regions, has embarked on an ambitious program to inventory Canada’s natural capital—forests, farmland, fields, and wetlands—around Canadian urban centres, and itemize the value in dollar terms. According to Dr. Faisal Moola, Director General of the David Suzuki Foundation, “Noted green business guru Paul Hawken has remarked that while there is no truly right way to fully value a forest or river, there is a wrong way, which is to give it no value at all when making development decisions. Unfortunately, that is exactly what we typically do.” One of the first reports released as part of the David Suzuki Foundation program focuses on Ontario’s Greenbelt, and estimates that the Greenbelt provides 2.6 billion dollars in ecosystem services per year through flood protection, water infiltration, nature-based tourism, and
pollination. Evaluations such as this lay the groundwork for a rigorous policy regime that makes serious investments in the protection, restoration, and enhancement of natural capital. As Moola puts it, “There is a fiscal incentive to protect and restore natural capital because of the savings we are likely to receive by maintaining key ecological services that are otherwise too expensive to replace or substitute. Engineered solutions can cost hundreds of millions of dollars, often for a lesser level of service than nature is able to provide for free.” BIO/
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Vincent Javet is a master of landscape architecture candidate at the University of Toronto and a member of the Ground Editorial Board.
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An interview with Ferruccio Sardella
interview conducted by Victoria Taylor, OALA
The national non-profit organization Evergreen has been working since the early 1990s to advocate for more nature in our cities. Toronto-based artist Ferruccio Sardella has guided Evergreen’s visual message for much of that time, playing a key role in the success of the Evergreen Brick Works site in Toronto. Sardella’s installation at the Brick Works, titled Watershed Consciousness, is a precedentsetting exterior green wall for Toronto. The only one of its kind in the city, it provides an example of a design process in which disciplines blur to achieve a powerful result. Landscape architect Victoria Taylor, OALA, spoke with Ferruccio Sardella about his green wall project and his role as an artist in the design and site-planning process.
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Victoria Taylor (VT): First, I’d like to ask you about the history of this artwork.
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Watershed Consciousness by Ferruccio Sardella is an art installation and green wall at Toronto’s Evergreen Brick Works. Cam Collyer Artist Ferruccio Sardella working on the installation Cam Collyer
Ferruccio Sardella (FS): This piece emerged when I was an artist-in-residence at the Evergreen Brick Works, in 2010-2011, embedded in the interpretation, remediation, and redesign of this historic cultural site. While working on interpretive strategies with the architects and Evergreen, thinking about place-making, questions emerged: “What is this place?” and “What is the mission of the project?” That’s where this piece comes from. VT: So it wasn’t just a one-off commission. You were working with the whole team, in a holistic way, addressing the Brick Works site as a whole? FS: It was very much a holistic approach. The piece is inspired by the watershed of Toronto. Water goes to the heart of why this place is here, why this place is important, and why we need to pay attention to ecology.
VT: Tell me more about your role as an artist working with landscape architects, planners, and architects, starting at an early stage, on the site. How can your work—from the position as an artist—reveal new possibilities? FS: That’s really interesting territory, and it speaks to the way both landscape architects and artists are engaged in the process. Sometimes it’s very difficult for us to get together and work in an integrated way. But the Evergreen Brick Works design process purposely tried to disrupt what is often a very difficult collaboration. Now, however, I think we’re seeing change. We’re seeing RFPs that invite artists and architects to propose ideas together. VT: What are some of the differences you found in the early days of talking with the design team? FS: This was an adaptive reuse project. There were challenges even just to get the
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site remediated. There were many teams of architects: the structural architects, the heritage architects, the landscape architects. Evergreen was a difficult client in a lot of ways because they were inventing the place as the architects were designing. But that’s very comfortable territory for an artist. VT: Comfortable? FS: Yes, because both pushing boundaries and an artistic process entail looking into the unknown. VT: Could you talk about the heritage aspect of the wall? FS: There was a certain degree of resistance to covering up a heritage wall. Also, structurally, the building couldn’t hold such a large piece. Nothing can be attached to it. So the artwork had to be figured out as a free-standing piece. The heritage wall behind it isn’t taking any of the weight of the artwork, but is still very much a part of the thinking and part of how you read the piece—a borrowed landscape in that sense.
