06 Landscape Architect Quarterly 10/ Features CSLA Awards OALA Awards 16/ Round Table Winning Trends Summer 2009 Issue 06 P u b l i c a t i o n # 4 0 0 2 6 1 0 6 Messages .06 03 Letters to the Editor President’s Message I particularly enjoyed the issue on trees [ Ground 05]. Like the previous I am honoured to hold the prestigious office of OALA President issues, Ground includes articles that are theoretical and challenging and look forward to serving the membership. The president’s job while providing practical information that is relevant to our practice is typically a busy one; however, I am comforted by the knowledge in Ontario. that I am surrounded by extremely talented and dedicated coun - cillors who are there to help. On behalf of Council, I extend a One concern I have is that the images don't seem to be as crisp as heartfelt thanks to Arnis Budrevics for his successful tenure as they could or should be. Since our profession is quite visually orient - president for the past two years. ed, can the images in Ground be printed with greater clarity without compromising any sustainability objectives you might have? The OALA held its 41st Annual General Meeting on May 6, 2009 at the Grand Hotel in Toronto. This was another successful event Finally, congratulations on the CSLA award that Ground received and included presentations of the OALA Awards and the CSLA this year. The award is well-deserved acknowledgement of your Regional Awards of Excellence that are featured in this issue of great work and recognizes the passion and commitment of the Ground . The 2009 OALA Pinnacle Award recipient is Gerald Editorial Board! Lajeunesse and the first recipient of the new President’s Award REAL EGUCHI, OALA is Linda Irvine. Congratulations to all individual and professional PRINCIPAL, EGUCHI ASSOCIATES LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS award recipients. Editorial Board responds: A number of readers have commented on image quality. The Editorial The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects and Town Planners Board is working with the magazine's graphic designers and the was founded in Toronto, in 1934, by nine visionary landscape printer to improve the reproduction quality with minimal compromise architects. From humble beginnings, the profession has advanced to the environmentally sustainable quality of the paper. and enjoys a place of respect amongst the professions. The CSLA is now comprised of ten component organizations across Canada. Editorial Board Note: In April, the OALA, a component of the CSLA, joined all compo - The Editorial Board is pleased to announce that Ground: nents in promoting World Landscape Architecture month. Landscape Architect Quarterly received a National Merit Award in the Canadian Society of Landscape Architect's 2009 Professional This year, the CSLA celebrates 75 years as a professional society, Awards Program. and the OALA has the honour of hosting the CSLA Congress on August 13 – 15, 2009, back in Toronto, where it all began. The Congress theme, “Perspectives 360˚ on 75,” will honour our roots, celebrate our current achievements, and take a positive look at the future of our society. The 75th CSLA Anniversary Congress Committee, co-chaired by Jim Melvin and Jim Vafiades, has created a program that will appeal to the entire OALA and CSLA membership. I encourage the OALA membership to attend all or part of the Congress to cele - brate this milestone, enhance your education, expand your net - works, and to show landscape architects across Canada what good hosts Ontarians can be. I look forward to speaking with all of you at the conference. Hope to see you there. LAWRENCE STASIUK, OALA PRESIDENT [email protected] Up Front .06 04 ans move through arterial street landscapes designed for cars—or, as he describes it, “how people get to the store, what makes a street good for walking on, what streets are hard to cross.” And he’s particularly interest - ed in the inner suburbs of Toronto. “Creating walkable places has become such an important discussion in landscape planning and design,” says Hess. “But it’s often talked about in terms of the downtown or the new developments on the urban fringe. In gen - eral, there’s not a lot of study of how people actually negotiate the inner suburbs.” And so Hess has gone to the people, finding out 0A what their experiences on foot are like. WALKABILITY 01 strolling the inner suburbs His “walkability studies,” carried out in col - laboration with the Centre for City Ecology, 0A/ For his "walkability Paul Hess, a professor in the professional start with the most basic of questions: for studies," carried out in collaboration with the planning program at the University of example, can you cross the street at the big Centre for City Ecology, Paul Hess asks people Toronto, talks a lot about walking. And in intersection? “People in these