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Landscape Architect Quarterly

10/ Round Table The Next Wave

20/ Features Thunder Bay Waterfront Spring 2010 Issue 09 ulcto 40026106 # Publication

Letters .09 03

Letters to the Editor President’s Message Just a short note to say how impressed I am with Ground. It is so Every April, the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA) rich, well researched, and wonderfully laid out. The magazine is a and the International Federation of Landscape Architects celebrate real pleasure to look through and a great credit to the profession. World Landscape Architecture Month. The purpose is to bring There is an increasing amount of interaction between the profes- national recognition and awareness to the profession, landscape sions of landscape architecture, urban forestry, and arboricul- architects, and works of landscape architecture in Canada. April ture—each bringing something different into the mix of trees and was chosen to tie in with Earth Day (April 22) and the birthday living/working space. The design element of landscape architec- of Frederick Law Olmsted (April 27), founder of the landscape ture is so crucial to the use of trees in urban landscapes. Tree architecture profession in North America. Canada is the home of the Canadian Urban Forest Network (www.cufn-rcfu.ca) and would very much like to see landscape Landscape architects across Canada are gearing up to celebrate architect involvement in this network either through the OALA or their profession along with landscape architects across the world. the CSLA. Any suggestions would be welcome. The CSLA has taken the lead by preparing a poster and promotion MICHAEL ROSEN tool kit. The OALA, as a component association, is doing its part by R.P.F., PRESIDENT, TREE CANADA, WWW.TREECANADA.CA encouraging each member to plan to do one activity to promote the profession. It’s up to members like you to post the poster in Erratum your workplace, organize a display at City Hall, encourage your In Ground 08, on page 23, Yvonne Battista should have city to proclaim a landscape architecture week, write an article for been designated as a full OALA member. the local newspaper, lead an Earth Day event, or give a presenta- tion to a group of students, a professional society, or the general public. Visit www.csla.ca to download your poster and the tool kit, and to see a list of some of the activities being planned.

One new promotion event the OALA is organizing for this April is a presentation to the Ontario Members of Provincial Parliament and their assistants at Queen’s Park. It is vitally important for our politi- cians and civil servants to understand that landscape architects are professionals with valuable planning and design abilities that contribute to creating healthy sustainable communities.

Come and join us as we celebrate World Landscape Architecture Month. And also plan to join your colleagues in Ottawa on June 5, 2010 for the OALA Annual General Meeting. Details available on the OALA web site at www.oala.ca. LAWRENCE STASIUK, OALA PRESIDENT [email protected] Up Front .09 04

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RIVERS the brainchild of Jean Blaise, the artistic 01 connecting culture director of the original Nuit Blanche in Paris in 2002. While visiting Ottawa this past fall, I met up with my former roommate and classmate The setting for Kawamata’s contribution from university, Veronica Porter, Landscape to Estuaire is Lavau-sur-Loire, a small town Architect Intern. We hadn’t seen each other that was once a port village on the Loire in a year and a half, so we sat down with a River. Due to the rerouting of the river, a glass of wine to rehash our time apart. The grassy marshland now separates the vil- news she was most eager to share with me lage of Lavau from both the Loire River and was about her trip to France in March and 0A/ Boardwalk along the its maritime roots. “What is so great about Loire River, France. April of 2009 to participate in the construc- this project,” Veronica explained to me in IMAGE/ Catalina Trujillo tion of a large-scale environmental art proj- Ottawa, “is that it really illustrates the story 0B/ Barnum House Creek ect under the supervision of the prolific naturalization. of a landscape.” The project, in Veronica’s Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata. Her IMAGE/ Arifa Hai and opinion, is an artistic response, and she Michael Hough involvement with the project began when describes the unique place that separates she heard about the artist via a guest lectur- Lavau and the Loire River as “something that er while studying abroad at the Edinburgh was a mystery before; an inaccessible land- College of Art in 2007. After enquiring about scape that was made accessible” thanks to opportunities to work with Kawamata, she Kawamata. He designed and constructed didn’t hear back about available positions a solution to the inaccessibility problem, until early 2009, when she was contacted to a reconnection to the river in the form of a see if she was interested in applying to be boardwalk through countryside that is flood- part of a construction team for Kawamata’s ed by the Atlantic tide surging up the river new environmental art project in northeast- twice a day. The boardwalk begins at a trail- ern France. After submitting an application head, marked by gates in the outskirts of and a portfolio of her work, Veronica was the village, and travels approximately 800 accepted, and found herself on the project metres through the marsh, where it culmi- site in March. nates in an observation tower overlooking the Loire River. The boardwalk also incorpo- Up Front: Kawamata’s environmental art project, rates bridges and platforms, elements that which consists of a boardwalk traversing a Kawamata uses to create strategic pauses rural wetland, is part of a larger art festival in the journey to the river. Information in the Pays-de-la-Loire region of France, called Estuaire. Occurring in three phases in The reason behind making the landscape 2007, 2009, and 2011, the festival celebrates more accessible is apparent in images on the the culture of the Loire River estuary in sev- taken during construction, and of the com- eral sites along the river, extending 60 kilo- pleted project: the boardwalk facilitates a metres from Nantes to Saint-Nazaire, at the fuller, deeper connection with nature, and Ground Loire River delta. The first two phases of provides a medium for experiencing a Estuaire incorporated contributions from sense of place. more than a dozen different artists and is Up Front .09 05