The upper portion of the piece is left without a background; you have these pipes that represent the tributaries going through farmland and places that are being redeveloped. This piece is meant to show how delicate the whole watershed is. In terms of its structure, it’s creating that sense of abstraction so you take a step back and think about what a watershed is from a different angle when you remove all the other information about it. It looks like an upside-down tree. The upper portion of the watershed is the roots of the ravine system. Without water getting to the ravine system, the ravine doesn’t thrive.
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VT: What is the environment that allows creative ideas to emerge? FS: It’s about making psychological space as much as making physical space. You don’t want to fill a site like this. You want to make interventions that make the space bigger in your mind and your sensory experience of it. Often we fill spaces in a way that closes them off to possibilities. I want to bring forward interventions that keep it open. Everybody enters into the subject from different points of view. Some people are
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Watershed Consciousness by Ferruccio Sardella Cam Collyer
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turned on conceptually; other people are turned on just purely by the sensory. A child can walk up to the piece and just want to play in the water. And then someone else who is into botany will walk up and be interested in the green wall. Some people are just not interested in the subject at all. I think that creates a lot of space and room for a more personal interpretation and experience. The content is waiting for them if and when they’re interested. VT: Maintenance is a tough sell. It’s not the sexy part of design. What are the challenges to ensure the longevity of the various living and non-living elements? What did you learn over the four years since the installation? FS: In terms of the plant material, probably about 50 percent of the plants we put in worked and 50 percent didn’t. There was great concern that the steel would heat up the plastic plant cells to the point that all the plants would die, or that the plants would never make it through the winter with the harsh winds at the site. None of it turned out to be true. I mean, it’s a garden, so if you leave it alone, it’s going to be full of what we call weeds. Irrigation is another piece. Without proper irrigation, the plants die immediately. Getting the water right is absolutely crucial, and it’s an ongoing issue. There are a couple of water systems embedded in the piece. First there is a pumping system that sends water through tiny emitters to every cell holding plant material. This water can be drawn from collected rain water or the municipal water source.
The second system is that rain water is collected at the roof of the building in a steel pan that floats above the heritage wall. This water is primarily used to create “the running of the rivers”—a water flow pumping through all the rivers in the piece, through the galvanized steel veins that stand out against the corten backdrop. This water is collected and recirculated. VT: What types of plants have you found to be most successful? FS: We’ve found that sedums and moss survive best. The ones that are more compact are the ones that make it. I’d like to augment it with some thyme or even some annual herbs. It would be great to see gardeners and botanists explore new plant combinations that thrive in a living wall like this. VT: Tell me more about the placement of the plants. Is there any reason why yellow sedum is in one spot and pink sedum in another? FS: It’s just my aesthetic. I find that the more variety and textures, the bigger the green wall looks and feels. VT: In terms of the composition, what are the different materials you used? FS: It’s stainless steel above, then corten steel for the lower part, with lines that represent the major arteries of how we move through the city, which are brass and copper. Etched into the corten steel are the lost rivers of Toronto that are buried underneath our city. VT: Tell us more about your experience working with landscape architects, and the process of integrating an artist into the design process. How can we make this work? FS: This project lasted eight years and it transformed me. I’m not interested in going back and being an artist who makes things in an artistic vacuum. I’m interested in being an artist who is process oriented and integrated into larger processes and visions. I love the energizing experience of working with architects, working with interpretive planners, and working with programmers who engage the community.
