Ground 38 – Summer 2017 – The Commons by Ground Magazine

Landscape Architect Quarterly

Features Indigenous Place-Making

06/

Round Table What is the Future of the Commons?

08/

Climate Change and Landscape Architecture

16/

Publication # 40026106

CSLA Awards

20/

OALA Awards

24/

Summer 2017 Issue 38

Section

.30

Slide Hill, Governors Island, New York City West 8 received a 2017 Honor Award from ASLA-NY for "The Hills"

FPO EARTHSCAPE is a single-source for

designing, building and installing custom play sculptures and structures. We have

worked with some of the most prestigious

Landscape Architecture firms in North America to bring brilliant playground concepts to life.

earthscapeplay.com ● 1.877.269.2972

Paul Coffey Playground, City of Mississauga

Masthead

.38

Editor Lorraine Johnson

2017 OALA Governing Council

Photo Editor Zhebing Chen

President Doris Chee

OALA Editorial Board Julius Aquino Shannon Baker Nadia D’Agnone Jasper Flores Eric Gordon Ruthanne Henry (chair) Vincent Javet Eric Klaver James Nelson MacDonald Phil Pothen Katie Strang Andrew Taylor Beatrice Saraga Taylor Dalia Todary-Michael Shawn Watters Jane Welsh

Vice President Jane Welsh

Web Editor Jennifer Foden Art Direction/Design www.typotherapy.com Advertising Inquiries advertising@oala.ca 416.231.4181 Cover From Extraction. See page 21. 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 © 2017 by the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects All rights reserved ISSN: 0847-3080 Canada Post Sales Product Agreement No. 40026106 See www.groundmag.ca to download articles and share content on social media.

Treasurer Kendall Flower Secretary Stefan Fediuk Past President Sarah Culp Councillors Steve Barnhart Cynthia Graham Cameron Smith Associate Councillor—Senior Justin Whalen Associate Councillor—Junior Trish Clarke Lay Councillor Linda Thorne Appointed Educator University of Toronto Peter North Appointed Educator University of Guelph TBC University of Toronto Student Representative Leonard Flot University of Guelph Student Representative Lauren Dickson OALA Staff Executive Director Aina Budrevics Registrar Ingrid Little Coordinator Sarah Manteuffel

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 39 (Fall) Spontaneous Ground 40 (Winter) The North Deadline for advertising space reservations: October 10, 2017 Deadline for editorial proposals: August 11, 2017

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, FCSLA, 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 Victoria Taylor, OALA, Principal, Victoria Taylor Landscape Architect, Toronto Jim Vafiades, OALA, FCSLA, Senior Landscape Architect, Stantec, Toronto

TO view additional content related to Ground articles, Visit www.groundmag.ca.

.38

Contents

Up Front Information on the ground

03/

The Commons: Indigenous Place-Making

06/

Tiffany Creyke, Ryan Gorrie, Sam Kloetstra, and Andrea Mantin, OALA, in conversation

Round Table What is the future of the commons in the context of increasing urbanization and privatization?

08/

moderated by Beatrice Saraga Taylor, OALA

Climate Change and Landscape Architecture

16/

Jane Welsh, OALA, and Colleen Mercer Clarke in conversation

CSLA Awards

20/

OALA Awards

24/

Research Corner Faith and silviculture

28/

Text by Camilla Allen

Plant Corner Deterring deer

30/

Text by John A. Morley, oala

Notes A miscellany of news and events 32/

Artifact Pressings

42/

TEXT by lorraine Johnson

Summer 2017 Issue 38

President’s Message

Editorial Board Message

President’s Message

Editorial Board Message

As we close the first half of the year, surrounded by warmer days, there is much excitement about upcoming vacations, longer daylight, and other summer delights. Perhaps there is a lull during the months of July and August that allows time for reflection and a moment to celebrate success from the year so far.

We hope that this issue of Ground comes at a time when readers will have a bit of quiet time to reflect on the landscapes around them, the cultural as well as natural heritage values of these landscapes, and their relevance for local communities.

I am very pleased with the numerous activities that have happened recently for our association. In April, we held a Queen’s Park Day and Reception with members of provincial parliament, and had a tremendous amount of support from OALA members from across southern Ontario. Many MPPs remarked on how impressed they were with the level of engagement and knowledge of our members. We also had the privilege of having the premier of Ontario, the Honourable Kathleen Wynne, attend and meet many of our landscape architects. Our level of support from meeting with ministers, MPPs, and opposition critics, continues to grow. We have received letters of support from a number of MPPs across all parties. Other allied professional groups have an increased awareness of our effort to achieve a Practice Act. Key to that discussion is our relationship with Landscape Ontario, an organization with which we continue to have meaningful conversations about how we can best support one another. We are thankful for their commitment and for their time over the past year. As landscape architects, much of the beauty of our work can be thoroughly enjoyed in the summer. I hope you take some time to relax and enjoy. Doris Chee, OALA oala President president@oala.cA

This issue’s theme—the commons—is a great launching pad for these considerations. The Round Table addresses how our common spaces will be shaped by increased density and urbanization. Katie Strang’s article on Willowbank School of Restoration Arts reflects on the school’s importance as a resource for those interested in heritage conservation. Colleen Mercer Clarke, a landscape architect who originally trained as a marine ecologist, talks with Jane Welsh, OALA Vice President, about climate change considerations for the profession. And, we present a conversation with members of the Indigenous Place Making Council in discussion with a non-Indigenous landscape architect. We hope this finds you enjoying “the commons,” whatever this means for you. Ruthanne Henry, OALA Chair, Editorial Board magazine@oala.ca

Up Front

.38

01 Food

small space production How much kale can you grow in 1/100th of an acre? This is the research question Maura McIntyre, co-owner of the Island Café on Ward’s Island in Toronto, set out to answer in a well-documented, carefully formulated project in the summer of 2016. In an 18’ by 24’ bed in front of the café, McIntyre demonstrated that you could grow a lot of this currently-in-vogue and delicious leafy green: 476.75 pounds. “I drew inspiration from the local food movement,” says McIntyre, a self-taught gardener and Ward’s Island resident for the past 35 years. “It got me thinking: even though the park is very well used, there’s lots of room—many corners where we could grow food.” Because the Toronto Islands are cityowned parkland, McIntyre requested and received permission from the parks supervisor, who enthusiastically embraced the experiment. A parks crew prepared the ground, removing the sod, tilling the soil, and adding peat moss and compost in April. For the next five months, a team of volunteers, mainly Island residents but with many parks visitors, too, watered, weeded, and harvested the kale weekly, with a regular maintenance and weighing/recording schedule.

Up Front: Information on the Ground

McIntyre wasn’t sure how many people would get involved in the project, and was happy that a volunteer crew of approximately 10 people took part regularly. “I felt like I was setting up for a party, but I didn’t know if anyone would come,” she explains. “It was really heartening.” McIntyre notes that the volunteer crew included an Island resident who recently turned 100 years old and who would show up for Tuesday night harvesting events on her tricycle.

commitment from the beginning that it would look nice all the time,” she says, noting that she had informal discussions with Island resident and landscape architect Jerry Englar prior to his death in May, 2016.

Although the Island is already a very close-knit community, the kale garden proved to be a place where all people (visitors to the park and residents) could connect through a common purpose and activity; the garden became a social place of connection: “The simplicity and obviousness of it really resonated with people. Growing and sharing good food was very social and very satisfying,” says McIntyre.

Text by Lorraine Johnson, author of City Farmer: Adventures in Urban Food Growing and editor of Ground.

As for her choice of kale for this local foodgrowing experiment, McIntyre explains that it’s a very ornamental, nutritious plant that produces prolifically from May to December; it’s virtually pest and disease resistant; and it’s a cool-weather crop that grows well on the Island. “Plus, we’re in a bit of a kale moment,” she wryly notes. Indeed, her life partner, Peter Freeman, also co-owner of the Island Café, became almost evangelical about introducing people to the deliciousness of kale, demonstrating culinary techniques such as massaging the leafy green for salads. The kale project was about maximizing production, but the aesthetics of the garden was key for McIntyre: “I made a

The social ethic of sharing—skills and food—informed the kale garden from the start. The 476.75 pounds of this fresh, nutritious vegetable were free for the taking (after being weighed), with the last harvest taking place just before October 7—National Kale Day.

03 01/

The Kale Pilot Project on Ward’s Island, Toronto, demonstrated that a great deal of food can be grown in a small space.

IMAGE/

Lorraine Johnson

02-03/

Food projects such as this are often a great way for people to connect.

IMAGES/

Jim Belisle

Up Front

.38

04 Heritage

willowbank school Willowbank School of Restoration Arts, founded in 2006, with its first graduating class in 2009, is a young school, on a site with a very long and fascinating cultural history: an 1834 estate, a 1914 schoolhouse, and an 8,000-year-old portage route. Set in Niagara-on-the-Lake’s historic village of Queenston, Willowbank is surrounded by signs of Loyalist history. Acting Executive Director Timothy Vine locates the campus’ historic buildings on a continuum that includes the community of Queenston, the natural landscape, and 8,000 years of Indigenous inhabitation. “Indigenous people have been using [the site] for millennia. We have archeological evidence of ceremonial sites existing here that could have been used by the Neutral peoples that lived here and traded with the powerful Wendat and Haudenosaunee Nations.”

Since 2014, Willowbank has honoured that historical relationship with a community garden on site, developed in partnership with local First Nations. Designed around a medicine wheel, the garden has become a place of counsel between Elders and young people. It is the 1834 estate house, the first building acquired by the school, that led to Willowbank’s status as a National Historic Site of Canada. According to the Canadian Register of Historic Places, the Willowbank estate typifies ideals associated with colonial settlement in Upper Canada during the early 19th century. In 2003, the building was saved from demolition by the school’s founder, the late Laura Dodson. Restoring the estate house is one of the many projects that Willowbank students have undertaken to learn traditional skills, such as historic carpentry and masonry. Their ecological approach to heritage cultural landscapes often means trying to do this type of material conservation without a lot of heavy machinery or modern materials.

However, Timothy Vine stresses that beyond having a low environmental impact, embodying the school’s values requires considering the less visible history of a site. “We like to look at heritage rooted in its cultural and natural environment. We like to understand it as comparable to an ecosystem that has brought about, and continues to carry, a historic building. If you’re looking at adaptively reusing that building, the social considerations are important. How was it used in the past, and what new cultural practice are you bringing to it? How will that impact the immediate environment and the community?” Although the practical skills are often the hook that draws students to Willowbank, Vine believes there is something for everyone at the school. “There’s such a wide variety of courses within our curriculum that people get exposure to traditional craft, contemporary design, and a landscape approach to historic sites and built history. Instead of permanent faculty, we have intensive courses taught by people who are practising what they are teaching. So students get the theory of landscape

Up Front architecture from professionals in the field who come in to teach a course, and then they get practical skills like dry-stone walling and timber-frame construction. As students, you have the option of concentrating on the aspects of the curriculum that fascinate you. We have a third-year internship that allows students to pursue something of greater interest to them in the field, like working for the Ontario Heritage Fund or documenting historic barns in Nova Scotia. We have students who come from an academic background, and students who come to refine their craft of stone carving.” The public is able to experience some of what Willowbank has to offer by attending the lectures and workshops put on by the school’s outreach arm, the Willowbank Centre. The annual Stonesthrow Stone Festival is a multi-day fall event that celebrates one of the most basic building materials with short courses in stonework and demonstrations by expert craftspeople. Events such as “Ecology Re-imagined: Nature and Culture in Historic Places,” the Willowbank salon broadcast on CBC radio in August, 2016, allow the school to reach a wider audience. For students, the Willowbank Centre is a resource network and lifeline to the heritage field beyond the rural campus. Receiving the Centre’s Susan Buggey Fellowship in Cultural Landscape as a student encouraged heritage planner Angela Garvey to become involved in the dialogue around cultural landscape theory, and led to a long-term role as a Centre Associate and occasional

.38

instructor. Currently, she is participating in the Canadian National Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS Canada) to map a Canadian perspective on the changing discussion around cultural landscapes. She describes the tension between Willowbank’s ecological focus and a traditional, materialcentric approach to conservation as being an open topic of discussion within the curriculum. “Coming to a place where cultural landscape is seen as a layered and dynamic process was like finding a life-raft among the rules and regulations of heritage planning.”