Evidence of Kawamata’s experiential design intent is manifested in the planning and materials of the pathway, as well as the component physical structures. Wood is the primary construction material, reflecting the pure, minimalist character of the surround- ing landscape. The elevation of the board- walk is 40 centimetres above grade. The absence of handrails is intentional, to draw participators in (because the overall design intent of this environmental art piece is to be interactive with nature, I refer to the users of this trail as “participators”) and accommo- date a more complete connection with nature. At the bridges, wooden screening walls were constructed on the opposite side of the boardwalk to mask views of the town and built environment and direct attention 0B towards the natural landscape. There are NATURALIZATION in private properties that include a number also two platforms at different locations 02 restoring a stream of two-storey buildings and mown lawns. along the boardwalk, large enough to func- The boundaries of the private properties are tion as gathering spaces, and with both per- The Barnum House Creek is one of many marked by major roads on three sides. The manent and moveable benches and tables. coldwater streams in Southern Ontario that buildings include a village inn, bed and A party for the townspeople was held on have been modified in different ways. This breakfast, an abandoned church, several the larger platform during the third week of stream lies within the Lower Trent Region’s houses, and the township office. The stream construction, and again in June, 2009, at the “Burnam House Subwatershed.” Originating flows right through these developments. official opening of the boardwalk, illustrating in the Oak Ridges Moraine, it is joined by a The buildings have their backs to the one of the many uses for the space. The number of tributaries prior to crossing stream, except for the bed and breakfast boardwalk terminates at a six-metre-high Highway 401, flows through the village of and the inn. The boundaries of these com- observation tower that overlooks the Loire Grafton, and empties into Lake Ontario. mercial properties include approximately River, built as part of the first installment of Throughout its entire length this creek is 500 metres of the stream as well as the the project in 2007, and completes the con- connected to stormwater drainage systems; dam structure. The business owner was our nection between the village and the river. parts of it have been straightened to reduce client for this project. The houses do not flooding on adjacent lands. It has also been have any noticeable backyards and show It is clear that the experience of being a part dammed to control its water flow. In 1925, a obvious indifference to the stream. Our of a project such as this was profound for dam was built to create a swimming pond client, on the other hand, values the natural Veronica, and taught her that the definition for the villagers of Grafton. For a number of characteristics of the stream corridor and its of landscape architecture is broader than years the pond served the villagers’ recre- evolving plant communities. we tend to give it credit for in North America. ational purposes. However, over the 81 “This was a project that, for me, was land- years of sedimentation process, the former One fascinating aspect of this place is the scape architecture, but for Tadashi, it was pond became completely filled up. The sound of water that expresses the presence clearly art,” Veronica explained when I water from upstream cut a meandering of the stream before one can see it. The asked her what she took away from her channel through the accumulated soil stream and floodplains are completely cov- experience. She was inspired by the fact deposition. This created an elevated ered with tree canopy, understorey, and that it was a multi-disciplinary effort, that stream behind the 2.5-metre-high dam meadows. The diverse and dense vegeta- artists, painters, engineers, architects, and structure. In 2006, dam discharge was tion strengthens both physical and ecologi- photographers were each working on the occurring partly through the spillway open- cal aspects of the stream corridor. same project but had their own individual ing and largely through the many structur- attachments to it and saw it as an extension al cracks. This potential hazard required The first identified issue and the major of their respective professions. “We need to immediate attention. challenge of this project was the need to broaden what our contributions [to land- remove existing vegetation in order to cre- scape architecture] can be.” We were engaged to work on a solution, ate new stream valleys. The second issue TEXT BY ALEXANDRA HOSSFELD, LANDSCAPE and we started our consultation by analyz- was the heritage aspect. The dam has a ARCHITECT INTERN, WHO LIVES AND WORKS IN LONDON, ONTARIO. ing the issues and understanding the place. history that is closely connected to the place The area covering the limit of work lies with- and its people. Local field stones were used Up Front .09 06

to build the dam structure. The abandoned In the spring of 2008, more plantings were church and small cemetery make the his- done at the top of the valley. Construction of toric connection even stronger. The third other design elements such as a pedestrian issue was the need to improve the overall bridge, boardwalk, pathways, and addition- quality of this place through stronger con- al plantings are now in progress. The nections with the commercial establish- church building has been renovated and ments and the surrounding environment. will soon be open to the public as a her- The fourth issue was that any inconvenience itage museum. Due to the fact that natural to businesses that might occur during the materials and forms were used for the construction had to be avoided. stream, some level of instability was antici- pated. However, after two years of spring Since rebuilding the dam was not a floods, we observed in the summer of 2009 viable option, we considered alternatives. that the new stream, valleys, and flood- Naturalization was our preferred option plains have been stabilized. The meadow over repairing the deteriorated structure. habitats, once confined mostly to the flood- We based our naturalization approach plains, have now colonized the valleys as on the following rationales: well as a large part of the previous mown • realignment of the stream; lawns. Prior to naturalization, no fish were 0D

• design of riffle sequences; found. However, the naturalized step chan- PUBLICATIONS • enhancements of fish habitats; nel would allow trout to swim up the stream. 03 pioneering historical research • restoration of the native vegetation. This was an important design consideration since Barnum House Creek is classified as a Publication, in August 2009, of Shaping the In designing the new stream, we took an cold-water trout stream. American Landscape: New Profiles from the approach of mimicking the natural materials Pioneers of American Landscape Design and geometry of the stream and its flood- The dam has not been demolished after all. Project (University of Virginia Press) is cause plains. For this part of the work, we relied on With the removal of the built-up sediments, for celebration. The book, edited by Charles stream hydrologist Professor Robert the possibility of any hazardous situation Birnbaum, FASLA, FAAR, and Stephanie S. Newbury’s manual and his advice. In June has been eliminated. Considering the her- Foell, has been nearly ten years in the mak- 2007, the construction of the project began. itage aspect of the dam, we have left the ing. Even longer in the tooth is the project Over the next several weeks, new flood- structure as it was. The naturalized stream from which it grew in 1989. That is when plains and valleys were created, pools and has been flowing for more than two years, Birnbaum and two landscape-historian riffles were constructed along the profile of and the inscription on the top of the dam friends decided, over coffee in New York the new stream, and plantings were under- structure still reads its year of original con- City, to launch the coordinated effort to taken in the disturbed area. struction, 1925. document the lives and careers of movers TEXT BY ARIFA HAI, WHO TEACHES IN TORONTO AND and shapers of the American landscape. PRACTISES WITH MICHAEL HOUGH, AND MICHAEL HOUGH, OALA, WHO IS CURRENTLY PRACTISING INDE- The historians called it the Pioneers of PENDENTLY. American Landscape Design Project.

The study of landscape-design history was then only a few decades old in the United States and even younger in Canada. Norman Newton’s sweeping Design on the Land: The Development of Landscape Architecture, published in 1971, remained the standard text on the long history of the profession. Thus, when American Landscape Architecture: Designers and Places, edited by William Tischler, joined the Preservation Press’s Building Watchers

0C/ Meanders and riffles of the naturalized stream, spring 2008.

IMAGE/ Arifa Hai

0D/ Landscape architect William E. Harries, 1940s.