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I just heard of a commission in which the artist was the one who brought the landscape architect onto their team. We need
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to find ways to have processes that allow for creativity, that allow breathing space for something to emerge that’s different. There’s a chemistry that unfolds with art. I lived in Europe for a year and I found there they are willing to break down the categories of designer and artist and architect; the line is blurred in a wonderful way. You also have artisans helping to bring forward place in a way that really values what they’re bringing in terms of their craft. VT: Is there something about landscape architects in particular that you find affinity with? FS: I’m interested in exploring how we connect to our environments, how places come to feel meaningful and inform who we are. Landscape architects are front line in constructing meaningful relationships to land and ecology, so for me the affinity cuts deep. The relationship between architecture and landscape is also intriguing to me. I’ve been involved with Michael Leckman of Diamond Schmidt Architects on the new building at the Brick Works, working on the building skin that is still in development—conceptualizing the skin so that it has a functional purpose to cool the building in summer, but it’s also a canvas for expression. There will be planter boxes that allow for vertical gardens and movable, changeable panels that Evergreen, the occupants of the building, and the community can work with. The architect is willing to give over the facade of his building in order to create that connection to community. BIO/
Toronto-based multi-disciplinary artist Ferruccio Sardella served as artist-in-residence for the Evergreen Brick Works through the conception of the project and redevelopment of the site; in this position, he performed in a variety of roles—from producer of public artworks and exhibit designer to architectural design team member and interpretive planner.
Victoria Taylor, OALA, designs spaces informed and inspired by context, ecology, community engagement, and social and horticultural possibilities.
Research Corner
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Complex, biodiverse landscapes can offer visual connections with nature that support attention restoration for workers and are more sustainable workplaces. Kathleen Wolf Green stormwater infrastructure can be designed to achieve co-benefits of water management in streetscapes and to provide restorative experiences. Kathleen Wolf
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A research round-up on mental wellness
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Both public and private landscapes can be designed to offer a set of spaces and experiences that can soothe the overtaxed mind, such as this stormwater management project in Victoria, British Columbia. Kathleen Wolf
TEXT by Kathleen L. Wolf, Ph.D
Health is not only the absence of disease or infirmity, but is a state of physical, mental, and social well-being. While healthy lifestyle choices and access to quality healthcare are important for good health, the public health community has turned more attention to environmental quality and the influences of one’s surroundings.1 There is growing recognition of the benefits of having quality landscapes that are close to every person’s home and are safe and secure places to enjoy outdoor time.2 Nearly 40 years of research on the connections between health and nearby nature experiences is summarized on a website sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service, Green Cities, Good Health (www.greenhealth.washington.edu). As director for the website project, I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to share the evidence generated by an international community of scientists, including my own research about the human dimensions of urban forestry and urban greening. An early set of my studies explored the connections between business-district tree canopy and shopper response—mostly positive! I also did studies on the relationship between trees and transportation safety in the U.S. As a collaborating social scientist with the U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, I have been doing studies about urban natural resources stewardship. In my latest research I’ve been working with economists to understand the value implications of nearby nature benefits in cities.3 In my work I’ve noted that an emerging health concern in many nations is mental health and function. The International Mental Health Research Organization finds that one in five people is afflicted by a mental health disorder, and that mental illness is the number one 03
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cause of adult disability across all nations. It is estimated that by the year 2020 mental health disorders will rise to 15 percent of the global burden of disease, and depression will constitute one of the largest health problems worldwide.4 Mental health and wellness is the result of personal and life conditions, and is also highly dependent on the natural and built environments that surround a person. Providing opportunities for respite and restoration, well-designed and maintained urban greenspaces have the potential to improve mental wellness and to be places of therapeutic healing. The following are some highlights from scientific studies. The research has been done in metro nature—the term I use to describe the full range of urban nature conditions, such as parks, gardens, streetscapes, forest reserves, and healing gardens. Improving General Mood and Attitude Screening national health data in the U.K., a recent study found that, on average, individuals have both lower mental distress and higher well-being when living in urban areas that have more greenspace.5 Other investigators, using