“It draws people who are doing parallel things together twice a year from all over North America so that the Willowbank Operations Director can use them to answer questions, which gives them the direction to push the envelope. The restoration world is moving from one of modification…to one of adaptive reuse, and it’s not necessarily easy and straightforward how you accomplish that,” says Dark.

Garvey describes the value of community engagement as being an important way that Willowbank has influenced her current practice at the Toronto firm ERA Architects: “One of the ways I try to maintain a cultural landscape lens is by being part of the community engagement process during projects.” As a private school, Willowbank operates without the public funding received by most Canadian universities and relies on tuition fees and donor support. Determining ways to support the school is part of what attracted landscape architect George Dark, OALA, FCSLA, FASLA, to the Board of Directors in 2014. Bringing his long-standing interest in social enterprise, honed at the Center for Social Innovation, and an appreciation for experiential learning, Dark helped to assemble the academic advisory council for Willowbank.

Dark further notes, “Willowbank has access to an interesting cross section of people; among others, it includes David O’Hara, OALA, a landscape architect and manager of Fort York; Clinton Brown, a restoration architect from Buffalo, New York; and Dr. Victoria Dickenson, who was the executive director of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. We could never assemble all these like-minded people to work there, but as an advisory council we can be a resource, which is important because a traditional university would have access to many professionals.” The dedication and interest this school inspires is probably its greatest resource. Although just over 50 students have graduated from Willowbank since it opened in 2006, 95 percent have gone on to work in the heritage field. Despite its size, Willowbank is clearly making an impact. Text by Katie Strang, a member of the Ground Editorial Board, and a landscape architectural intern at bsq Landscape Architects. 04-05/

The 1834 Greek Revival-style heritage building at Willowbank is set in a huge estate lawn and overlooks the village of Queenston.

IMAGES/

Courtesy of Willowbank School of Restoration Arts

06/

A community garden on site was developed in partnership with local First Nations.

IMAGE/

Courtesy of Willowbank School of Restoration Arts

Indigenous Place-Making

.38

Tiffany Creyke, Ryan Gorrie, Sam Kloetstra, and Andrea Mantin, OALA, in conversation BIOS/

Tiffany Creyke is Tahltan from Northern British Columbia, the Program Coordinator for the Indigenous Place Making Council, and a Community Planner who specializes in Indigenous Community Planning. Ryan Gorrie, a member of Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek (Sand Point First Nation on Lake Nipigon), is a registered architect, an Associate of Brook McIlroy, and a founding board member of the Indigenous Place Making Council. Sam Kloetstra is a founding board member of the Indigenous Place Making Council and a public engagement specialist. Andrea Mantin, OALA, is a landscape architect at Brook McIlroy who, prior to studying landscape architecture at the University of Toronto, received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Art History from Concordia University and a second BFA in Studio Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

Andrea Mantin (AM): In municipal projects, we’re starting to witness that there’s the will to do the work of meaningful connection with First Nations, but there is not a recognition of the amount of time and sensitivity that needs to be introduced into the beginnings of the project. How best to approach communities, as a non-Indigenous person, about having these conversations in a way that’s not being too pushy and asking too much? What is the most sensitive way of approaching it? It’s something that’s come up in a number of conversations where an honest desire to do the work is starting to really be there. More people want to do the right thing, or do it in the right way, but they’re looking for a path forward. Ryan Gorrie (RG): That’s where the Indigenous Place Making Council comes into it. Building relationships is key. Place-making is a way of doing that, but there has to be an introduction and a will on both sides to entrench that kind of process. AM: It seems to me that there are two ways of looking at relationship building. One way is to create the relationships first, and then

it’s not as a means to an end, but it’s a way of expanding your community and involving more people in the conversation. Another way is to engage this act of place-making as part of relationship building itself. Tiffany Creyke (TC): It’s about listening— listening more and taking it in, and really taking the time to do that. In this society, we want professionals to talk and lead, but that’s not the way that Indigenous place-making works. You have to sit back and listen, and build relationships with the communities you want to work with. How you present yourself is very important, and it’s not just through language. I feel like reconciliation has become such a buzz word, especially as we’re coming up to, you know, a “birthday”; but it’s important to realize that a lot of communities have a really hard time with that word. To many it’s just another word for colonization, so you have to be very cautious of that. AM: I sat in on a Grade 5 class recently, for an engagement process, and it was amazing to see the teacher asking questions and exploring ideas about colonialism, such as the idea that land ownership was a Western

Indigenous Place-Making

.38

centres like Toronto, we’re doing reconciliation on our terms. We’re moving the conversation from imposed satisfaction for our people—like, you will be satisfied with this process—and we’re bringing people into something that we’re actually able to shape and mould. The reason I think that the Indigenous Place Making Council and the work we’re doing is so powerful is because it’s co-design. I mean, it is the truth that comes here for the reconciliation because we are teaching each other at the moment. Before this, it was a very onesided teaching where it was always us as Indigenous people who were treated as if we apparently didn’t know. I’m entering into a whole new world of architecture and design planning, and I have architects who have been doing this work for thirty years and they ask me, “Well, what is Indigenous architecture? Is it a teepee? Is it a wigwam? Is it circles?” In my mind, the first thing I think of is the Spirit Garden and the work that Ryan is doing. It’s not so much anything that is historical as it is something that is living and breathing, something that we’re able to mould as people. As soon as an Indigenous person designs something that’s unique, something that is bound in their culture, then that is Indigenous architecture. It doesn’t need to be 15,000 years old. It can call back to those times, for sure, but it can be very much what we would see now today in a contemporary time.

construct. He was encouraging the children to be very sensitive about the way they spoke and to think about land and culture. It was remarkable and invigorating on one level, but it also made me so aware that I had not received that kind of education. It’s striking to be an adult and come to that realization. The kids were able to think and talk about these things in a way that I was never taught in school. This conversation is critical in terms of relationship building and listening and allowing for a different way of thinking moving forward, and for the idea of reconciliation. The conversation that was happening in that classroom is very difficult to have in a boardroom when you’re trying to talk about park development. Education is a big way forward. TC: Reconciliation is the education of truth. Indigenous place-making in urban centres is important because with displacement, you need safe places for gathering where you are able to connect to someone else as Indigenous people. That’s why it’s important in the city. RG: My struggle with the whole reconciliation piece is that it feels like there’s a timeline, and we need to get onboard. I mean, it’s going to be a long process. I always go back to an example of when an Elder came up to me, and she said that she’s proud of me. I’d never met her before. But she just had so much pride that someone she could relate to was doing this kind of work, and this gives purpose and energy to what I’m doing. Sam Kloetstra (SK): I’ve thought a lot about the context of reconciliation and placemaking. With any work I do, I look at the idea that we are forced to reconcile or that we must reconcile in order to move on. This shapes the way I look at the world. If I want to enter into a conversation as an Indigenous person with someone who is not Indigenous, ultimately, the conversation will lead to reconciliation. Usually, it’s not me who’s bringing it up. It’s not me saying, “Well, let’s reconcile.” When we do place-making, especially in urban 03

The most important thing for me is that as a youth, and as an Anishinaabe youth, when I enter into the city of Toronto, when I go to Thunder Bay, when I go to Winnipeg, when I go to these cities, that I feel at home and that I see myself reflected in them. I remember when I moved to Toronto a few years ago, and I was walking down the streets, and there was nothing. There were small plaques here and there that are mostly about historical instances where an Indigenous person interacted with a non-Indigenous person, but other than that, I wasn’t able to feel at home until I could delve fully into the community, which is much more cerebral as opposed to physical. I think that what we’re doing now is we’re taking that concept and we’re making it physical. We’re saying, well, we can feel at home as a community, but let’s shape our geography, our environment, to reflect that. I don’t want other Indigenous youth coming to Toronto and not seeing themselves reflected in it. 01/

Mohawk College Hoop Dance is an outdoor pavilion that was developed through a collaborative design process between Brook McIlroy Architects; Mohawk College; Aboriginal students of the college; and Elders and members of the Six Nations First Nation and Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation communities.

IMAGE/

Tom Arban

02/

Baggage Building Arts Centre with Jardin Elipse, Thunder Bay

IMAGE/

Brook McIlroy Architects/David Whittaker

03/

Thunder Bay Spirit Garden

IMAGE/

Brook McIlroy Architects/David Whittaker

Round Table

Moderated by Beatrice Saraga Taylor, oala

.38

Round Table

.38

02 BIOS/

Lauren Baker has spent the past twenty years working on issues related to sustainable food systems. She is currently working for the Global Alliance for Future Food, a coalition of philanthropic foundations aligning their work around sustainable food systems, looking particularly at the true cost accounting of these systems. Jake Tobin Garrett is the manager of policy and planning for Park People, a charity founded in 2011 based on the idea that when communities get involved, parks get better. Park People works with a number of park friends groups in Toronto to improve and animate public spaces around the city, funding toolkits and resources, with granting programs directed mainly towards under-served neighbourhoods. Adam Nicklin, oala, co-founded the firm Public Work, with partner Marc Ryan, five years ago. Public Work is a design studio of landscape architects, architects, planners, and engineers, united by a passion for the public realm. Dylan Reid is one of the founders of, and a senior editor at, Spacing, a magazine that addresses public space issues. He is also the co-founder of Walk Toronto, was the previous co-chair of the Toronto Pedestrian Committee, and the co-founder of the Toronto Coalition for Active Transportation. His book, The Toronto Public Etiquette Guidebook, came out in May, 2017. Beatrice Saraga Taylor, OALA, is a senior landscape architect at Fox Whyte Landscape Architecture and Design, a small firm that specializes in private residential and commercial work. Previously, she worked in the public realm at the City of Toronto as a senior project coordinator and at the Town of Richmond Hill designing playgrounds, parks, and trails. Taylor also worked at Sasaki Associates on large-scale master plans for international clients. She is a member of the Ground Editorial Board. Brenda Simon is the Director of Play Programs at Earth Day Canada, where she focuses on piloting play programs that give children the time, place, and permission to play freely in environments that support their health, development, nature connection, and random creations. Her background in human rights advocacy, public policy, and urban planning informs this place-making for children. Netami Stuart, OALA, is a former member of the Ground Editorial Board.