IMAGE/ Alice Harries Fletcher

0C Up Front .09 07

Series in 1989, it broke new ground by Landscape Design, with 61 black-and-white- publishing essays on 21 of the U.S.’s illustrated entries co-edited by Birnbaum best-researched designers. and Lisa E. Crowder, and Pioneers of American Landscape Design II, with 52 sim- For the most part, however, research on ilar entries co-edited by Birnbaum and Julie the lives of individuals and the significance K. Fix, are sturdy paperbacks from the US of their work was still being done on an as- Government Printing Office that sit on my needed basis. To make a deputation, write bookshelf to this day. a paper, prepare a cultural landscape report, or provide restoration guidelines—to Next came the handsome hardcover name a few typical assignments—land- Pioneers of American Landscape Design scape historians and landscape architects co-edited by Birnbaum and Robin Karson. had to undertake original research. Internet Published in 2000 by McGraw-Hill, its 500 browsers were primitive, so finding informa- pages contain 160 biographical entries

tion meant going in person to disparate (including most from the two earlier works) 0F archives, corporate headquarters, and other plus 450 plans and photographs (100 in full 1998. I looked forward to augmenting and repositories. Exciting and rewarding as colour). An appendix listing “Sites Accessible then distilling that earlier research. examining primary documents can be, the to the Public” heightens readers’ awareness process, then as now, is time-consuming, of the living legacy of the myriad of design- Shaping the American Landscape, with 149 expensive and, quite often, disappointing. ers and horticulturists active from the 18th essays, is the long-awaited result and an through the 20th centuries. At long last, important addition to the series. For the first Birnbaum and his colleagues recognized the field of landscape history could have a time, living practitioners such as Canada’s in 1989 that the small but expanding field visible, tangible presence in libraries, book- own Cornelia Hahn Oberlander (through an of landscape history merited a unified and stores, offices, and living rooms. essay by Noel D. Vernon) join earlier sub- continuing effort. The next steps, taken from jects. Brief mentions of work in Canada the US National Park Service’s Historic By early 2003, with more than 4,000 appear in the entries on Jacques Gréber, M. Landscape Initiative, which Birnbaum head- copies of this hardcover sold, Birnbaum Paul Friedberg, Ian McHarg, Butler Stevens ed, were to devise a submission form; start was contacting potential contributors about Sturtevant, and Leon Henry Zach. Others an electronic database of names; involve a follow-up volume. When he asked me to whose work is regionally well known in this as many scholars as possible; and begin write 1000-word entries on H.A. Engelhardt country (H.B. Dunington-Grubb, Rickson to generate for each pioneer a carefully (designer and first superintendent of Mount Outhet, and Frederick Todd come to mind) researched essay. Long-established com- Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto) and on the are not included. pendiums such as Britain’s Dictionary of Toronto and Buffalo firm of Harries, Hall & National Biography showed the way. Kruse, I readily agreed. I had first presented Fortunately, the Pioneers of American a paper on Engelhardt to the German- Landscape Design Project is ongoing and As the number of fully fleshed-out pioneer Canadian Heritage Society in 1984, and errors and omissions can be addressed essays grew, the logical next step was to another on Harries, Hall & Kruse to the continually. The Cultural Landscape start publishing them. Appearing in 1993 Canadian Society of Landscape Architects in Foundation website (http://tclf.org/pioneer) and 1995 respectively, Pioneers of American includes the names and, when available, the images and profiles of pioneers not yet memorialized in print. It also posts research queries and provides links to one of the foundation’s new initiatives: oral histories of living practitioners. Much research remains to be done, but today’s tools are far better than those in 1989 when the project got underway. TEXT BY PLEASANCE CRAWFORD, WHO IS A RETIRED LANDSCAPE HISTORIAN IN TORONTO AND AN HON- ORARY MEMBER OF THE CANADIAN SOCIETY OF LAND- SCAPE ARCHITECTS AND THE ONTARIO ASSOCIATION OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS.

0E/ Plan of Kapuskasing, Ontario, by the firm Harries, Hall & Kruse, 1921.

IMAGE/ Archives of Ontario

0F/ Shaping the American Landscape is an important addition to the expanding 0E field of landscape history.

IMAGE/ University of Virginia Press Up Front .09 08

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RAVINES should be letting it soak into the ground so 04 constraints & opportunities it can emerge on the slopes.”

Urbanization has had significant detrimental Many urban ravines have suffered serious effects on ravine habitats in cities. Some degradation due to development. Where of the greatest impacts include degraded streams have been entirely buried, new quality and decreased quantity of water, habitats exist that are quite different from increased erosion and siltation, and the the original conditions. “Where creeks loss of native habitat through development have been piped, [wetlands] have been and the spread of invasive species. totally eliminated,” Smith says. Using the Don Valley in Toronto as an example, By nature of their topography, ravines Smith points out that the floodplain was should be wet in the bottomlands. That once one big marsh from one side to moisture comes from tableland infiltration, the other. groundwater recharge, and surface pre- 0H cipitation. “Water in ravines is impor- Degraded ravines also contribute to tant. The more the better,” says Steve stormwater pollution because they lack Smith, arborist and principal of Urban sufficient understorey vegetation to slow Forest Associates Inc., a Toronto company runoff, which causes erosion problems. whose work focuses on ecological restora- Large sections of urban ravines are often 0G/ Glen Edyth Roycroft wetland, Toronto, in 1999, one year after construction. tion and urban forestry. However, Smith overrun by invasive species, which out- IMAGE/ Steve Smith explains, in urban environments, “many compete natives and result in less 0H/ Glen Edyth Roycroft wetland, eight ravines are drier than they should be due diverse communities. years after construction. to infill and dewatering of the aquifers. We IMAGE/ Steve Smith should not be piping all the stormwater away from the tablelands. Instead, we Up Front .09 09

Opportunities Toronto’s Wet Weather Flow Master Plan provides guidelines for the management of water at the watershed level, but it’s useful to highlight a few approaches that can be applied on a project-by-project basis. Here Smith simply suggests, “Let’s make as many wetlands and swamps in the ravines as we can. Toronto’s ravines were marshy before infill occurred. It’s important to restore this type of habitat because it is more diverse than dry forests.” Not only do wetlands include a higher diversity of plant species, but they also provide habitat to a range of wildlife.

In 1998, Smith was involved in building a wetland in Nordheimer Ravine in the Don Valley, on top of a buried creek. “Since those areas were wet to begin with, they were an ideal location for restoring natural conditions. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) also built 0I another one farther up the ravine.“ These concern is increasing infiltration so water “new” wetlands provide a lot of functions can slowly percolate into the ravines. “We that the marshes would have carried are trying to restore natural habitat by out originally. bringing it back to a moist condition,” says Smith. He recommends planting natives According to Smith, “wetlands are fairly on adjacent tablelands, “so the rain of easy to establish, they are self-sustaining, seeds blowing into the ravine is native.” and they establish pretty quickly. In one year or less, you can go from a dry, Landscape architects are well suited to degraded habitat to a diverse wetland the task of wetland creation. “It is primarily with many species in it.” Chester Springs a design exercise,” says Smith, “and land- Marsh in Toronto, for example, was scape architects are good project man- restored in an area that was previously a agers. They integrate scientific information marsh but had been covered by two to with human and cultural aspects like poli- three metres of ash and cinders from the tics, public engagement, client relations, Don Incinerator that used to stand nearby. 0J and integration into the surrounding area.” 0I/ Chester Springs Marsh, Toronto, prior to “When they dug down two to three construction in 1995. metres, that brought it close to the existing What else can landscape architects do? IMAGE/ Steve Smith water level, which is probably close to the “They can learn about natural habitats 0J/ Todmorden Mills Park Central Swamp, pre-development grade.” Toronto, with regrowth. and try to mimic their species mix and IMAGE/ Steve Smith structure—not just in ravines, but in other Marshy areas also keep more water on urban areas too.” Smith recommends site, which contributes to healthy growing working with qualified ecologists, arborists, conditions. “If there are more wet areas, engineers and other professionals, as they it makes the ravine system more resilient can have a “profound impact on the quality because people tend to stay out of those of the end product. The closer to the ravine areas,” Smith points out. “Instead, people or natural area, the more vital it is to make concentrate in areas where they have the [the landscape] compatible and not in stark least impact—in dry areas.” contrast with its surroundings.” TEXT BY JOCELYN HIRTES, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Tablelands also play an important role in INTERN, WHO WORKS AT SCOTT TORRANCE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT INC. AND IS A MEMBER OF THE GROUND the water dynamics of ravines. Of primary EDITORIAL BOARD. SHE WORKED FOR URBAN FOREST ASSOCIATES INC. FROM 2006-2010. Round Table .09 10