portable EEG (electroencephalography) recordings, have found evidence of lower frustration and increased brain activity that resembles meditation when moving in greenspace, versus being in retail and commercial areas having no trees.6 Many studies have focused on the connection between greenspace and physical activity, in response to concerns about obesity.7 Better mental health is another reward. A study compared meditative and athletic walking, in both forest and indoor settings.8 Meditative walking generated more positive psychological effects than athletic walking did in both environments. The study found that meditative walking in the forest was the most effective at increasing happiness. Happiness, or the presence of a positive emotional mindset, broadens how a person thinks about and acts in the daily flow of life’s efforts, creating positive intellectual and psychological resources. Studies examined the effects of exposure to nature on positive affect and ability to reflect on a life problem.9 Participants spent 15 minutes walking in a natural setting, a built setting, or watching videos of natural and built settings. Exposure to nature was found to increase: connectedness to nature, ability to direct attention, positive emotions, and ability to reflect on a life problem. The effects were stronger for actual nature than for virtual nature. Improved Work and Creativity Tasks that require a lot of concentration, like those at work or school, can lead to cognitive fatigue. When focused, a person must suppress mental distractions and impulses, but this directed attention can become exhausting over time. With greater fatigue we are unable to work as well, become irritable, and may feel a general tiredness. Short breaks in nature help to restore the mind, perhaps contributing to improved work performance and satisfaction.10 Attention Restoration Theory (ART)11 describes how nature provides restorative experiences,
particularly greenspaces that are rich in qualities that allow directed attention to recover. Studies continue to support the notion of nature and mental performance.12 In a study of creative professionals, the responses during focused interviews suggested that nature experiences may enhance creativity by: evoking new ways of thinking, promoting curiosity, and encouraging more flexible thinking.13 A recharge of directed attention may support creativity, as the restored mind is better at analyzing and developing ideas. Those interviewed noted that nature was particularly helpful in two phases of the creative process, during preparation and incubation. Workplace managers are increasingly providing opportunities for employee physical activity, to help them achieve better health and reduced healthcare costs. There may be important synergies between the psychological benefits of outdoor physical activity and the restorative effects of contact with natural environments. Nature-Based Therapy More and more children in developed nations are being diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders (ADHD). In one study, children who were active in green outdoor spaces showed reduced ADHD symptoms more than kids doing either built outdoor activities or indoor activities.14 Another study found that children with ADHD concentrated better after a walk in the park than after a downtown walk or a neighbourhood walk.15 Other mental diseases afflict adults. A study of one community found that residents with only 10 percent green space within about half a mile had a 25 percent greater risk of depression and a 30 percent greater risk of anxiety disorders compared to those having the highest degree of green space near the home.16 Providing a natural setting for mental illness treatment may also have an effect. Patients with moderate to severe depression were assigned to cognitive-behavioural therapy in either a hospital setting or a forest setting (arboretum). Overall depressive symptoms were reduced most significantly in the forest group, and the odds of complete remission were relatively high—20 to 30 percent more likely than typically observed from medication alone.17 Nature settings may also be remedy for the elderly. Reduced depression in the elderly has been reported after walking in gardens.18 Dementia patients who were frequent users of a wander garden required fewer scheduled medications; they also experienced fewer falls, which is important because injuries from falls are a serious health risk for older people.19 These and other studies suggest that with more focused research, carefully designed gardens and outdoor spaces may supplement, or even be used in lieu of, medical therapy or prescription medicine. Some doctors and treatment centres are exploring the cost effectiveness of nature-based healing environments and may find that being in well-designed outdoor spaces is a way to reduce the high costs of care for mental health.20 BIO/
Kathleen L. Wolf, Ph.D., is a Research Social Scientist at the University of Washington, College of the Environment, in Seattle. she is also a collaborating scientist with the usda forest service, pacific northwest research station.
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REFERENCES 1 WOLF, K.L., AND A.S.T. ROBBINS. 2015. METRO NATURE, ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH, AND ECONOMIC VALUE. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 123, 5: 390-98.
KAPLAN, S. 1995. THE RESTORATIVE BENEFITS OF NATURE: TOWARD AN INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 15, 3: 169-182. 12 BERMAN, M.G., J. JONIDES, AND S. KAPLAN. 2008. THE COGNITIVE BENEFITS OF INTERACTING WITH NATURE. PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 19: 1207– 1212. 11
WOLCH, J.R., J. BYRNE, AND J.P. NEWELL. 2014. URBAN GREEN SPACE, PUBLIC HEALTH, AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: THE CHALLENGE OF MAKING CITIES ‘JUST GREEN ENOUGH’. LANDSCAPE AND URBAN PLANNING 125, 234-244.