Beatrice Saraga Taylor (BST): In this Round Table, we’d like to explore the question: what is the future of the commons in the context of increasing urbanization and privatization? Landscape architects never work alone, and particularly when we’re working on common spaces, we need a lot of feedback and guidance from allied professions. So I’m happy to have a diverse group here today, including activists, writers, designers, and social thinkers. What are some of the new and innovative ways of sharing landscape spaces, natural resources, and public spaces that may impact how designers design shared outdoor spaces? Lauren Baker (LB): I come at this question from two angles. One is from a global food systems perspective. Of course, we’re very reliant on the commons for food, and I think we need to stretch our thinking about what we mean by the commons. We need to recognize that our food systems are dependent on ecological and social commons, and that the impact of those systems can be both positive but also extremely negative. The second angle is in terms of the city region, and thinking about urban-rural linkages—about agriculture, ecological goods and services, and what it means to take a landscape approach to connecting agriculture and conservation, the economy, and public space. Brenda Simon (BS): The predicament that children find themselves in, in the intensified city, is that they’ve lost their commons and they’ve lost their social space, and with it their capacity to self-direct and have a community of other children to be with in an unregulated way. While adults suffer from the loss of common and communal experiences, children do more than suffer.

01/

Bendale, a school in Toronto, integrates a food systems approach to education, including a market garden program in partnership with FoodShare.

IMAGE/

Lauren Baker

02/

Based on the principle of “Good Healthy Food for All,” the Good Food Box is a non-profit fresh fruit and vegetable distribution system operated by FoodShare.

IMAGE/

Lauren Baker

They actually experience a barrier to their development. So the loss of the commons for children has become a public health crisis. Children are suffering from obesity, they’re suffering from anxiety disorders, behavioural and learning problems in school, and, increasingly, young adults are encountering depression. What we’re trying to do at Earth Day Canada is to open up this field, and in a paradoxical way, we’re trying to actually plan for spontaneity and create programs that create unregulated space for children. With our pop-up adventure playgrounds, we go into a park, basically with a garage full of stuff on wheels, and create an unregulated space for children to explore in self-directed play for a few hours. We’re using this program to model a new way of thinking about parks, a higher standard of performance criteria for parks with respect to children’s recreation. We have a similar program that we’re piloting at schools with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB). We have a third program for street play in collaboration with the City of Toronto to pilot a permit system that allows residential streets to be taken back from cars for two or

Round Table

03-04/

Children playing on an open street in Seattle

IMAGES/

Seattle Department of Transportation

three hours at a time. It’s a partial closure, but the idea is that the permitting system would be much less onerous than for a total street closing and would allow this intermittent, easy-going repossession of a street to take place. In all three programs, we’re trying to leverage public space for specific play programs for children. Jake Tobin Garrett (JTG): At Park People, we have a really broad definition of what a park is. It’s really any publicly accessible open space that people use as a park. That’s a very different definition from what the City of Toronto uses. We work in city parks, of course, but we also work in Hydro corridors, Toronto Community Housing neighbourhoods, school sites, and on private land in high-rise tower neighbourhoods. We have a broad conception of what public space is, based on how people actually use that space. Netami Stuart (NS): When I came to Toronto to study landscape architecture, I came from an arts and social science background in Montreal, and I thought I was going to come and learn about collective decision-

.38

in the built form; Market Street [in Toronto], for example, is a street where during the winter months part of that space is for parking, but then during the summer months that parking space becomes a patio space for cafés. It’s another kind of flexible street where it can have a different purpose at different times.

making as it manifested itself in built form and public space. Sixteen years later, I have come around to that in a very complicated way, but I think some of the questions that have recurred over my career relate to how we make decisions about the way public space is managed and designed and operated. As a designer trying to understand how design modifies the possibilities for common resource management, whether it’s open space or an ecosystem that provides services that are common to the city, I think how we make decisions about how those things are built and managed is extremely important. Dylan Reid (DR): Streets are actually the biggest public space we have in the city. In Toronto, for example, roadways take up about 25 percent of the city’s land surface, and most of that is for cars. If we start thinking about streets as flexible spaces, then we think of them as spaces that aren’t just for cars. For example, they can be places where kids can take over, or places for festivals in the summer. You’re starting to see that also

BS: We’re doing some research now about Toronto’s Adventure Playground, on the waterfront, that closed in the early 1980s due to development. It was a place where children could self-regulate, supported by staff who were play-workers. Some of the key people involved in designing that space were landscape architects: Bill Rock, Michael Moffat, Jerry Englar. Children could feel that they really owned it. This model arose from Britain during World War II, when children were playing in bombed-out spaces, and it was very dangerous; but with supervision, children could enjoy the benefits of these open common spaces without the danger. The beauty of the adventure playground is that it isn’t landscaped. But it holds a lot of fascination for children because they ’re landscaping it, they ’re building it. They’re moving soil, they’re erecting their own structures using tires and wood. They’re playing with the environment, as well as being in it, and that’s part of the fascination for them. For the age group between 7 and 14, they’re desperately in need of opportunities to take

Round Table over and manage space. It’s like a dress rehearsal for the more complex decisions about shared resources in the adult world. What we’re trying to do is to model parks that are more challenging, interesting, and varied, offering more opportunities for children in that age group. We’re competing with the wild freedoms of technology and virtual reality. We are trying to create an embodied world that they will want to occupy. There’s a lot of thinking that needs to be done about how to design parks for that age group. BST: In terms of the commons and the layering of different uses, and mitigating those uses in dense cities where everybody wants that piece of land for something else, how do we delegate decision-making and how do we design that to work well? BS: There’s a continuum of adventure playgrounds that we are starting to advocate. One is a destination playground, which we had in the 1970s up until the early 1980s, that was a ramshackle-looking place full of adventure and fascination for the children who went there.

.38

and want to play with but you don’t have to leave it outside. The park can serve diverse communities over the course of a day. DR: Can a flexible street become a playground for 9-year-olds, and if so how would you design it? Would it make streets safer in general? LB: There are changing and evolving social and cultural norms in relation to the way we use space. People have different ideas and aesthetics in different communities and come from places outside of Toronto where, yes, they were playing in what we would consider to be unsafe streets and environments or using their streets very actively in different ways than we do in Toronto. This diaspora of people should inform our ideas about space. The cross-cultural and global exchange that’s happening in our city around some of these issues is so exciting right now. JTG: There’s a re-emergence of the idea of a park as a social space and maybe a market space. I’m thinking specifically about the Thorncliff Park Market where there’s com-

Another model we’re looking at is how to leverage local parks that have tremendous but unused assets into something more interesting for children between 8 and 14. One way is through our pop-up program where the stuff comes out, it gets played with, and then it gets put away. The idea is that you can have a garage on wheels or a shed full of stuff that kids find very interesting 05

mercial activity in the park but it’s positive for the community. Park social environments are becoming much more interesting in terms of programming types. In the past, there was a lot of nature focus and a lot of recreation focus, and now it seems that people are interested in things like shipping container cafés in parks or movies in the summer. Farmers’ markets have been happening in parks for a while, but community marketplaces—where people are actually selling goods they made themselves—is a use that challenges some bylaws and ideas of what we think is appropriate in a park. I think it’s good to do that. NS: You can’t manage a commons unless you can talk to your neighbour. And you can’t talk to your neighbour until you start talking to your neighbour. And you can’t have better meetings until you’ve had a million awful ones. And so it’s that practice that happens in public space and by virtue of a public space that has a common good that people all want in on, and we need to talk about how they run it. If you think about organizations that are connected to a space, how can those spaces facilitate people in towers next door being involved in them and getting to know each other through that space? How can that space be a catalyst through the way it’s designed to get people to organize and become involved? BST: When spaces are really successful, or are suddenly being used in a flexible way that they were not necessarily designed for, at times this ends up depleting the very thing that people love about the place. I’m thinking of Queen’s Park North in Toronto, where large groups often congregated—the City had to put a moratorium on events because spontaneous social activities were actually killing all the trees, due to the compaction of the soil, and killing all the grass. The same thing happened in St. James Park, in Toronto, with the Occupy camp. The park was totally destroyed. Does anyone have an example of how to build resilience into our public spaces so that there’s a balance between drawing

05/

A pop-up food market in Moss Park, Toronto

IMAGE/

Lorraine Johnson

06/

Taste of the Danforth street festival, Toronto

IMAGE/

Rocco Rossi

Round Table

.38

08 07-09/

Pop-up Adventure Play produced by Earth Day Canada in parks across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area

IMAGES/

Brenda Simon

Adam Nicklin (AN): Washington, D.C., and Central Park in New York City are places that have been through similar problems in needing to deal regularly with massive, organized events. This is a huge issue, but surprisingly, in most cases underuse of public spaces is a bigger issue.

by separating different users, they tended to move faster and with less regard for the users around them. Same with parks, same with playgrounds. Playgrounds get CSA approved, parks need a ball park, they need fences around them, they need a dog park, etc., so planning the park becomes a similar activity to zoning the city itself—that is, a process of deciding who doesn’t want to be next to each other, and somehow separating them.

Urban planning is a process of reconciling conflicting uses. We even started zoning streets, but, in fact, streets used to be fairly social places, fairly haphazard, until we started to standardize and engineer them. To be fair, the goal was safety. But it didn’t necessarily work out that way, because

The idea of friction is pretty intriguing to our firm. In streets, in parks, and in cities, actually putting things that might not seem initially well suited directly next to each other, can produce exciting results. We call this “positive friction.” If you eliminate all instances of friction, you don’t have cities anymore. Cities

many people to a park and making sure it’s well loved, and also ensuring its longevity and its ecological sustainability?

are resilient, and I think we’ve not trusted that resiliency as much as we could. BST: I’m wondering if the privatization of the commons has affected your work, either positively or negatively? For example, in New York City, there are many parks that are maintained and operated by a “Friends Of” group. What does that do to the perceived notion of who can access that park, what’s allowed, what’s not allowed? There are positives and negatives to privatization, or perceived privatization, of public assets. JTG: Privatization is a very complicated word. It gets people’s backs up a bit. We work with funders to bring some private funding into parks, but the way we think about it is that it’s got to have some sort of

Round Table

take environmental action on their land to improve water quality or increase biodiversity. The third example is Black Creek Community Farm, in the community of Jane and Finch in Toronto, a community that has the least access to green space in the city and scores lowest on the city’s neighbourhood equity index. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority has leased land to community organizations for a farm. This has provided incredible enhancement to and access to green space. But it’s also extremely problematic in terms of ownership, as the community becomes more and more invested in that space, yet long-term access remains tenuous. In all of these examples, it’s about relationships and partnerships and figuring out new ways to come up with ideas and work together to make the best of it.

10 10-11/

Black Creek Community Farm, in the Jane and Finch neighbourhood of Toronto, is on land leased by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.