Water management and design in urban settings

MODERATED BY NANCY CHATER, OALA

MARY-ANN BURNS, MCIP, RPP, PLANNER II - POLICY, WORKS FOR THE PLANNING CHRISJONES, MCIP,RPP,ISASENIORPLANNERWITHINTHEPLANNINGAND AND DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT AT THE TORONTO AND REGION CONSERVATION DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT AT THE TORONTO AND REGION CONSERVATION AUTHORITY AUTHORITY (TRCA). MARY-ANN HAS BEEN WITH TRCA SINCE 2001 AND HAS BEEN (TRCA). CHRIS HAS BEEN WITH TRCA SINCE 2005 AND HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN THE REVIEW INVOLVED IN THE REVIEW OF A FULL SPECTRUM OF DEVELOPMENT APPLICATIONS OF A FULL SPECTRUM OF DEVELOPMENT APPLICATIONS UNDER BOTH THE PLANNING ACT UNDER BOTH THE PLANNING ACT AND CONSERVATION AUTHORITIES ACT FOR TRCA. AND CONSERVATION AUTHORITIES ACT FOR TRCA. AT TRCA CHRIS INTEGRATES BOTH SHE IS CURRENTLY INVOLVED IN POLICY DEVELOPMENT FOR TRCA INTERESTS, WATER MANAGEMENT AND LAND USE POLICIES CONSISTENT WITH PROVINCIAL, INCLUDING WATER MANAGEMENT. MUNICIPAL, AND CONSERVATION AUTHORITY POLICY DIRECTION. NANCY CHATER, OALA, IS CO-CHAIR OF THE GROUND EDITORIAL BOARD AND AUTHOR JANA JOYCE, OALA, ASLA, HAS MORE THAN 15 YEARS OF WORK EXPERIENCE IN THE OF THE TECHNICAL CORNER COLUMN. SHE IS A SENIOR DESIGNER WITH MHLA INC., FIELDS OF ENGINEERING, URBAN DESIGN, PLANNING, AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE IN IN TORONTO. BOTH CANADA AND THE U.S. JANA HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN A NUMBER OF WATERFRONT REVITALIZATION PROJECTS FOR BOTH RIVER AND LAKEFRONTS AND IS CURRENTLY THE KATHERINE DUGMORE, MCIP, RPP, IS THE WATERFRONT PROJECT MANAGER FOR THE CITY PROJECT MANAGER FOR LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURAL WORKS FOR THE PRINCE ARTHUR’S OF THUNDER BAY. PRIOR TO HOLDING THAT POSITION SHE WAS THE MANAGER OF THE LANDING WATERFRONT PARK IMPROVEMENTS IN THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO. PLANNING DIVISION AT THE CITY. SHE HAS WORKED AS BOTH A PLANNER AND A LAND- SCAPE ARCHITECT AND HAS 24 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN LAND DEVELOPMENT, URBAN ADAM NICKLIN, OALA, LEED® AP, IS A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT AND URBAN DESIGNER DESIGN, AND ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING IN THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTORS. WITH TEN YEARS OF WORK EXPERIENCE IN THE U.K., THE U.S., AND CANADA. HE IS CUR- RENTLY THE PROJECT MANAGER FOR THE TORONTO CENTRAL WATERFRONT PROJECT, AND JOHN HILLIER, OALA, FCSLA, IS A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT WITH INTEREST AND EXPERIENCE IS ALSO RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RECENTLY COMPLETED UNIVERSITY OF ONTARIO INSTITUTE IN URBAN DESIGN AND PLANNING. HE JOINED DTAH IN 1977 AND JOINED THE PARTNER- OF TECHNOLOGY IN OSHAWA, AND THE REDEVELOPMENT OF THE BANFF CENTRE FOR ARTS SHIP IN 1985. HE IS CURRENTLY LEADING DTAH’S WATERFRONT PUBLIC REALM DESIGN IN BANFF. HIS STUDY OF MAJOR CITY SQUARES IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE WAS FOR TORONTO'S CENTRAL WATERFRONT IN JOINT VENTURE WITH WEST 8 OF ROTTERDAM, RECOGNIZED FOR AN AWARD OF EXCELLENCE AT THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY BRITISH AND HAS COMPLETED THE GARDINER EAST EXPRESSWAY DISMANTLING IN THE ADJACENT LANDSCAPE INSTITUTE AWARDS. TORONTO PORT LANDS. HIS CONSIDERABLE URBAN DESIGN WORK INCLUDES THE LAND- SCAPE HERITAGE PLAN FOR THE GOODERHAM AND WORTS DISTILLERY IN TORONTO, ASFOUNDINGPRINCIPALOFSCHOLLEN&COMPANYINTERNATIONALINC., THE RECONSTRUCTION CONCEPT FOR THE NATIONAL WAR MEMORIAL AT CONFEDERATION MARK SCHOLLEN, OALA, POSSESSES EXTENSIVE AND WIDELY REGARDED EXPERIENCE SQUAREINOTTAWA,ANDURBANDESIGNFORTHEOTTAWALIGHTRAILTRANSIT GAINED THROUGHOUT THE COURSE OF A 25-YEAR PROFESSIONAL CONSULTING CAREER. ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT. HE IS CURRENTLY WORKING ON THE ADAPTIVE REUSE HIS WORK TRANSCENDS THE BOUNDARIES BETWEEN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE, ECOLO- OF THE FORMER BRICK WORKS IN TORONTO’S DON VALLEY AND IS CURRENTLY A GY, LANDSCAPE PLANNING, AND ENGINEERING. THE FOCUS OF MARK’S WORK IS SOUNDLY MEMBER OF THE MISSISSAUGA URBAN DESIGN REVIEW PANEL. BASED ON ECOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES AND HE CONTINUES TO DEVELOP PROGRESSIVE AND PRECEDENT-SETTING SOLUTIONS THAT MELD THE URBAN LANDSCAPE WITH THE ECOLOGY THE DISTINGUISHED CAREER OF MICHAEL HOUGH, OALA, HAS PROGRESSED THROUGH OF NATURAL SYSTEMS. MARK WAS A CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR OF THE MINISTRY OF THE MANY PROFESSIONAL AVENUES INCLUDING PRIVATE CONSULTING PRACTITIONER, ACA- OF ENVIRONMENT'S STAGE ONE AND STAGE TWO STORMWATER MANAGEMENT DEMIC TEACHER, RESPECTED AUTHOR, AND COMMUNITY ACTIVIST. HE WAS THE FOUND- PLANNING AND DESIGN MANUALS AS WELL AS THE SOON-TO-BE-RELEASED CVC/TRCA ING PARTNER OF HOUGH, STANSBURY & ASSOCIATES IN 1963 AND HAS CONTINUED WITH LOW IMPACT DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES. MARK AUTHORED THE GROUNDBREAKING AND THE FIRM AS IT HAS EVOLVED TODAY INTO ENVISION - THE HOUGH GROUP. HE WAS ALSO MULTI-AWARD WINNING TOWN OF MARKHAM SMALL STREAMS STUDY AND HAS DEVEL- A FOUNDER OF THE SCHOOL OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OPED DESIGNS FOR A NUMBER OF WETLAND SYSTEMS FOCUSSED ON ADDRESSING ACUTE TORONTO AND MORE RECENTLY HAS TAUGHT AS PROFESSOR IN THE FACULTY OF WATER QUALITY PROBLEMS IN CHINA. MARK IS A SESIONAL LECTURER IN THE MASTERS ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES AT YORK UNIVERSITY, AS WELL AS HARVARD. HE HAS LED SEV- PROGRAM AT THE FACULTY OR ARCHITECTURE, LANDSCAPE AND DESIGN AT THE ERAL GENERATIONS OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS IN CANADA AND ABROAD IN ARTICULAT- UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO. ING AN ECOLOGICAL VIEW OF PLANNING AND DESIGN THAT ENCOMPASSES A CONSIDERA- TION OF NATURE AND SOCIETY AS A FUNCTIONING WHOLE. HIS BOOKS ARE WIDELY DIS- DAVID STONEHOUSE, MSCPL, MCIP, IS DIRECTOR, SITE DEVELOPMENT, EVERGREEN BRICK TRIBUTED IN THE WORLD AND INCLUDE CITIES AND NATURAL PROCESS; OUT OF PLACE: WORKS. HE WAS THE COORDINATOR OF THE CITY OF TORONTO’S TASK FORCE TO BRING RESTORING IDENTITY TO THE REGIONAL LANDSCAPE; AND PEOPLE AND CITY LANDSCAPES. BACK THE DON BETWEEN 1991 AND 1998. AN URBAN PLANNER, DAVID HANDLED POLICY IN ADDITION TO HIS WRITINGS AND AWARD-WINNING RESEARCH, MICHAEL HAS LEFT A FILES RELATED TO PARKS, OPEN SPACE, HERITAGE AND THE ENVIRONMENT WHILE WITH LEGACY OF LANDMARK DESIGN PROJECTS THAT FORM ANCHORS IN THE URBAN ENVIRON- THE POLICY AND RESEARCH UNIT OF THE TORONTO CITY PLANNING DIVISION (1999 TO MENT AT SCARBOROUGH COLLEGE, ONTARIO PLACE, MAJOR HILL'S PARK - CEREMONIAL 2002). DAVID IS A PAST MEMBER OF THE INTERNATIONAL JOINT COMMISSION’S SCIENCE ROUTE (OTTAWA), AND MANY OTHERS IN CANADA AND ABROAD. ADVISORY BOARD, A CANADA-U.S. ORGANIZATION THAT MONITORS SCIENTIFIC ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE GREAT LAKES. Round Table .09 11

