FREE TREE CITY
a registered charity
The Site & The Proposal Location & Context The Benefits of Trees Free Trees: How & Why? Existing Programs & Use
Hydro Corridors and troubled neighbourhoods of the City of Toronto
Some of us at HydroOne are looking for new ways to use our hydro corridors. We think we can take in some money and provide some needed public service as well, especially in the cities. We want to go beyond the traditional uses that up until now, have been proposed by single users or small groups. The Leaside corridor in Scarborough intersects a variety of very different neighbourhoods in terms of culture and wealth. We can use the corridor to weave them together and improve their health and vitality
The same old stuff...
Sports
Parking
Trails
Agriculture
60
5-20
pounds of airborne pollutants filtered
percent increase of real estate value
10
750 continuously running air conditioners
1 tree What if you used the space to grow trees? Trees are important for many reasons.
but trees get too tall... we still need to get access to our lines
How about a nursery? The trees there are temporary. And better yet, we could give them away for free! FREE TREE CITY! Free trees?! Are you kidding?!
increased habitat and wildlife value
gallons of absorbed storm water
opy
can e e r t ting s i x e
17%
l
tree
a y go p o n
ca
40% The City of Toronto has a goal of increasing the tree canopy to 40% of the city. Right now its only at 17%. How can they acheive their goal when most of the city is on private land? Maybe we can work with them and provide access to this private land through a free tree program?
d eive nd? h a l c a e t e riva is b p h t s i can city w e o h h t t of s o if m
Forest Hill
Jane & Finch ...also, trees can easily cost over $100. This is a luxury many families can’t afford. Free trees allow less wealthy neighbourhoods and individuals to plant trees in their yard. Look at these comparisons!
+800 exotic s
Victorian England began a tradition of importing exotic plants for decorative purposes. This tradition was brought to Canada and has not ceased. Exotics often require higher inputs and maintenance than natives and may not provide equal benefit to wildlife. Free trees would provide incentive to shift the scales back towards native species.
1. Section 37
species in Canada
“Section 37 authorizes a municipality with appropriate Official Plan provisions to pass zoning by-laws involving increases in the height or density otherwise permitted by the Zoning By-law, in return for the provision by the owner of community benefits.� - from City of Toronto
2. CITY-WIDE carbon tAX A city-wide carbon tax takes in funds from the worst polluters and puts them into growing more trees. This has twice the impact as a fiscal disincentive as well as a method of physically reducing airborne pollution.
3 charitable donations As a registered charity, the organization providing free trees accepts donations from citizens and corporations to help fund FREE TREE CITY
4. volunteer labour Operational costs can be reduced through the partial use of volunteer labour. In 2010, over 13 million Canadians did volunteer work. 25% of these, logged over 161 hours of volunteer work that year.
Well sure, that sounds good, but how could we possibly afford to do it?
Trees will spread all across the city.
Industial Zone Ravine Corridor Hydro Corridor Existing Parks
The Leaside Hydro Corridor is not just a long strip of grass with some transmission towers dotted along it. It is filled with existing programs that will help define and enhance FREE TREE CITY.
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The roughly 16 km long section shows not only the spaces that are filled, but all those that lay empty. How can a free nursery fit among these existing conditions?
Wooded Sports Fields Golf Agriculture Transformer Station Abandoned Car Dealership Road Water Train
1:200,000
Don Mills Rd.
Beth Nelson Dr.
Parking
x3
Gateway Blvd..
x1 Bermondsey Rd.
Don Valley Pkwy.
Grenoble Dr.
x2
1:200,000
Pharmacy Ave.
Victoria Park Ave.
Eglinton Ave. E.
x5
x4
x2
Kennedy Rd.
Givendale Rd.
Birchmount Rd.
Crockford Blvd.
Warden Ave.
Brimley Rd.
Lawrence Ave. E.
Marcos Blvd.
Midland Ave.
Railroad
x2
Bellamy Rd. N.
Benshire Dr.
McCowan Rd.
x4 Daventry Rd.
x2
Markham Rd.
Ellesmere Rd.
Scarborough Golf Club Rd.
Brimorton Dr.
x4
Military Trail
Neilson Rd.
Programs Proposed Transport U-Pick Special Order Engineered Trees Education / Demonstration Ecological Transition Electric Trees + propogation greenhouses
The overhead transport infrastructure is a system that attaches to the existing hydro towers. The system is controlled via simple commands fed to a computer. Three Basic attachments exist in order to move goods efficiently across such a long site
Chain
A simple chain and hook attachment for moving crates and other like objects.