IMAGES/

Lauren Baker

additive nature to it—that we’re adding programming elements or something that might not have been there already. So our granting programs, our community-based projects, are basically for programming in public parks. At the core is our belief that the city has an obligation to provide the core funding for operations and maintenance. There are examples of public spaces in the city that are actually privately owned, mainly in the downtown, such as POPS [privately owned public spaces], and there are problems associated with them. The idea of getting public space for free is very enticing because land is very expensive; plus, the city doesn’t have to maintain these privately owned public spaces. But how much public benefit those spaces provide to anyone outside of the condo development is sometimes a little bit suspect. They don’t always read as public spaces to people. So, it’s very complicated. DR: There is a spectrum. For example, there are also instances in which public space is made into private space, and there are

.38

problems with that as well. There are programs in some cities where store owners are required to allow people to use their washrooms. This is in a sense taking over private spaces for public use, so I think it’s useful to think of it as going in both directions. There is definitely an insertion of the private into public space. There are examples of private owners being required to provide additional features to the public space and maintain it. For example, they might provide a certain customization to street furniture, so that instead of the same furniture all over the city, there’ll be a diversity. LB: Here are three examples of that. In New York City, the Trust for Public Land is working with the school board to have school grounds, which are locked up in the evenings, opened and accessible to the community. Another example is that a large percentage of land in southern Ontario outside of the built environment is privately owned by farmers. Farmers are stewarding all these natural heritage features, and programs such as Alternative Land Use Services, provide farmers with incentives to

JTG: I bristled at the word privatization because I don’t think that is what’s happening, in the sense of cutting something out of the public realm or out of public ownership and transferring it. It’s more about seeing opportunities for involving different partners. Those might be private foundations, or community groups, or nonprofits. There are a number of different types of relationships and some exciting work that’s happening, such as Black Creek Community Farm or community gardens in Hydro corridors. These are interesting intersections between private non-profits, foundations, cities, provincial governments, and other sorts of organizations, and I think that’s the secret sauce to a lot of the projects we’re seeing. DR: Projects that weave the public and private together help to get private people engaged with the public realm. NS: In Toronto, we are both blessed and cursed with a very strong culture of civic consultation. I know from having been part of the civil service that the reaction to different kinds of partnerships and interactions between the city and other organizations is motivated by a genuine fear that the public good will be diluted in some way. If we don’t fight for public ownership and operation of parks, then we won’t have any legally guaranteed and legally protected publicly owned spaces. And just because it’s publicly owned doesn’t

Round Table

.38

necessarily mean that it’s a commons or that it’s well managed or that it’s managed collaboratively with the community, or that decisions are made properly. But at least it’s legally protected. LB: There’s uneven application across Toronto in terms of who reaps the benefits of our attention to public space. Social and economic inequality go hand in hand with access to public space. We need to pay attention to this. BS: There’s a continuum of private intrusion into public space. Sometimes it is extremely beneficial and promotes access, but it can also go too far. Consider, for example, the four-acre school ground, which has been a planning standard since the 1920s. That land is a tremendous public asset that’s very under-utilized by children and communities. We should be puritanical about defending it as public space and about using private incursions to leverage that space to better, and higher use, but not giving up public ownership. We have seen some developments in which a school board profits by selling the land and building, allowing a condo

to go up and they get a new school out of it. That’s okay once or twice but if it becomes the pattern for future development in the city, we’re going to lose those four-acre common spaces, which would be a terrible loss. Also, in the last 25 years, with increasing privatization and downsizing of public programs, governments have not wanted to fund operations. Operations are seen as too expensive; governments only want to invest in capital projects. Projects may be built at great expense but then are not used enough because of limited ideas about use that are intrinsic to the design. A good example of this are playgrounds in the suburbs. Increasing operational funding means that these assets will get the programming they need so that they can really be used. BST: I would add maintenance to that, because assets need maintenance to sustain programming. Politicians are happy to invest capital in new parks or in a new amenity within a park, but not so much in the operations and the maintenance of that asset, so then it’s not sustainable. There’s no ribbon cutting when you hire five extra park staff. But there should be.

JTG: The growth in the conservancy model in the United States, in New York and other cities, really came from a retreat from local government to funding things like operations and maintenance, with the result that a lot of public spaces fell into disrepair. Private citizens stepped up to form groups to do that. We haven’t seen that happen in Toronto yet, but we have to remain vigilant and advocate for those budgets to increase. AN: If you make good public space and it attracts investment in terms of better development, then it increases the tax base. Then you can actually fund maintenance and operation of the park spaces. The conservancies went after specific funds for specific places. I’ve heard reasons why that’s a good thing; I’ve heard reasons why that’s a bad thing. But it’s another way of putting money into a pot for things that simply wouldn’t be covered by normal funding mechanisms. LB: This reminds me of the poverty reduction strategy for Toronto. One of the key themes through the whole strategy was the community’s desire to access space in new ways.

Round Table

.38

13 12/

A structure at the Berkeley Adventure Playground, Berkeley, California

IMAGE/

Charlie Vinz

13-14/

The simplest of materials, such as hanging tires, can provide kids with ample opportunities for play.

IMAGES/

Brenda Simon

BST: I’d like to talk about public consultation and whose voices are being heard. Private interests have a very strong voice, backed up with money and a plan and a strategy. Whereas some other more marginalized communities may have economic barriers or language barriers, so their voices are not being heard. DR: I heard a story about trying to redesign a park in Denmark. They had consultations in which people came out, and then they realized that a lot of the people in the park were people who were homeless and/ or alcoholics. So they actually went to the park with a case of beer and got people to come and just talk about the park and what they wanted. Eventually that reshaped the park as a place where people could hang out and feel comfortable. JTG: It seems like there’s a better way to do it by actually going into the park and allowing people to experience what it could be. I’ve seen Vancouver do this, by putting a poster board out in the park and holding a consul-

tation in the public space. Of course, that makes sense only in summer. But if you’re hosting events or doing different programs that bring people out into the park, then you’re also mining information about how people want to use that space and maybe you’re also getting them to think about different ways of using that park. AN: What I hope we’re doing better—and what makes for a better conversation—is addressing whole systems of streets and public spaces, rather than tackling them individually, and isolated. If this street can’t have biking on it, can another one have biking on it? If this street is more about transit, can we make it an amazing transit street? If this one’s about walking and socializing, can we have fewer vehicles on it? Or maybe that one’s going to have to have more vehicles. It’s a matter of trying to illustrate to people that it’s all working within a whole system, which of course takes trust. And it’s the same with parks. You can’t fit everything in every park, so you look at the constellation of parks of different sizes and different kinds of character within a district, and try to paint a picture for people of how they’ll have better adjacencies to more things, by sharing them amongst those different places. The very nature of being in a dense environment is that you don’t repeat everything over and over. Cities need to get really good at mixing things up so we can cope with denser environments. I think that’s our key. If we can unlock that, we’ll have great cities.

BS: I want to mention a consultation that didn’t start off that way but became a process of consultation. We were doing a pilot in the Toronto District School Board where we were training schools to provide enriched play with loose parts. We bring this medley of up-cycled stuff, some of it is natural, some of it is man-made, and the kids build their own playground. What’s evolved over the year of the pilot is the realization that the kids are showing us what they want in the way of capital improvements. The play is manifesting what’s needed, what is working and needs support, and what needs to be added. What the TDSB is seeing is that we can use this full one-year training, with all the roll-out of the kids playing with these movable pieces, as a way of deepening our understanding of what’s needed for capital improvements. We can get the conversation away from playground equipment and the inequities between schools where one parent community can raise $300,000 and another can’t. We can talk about much smaller capital improvements that are supporting the real things that the kids are doing. And that’s the best way to get their opinions on what’s needed. It also really deepens the understanding of the children and the play as well as the role of the built environment in supporting their active learning and development. It didn’t start off as a consultation, but it became that.

Climate Change and Landscape Architecture

.38

Colleen Mercer Clarke in conversation with Jane Welsh, OALA

Climate Change and Landscape Architecture

01/

Colleen Mercer Clarke

IMAGE/

Paul Couvrette

.38

Climate Change and Landscape Architecture

BIOS/

.38

Colleen Mercer Clarke, apala, FCSLA, is a member of the Interdisciplinary Centre on Climate Change (IC3) at the University of Waterloo; Chair of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects Task Force on Adaptation to Climate Change; and Chair of the International Federation of Landscape Architects Working Group on Climate Change. Jane Welsh, OALA, is Project Manager, Environmental Planning, Toronto City Planning, and Vice President of the OALA.

Jane Welsh (JW): You were a marine ecologist. What made you decide to take your masters in landscape architecture and become a landscape architect? Colleen Mercer Clarke (CMC): In the 1970s, I did a lot of work on coastal development and with offshore oil and gas, so I was involved in environmental impact assessments. By the mid-1980s, I was getting increasingly frustrated because we weren’t really applying what we knew environmentally to what we were designing municipally and industrially. When I applied to the University of Guelph to do my masters in landscape architecture, I thought I was leaving ecology behind and instead just going off to do historic landscapes, and marine parks, and things like that, because I was so frustrated. But from the minute I graduated, it was my background that interested employers, because I could either do or manage the environmental assessment work, and then turn that into site development planning and design. It’s a testament to the profession of landscape architecture that we are melded to the natural environment: we know how ecological systems work, and what they need, and we’re always looking for opportunities to protect those systems, and to enhance them where possible. JW: Low-impact development has become a bit of a catch word. Everybody’s talking about it… 02/

Colleen Mercer Clarke moderated a panel discussion, “Innovative Design in a Changing World,” at the 2017 OALA AGM & Conference.

IMAGE/

Paul Couvrette

CMC: Climate change is giving new life to already established principles such as low-impact development. It’s moving it from number eleven or twelve on a list of ten things to do with your money, right up to the top two or three things to do with your money. Because there’s an imperative to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, people are much more interested. JW: From what I understand, insurance companies are really pushing it. CMC: Yes. I’m a member of the Interdisciplinary Centre on Climate Change at the University of Waterloo, and in the last ten years, we’ve created quite a fruitful partnership with the insurance sector in Canada, which has seen diminished profits because there’s been one massive disaster after another. The industry has gone into an inward-looking process to say, “We can’t keep paying out, that’s not sustainable.” So, they’ve been doing a lot of work with universities across the country, and trying to understand what the flood risks are, and what the changing flood risks are, because it’s a moving target.

It’s hard for people to get their head around the fact that the environment they see in front of them can dramatically change. If they haven’t experienced it, they can’t visualize it. In climate work, we talk a lot about this. If your grandparents didn’t talk about what they saw with the great storms, then it’s out of human memory and these events become almost mythic—relegated to things that are never going to happen. JW: Until they do. CMC: One of the most difficult things in my line of work is to catch the imagination of the people you’re talking to. You don’t want to be like Chicken Little saying, “the sky is falling,” but at the same time you want people to understand that what you’ve always known is not what your children will know. I’ve had discussions with planners and engineers from municipalities, and they are concerned about liability exposure. They are being told by scientists and professionals that there are dangers to their community posed by the changing climate. So, they’re wondering: if I do not inform property

Climate Change and Landscape Architecture

.38

owners, insurers, and lenders, where are my liability exposures? I’ve been relatively abrupt with people. Your job is first and foremost to protect the public good. The risk has changed. The risk is elevating.

That’s how I got involved in doing climate change research. JW: One of the keys is making climate change real for people.

whether or not there should be an industrial development on that section of coast, or should it be turned into a national park. He said that in Great Britain, the landscape architect is the architect of the landscape.

I went to a presentation by a lawyer who practises at a relatively large firm. And she talked about torts, which we all, as professionals, operate under. “Did we do the minimum that someone in our profession would do?” is the due diligence defence. She then said, “I was with my twelve-yearold last night, and I asked him to Google ‘climate change global warming Canada,’ and he came back with forty-eight pages of printouts.” And the lawyer held them up and said, “You have no due diligence defence.” That sent ripples through the two hundred people in that meeting. If a twelve-year-old can pull this stuff, and you as professionals are doing development and you’re not paying attention to it, you have no due diligence defence.