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PLAMBECH, T., AND C.C. KONIJNENDIJK VAN DEN BOSCH. 2015. THE IMPACT OF NATURE ON CREATIVITY – A STUDY AMONG DANISH CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS. URBAN FORESTRY & URBAN GREENING 14, 2: 255-263.
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WOLF, K.L., M.K. MEASELLS, S.C. GRADO, A.S.T. ROBBINS. 2015. ECONOMIC VALUES OF METRO NATURE HEALTH BENEFITS: A LIFE COURSE APPROACH. URBAN FORESTRY AND URBAN GREENING 14: 694-701.
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KUO, F. E., AND A.F. TAYLOR. 2004. A POTENTIAL NATURAL TREATMENT FOR ATTENTION-DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER: EVIDENCE FROM A NATIONAL STUDY. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH 94: 1580.
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MURRAY, C.J.L., AND A.D. LOPEZ (EDS). 1996. THE GLOBAL BURDEN OF DISEASE: A COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT OF MORTALITY AND DISABILITY FROM DISEASES, INJURIES AND RISK FACTORS IN 1990 AND PROJECTED TO 2020. GLOBAL BURDEN OF DISEASE AND INJURY SERIES, VOL. 1. HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MA.
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TAYLOR, A.F., AND F.E. KUO. 2009. CHILDREN WITH ATTENTION DEFICITS CONCENTRATE BETTER AFTER WALK IN THE PARK. JOURNAL OF ATTENTION DISORDERS 12, 5: 402-09.
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WHITE, M.P., I. ALCOCK, B.W. WHEELER, AND M.H. DEPLEDGE. 2013. WOULD YOU BE HAPPIER LIVING IN A GREENER URBAN AREA? A FIXED-EFFECTS ANALYSIS OF PANEL DATA. PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 24, 6: 920-28.
ASPINALL, P., P. MAVROS, R. COYNE, AND J. ROE. 2015. THE URBAN BRAIN: ANALYSING OUTDOOR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY WITH MOBILE EEG. BRITISH JOURNAL OF SPORTS MEDICINE 49: 272-76.
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MAAS, J., R.A. VERHEIJ, S. DE VRIES, P. SPREEUWENBERG, F.G. SCHELLEVIS, AND P.P. GROENEWEGEN. 2009. MORBIDITY IS RELATED TO A GREEN LIVING ENVIRONMENT. JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AND COMMUNITY HEALTH 63, 12: 967-973.
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KIM, W., S.K. LIM, E.J. CHUNG, AND J.M. WOO. 2009. THE EFFECT OF COGNITIVE BEHAVIOR THERAPY-BASED PSYCHOTHERAPY APPLIED IN A FOREST ENVIRONMENT ON PSYCHOLOGICAL CHANGES AND REMISSION OF MAJOR DEPRESSION. PSYCHIATRY INVESTIGATION 6: 245-254.
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GLADWELL, V.F., D.K. BROWN, C. WOOD, G.R. SANDERCOCK, AND J.L. BARTON. 2013. THE GREAT OUTDOORS: HOW A GREEN EXERCISE ENVIRONMENT CAN BENEFIT ALL. EXTREME PHYSIOLOGY & MEDICINE 2, 1: 3. 8 SHIN, Y.K., K. JUNG-CHOI, Y.J. SON, J.W. KOO, J.A. MIN, AND J.H. CHAE. 2013. DIFFERENCES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS BETWEEN MEDITATIVE AND ATHLETIC WALKING IN A FOREST AND GYMNASIUM. SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF FOREST RESEARCH 28, 1: 64-72. 9 MAYER, F.S., C.M.P. FRANTZ, E. BRUEHLMAN-SENECAL, AND K. DOLLIVER. 2009. WHY IS NATURE BENEFICIAL? ENVIRONMENT AND BEHAVIOR 41, 5: 607-643. 10 KAPLAN, R. 1993. THE ROLE OF NATURE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE WORKPLACE. LANDSCAPE AND URBAN PLANNING 26, 1-4: 193-201. 7
MCCAFFREY, R., C. HANSON, AND W. MCCAFFREY. 2010. GARDEN WALKING FOR DEPRESSION: A RESEARCH REPORT. HOLISTIC NURSING PRACTICE 24, 5: 252-59.