Nancy Chater (NC): Water is clearly a you design a pond”; the 1990s were “here’s NC: When you say we have great policy, broad topic in landscape architecture and how to select the best management prac- do you mean Toronto, the GTA? Who’s urban planning. We want to focus our dis- tices in terms of the treatment chain, infiltra- the “we”? cussion on current directions in water tion, exfiltration, attenuation.” But now the management policies such as protecting focus is on the underlying goal of attaining a DS: Ontario. Every municipality, every con- water sources, managing stormwater pre- to post-development water balance servation authority, they’ve all got it figured runoff, and conserving water, and then that emphasizes infiltration of water back out. What they don’t have is the money talk about the challenges and opportuni- into the ground, contributing to baseflow to and/or the political will to get the job done. ties of implementing best practices in nourish headwater streams and enhancing One of the key issues with water is around design projects at a number of scales. groundwater recharge rates. pricing. For years water has been under- priced, so we’ve been delivering water and You have all been engaged in various ways John Hillier (JH): Our firm has done a lot stormwater management and sewer servic- and for many years with the relationship of urban work over the years. In a sense, es for less than they cost. It’s not very hard to between water systems and urban form, we’ve dealt with policies as they come make everyone install a water meter and and how we can create a more sustainable down to the project level. Water has then it’s not very hard to force people to pay relationship between the two. By its nature, become a very interesting design influence the real cost of water provision, of stormwa- water exceeds political boundaries so it in even the hardest of urban environments. ter management, and so on. For some rea- brings coordination issues to the foreground Water has become a key determinant of the son, we just never get to it. as we have to consider the watershed design of a community or a campus or a scale, the regional scale, municipal scale, building. Water is front and centre. MS: It’s getting better. You will not get a plan and site scale. approved by the conservation authority with- NC: There is an emphasis now at the site out innovative stormwater management Let’s start with the larger context of policy scale on not increasing stormwater runoff design. I think Toronto’s Wet Weather Flow directions and then come down to the post-development, which is a very challeng- Management Master Plan was a critical project scale. What are the current policies ing policy directive to achieve, requiring a piece of work in terms of acknowledging the being set by conservation authorities, whole re-think about where water is going real cost of doing effective stormwater man- municipalities, and so forth, and have they when you develop a site. agement and dealing with combined sewer changed within the past five years with the systems and aging infrastructure. And that’s growing focus on sustainability, the recogni- Katherine Dugmore (KD): I think the great- manifested itself in the changes in policy tion of climate change, and of water as an est shift with respect to addressing water and how the city targets infrastructure and increasingly precious resource? balance is the need to think about water stormwater management improvements. on a regional basis, which then drives Mark Schollen (MS): The big shift has been across-jurisdictional policy development. I think that what is falling behind are pro- away from quantity control and quality con- I think Mark [Schollen]’s work on the Rouge grams like LEED. LEED has always been trol and towards water balance. We are River, for example, showed how many dif- short-changing the water side. It speaks now focussing more on the relationship ferent parties had to become involved in a to water quality and quantity targets that between surface water and ground water coordinated effort. For concentrated urban we surpassed years ago; and yet it profess- and actually designing systems that are areas there is necessarily a reliance on the es to be “state of the art.” LEED doesn’t look aimed at attenuating stormwater and put- larger region in terms of achieving some at design in an integrated way. The pro- ting it back into the ground. Policy is also of the water-balance targets. And that’s gram promotes water conservation through shifting towards protecting headwater really important in terms of the overall the installation of low-flow plumbing fixtures, streams, for example, as opposed to down- sustainability of systems. rain water recycling, for example, but when stream erosion control, and towards main- you are designing, if you don’t think about taining the integrity of tributaries. The evolu- David Stonehouse (DS): Can I throw a the whole package and how all these tion represents a progressive shift away curveball? I actually want to try to argue that things integrate with each other and the from the Ministry of Environment’s original we have great policy. Over the past twenty landscape, you’re missing opportunities Stormwater Management Planning Design years, it has evolved. A lot of people in this to do really good work. Manual, which was a prescriptive cookbook room have been involved with that develop- on how you select and design stormwater ment. What we lack now is the will and Adam Nicklin (AN): LEED is a very arbitrary ponds, towards a more target-based resources to implement the policy. system. And it has to be because it is approach that is focussed on achieving bal- applied to a huge variety of different proj- ance criteria. The 1980s were “here is how ects. Could it improve? Yes. Round Table .09 12