CMC: As one of my colleagues said, unfortunately, one of the best things that happens to us in this field are disasters. That’s a bittersweet statement, because it wakes people up.

It’s fine if you spend three days on your curb design, as long as you understand the purpose for the curb in that area, and that the development you’re working on reaches its highest and best potential.

I talk with a lot of scientists; these are conservative, calm, lovely, gentle Canadian public scientists. They spend a lot of time in their offices hovered over computers, and doing replicable research. And they are terrified about what’s happening.

JW: At the World Design Summit [to be held in October, 2017, in Montreal], you’re going to be leading a panel on climate change.

JW: What compelled you to do your research and your PhD on multidisciplinary teams? CMC: I came out of that generation of people who saw the fisheries crash, we saw coastal environments go downhill, we saw the same thing happening worldwide on an ever-increasing scale, and so I went back to do a PhD to basically provide the research that backed up my conclusion, which is that we didn’t know enough about what was going on in our coastal marine environments in Canada—the longest coastline in the world, and we didn’t know enough. Not only that, but we weren’t even asking. Part of my research was funded by the Canadian Healthy Ocean Network. A group of us learned, in 2008, that there was a grant program that had just come out on Climate Change Adaptation. So, we put an application in, which looked at how communities need to adapt to the changes coming.

This is connected with discussions that are happening now within the profession of landscape architecture and the effort to get a Practice Act. I’ve always felt that when we examine ourselves to determine whether or not we meet the standard of a landscape architect, we spend too much time with the details, and not sufficient time with the ethic of the profession and the reason for the profession. Whether or not you can design the best curb detail in the world will not help your contribution to how the landscapes in Canada are changing as a result of climate change. We need to understand that what makes us landscape architects are the things that we can do that no one else can do. As a profession, we do not put enough emphasis on our being architects. The emphasis is on the word landscape, and then I find that a lot of young people don’t have a clear understanding of what it is to be the architect for the site. Forty years ago, I talked to the dean of the landscape architecture school at the University of Edinburgh; he said that in Great Britain, the emphasis was not on whether or not the landscape for an industrial development along the coast was done well, but on

CMC: Yes, we’ll be talking about three overarching principles to guide decisionmaking in planning and design in terms of climate change: being resilient, transformative, and sustainable. If practising professionals examine their work against those three principles, they will be better able to grapple with the challenges that are coming as the environment changes. JW: Although the following has been threaded throughout our conversation, I want to ask: what should landscape architects be doing in the face of climate change? And are you hopeful, are you optimistic about our ability to be resilient? CMC: Yes, I always have been. The sky is not falling, but things are changing. We need to be up for whatever challenge comes at us; we need to figure out the answers to the problems we face. Don’t expect that there will be a solution ready and to hand, because the things we’ve come to depend on might not be there. So, things will change, but we will survive, and our community and our family will survive, and we’ll go forward as a society. The climate change issue has given society worldwide a kick in the pants. If I have a choice about being optimistic or pessimistic, being optimistic helps me sleep.

CSLA Awards

.38

CSLA Awards Canadian Society of Landscape Architects Awards of Excellence— Ontario Region

The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects Awards of Excellence are given for outstanding accomplishment in landscape architecture. Congratulations to the following OALA members whose projects received awards.

07 09

08 01

Project Name: The David Braley and Nancy Gordon Rock Garden at the Royal Botanical Gardens Janet Rosenberg & Studio Inc. Contact: Janet Rosenberg Category: Large-Scale Public Landscapes Designed by a Landscape Architect (over 5 ha) 04

02 01-09/

IMAGES/

The David Braley and Nancy Gordon Rock Garden at the Royal Botanical Gardens Courtesy of Janet Rosenberg & Studio Inc.

Project Description: The objective was to increase public visibility and presence for the RBG’s Rock Garden, and this was achieved through a master plan that, now implemented, improves accessibility and circulation to all areas for all guests, provides a venue to host events all year, and introduces sustainable planting characterized by environmental benefits to infrastructure.

CSLA Awards

.38

Project Name: Fowler Rooftop Virginia Burt Designs, Inc. Contact: Virginia Burt Category: Residential Landscapes Designed by a Landscape Architect Project Description: This rooftop garden combines aesthetic, sustainable, and historic design principles reflecting the outdoor living needs of a retired couple. Details include green roof, portable urban “farm,” and food preparation and gathering space oriented to capture sunsets and views.

Project Description: At the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, in Italy, this unique exhibition explored the scales and geographies of Canada’s extractive culture. Visitors were invited to kneel down—facing the pavilions of former empires of the United Kingdom and France—to peer into the ground and view a film that reveals realities of Canada’s resource mining empire around the world.

11 10-12/

IMAGES/

13-16/

IMAGES/

Project Name: Extraction OPSYS / Hume Atelier / RVTR / Beites & Co / Ecological Design Lab Contact: Pierre Bélanger Category: Communication

Fowler Rooftop Courtesy of Virginia Burt Designs, Inc. Extraction Courtesy of OPSYS/Hume Atelier/ RVTR/Beites & Co/Ecological Design Lab

CSLA Awards

.38

CSLA Awards

19 17-21/

IMAGES/

Project Name: High Point Toronto Janet Rosenberg & Studio Inc. Contact: Janet Rosenberg Category: Residential Landscapes Designed by a Landscape Architect Project Description: For this iconic modernist house and property, landscape restoration follows an earlier recommitment to its original design, heightening the horizontality through the use of accent planting and lighting to figuratively paint its outdoor room in the changing seasons.

High Point Toronto Courtesy of Janet Rosenberg & Studio Inc.

CSLA Awards

.38

Project Name: N. Residence Virginia Burt Designs, Inc. Contact: Virginia Burt Category: Residential Landscapes Designed by a Landscape Architect Project Description: With the “bones” of the garden made of the historic stone foundations, woodwork, and windows from an adjacent home too far gone to save, this garden is a modern answer to our societal need to reuse and recycle. Salvaged materials, patina intact, became walls, terraces, arbour, and sheds giving structure to both home and neighbourhood.

Project Name: Kingston Waterfront Master Plan thinc design Contact: Michael Tocher Category: Planning and Analysis | Large-Scale Design Project Description: This plan is an ambitious and detailed strategy for implementing 138 projects across Kingston’s 280 kilometres of waterfront. An extensive and collaborative public and stakeholder engagement process guided the development of exciting design solutions focused on improving access, connections, and enhancements throughout the urban and rural sections of Kingston’s waterfront.

26 22-25/

Kingston Waterfront Master Plan

26-29/

N. Residence

IMAGES/ IMAGES/

28 29

Courtesy of thinc design

Courtesy of Virginia Burt Designs, Inc.

OALA Awards

.38

2017 OALA AWARDS

Congratulations to all those honoured with 2017 OALA Recognition Awards, and a special thanks to the OALA Awards Committee: Doris Chee, Sarah Culp (chair), Nelson Edwards, Jim Melvin, Jane Welsh, Justin Whalen, and new committee member Stefan Fediuk.

OALA Awards

.38

OALA Awards OALA JACK COPELAND AWARD FOR ASSOCIATE LEADERSHIP AND CONTRIBUTION: This award recognizes the outstanding leadership and contribution of an Associate for going above and beyond to assist fellow Associates. Activities include, but are not limited to, tutorials, LARE exam help, special tasks, OALA library, special events, meeting Associates and others, including being an Associate Representative on OALA Council. This award is named after Jack Copeland. Jack was an active Ottawaarea member who passed away in 2013. Jack was an enthusiastic advocate for Associate members. Justin Whalen Justin is a great addition to the OALA Council as an Associate Representative. Halfway into his Council term, he has attended numerous OALA events, run multiple LARE study sessions, and worked hard to ensure that Associates are involved with the OALA. Justin understands first-hand the struggle of the LARE process and has spoken with BLA and MLA students about the examination process at the University of Guelph and the University of Toronto. A cheque for $500 accompanies this award to help offset the cost of a LARE exam. DAVID ERB MEMORIAL AWARD: The award is named after David Erb, who was an outstanding volunteer in furthering the goals of the OALA, and his example set a truly high standard. The award is the best way to acknowledge the one outstanding OALA member each year whose volunteer contributions over a number of years have made a real difference.

Sarah Marsh Sarah Marsh is an outstanding and tireless volunteer who has contributed at a high level of effort and effectiveness to the service of her fellow members of the OALA. Some of Sarah’s volunteer efforts include her participation on the Mandatory Continuing Education Transition Committee (2012–2015), where her volunteer contributions were instrumental in developing the Mandatory Continuing Education Program. As a member of the OALA Social Committee (2011–2015), she helped craft many events through her generous insight and experience. Serving as an OALA Councillor (2014–2016), Sarah often acted as a voice for Ottawa-area members and brought an important regional perspective to the Council table. Under Sarah’s strong guidance and efforts, the Landscape Architecture Ottawa (LAO) chapter is organized, productive, and has seen a renewal in participation and relevance. OALA Certificate Of Merit For Service To The Environment: This certificate is given to a non-landscape architectural individual, group, organization, or agency in Ontario to recognize and encourage a special or unusual contribution to the sensitive, sustainable design for human use of the environment. Contributions may have had a local, regional, or provincial impact through policy, planning or design, or as an implemented project.

Rideau Valley Conservation Authority for the City Stream Watch Program Rideau Valley Conservation Authority (RVCA) is one of Ontario’s 36 conservation authorities. City Stream Watch (CSW) is a community-based partnership that includes the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority, Heron Park Community Association, Ottawa Flyfishers Society, Rideau Roundtable, Canadian Forces Fish and Game Club, Ottawa Stewardship Council, City of Ottawa, and the National Capital Commission, and is involved in maintaining and improving the natural resources in the Rideau watershed. The RVCA promotes an integrated watershed approach—one that balances human, environmental, and economic needs. In the city of Ottawa, the ultimate goal of CSW is to improve water quality, protect water supplies, reduce flood risk, improve watershed habitats’ erosion hazard, and increase conservation lands. In 2015, 315 community volunteers worked a total of 941 hours on a number of different projects on city streams.

OALA Awards

.38

OALA Awards OALA AWARD FOR SERVICE TO THE ENVIRONMENT: This award is given to a non-landscape architectural individual, group, organization, or agency in the Province of Ontario to recognize and encourage a special or unusual contribution to the sensitive, sustainable design for human use of the environment. The contribution must emulate the fundamental principles of the OALA and the OALA mission statement and go beyond the normal levels of community action in preserving, protecting, or improving the environment. City of London for Guidelines for Management Zones & Trails in Environmentally Significant Areas The Guidelines for Management Zones & Trails in Environmentally Significant Areas were developed through a multi-year community-engagement process led by a team of landscape architects and ecologists from the City of London with support from scientists and facilitators at Dillon Consulting Inc. to develop a science-based, repeatable, and transparent trail-planning policy and process that enhance the communityengagement experience, stewardship, and protection of ecological features and functions. The “science-first” process outlined in the guidelines provide an opportunity for community members and stakeholders to review the significant features and functions present in order to make informed decisions in the trail-planning process, enhancing understanding of the Environmentally Significant Areas and local stewardship.