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DETWEILER, M.B., P.F. MURPHY, K.Y. KIM, L.C. MYERS, AND A. ASHAI. 2009. SCHEDULED MEDICATIONS AND FALLS IN DEMENTIA PATIENTS UTILIZING A WANDER GARDEN. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE AND OTHER DEMENTIAS 24, 4: 322-332.
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WOLF, K.L., AND A.S.T. ROBBINS. 2015. METRO NATURE, ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH, AND ECONOMIC VALUE. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PERSPECTIVES 123, 5: 390-98.
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Physical activity in the outdoors can help lower feelings of distress and help reduce depression. Guy Kramer
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Notes: A Miscellany of News and Events
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books Few Ontarians are familiar with the fruit of the pawpaw tree (Asimina triloba), and yet it is native, intriguing, and delicious, tasting like a cross between a banana and a mango. A new book calls this edible rarity “America’s forgotten fruit.” You can read all about it in Pawpaw by Andrew Moore, published by Chelsea Green and available in bookstores and online retailers. Closer to home, an extensive booklet written by Dan Bissonnette and published by the Naturalized Habitat Network of Essex County & Windsor, The Pawpaw Grower’s Manual for Ontario, examines the pawpaw from an ecological, historical, and horticultural perspective. To order a copy, visit www.naturalizedhabitat.org.
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The Ontario native tree Asimina triloba (pawpaw) produces the largest native edible fruit in Canada. Lorraine Johnson
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new members The Ontario Association of Landscape Architects is proud to recognize and welcome the following new full members to the Association: 02
in memoriam Neil Pike The OALA is saddened to announce the passing of Neil Pike, who passed away suddenly on March 18, 2015, at the age of 64 in Markham. Neil joined the OALA in 1985, and was a Full Member for 30 years. Neil was a beloved father to Ian and loving brother to Ray. Neil will be dearly missed by many, many friends and those he met through his landscaping company. Neil founded his landscape design and construction company, Neil E. Pike Ltd., in 1971. He was a passionate and gifted designer and he loved working with all his clients. Each project, small and large, received his personal attention, and his clients were appreciative. His scope of work included award-winning residential estate landscapes in Rosedale and Forest Hill, and an outdoor chapel in the Muskokas. Neil consistently hired young landscape architects and designers, and encouraged each to strive to do their best through his mentoring. A book will be added to the OALA library and a memorial tree will be planted at the Guelph Arboretum Wall-Custance Memorial Forest in Neil’s name.
event Back for a second year, Go Wild Grow Wild Expo 2016 celebrates the Carolinian Canada region of Ontario, with businesses, experts, and organizations gathered on April 2, 2016, at the Western Fair Grounds in London to share information about this unique ecozone. For more information, visit www.gowildgrowwild.ca.
Zara Brown
Matthew Madigan
Jia Cheng
Glen Manning
Steven Euser
Katherine Peck*
Michelle Gignac*
David Reid
Shannon Harbers*
Diane Relyea
Raphael Justewicz
Erika Richmond*
Walt Kuniec
Louise Thomassin
Andrea Lewis*
Jennifer Williamson
Asterisk (*) denotes Full Members without the use of professional seal.
summit From October 16-24, 2017, Montreal, a UNESCO “City of Design,” will host the 2017 World Design Summit. An international event, the summit will host 18 simultaneous congresses with more than 100 topics and 4,500 delegates in attendance from 80 countries. There will also be an exposition with more than 350 exhibitors. Delegates will represent six professional disciplines associated with the built environment: architecture, landscape architecture, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, and urban planning. For more information, visit www.wdso-osmd.org.