Mark, you were describing policy as being you go round and round in circles before thirty years, when there hasn’t been the behind practice. I have found that when you actually get anything in the ground. But capital expenditure to build large dams, we’re actually building projects, it is the from the political side, we’ve had nothing where the approach was simply to manage maintenance of the systems and the people but tremendous support. with policies and regulations the urban who are actually going to use the systems areas that will be subject to flooding. that play a key role. We can have some of AN: With our Waterfront Toronto work in the the best of intentions in our designs, but East Bayfront district, we managed to build NC: If past policies were based on either when you actually get into a design review up some political momentum by integrating holding back the water, or holding back the stage with people who are going to main- the stormwater system into the public realm. development near the water, what is the tain the facilities, it’s a different story. So there was a sense that the City was get- current approach of the TRCA? ting more bang for the buck. The prescrip- KD: We’ve got excellent policies in Ontario. tive approach Mark described earlier would CJ: If you’re dealing with greenfield devel- Working in the north now for the past four have seen us doing something simple and opment, the current approach is to not build years, however, the policies aren’t always pushing the stormwater system under- on the floodplain. With continuing urbaniza- a good fit with what’s happening. You can ground, but because we’re in an urban tion, the problem becomes worse down- have water quality and quantity control and area, we don’t have any room for a reten- stream. Even with stormwater controls, all kinds of measures, with bioremediation tion pond. Instead, it was the integration of you’re still changing the hydrology of the or other practices, but when you’re in a that into the public realm by putting the stor- watershed and directing more water from community the size of ours [Thunder Bay], in age system under a boardwalk that made a hard surfaces into the watershed. Even with a region as large as ours, and a watershed difference. The money spent was not only detention ponds, which we’ve been using as large as ours, which is virtually undevel- handling stormwater but creating more for the past 25 years, we’re still adding oped, those policies are less meaningful; public realm. greater volumes of water into the water- and in particular the wetland policies. You course than would otherwise happen in a apply them in the north and it’s almost Mary-Ann Burns (MAB): In the last five rural setting where the water would either laughable because it’s basically a rock and years, we’ve been getting away from end- evaporate or be absorbed into the ground. a Class 1 wetland, followed by another rock of-pipe solutions and moving towards a All of our downstream communities are and a Class 1 wetland. So there’s a bit of a treatment train approach. We are updating subject to greater flood risk, even outside one size fits all approach. The policies are our policies to reflect this approach, which of the climate change paradigm. created in a framework that’s very different we have had success with already. in the north. In a greenfield site, we’re getting better at Some of the challenges we face include diverting stormwater from going into the Policy is a direction. It needs to be imple- where to put the infiltration facilities. For creeks. But with our new growth manage- mented, and political will has a lot to do example, who maintains them, whose ment policies, we are going to be intensify- with that. The better we get at showing property they’re going on, not having ing the urban areas downstream that are the value and cost benefit of water sys- enough land, etc. Then there are a num- already subject to flood risks. tems that work in terms of maintenance ber of interests we have to weigh, such costs, the easier it is to convince politicians as natural heritage. JH: For brownfield sites, it’s a totally different of the direction to pursue. ball game. The whole idea of infiltrating Chris Jones (CJ): There is a technical guide- becomes problematic because of contami- JH: Regarding the work we’ve been doing line coming out soon from the TRCA called nation in the soil. This really came to light in on the Toronto Waterfront, I have found that the Low Impact Development Guidelines. the Brick Works project [a Toronto park actually there is a lot of political will to do the I expect that we will be getting into climate being developed by Evergreen]. We right thing. Where we’ve encountered diffi- change mitigation. There are going to be a went there with the intention of infiltrating culty is in getting the thing implemented. lot of infrastructure improvements needed to stormwater and all of a sudden with a There’s a whole municipal structure of stan- deal with that. If we want to accommodate ground full of chemicals which we can’t dards and best practices that have been larger storms, we’ll need to have bridges push out into the water system, what can done over the past twenty years and they that span larger areas. What will we do with we do? don’t happen to match these new aspira- these old dams when their life spans run tions. It just takes forever to get something out? Would we like to take them down and NC: What did you do? that’s different done. It’s often tied up in restore natural systems? We’ll probably end engineering liability. You’ve got multi-agen- up having those sorts of conversations more JH: Some of it still continues downstream, cies and one not agreeing with another so now than we’ve been having in the past but we’re trying to be as clean as we can. Round Table .09 13