OALA Public Practice Award: This award recognizes the outstanding leadership of a member of the profession in public practice who promotes and enhances landscape architecture by working for improved understanding and appreciation of the work of landscape architects in both public and private practice. Alexander (Sandy) Bell for his work in the Hamilton and Halton regions Sandy graduated in 1976 from the University of Guelph with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture and commenced working with conservation authorities immediately after graduation, where he practised for nearly 40 years. He has also been involved with numerous professional associations, advisory boards, and steering committees, notably the Niagara Escarpment Parks and Open Space System Council. Sandy has been a Full Member of the OALA since 1985, and retired from public practice on December 21, 2016. He has been an outstanding leader in the conservation community. OALA CARL BORGSTROM AWARD FOR SERVICE TO THE ENVIRONMENT: This award is given to individual landscape architects or a landscape architectural group to recognize and encourage special or unusual contribution to the sensitive, sustainable design for human use of the environment. This award is named in honour of Carl Borgstrom who, of all the OALA’s founders, was the most actively in tune with the natural landscape.

Diane Matichuk During her 30-year career, Diane Matichuk, Senior Landscape Architect at Civitas Architecture Inc., has helped create sensitive landscapes that are wellrooted in the cultural and environmental values of their sites and successfully integrate aesthetics and innovation. In 2008, Civitas Architecture was engaged by Infrastructure Ontario to perform a feasibility study for the replacement of the Ottawa courthouse roofing system. The firm proposed converting the conventional inverted roofing system to a green roof, which was completed in 2012 and at that time was one of the largest green roofs in Ontario. Diane was the lead designer on the green roof project. OALA RESEARCH AND INNOVATION AWARD: This award recognizes the outstanding leadership, research, and/or academic achievements of a member(s), or nonmember(s), who, through scholarly activities, including academic papers, research, publications, books, e-applications, or public presentations, contributes to the knowledge base that furthers the advancement of the art, the science, and the practice of landscape architecture.

OALA Awards

Pierre Bélanger Extraction, a multimedia project lead by Pierre Bélanger, OALA, is a response to a call by Alejandro Aravena, curator of the International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale (2016), “to improve the quality of the built environment and consequently people’s quality of life.” The groundbreaking exhibition received the support of Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation (LACF) as a special project, and won the support of the Canada Council for the Arts to exhibit at the 2016 Venice Biennale. Extraction explores the complex ecologies of resource extraction, which mediates every aspect of contemporary urban life today. Following the multimedia installation at the Biennale, Extraction continues with a book and a tour across Canada and the United States. OALA HONORARY MEMBER AWARD: This award recognizes an OALA member and his or her professional work. It singles out specific projects to draw attention to a body of work which demonstrates outstanding professional accomplishment. There are two Honorary Member Award recipients this year.

.38

Craig Applegath Craig Applegath is the founding principal of DIALOG, a Toronto architectural studio. He was a founding Board Member of Sustainable Buildings Canada, a Past President of the OAA, and the current moderator of symbioticcities.net. He is a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. The focus of this Honorary Member Award is his deep respect for the profession of landscape architecture, which he recognizes as vital to the health, resiliency, and sustainability of our environment. MPP Arthur Potts MPP Potts, first elected as Member of Provincial Parliament for Beaches–East York on June 12, 2014, and currently the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, is being recognized for his notable contribution to the profession of landscape architecture through support of the OALA in its quest to achieve a Practice Act. Mr. Potts was the first MPP to write a letter of support for the OALA to the Attorney General and Government House Leader Yasir Naqvi. In his letter, he noted that he was impressed with the extent of impact landscape architects have on the sustainability and livability of our local environment. He was also a sponsor host for the recent OALA Queen’s Park reception.

OALA EMERITUS MEMBER: Emeritus members are full members of the OALA who have ceased full-time practice and who are nominated by another full member in recognition of their years of service to the profession. Robert Hilton Rob Hilton, an OALA member since 1981, has tirelessly promoted the profession of landscape architecture for four decades of active practice. Members who have had the honour of working with Rob have commented that they trust Rob’s enthusiasm, wit, integrity, and big-picture thinking. The landscape architectural path he forged, intentionally following the needs of the “baby boomer” population, took him to the forefront of design for emerging demographic trends on provincially significant large-scale projects in the realms of amusement/attraction parks, residential and retirement communities, and, lastly, to hundreds of cemetery commissions across Canada. The driving force behind Rob’s effectiveness in promoting the cost benefits of good landscape architectural planning and design was his passion and aptitude for land economics, demographic trends, and the business of landscape architecture.

Research Corner

.38

The extraordinary life of Richard St. Barbe Baker Text by Camilla Allen

In 1909, Richard St. Barbe Baker (1889– 1982) embarked on a journey from England to Canada which would see him settle in Saskatchewan, right in the heart of the Prairies. Upon starting my PhD in 2015 to study the life and work of this extraordinary man, I knew that a pilgrimage to Saskatoon was necessary to truly understand the impact that the country had upon him. For Baker, emigration to Canada wasn’t just a formative experience, it was one that would profoundly shape his outlook on trees, soil, and agriculture, and transform him into a radical humanitarian and environmentalist. In April 2016, I had the opportunity to retrace his steps and visit the province that was so influential on his life, exploring the connections he made with Saskatchewan and Canada by studying the Baker Papers at the University of Saskatchewan as well as experiencing the places and landscapes that were so integral to the evolution of his world view. In addition, Saskatoon happened to be the place where he died in 1982, after a lifetime of travel around the world, and it is where he is buried—under a large tree in Woodlawn Cemetery.

Baker developed an international reputation as the founder of The Men of the Trees, an international members organization through which he championed the protection of trees and forests, alerted people to the threat of land degradation and erosion, and engaged with land-reclamation projects across the world. He is best remembered for the most ambitious and visionary proposal to restore the drylands around the Sahara, which he called the Green Front and which is now known as Africa’s Great Green Wall. The Canadian context is key to understanding Baker, as it was in Canada that he first became aware of the danger posed by the erosion of the prairie landscape around Saskatoon, the shorttermism of forest harvesting, which he participated in as a lumberjack in Prince Albert, and first engaged with landscape restoration by helping plant shelterbelts around farms in the area. This formative experience was to have a lifelong impact,

and influenced his decision to switch his studies from theology to forestry after returning from fighting in the Great War. Faith and silviculture were intertwined throughout his personal and professional life, and underpinned the ideology which his life’s work was to share. After completing his studies, Baker embarked on a career that took him around the world with periods in Kenya, Nigeria, and Palestine, before arriving in the United States in 1930. He was a pioneer of agroforestry and

01/

Richard St. Barbe Baker promoting his plan to reclaim the Sahara

IMAGE/

Courtesy of University of Saskatchewan, Baker Papers, Special Collection and Archives

02/

Terre en Mouvement was a ballet tribute to the life of Richard St. Barbe Baker.

IMAGE/

Courtesy of University of Saskatchewan, Baker Papers, Special Collection and Archives

03/

The striking geometry of the Dominion Land Survey, visible from the airplane from Winnipeg to Saskatoon

IMAGE/

Camilla Allen

Research Corner

.38

Creek nature reserve with its pasque flowers and the distant memory of the buffalo herds, to the uniformity of the arable fields, to the contemporary threat to Saskatoon’s street elm trees from Dutch elm disease.

ideological influence of Canada on Baker’s environmental philosophy is critical to an understanding of the development of his career and the international network of tree-lovers–both within and outside the professional world of forestry and landscape—that he gathered in his wake.

social forestry as well as being a strong proponent of sustainable forestry and the economical use of timber. In Kenya, his work addressed the problems of deforestation in the territory he was responsible for by engaging the local people in treeplanting activities. In 1922, Baker used the Kikuyu tribe’s traditional social and religious customs as the foundation for the Dance of the Trees, an event that soon evolved into a voluntary tree-planting group called the Watu Wa Miti–People of the Trees—the precursor to The Men of the Trees, which was formed in Britain in 1924. The archive held at the University of Saskatchewan was established by Baker before his death and offers an unparalleled opportunity for research into his extraordinary career. The

The shelterbelts that have been an established part of the Canadian landscape since the turn of the 20th century were instrumental to the theory that Baker proliferated around the world and still form a key part of the activity of the organization he founded, The Men of the Trees. Travelling to Saskatoon allowed me to spend time exploring the landscape of the prairie, which really rooted the understanding that I developed about Baker’s time in Canada before the First World War: seeing the lines of the Dominion Land Survey from the airplane coming into Saskatoon from Winnipeg; viewing his homestead record and maps of the territory in the regional archives and then exploring the site in person with a local environmental campaigner who is working to protect and enhance the Richard St. Barbe Baker Afforestation Area on the outskirts of Saskatoon. Seeing the Saskatchewan grasslands with all their contrasts was critical to my understanding of Baker: from the untilled land of Beaver

Spending time in the archive meant I was able to discover papers and documents that I did not know existed: from childhood memorabilia and photos of Baker as a boy and young man, to a telegram from Indira Gandhi, which was received upon his death alongside all the international coverage and obituaries. Getting to watch on 16mm film the footage of the Sahara expedition that he undertook in 1952, while leafing through his companion’s account of the trip, bought the events to life: the sound of the projector in a darkened room meant I felt much closer to the way in which he would have shared his adventures with audiences around the world during his public lectures. The experience made what had always been intangible, tangible. I also gained an understanding of the connections that Baker made with people in Canada and the impact that he had upon them. Upon his death, it was in Canada that a conference in his memory was held at the University of Saskatchewan, the proceedings of which bear witness to all the people who contributed, including academics, foresters, and ecologists. In Toronto, which unfortunately I wasn’t able to visit, Coronation and Battery Park were planted by the local Men of the Trees group with specimens to commemorate the Commonwealth and Canadian servicemen who had fought overseas. There is also the tantalizing advertisement for a ballet that was created after Baker’s death and performed in Toronto. Poetry, art, music, and dance were all ways in which Baker envisioned people engaging with forests and nature, and I know that it would have given him great pleasure to know that he had been memorialized in those artforms. BIO/ Camilla Allen studied landscape architecture at the University of Sheffield and has stayed within the department to continue her research on Richard St. Barbe Baker in her PhD. Camilla’s 2016 trip to Canada was made possible after she was awarded travel grants from the Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation and the Canada UK Foundation. More information about Camilla’s research can be found at her website, www.radicalsylviculture.com. Follow her on Twitter @CamillaAllen

Plant Corner

.38

meal, soap, live capture, and other devices, products, and techniques have all been used with minimal to no success.