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Neil Pike Courtesy of OALA
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introducing...
permeable pavements
Imagine no more puddles, no more sloping pavements towards drains, no more drains and no more burden placed on existing over-taxed stormwater systems. Oaks permeable products are uniquely designed pavers that reduce the potenial for flooding by allowing storm water to pass through the pavement surface into a special open-graded aggregate base. With many beautiful colour options, modern finishes and unique textures available, Oaks’ permeable products offer you landscape solutions that are beautiful, flexible and envrionmentally friendly.
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Register Today! .30
iidexcanada.com
Be Inspired
The best products, projects and ideas
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30,000 attendees & 1,600 exhibitors
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Stimulating keynotes, seminars and tours
Be at IIDEXCanada 2015
Wednesday, December 2 – Thursday, December 3 Metro Toronto Convention Centre, North Building
IIDEXCanada is part of The Buildings Show, North America’s largest exposition, networking and educational event for design, construction and real estate, including:
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How can a slide become more than just a point a to point b journey? Find out with Unity Slide Climber TM
These questions inspired Playworld® to create the Unity Collection—classic play structures reimagined to infuse more action, and greater connectivity. Unity brings refreshing new possibilities to classic play forms, and new excitement to the playground. Watch the entire Unity Collection in action at: PlayworldSystems.com/Play-Unites
ads15SS3066 © 2015 Playworld Systems®, Inc.
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We make gray spaces green...
Tree Planting Systems Soil Support Cells Tree Guards & Grates Street Furnishings PLANT A BIG IDEA. WATCH IT CHANGE A CITY. We don’t just want more urban trees – We want them to last.
The Silva Cell’s open, modular design protects soil under paving, providing maximum rooting area for the tree and allowing
water to permeate the entire soil column.
With the goal of improving urban planting success and increasing leaf canopy in our cities, GreenBlue tirelessly analyzed the challenges and reasons for premature mortality in urban trees. We then examined the impact that poor planting has on urban infrastructures and designed practical products and systems to address them.
This means healthier, longer-lived trees and a truly sustainable urban landscape. www.deeproot.com
greenblue.com 1.866.282.2743
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Developing Common Ground ™ • Landscaping • Streetscaping • Environmental Restoration • Earthworks • Terraseeding • Wholesale Nursery ContaCt us for a Competitive estimate. 905.887.1599 geoscapecontracting.com
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COIVIC SPECIMEN TREES
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text by Lorraine Johnson 01-03/
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The Living Tribute honours Canada’s war dead by planting memorial trees along the “Highway of Heroes.”
How do you take a number that represents infinite grief and loss and turn it into something hopeful and full of life?
Megan Esopenko
The Living Tribute campaign plans to plant more than 117,000 trees, each one a memorial to the more than 117,000 Canadians who have lost their lives in war. The trees will line the “Highway of Heroes”—the stretch of Highway 401 between the Canadian Forces Base in Trenton and the Etobicoke interchange near the coroner’s office. The group behind this effort—a coalition called Trees For Life, notably championed by Mark Cullen—also plans to plant more than 2 million trees on private and public lands adjacent to the highway—one for each person who has ever served in the Canadian Armed Forces. To learn more, or to contribute, visit www.hohtribute.ca. BIO/ Lorraine Johnson is the Editor of Ground.
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I N N OVAT I V E T R E E GR AT E S
MODERN FENCE SYSTEMS
RECYCLED OUTD OO R F U R N I T U R E
Park Street brings together top tier manufacturers to offer the best in environmentally responsible, high quality, design-focused solutions for the Canadian Landscape Architecture, Interior Design and Architecture communities.
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YOUR ONE VISION. OUR
INFINITE CHOICES.
ENVISION. Begin with your inspired vision. COLLABORATE. Trusted, experienced and on the cutting edge of paving stone technology, the Unilock team has the expertise and customer service to fully develop your creative paving designs. CREATE. Unilock will create a unique look for your next project. Optimizing size, colour, finish and texture, our team will work closely with you from start to finish to make your designs a reality.
PROJECT: Waterloo Region Courthouse, Kitchener, Ontario DESIGN: Dillon Consulting PRODUCT: Promenade™ Plank Paver with Series 3000® finish
Contact your Unilock Representative for samples, product information and to arrange a Lunch & Learn for your team.
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1-800-UNILOCK