We minimize runoff to the extent possible need to educate the public so they WATERFRONTS AND CULTURAL IDENTITY by using green roofs, greenways, cisterns, become aware that well-designed sys- re-use—all those kinds of things. What does tems that flow properly and have a bal- NC: Are communities attached to cultural run off goes as cleanly as possible back into anced ecology can become a beautiful and historical ideas about the waterfronts as the system. landscape feature rather than just a func- they shift from working ports to more recre- tional element in the landscape. ational and ecological settings? Are people DS: We’re actually exceeding Wet Water embracing change? How is this idea of the Flow Plan Guidelines around the quantity of AN: Going back to what Chris was saying identity of the waterfront coming into play in water that is being discharged into those regarding increasing urbanization and the your design implementation? storm sewer systems. impact on stormwater management, I see the problem being the traditional kind of KD: The land we’re working on now, in POLICY AND PROJECTS development that happens in Ontario. The Thunder Bay, is lake-infill that started in the area of impermeable surface is completely late 1800s. We created Marina Park with a NC: Let’s talk about the Thunder Bay Project, unsustainable. I like to think that the increas- marina and a small festival area. A portion a very large, $100-million, multi-faceted revi- ing urbanization of areas can actually be of the park is being developed for mixed talization on the shores of Lake Superior, part of the solution, if it’s done right, if we use development and is immediately adja- creating a multi-use village with mixed use develop and live in a more compact way cent to our downtown. The resistance is to residential, recreational, and business that and retain natural areas. the change from a more passive use to a will bring the city to its waterfront. What more intensively active and mixed use. If we kinds of approaches are you taking with CJ: Our approach to growth and develop- were just talking about fallow and industrial respect to managing water? ment historically has been a growth impera- lands, there wouldn’t be a problem convert- tive in a horizontal form. However, I think ing it. The challenge is when you’re taking it Jana Joyce (JJ): Marina Park is a park things have changed in the past five years from something the public kind of likes to setting with portions that are quite urban. from a planning point of view. The province something they’re not sure about. We don’t have a lot of physical room to has a new policy where, after 2014, 40 per- create infiltration depressions or bio-swales. cent of all new units have to be within exist- JJ: In the Thunder Bay project and other A sediment pond was designed to capture ing communities. I would still ask, what waterfront projects we’ve worked on, the stormwater from pipes discharging from about the other 60 percent? That’s a pretty site’s identity and cultural heritage have higher points in the city that were emptying big number and a lot of those units will go in evolved over hundreds of years. A single directly into Lake Superior. The sediment a greenfield development. But still, 40 per- identity is hard to nail down; these water- pond was not possible in the end due to the cent is better than nothing. fronts have been so many things. You lack of horizontal space. We had to look at almost have to choose a single period of underground systems to treat the water, MS: The trend is positive. The Places to time or a particular past use from which to for example stormceptors. Much of our Grow Act is a really good piece of work. pick up design cues. The sites have an water management is literally under- The Greenbelt has started to shape where incredible amount of history and there are ground, which challenges opportunities to growth will and should occur. Municipalities many opportunities to bring cultural heritage share awareness of how water is being like Markham and the City of Vaughan have and historical awareness into the finished handled on the site. completed studies that examine their designs. This helps to create a place that regional growth targets and how they the community loves and where people The other challenge is that a number of would accommodate them. These munici- want to visit and learn about the incredible locations are contaminated, so we have to palities have found that they may not need history of the site. be careful about infiltrating water. We are to grow outside the existing urban envelope also dealing with the perceptions of the to accommodate prescribed growth targets. AN: Toronto’s waterfront is built up of layers community. In terms of visible stormwater This approach would require a radical shift of fill and has gradually crept south. There is treatment systems, there’s a real disconnect towards intensification but the results will be still industry, but the waterfront is now pre- between what the community wants to see, laudable in consideration of water manage- dominantly recreational. Our challenge has what they understand about these systems ment and environmental objectives. been to bring the city to the waterfront and versus what the system’s actually doing. to overcome the disconnection that people We’ve had many discussions where the perceive as soon as they get to the community says, “I don’t want a settlement Gardiner Expressway or the rail cut. The pond in my park because it smells, it’s nasty, extension of the new districts right down to and our children are going to fall in.” We the waterfront is connecting the waterfront back to the city. We are trying to convince Round Table .09 14

people that the waterfront is not just a place Michael Hough (MH): Up to now I’ve tions lead to lengthy delays which then to walk along in the height of summer. always said, let’s find out what is actually jeopardize projects. We take so long that needed in terms of where people are going they go beyond political mandates, beyond NC: What are some of the ways you’re to go. But another way of looking at it is ask- economic cycles. If we look at the current doing that? ing “where is a good place to be?” round of transit expansion, the government changed the process so there is a “transit JH: Having a population live and work DS: Toronto is not like every other city that’s assessment” rather than an environmental there—inhabit, colonize the space—is pursuing waterfront development. We’re assessment. This is an expedited process. really, really important. talking about new neighbourhoods, real I think it would be really good to do some- neighbourhoods right next to the lake. thing like that for waterfronts. The point I’m AN: It won’t survive as just a tourist attrac- We’re also talking about making the lake making is that there needs to be a thought- tion. It has to be much more. The best better. And rivers that feed into the lake bet- ful integration of regulatory interest in order examples of tourist attractions are places ter. The TRCA’s leading the Environmental to not thwart our goals. that have a life of their own. People Assessment on the renewal of the mouth attract people. of the Don. If it actually happens, we will be KD: How is mixed use development at the creating new water, not just for the sake of waterfront substantially different than mixed KD: The key to our experience in Thunder creating new water, but to improve and use development next to a river corridor or Bay is also creating an urban environment. build neighbourhoods around it and make any other place in the urban space? And yet We are striving to make it something that’s it economically viable. That’s really exciting. it seems to trigger a plethora of different not only a destination but an integral part of I never would have imagined that we would legislation. the community. be where we are when Michael Hough wrote his 1991 report “Bringing Back the NC: There’s a clear mandate around public JH: Which is not to say that there shouldn’t Don” about a new mouth for the Don. education in the Evergreen Brick Works proj- be natural areas; there should be, absolute- ect tied to cultural identity and water sys- ly. But where you populate it, you do it with KD: One of the things that’s particularly frus- tems. What sort of things are you educating density and intensity so that it’s a living, trating for me is we’re talking about relative- the public about? working place. ly benign uses compared to what went on before [in terms of industry and contamina- DS: There are several things about the NC: It makes an interesting reversal in a tion], and yet I can’t think of a more lengthy site that are obvious for education, like the way; bringing intensification and density and approvals process. It’s frightening in its industrial heritage of the old factory build- development to the water becomes a way complexity and the policies aren’t flexible ings, the ecological heritage of the north to protect the water and to enhance the enough to adapt to some of the things that slope, the habitats in the quarry and the sense of the water for the city’s identity, we’re trying to achieve. back, and of course water. There’s water allowing people to experience nature in the all around it… We are reintroducing water city. By creating a face-to-face relationship JH: I want to note a sea change. Twenty through a series of greenways that are with the water, rather than turning our backs years ago, we were working for engineers under construction and will eventually flow to it, which happened previously with indus- almost always after the decisions had been to stormwater management. In terms of trialization, we achieve what Michael Hough made, particularly transportation and civil. education, we’ll try to do everything, includ- has always advocated for and that is to That’s been turned on its head. I think a ing good stormwater management tech- have urban citizens see, interact with, and more collaborative design process has real- niques, but we also want to talk about water therefore care about the future of the water- ly come to the fore. I think everything that is conservation, drinking water, water pricing, front and the river systems. happening as a result is turning out much and water as a placemaker. One of the better. For the first time, we’re hiring engi- best things about our scheme is the way AN: What we have going for us is that neers on the waterfront. That’s not to say we’ll bring water right up into the buildings everyone loves, loves the water. We are that they do everything that we want them and it will actually flow within the buildings. creating a real community that is adjacent to do. [Laughter.] But it’s levelled the playing to the water. field and we’re working towards a better NC: Can you describe the greenways? common goal. DS: They are creeks. People will be able to CJ: We’ve talked about the fact that there walk over these creeks on bridges that take are so many layers and pieces of legislation you from building to building. for waterfronts. The risk is that the complica- Round Table .09 15