neighbour - about their experiences of getting around his presentations, he has a particularly hoods are generally not used to having arterial neighbourhoods. favourite slide that’s guaranteed to elicit someone ask them, ‘How do you get to the IMAGE/ Katherine Childs chuckles from his audience. The image supermarket in winter without a car?’” says 0B/ Inner-suburb thoroughfares shows an arterial road in Scarborough— Hess. “We tell people that we really do want often pose mobility and safety challenges one of those busy thoroughfares with a to know, that we’re not joking.” for pedestrians. speed limit drivers interpret as an invita - IMAGE/ Katherine Childs tion to excess. On one side of the six-lane At the workshops, participants not only 0C/ The effort to establish a National Botanical road is a No Frills grocery story; on the describe their experiences in these arteri - Garden in Ottawa on the site of the Central other side is a strip mall. Both are popular al neighbourhoods, they also engage in Experimental Farm raises issues related to destinations in this densely populated informal mapping exercises. The maps heritage landscape preservation. apartment neighbourhood. end up covered in markings that annotate IMAGE/ Andrew B. Anderson daily frustrations: “dangerous at night,” In the middle of the road, with cars whizzing “not enough time to cross,” “very slippery past, is something that can best be in winter.” described as a cage. There’s no crosswalk leading safely to this metal structure intend - “When we ask people if their neighbour - ed for people protection, no concessions to hood is good for walking, they often start self-propelled mobility. Just a cage that off saying yes. But the interesting stuff Up Front: looks a lot like a prison for pedestrians. comes out in the details,” notes Hess. “There are a lot of typical problems that “In the planning world, arterial roads are come up over and over,” things that could Information for moving traffic,” says Hess, “but for the be addressed, some of them very simply. people who actually live in these places, For example, care needs to be taken to getting across the street to the shops is a create details such as well-functioning on the huge issue.” sidewalks that drain well, are not icy in winter, and are lined with healthy shade Over the years, Hess has spent a lot of time trees in the summer. Fences, too, he says, Ground hanging out on arterial streets breathing in are overused and often run needlessly exhaust. He is interested in how pedestri - between destinations—such barriers are Up Front .06 05 often taken down by pedestrians as soon BOTANICAL GARDENS as they are put up, if these barriers block 02 debate in ottawa connections to parks and ravines, for example. Destinations such as grocery As a capital city, Ottawa shares many com - stores, transit stops, and apartment build - monalities with other great capital cities of 0C ings need to be connected as directly as the world: celebrated parks, monuments, an area adjacent to the Fletcher Wildlife possible with safe pedestrian infrastruc - buildings, and greenspaces. Many of us Garden and the Hartwell Locks of the ture. Hess suggests that landscape archi - can remember being paraded through the Rideau Canal. The OBGS notes that when tects consider adding walkways and city on class field trips or on dreaded family the Central Experimental Farm and shade to mall parking lots so people can vacations, and we probably shared similar Dominion Arboretum were established in get from the bus stop to stores in comfort itineraries: Parliament Hill, the Byward 1886, 65 of the Farm’s 465 acres were and safety. Market, Sussex Drive, and maybe even a foray into the Gatineau Hills. However, there intended to be devoted to “ …the important purposes of an Arboretum and Botanic Although the results of Hess’s walkability are a number of lesser known, often over - Garden where all the useful trees, shrubs studies are currently being compiled and looked features to the city. For example, no and plants of the Dominion …will be analyzed, the conceptual underpinning of other capital city in the world can boast a brought together …“ his work has immediate relevance: Hess richly historic working farm—the Central urges designers to begin thinking of the Experimental Farm—within a short bike ride The chosen site has been controversial. The landscapes of arterial roads, apartment from the seat of government. volunteer group Friends of the Farm, which towers, and strip malls as functioning since 1988 has worked tirelessly to protect social places rather than simply as collec - Despite its long list of attributes, Ottawa is the integrity of the cultural landscape of the tions of streets and buildings. Although one of very few capital cities that does not Farm, opposes the development of a they may not have the main-street condi - have a botanical garden.