03 Text by John A. Morley, oala

Planting to Prevent Predation

02 01/

IMAGE/

02-03/

IMAGES/

04/

IMAGE/

Deer can do enormous damage to designed landscapes and natural areas. John A. Morley Physical barriers can be used to prevent deer damage to plants. John A. Morley Evidence of deer damage John A. Morley

“Standing, lying down, feeding, running for its life, it is always incredibly graceful, and adds beauty and animation to every landscape— a charming animal and a great credit to nature.” How different it is today from the time when John Muir, the eminent ScottishAmerican (1838-1914) conservationist, naturalist, and environmental philosopher, penned these comments about the white tailed deer. The habitat range for the white tailed deer (Odocileus virginianus) extends through most of Canada, much of the United States, into Mexico, and ultimately southwards into Central and South America. Deer are often a problematic pest where urban and rural environments come together. In short, anywhere where plant material and an appropriate habitat is found may be an ideal environment for deer within an urban/rural community. As the natural habitat of deer decreases due to urban expansion, and as the population of deer increases beyond historical norms, in part due to the loss of predators, the harmful effects of deer to plant material within botanical gardens and private residences intensifies. Numerous control measures have been considered and used in order to control deer. Fertility control, deer herd management, commercial repellants, motion sensors, wire cages, electric fencing, noise makers, blood

During a recent visit to Kingsbrae Gardens in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, I spoke with Tim Henderson, the CEO of this 27-acre botanical garden. He indicated that, in 2014, they had experienced a loss of $100,000 in their historic hedge collection and that they had spent $80,000 for replacement plants for perennials and hedging material. After unsuccessfully using numerous deer control measures that are currently on the market, they ultimately installed a 10-foot-high fence around the entire perimeter of the gardens in order to maintain their unique collection of plants. In 2015, in consultation with the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources as well as a local archery club, they were able to conduct a culling of the herd by removing three bucks out of a herd of twenty. This operation was successfully conducted when the garden was closed to the public during the hunting season. Today, whenever deer come onto their property by jumping over a cattle guard that is located at the entrance of the parking lot, staff from Kingsbrae Gardens fan out and are able to herd the deer along the perimeter of the garden to a corner fence opening that enables the deer to escape. Within the town of St. Andrews, N.B., some people don’t want to invest money in plants anymore because the plants simply supplement the diet of deer. Some homeowners within the town have taken measures to erect fences on their own properties. It is not uncommon to see “urbanized” deer roaming the streets of St. Andrews at any time of the day. In the spring of 2016, I visited Lorne Fast, manager of the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens, in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Of the

Plant Corner

issues with deer at this site, he indicated that there is “no easy solution for controlling deer.” Historically, particularly in 2006, significant deer damage took place in the rose garden when their major seasonal display of tulips was almost completely destroyed. The problem has intensified so much during the past decade that a well-documented Ministry of Natural Resources study was conducted that not only highlighted the number of resident deer found on the grounds but also suggested possible control measures. As at Kingsbrae Gardens, Mr. Fast went on to say that the only practical control measure is the installation of fencing around the entire property. Fortunately, at the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens, the intention of the commission is to ultimately fence the entire property to keep out deer. In the past six years, an estimated loss of more than $235,000 has occurred due to deer browsing at this garden. Fencing has been used in a limited way around different areas of the garden, including the rose garden, the parterre garden, and seasonal beds. The Thuja collection is fenced on a year-round basis, as is the Rhododendron collection. While fencing may be the best solution to controlling deer, aesthetically, it’s not a very attractive design statement. Individual wrapping of select plants is also done at this garden. In 2015, the depth of snow was minimal at best and very little damage occurred to the plant material. Extensive deer browsing is exacerbated by excessive snow depth that reduces the availability of food. For the first time since the winter of 2015, new vegetative growth of Rosa was being eaten by deer. It would appear that deer are able to quickly adapt their eating habits as land development intensifies and as various control measures

.38

are implemented. Nearby, immediately adjacent to the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens, there is evidence of deer “rubs” or “scrapes” on the sides of Thuja trees, revealing how deer mark their territory. Throughout my career, I have observed deer problems from central Texas to Pennsylvania, to eastern Canada, as well as here in Niagara-on-the-Lake, where I live on top of the Niagara Escarpment. Every fall, without fail, on my own property, I must resort to selectively wrapping what used to be a prized collection of sizable Rhododendron specimen plants, all of my Taxus plants, Erica, and many other evergreen plants. I have also gone to the expense of installing a new fence around my property. Without these control measures, all of the rhododendrons would have their terminal buds consumed by the deer, all or a good part of the Taxus foliage would be eaten off as high as the animals can stretch, and a host of other problems would occur. In Niagara Falls, the construction of a nearby 18-hole golf course, the relocation of Niagara College to the toe of the Niagara Escarpment, plus the construction of a nearby housing development have all contributed to a significant loss of habitat for deer. As a result, it’s much more difficult today to successfully grow certain types of plant material than it was in the past. Based on my observations and thanks to the assistance of Lorne Fast of the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens, the following abbreviated list of somewhat “deer-proof” plants may be suitable for use in the landscape. It should be noted that some of these plants may still be damaged occasionally, while others may be rarely damaged.

Herbaceous Perennials Achillea Salvia Aconitum Solidago Ajuga Stachys Artemisia Thymus Asclepias Yucca Convallaria Coreopsis Shrubs Dicentra Berberis Digitalis Buddleia Epimedium Buxus Eupatorium Caryopteris Euphorbia Cephalotaxus Ferns Potentilla Grasses (ornamental) Helleborus Vines Iris (may eat buds) Celastrus Lamium Hydrangea petiolaris Lavandula Parthenocissus Linaria Wisteria Lychnis Mentha Bulbs Monarda Allium Origanum Colchicum Pachysandra Eranthis Papaver Frittilaria Perovskia Galanthus Pulmonaria Hyancinthoides Ranunculus Narcissus Rheum

06 05/

Structures to keep out deer can be decorative as well.

06/

Deer damage

IMAGE/ IMAGE/

John A. Morley

BIO/ John A. Morley, OALA, was Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Edmonton and Director of Horticulture at the Niagara Parks Commission; he now works in private practice.

Notes

.38

Notes: A Miscellany of News and Events parks Two recently published reports from Park People provide information of interest to landscape architects. Breaking New Ground explores urban park philanthropy (still a relatively recent phenomenon in Canada) and highlights what we can learn from the Weston Family Parks Challenge, and how we can apply those lessons to guide the future of park philanthropy in Canada. Another report, Green City, written by Bev Sandalak, looks at how parks, once thought of as places of relief from the urban condition, should be viewed as integral with city form, helping to make our cities more sustainable and resilient in the face of climate change. For more information, visit www.parkpeople.ca.

natural areas A gorgeous new coffeetable book, with photos by award-winning photographer Robert Burley, was recently published by ECW Press. An Enduring Wilderness: Toronto’s Natural Parklands, presents images of the city’s natural areas complemented by selections of poetry and prose written by celebrated Canadian writers such as Anne Michaels and George Elliott Clarke. Grouped around themes “Shoreline,” “River,” “Creeks,” “Valley,” and “Forest,” this stunning collection celebrates Toronto’s rich natural heritage. For more information, visit www.ecwpress.com.

symposium

exhibitions Hidden Valley Revealed, a juried art show, will be held at Homer Watson Art Gallery in Kitchener from September 16-October 22, 2017. (The deadline for pre-registration of submissions of artworks in any art form is August 30, 2017.) The exhibition highlights the beauty and value of preserving Hidden Valley, a 200-acre natural area of forests, wetlands, and open fields in Kitchener. This area, privately owned by a developer, has three provincially significant wetlands, endangered species such as Jefferson salamander, little brown bat, and butternut trees, and 110 species of nesting and migratory birds, deer fox, and many beavers. For more information about the exhibition, visit www.homerwatson. on.ca/juried-group-submission-forms.

With ongoing and increasing threats— such as climate change, invasive species, and watershed urbanization—how do we restore ecological function to urban ravines? This is the question to be explored at the Toronto Botanical Garden’s 2nd Annual Ravine Symposium, to be held at the Toronto Botanical Garden on November 3, 2017. Inspired by the City of Toronto’s ravine strategy, the stewardship work of community groups, and the TBG’s own expansion plans involving Wilket Creek, TBG held its first ravine symposium in the fall of 2016. Through tours, talks, panel discussions, displays, and networking, this year’s event will continue the conversations and strengthen the connections initiated at last year’s event. More information can be found at torontobotanicalgarden.ca/ symposium. 01/

Hidden Valley fall colours

IMAGE/

Alan V. Morgan

02/

Hidden Valley

IMAGE/

Anne Morgan

03/

Melanie Billark’s award-winning project, Rewilding

IMAGE/

Ruthanne Henry

04/

Grow Op 2017 opening night

IMAGE/

Gabby Frank

05/

These Toronto trees were all recognized by the Forests Ontario Heritage Tree Program.

IMAGE/

Courtesy of Forests Ontario

06/

City of London trail

IMAGE/

Courtesy of City of London

Notes

.38

pollinators

new members

Stratford recently become Ontario’s newest “Bee City.” Becoming a Bee City means a greater commitment to pollinator protection and awareness. Toronto became Canada’s first Bee City in the spring of 2016, and four other communities across the country have joined since. As part of Bee City Canada’s programs, Stratford has endorsed a resolution that promotes healthy, sustainable habitats for bees and other vital pollinators. For more information, visit www.beecitycanada.org.

The Ontario Association of Landscape Architects is proud to recognize and welcome the following new full members to the Association:

awards The winner of the OALA Ground Award at the Grow Op 2017 exhibit, held at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto in April, is Melanie Billark. Her project, Rewilding, consisted of a series of miniature, hermetically sealed wildlife sanctuaries. For information on Grow Op, visit www.gladstonehotel.com.

invasive plants The Ontario Invasive Plant Council’s AGM & Conference will take place October 10-11, 2017, in Ottawa. The event celebrates OIPC’s 10th anniversary, and invasive plant managers from across Ontario will join together to exchange information, network, and collaborate to achieve more successful invasive plant control. Registration information and other details are available at www.ontarioinvasiveplants.ca.

heritage trees Forests Ontario and the TD Bank Group have joined together to work with communities across Ontario to commemorate 150 trees through the Heritage Tree Program. The program considers trees to be living monuments and designates them based on their social, cultural, and historic significance. Heritage trees—a vital part of the landscape, whether they are growing in a forest, park, or in an urban area—are revered for their beauty, shade, and connection to history. Anyone can nominate a tree for the Heritage Tree Program. Forests Ontario provides freely accessible guides and resources on how to recognize potential heritage trees. Using these resources, individuals, community groups, and school groups can submit trees for recognition as heritage trees. Nominations are assessed by trained evaluators. Recognized Heritage Trees are added to Forests Ontario’s database that maps heritage trees across the province and shares each tree’s unique story. In addition, Forests Ontario provides a plaque to mount on the tree and a certificate. All successful nominators receive a one-year membership in Forests Ontario. The deadline for nominations is September 22, 2017. Visit www.forestsontario.ca for more information.

urban forests The Municipal Forestry Institute is offering its leadership development program in Canada, from October 15-20, 2017, in Cornwall. The curriculum for this intensive program, designed for those working in urban forestry, includes a variety of formats such as lectures, presentations, panel discussions, and group exercises. For more information, visit www.urban-forestry.com.

Kamyar Abbasi *

Stella Yuan Lin

Mylène Carreau

Jodi Liptrot

Adam Chamberlin

Michael Lunau

William Jeffrey Cock *

Justin Neufeld

John C. Duthie *

Samantha Paquette

Rebecca Ellis

Meredith Plant

Kelly Ann Gregg

Mosarrat Sharif *

Ray Harkness *

Kellie Spence

Mary Margaret Jones

Kenneth Allan

Amelia Kebbel

Wheaton *

Asterisk (*) denotes Full Members without the use of professional seal.

trails The City of London recently developed Guidelines for Management Zones + Trails in Environmentally Significant Areas (2016) through a multi-year public engagement process. Based first on ecological protection through avoidance of impacts, and secondly, the application of appropriate mitigation where necessary to avoid degradation of natural features or loss of ecological functions, the guidelines are aligned with the City of London Official Plan and guidelines developed by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and Parks Canada to manage protected natural areas. The guidelines provide a repeatable process and direction for trails and access to London’s publicly owned ESAs. For more information, visit www.london.ca.