Lift
Similar to that of a forklift. It can accommodate attachments in the same way crating an incredibly multifunctional machine
Tree Spade
The tree spade uses hydraulics to dig out large trees up to 10 m tall. There are various sizes to accomodate various sizes of tree.
Plan @ 1:2000
The cornerstone of FREE TREE CITY is the U-Pick nursery. Here is where the public is able to come and choose trees for their yard or balcony. Through a combination of air-pruning pots and pot-in-pot planting, people can easily pull any potted tree right out of the ground and take it home with them.
U-Pick
Ecological Transition
1. Street Tree Catalogue Varieties of trees that are available within the U-pick Zone are showcased as a sort of catalogue as street trees. These give people a better perception of what each type of tree will grow to look like.
2. Infomation Kiosk A self-serve information kiosk is available for people to look up detailed information on the trees that they’re interested in before they take one home.
3. Pot-in-Pot Planting the pot-in-pot system allows users to easily choose and retrieve trees without any special tools. It also uses less irrigation water and fewer maintenance requirements than traditional potted methods
removable Air pruning pot
permanent pot irrigation
4. Parking / Loading Park your car along the street and search through the rows for the perfect tree, or trees. Simply pull the pot out of the ground and load it into your car.
5. Lookout / Watch Tower Towers in this section allow people to climb above the trees for an astonishingly long tree’d view. At night they act as watch towers to ensure law and order is retained in the new forest
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Plan @ 1:2000
I need some trees for a big project...not just any trees, big trees...trees that I can’t find at any nurseries around here. Some big Sycamores. I arrive and watch the crane spade digging up my order. These trees are large. I can’t believe the machinery being used to get them out of the ground. A few more years and Hydro probaby would be asking to have some of these cut down.
Special Orders
1. Large Specimens & Rare species The special order zone exists to provide specific needs not met by the U-pick area. Here people can either request a tree species or size in advance, or they can choose from a pre-selected stock of trees. Here, trees are allowed to grow to a height of 10m before they are reloved from the field.
2. Tree Spade Large tree spades track through the air along their hydro tower infrastructure. They are required to dig the large trees from the ground.
3. Storage Building This zone is a more intensively worked area and requires more in the way of machinery and vehicles than other parts of the corridor. The storage building also hosts offices and break rooms.
Rare Trees in Ontario
Sycamore
Large Tooth Aspen
Pumpkin Ash
Pig Nut Hickory
Shellbark Hickory
Black Maple
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2.
Basswood Cherry Birch
Rock Elm
Basswood
Pawpaw
3.
Plan @ 1:2000
Our FREE TREE CITY has been incredibly successful in teaching people about and connecting them with nature. The importance of trees is great, but here, we are also research how we can grow trees to acheive an increased rate of performance in urban conditions. From hybridizing for pollution tolerance, to growing square trunks for lumber, to splicing genes to create bioluminescent organisms...trees can be even more.
Engineered Trees
1. Engineered Tree fields Plots of land are laid out in different sizes to accomodate experimental plantings. Square trunks, bioluminescent leaves, functional forms, species bread to combat disease...these are all potential areas of exploration.
2. Loading Area A space near the research centre is required to load and unload new specimens and equipment. This is serviced by the overhead transport system.
3. Research Labs Research labs are located on site in order to most efficiently test and monitor ideas in the field. The lab isdevoted to finding ways of increasing the functionality of trees and exploring new niches in which they can fit. The broad goal is to move towards a living architecture
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Plan @ 1:2000
The Educational/Demonstration area is located adjacent to existing schools and parks. It is an extension, and an addition of park features to the existing sports field uses. Here lie most of the site’s existing uses, namely baseball diamonds, soccer fields, and cricket grounds. These are trasformed into community hubs with an infill of additional uses such as the orchard, greenhouse/gardening workshops, and playful plant structures for children to play.
Education / Demonstration
1. Learning Houses A series of small buildings are programmed for teaching school and community groups about the importance of native urban trees, the process of growing plants, and other fields related to FREE TREE CITY like ecology and bioengineering. Most are greenhouses for hands-on learning. Some are enclosed for presenting, lecturing, and potential community functions
2. Teaching / Community Gardens The space between the greenhouses is devoted to an extension of the interior program. These gardens allow the teaching and learning process to include larger plants and provides a platform to show different growing methods and conditions.