Notes

books Sustainable Stormwater Management (Timber Press, 2017), by Thomas W. Liptan, begins with a simple, sensible premise: “Put the water in the landscape.” Using examples—mainly from the United States—of landscape projects that encourage retention and infiltration of water, this prolifically illustrated book offers practical inspiration and information regarding handling urban rain and runoff, using the landscape as an untapped resource. Ethics of the Urban: The City and the Spaces of the Political (Lars Müller Publishers, 2017), edited by Mohsen Mostafavi, the Dean of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, explores questions such as: Is democracy spatial? How are the physical aspects of our cities bearers of our values? This volume contains essays from history, sociology, art, political theory, planning, law, and design practice that explore urban spaces and the political. Bees: An Identification and Native Plant Forage Guide (Pollinator Press, 2017), by Heather Holm, is a thoroughly illustrated guide to the beauty and diversity of bees and the native plants that support them, full of inspiring information about the specialized interactions and general relationships between these insects and plants. This indispensable reference book is suitable for anyone with an interest in understanding and supporting native pollinators. Harvesting Abundance: Local Initiatives of Food and Faith (Church Publishing, 2017), by Brian Sellers-Petersen, tells the stories of gardens and food projects at churches throughout the United States. The Secret Life of Flies (Firefly Books, 2017), by Erica McAlister, explores the science of (and misconceptions

07 07/

IMAGE/

08/

IMAGE/

09/

IMAGE/

.38

Bioswale in Seattle Chris Hamby Slogans for the Twenty-First Century, by Douglas Coupland, is included in the book and exhibition It’s All Happening So Fast. Courtesy of Canadian Centre for Architecture Al Regehr Courtesy of Regehr family

about) this complex, important, and adaptive insect; an entomologist, McAlister takes the reader on a journey around the world to showcase the weird and wonderful, but especially the crucial, world of flies. Midwest Medicinal Plants (Timber Press, 2017), by Lisa M. Rose, presents, in the illustrated format of a guide, detailed information about finding, identifying, harvesting, and safely using more than 100 wild plants, both native and introduced. Unbuilt Hamilton (Dundurn Press, 2016), by Mark Osbaldeston, explores the origins and fates of unrealized building, planning, and transportation proposals from the early nineteenth century to the early twenty-first in Hamilton, through more than 150 illustrations, plans, and photographs.

environment Based on an exhibition of the same name, the book It’s All Happening So Fast (Canadian Centre for Architecture and Jap Sam Books, 2017) challenges basic assumptions about Canada’s relationship to nature and posits that our modern relationship with nature is based on a continuous succession of human-made crises, each of which demands a compensatory effort to repair the damage. Co-edited by Lev Bratishenko and Mirko Zardini, the book explores themes such as: the failure of the modern project; resource exploitation in Canada’s northern territories; development of energy infrastructures; nuclear contamination; water and air pollution; and industrial fishing and forestry operations. Beautifully designed and amply illustrated, this counter-history documents a Canada in which national parks exist on lands of displaced Indigenous peoples; the world’s first major nuclear accident occurred (Chalk River, 1952); myths of abundant water are accompanied by a shockingly disproportionate number of First Nations communities that are under drinking water advisories; and more. For information on this important and timely publication, visit www.cca.qc.ca.

in memoriam Alvin (Al) David Regehr OALA member Alvin (Al) David Regehr died peacefully, accompanied by his family and dearest friends, on May 7, 2017, at the age of 75. Al graduated from the University of Toronto in 1971, and worked in Canada and around the world as a landscape architect. An OALA member since 1973, Al was known to many for his professional achievements and multiple awards. Among them were: a heritage rose garden at Rideau Hall in Ottawa; a healing Zen garden in the Juravinski Breast Cancer Centre in Hamilton; and gardens at the Canadian embassies in Beijing, Seoul, and Astana (Kazakhstan). His workmanship was impeccable and his attention to detail provided all around him with a solid sense of purpose and direction. He was also a teacher and a mentor for many young landscape architects. Al was always willing to share his excellent technical skills with all who needed his assistance. In 1970, Al travelled with OALA member Ted Baker and other young professionals on a winter tour of ten schools of landscape architecture throughout the northeastern United States. That tour became LABash, which was first held at the University of Guelph in the spring of 1970. Al was a consummate professional. Even as he suffered serious respiratory illness in recent years, he rarely uttered any words of complaint, and would typically be more concerned about others. As is the OALA’s custom, 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 Al’s name.

NEW ARRIVAL

MELVILLE COLLECTION

Aesthetic and eco-responsible

Cassara® Verde Pavers Cassara Verde is a perfectly eco-responsible paver. Its complete vegetated paving system allows to reduce runoff water and minimizes its ecological footprint. Ideal for vehicular areas, it offers an aesthetic visual signature and complements Cassara pavers especially to manage pedestrian circulation. To learn more, reserve a lunch and learn session at your office with your Permacon representative.

PERMACON.CA

Business Corner

.38

Business Corner

.38

Soducated

“If I was this passionate, I’d get straight A’s” Greenhorizons demonstrates a standard that most competitors would see as unattainable Greenhorizons Sod Farms is Southern Ontario’s largest sod producer with three production locations totalling 4,400 acres and four distribution centres. They tackle all kinds of jobs like massive professional sports fields, high end golf courses, greenways, parks, and architectural landscape projects. Greenhorizons Turf Production Team, Installation Crew, and Maintenance Crew have all the required tools to successfully collaborate and complete extraordinary projects. They have purpose built natural turf grass maintenance equipment, floatation installation equipment and sod handling machines. Also at their disposal is a fleet of over forty delivery trucks, plus five “big roll” and five automated “small roll” harvesting machines. They have back up machines and built in redundancies to ensure that no matter what the task at hand is, and no matter what complications they encounter, the job will be completed

without delay. They provide consistent guaranteed results that will exceed your expectations. Greenhorizons have over one hundred and thirty personnel with many years of combined agronomic experience and a focused expertise in growing, establishing and maintaining natural turf-grass spaces and sports fields.

GHG ProXstablishmentTM Option for Guaranteed Success When GHG ProXstablishment™ is specified for sodded surfaces, you are guaranteed your sod will be established, healthy and vigorously growing with no visible seams or gaps. No matter the job, they forensically understand all their project sites and how to best implement processes to complete the job on time and on budget. For consistent guaranteed results that will exceed your expectations, call Greenhorizons Sod Farms today!

Serving Ontario & Surrounding Areas | 1-800-367-6995 | GreenhorizonsSod.com

Introducing the extended line of

Maintenance Free Materials Brushed Stainless Steel Ipe Hardwood Slats

Expertly Designed - Manufactured to Last

High Quality Site Furnishings. Built to Last.

PARIS S i t e Fu r n i s h i n g s

O u t d o o r F i t n e ss

VISIT US AT: WWW.PEML.COM

Stainless Hardware

PHONE: 1-800-387-6318

EMAIL: SALES@PEML.COM

New World Park Solutions

Exploring Aqualand

is proud to present aqualand where odd and mystical plants grow and where extraordinary and funny bugs live side-by-side. Foreign flora, bewitching beetles, out-of-this-world cannons, and so many other scenes that seem to come right out of a crazy and deliriously imaginative dream; this is a fantastical world that delicately integrates the concepts of chromatic and kinetic art capable of creating movement in a magical wonderland. The models in this series incorporate more modern and organic shapes than the Classics series, notably by using brushed stainless steel and Ecolor polymer which maximize the playful and sensory values of the landscape.

42 Woodway Trail | Brantford, ON N3R 6G7 (519) 750 3322 | info@newworldparksolutions.ca

FIRE • Lightweight materials • Various shapes & sizes • Glass surrounds • Propane or Natural Gas

800-268-7328 sales@hausersite.com

www.hausersite.com

Friday, August 11, 2017 Royal Ontario Golf Club

G LF DAY Sign up today at oala.ca

ACO Drain - Freestyle Iron Grates UNLOCK YOUR DESIGN POTENTIAL! With the new ACO Drain Freestyle grates you can now design your own trench drain iron grates, or choose from a large variety of existing decorative designs.

  

Use trench drain grates to complement pavement design Create customized, unique grates to enhance architectural features Incorporate a company or municipal branding in the grate design

(877) 226-4255

ACO Systems, Ltd. I info@acocan.ca I www.acocan.ca

Kontur

Inspired by Scandinavian design, KONTUR is durable and strong, yet simple and refined. Framed by two closed wire forms, a formed seat and backstop bar, Kontur is easily paired with Maglin’s Foro and 1050 Series tables.

Features: • • • • •

Bar Height Stool Steel welded construction Formed seat for comfort Stackable – 6 high Back opening serves as a handle

800 716 5506 | maglin.com

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.

This means healthier, longer-lived trees and a truly sustainable urban landscape. www.deeproot.com

Artifact

.38

01 text by lorraine johnson

While researching for a photo shoot in the Niagara Falls area, artist Dianne Davis stumbled upon two anonymous school notebooks from 1891 containing pressed plants from the area. Becoming both amateur sleuth and amateur botanist, Davis began to investigate each of the 178 plants, exploring their fate—their survival and loss. The result is Davis’ exhibition Niagara Palimpsest, which is on view at Harbourfront Centre, in Toronto, until September 17, 2017. BIO/ lorraine johnson is editor of ground.

01/

IMAGE/

Dianne Davis

02/

Common XIII, 2017 (N. Falls, Ont., 1891), from Niagara Palimpsest by Dianne Davis

03/

Rare IV, 2017 (Queen Victoria Park, NFO, 1891), from Niagara Palimpsest by Dianne Davis

IMAGE/

Common VIII, 2017 (-, 1891), from Niagara Palimpsest by Dianne Davis

IMAGE/

Dianne Davis

stronger. richer. longer.

PAVER S | WAL L S | CURBS & STEP S

Eterna

Enviro Passagio, Market Paver & Ortana

Market Paver, Gardenia Linear & Aria Step

Modan & Eterna

You’re creating an exceptional outdoor space. You need exceptional products, rich colours and a lasting finish. Oaks utilizes CarbonCure™ technology to recycle CO2 and create stronger concrete products. Our EliteFInish™ delivers richer, more vibrant colour and a harder wearing, more durable surface; while ColorBold™ technology provides a new level of colour longevity and stain resistance to keep your project looking it’s best for years to come.

OAKSpavers.com | 1.800.709.OAKS (6257)

PERMEABLE

WITHOUT COMPROMISE

Designing to be “environmentallyfriendly” doesn’t mean you have to compromise your vision. In the past, the design choice was limited, but no longer. As the leader in modular paving solutions, Unilock offers the widest selection of permeable products in the market today. Begin by choosing your size and then optimize your color, finish and texture. We will work closely with you to make your vision a reality.

PROJECT: Mary Bartelme Park, Chicago, IL DESIGN: Site PRODUCT: Eco-Priora™ with Il Campo® and Smooth Premier finishes

Permeable means rain water naturally flows between the specially-designed pavers and into the designed sub-base,

Eco-Line™

Eco-Optiloc™

Eco-Priora™

Eco-Promenade™

City Park Paver™

Thornbury™

Town Hall™

Contact your Unilock Representative for samples, product information and to arrange a Lunch & Learn for your team.

UNILOCK.COM 1-800-UNILOCK