3. Community Orchard Different spaces within the education / demonstration zone are defined not by walls or buildings, but by orchard plantings. These trees not only act as porous buffers to different activities, but also provide free accessto fresh fruits.
4. Existing Sports Fields Throughout the corridor there are existing clusters of baseball diamonds, soccer fields, and cricket pitches. these are all retained and provide the locational basis upon which the new educational program is attached.
5. Living Play Structures Plants can be so much more. Trees and shrubs from the nursery programs, whether they be engineered or taken from the ecological zone or the special order zone, can be combined and shaped and morphed in different ways to grow structures for children and families to play.
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Plan @ 1:2000
St.
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McC The Ecological Transition zones are sites located nearest the existing ravine systems. They are planted in a typical grid of nursery stock and as trees are removed, they are slowly allowed to succeed to a natural ecosystem. The trees selected for this area must be low to medium height so as not to interfere with the overhead wires.
Ecological transition
1. Species Height In this transition zone, we can only grow trees that reach a maximum height of 15m so as not to interfere with the overhead power lines.
2. Transition over time This zone is treated as a transition from traditional nursery use to natural ecology. A varied and advancing line of ‘abandoned’ trees remain in the soil to establish the new ecology
3. B+B Traditional Nursery As the site waits to convert to a natural state, a traditional balled and burlap nursery system is employed and supplements the other nursery uses throughout the corridor
some plants are removed and wrapped in burlap to supply restoration projects in the region
nursery rows of trees & shrubs
some plants are left to allow a natural system to succeed
Gray Birch 12m
Year
Eastern Rebud 12m
Sassafras 15m
Naturalized Area
Alternate Leaf Dogwood 8m
Transition Zone
Dotted Hawthorn 12m
Red Cedar 10m
Balled + Burlap nursery rows
1 2 4 6 8 10
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Plan @ 1:2000
The electric trees are a statement. They are functional. They are liquid metal batteries that store electricity drawn from wind and solar projects and release it for use in the site greenhouses and disperse additional power to neighbouring homes. Their faint glow reminds us of their purpose ...but they are also beautiful, mesmerizing...we wander among them when we want to think...
Electric Trees
1. Electric Trees As energy sources shift to renewables, storage options will be required to meet demand when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. These electric trees are fields of low-cost, small sized batteries that store power for running the propogation greenhouses and potentially some of the surrounding neighbourhood. When night falls, they glow and create a field of lit cones, resembling a field of future artificial trees
2. Extended Sidewalks At intervals, the sidewalks extend into the field of trees, forging random paths for people to stroll amongst the sculptures. In the glow, one is lost in their own thoughts.
liquid magnesium
molten salt
liquid antimony
Liquid Metal Battery Formation
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Liquid Metal Battery Tree
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A patchwork of 7 different program types are placed across the site, all respective the existing uses around them. Ecological transition spaces are located next to ravines, educational/demonstration areas are located near schools, propogation greenhouses are in industrial areas. It all fits in.
Industial Zone Ravine Corridor Hydro Corridor Existing Parks
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Electric Trees Special Order U-pick Engineered Trees Propogation Education/Demonstration Ecological Transition
Wooded
Educational/Demonstration
Sports Fields
Ecological Transition
Golf
Specialty Order
Agriculture
U-Pick
Transformer Station
Engineered Trees
Abandoned Car Dealership
Electric Trees
Bus Storage
Propogation
Road Water Train
Don Mills Rd.
Beth Nelson Dr.
Parking
x3
Gateway Blvd..
x1 Bermondsey Rd.
Don Valley Pkwy.
Grenoble Dr.
x2
Pharmacy Ave.
Victoria Park Ave.
Eglinton Ave. E.
x5
x4
x2
Kennedy Rd.
Givendale Rd.
Birchmount Rd.
Crockford Blvd.
Warden Ave.
Brimley Rd.
Lawrence Ave. E.
Marcos Blvd.
Midland Ave.
Railroad
x2
Bellamy Rd. N.
Benshire Dr.
McCowan Rd.
x4 Daventry Rd.
x2
Markham Rd.
Ellesmere Rd.
Scarborough Golf Club Rd.
Brimorton Dr.
x4
Military Trail
Neilson Rd.