JH: The creek may be dry most of the time, lation. That is half way to solving the prob- the cover of the magazine.” It has to be but it offers opportunity for a major flood lem. Even as a relatively young practitioner, usable; it has to make sense; it has to be occurrence or even a major rainfall to come I was brought up to see water as something pragmatic but beautiful at the same time. down to the site. And this is the area where to be feared. It causes liability, freezing, it collects roof water and returns it back to flooding, and disease. So sites like MAB: The practical implementation of pre- the plant material we have located above Evergreen Brick Works—completely unique consultation is important. Get all the stake- the contaminated soils, which are farther in the context of Toronto—serve as a holders together in the beginning of the below ground. demonstration of an alternative relationship project; consider all the interests, don’t just to water in the urban environment. focus on your own purpose in a project. One of the really exciting things about the design is its treatment of water in a way that MAB: What’s ironic about that traditional KD: Understand the planning context. Look is obvious, so that you can read the story of approach is that the faster you try to keep around and discover how things are and where the water is coming from, where it’s water away . . . ask why things are done the way they are. hitting the ground and where it’s going, and The next step is to ask why it can’t be how it’s processed along the way. We joke AN: The harder the water comes back. another way. And that’s how a landscape about them as designer ditches in the architect can start informing a process offices. We want to do something with a real MAB: It causes flooding. rather than responding to the end of the function that benefits the environment, but process. That’s where the strength of land- in a way that also brings a kind of aesthetic MAKING A DIFFERENCE scape architecture comes from because it joy to the whole site. really is planning, science, and design. NC: I’d like to do a quick go around and ask Creative problem solving is what this pro- MH: I go to the Brick Works very frequently everybody one question… fession offers and it’s better if you’re at the and I think there’s a real need to think about beginning of the pipe rather than the end the site as a protected environment. Certain DS: Could I propose a question? If you were of the pipe. areas may need to be restricted from public to tell a young landscape architect some- use, such as the quarry. This is the kind of thing that he or she could do in their career MH: Thoughtfulness, to begin with. Working place that can’t be fooled around with. We to make a difference in the area of water through what are the opportunities. have to be careful about saying “I’ve a got planning and water implementation, what a new idea for this place.” would it be? CJ: Learn about politics, how decisions are made. And learn about what the values are NC: That brings us back to policy; how we MS: I’ll start with research. You’ve got to get behind the way things are. Learn to identify marry land use and public use with protec- the science right. You’ve got to understand your own values and how you might con- tion of sites in dense urban environments, the facts and you’ve got to teach yourself so vince other people of those values. while it also brings in the historical and cul- that you’re credible when you stand up in tural legacy of sites. front of engineers or a public meeting and DS: I would say embrace nature, hug an say that this is the right way to do it. You’ve engineer, and join a group on a volunteer DS: One of the challenges for all of us and got to have answers. Research is your basis that’s involved in public education. all of our cities and towns is to go back and future, your foundation. retrofit existing stormwater features so that AN: You need to be able to make provoca- they incorporate more ecological functions. JH: I’ve got to say, read up on Michael tive claims. You need to be prepared to In some cases, the parks built around these Hough and Mark Schollen. argue with people and stand your ground. water features—creeks, ponds and lakes— MANY THANKS TO VAN THI DIEP, OALA, FOR TRAN- SCRIBING THIS ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION. are awful because the stormwater quality is JJ: When new graduates come out, they disgusting. We have to go back and some- tend to have a habit of designing finite how retrofit these spaces. things in a vacuum. If you are designing a boardwalk near the waterfront, for example, AN: In the conversation around this table, I would suggest that you understand com- we’ve spent as much time talking about prehensively what’s going on. Take a look at urban planning and land use planning policies, talk to municipal staff, talk to people as we have about water policies, with the who will be using and maintaining the understanding that these things are com- space, find out where stormwater goes. pletely linked. You can’t look at them in iso- Don’t just look at the park design as “I want to build this really cool space so it can be on Splash, Drip, Squirt, .09 16 and Mist

Splash, Drip, Squirt, and Mist 01 Carl Novikoff talks with Jim Melvin about splash pads

Carl Novikoff (CN): What is your experience in working with splash pads?

Jim Melvin (JM): In 1998, the city of Toronto had a capital program to install several splash pads throughout the city. PMA Landscape Architects and Aldershot Landscaping worked together as a design-build team to install some of these splash pads. We were very interested in alternatives to off-the-shelf spray toys, so we worked with a water play specialist, Rod Brogee, to develop some 02 unique features. It was a really fun creative process. Brogee and I 01/ "The Melvinator" custom water play feature designed by PMA Landscape later designed splash pads together in Mississauga as well as Architects and Spray Play. many in Markham and Kitchener. We have built splash pads all IMAGE/ PMA Landscape Architects over southern Ontario, including new ones, and conversions of 02/ Custom water play feature in Brampton by Spray Play and Strybos wading pools into splash pads. Barron King Landscape Architects.

IMAGE/ PMA Landscape Architects/Spray Play Splash, Drip, Squirt, .09 17 and Mist

03 CN: Why are cities replacing wading pools with splash pads?

JM: There are many factors, mostly related to maintenance and operating costs. Basically, the way wading pools operate is that staff arrive in the morning, wash down the pool, remove glass and debris, then fill it up. They usually drain a pool once during the day because for the most part wading pools don’t use recycled water—it is just standing water usually up to 16 inches deep. They have to test it and fill it with chemicals, and then they have to drain it again at the end of the day. It is a lot of work to maintain and it requires a trained lifeguard on staff.

With splash pads, kids can play in water, but they don’t get immersed. The splash pad is equal in water use and similar con- struction value to that of a wading pool, but there’s less maintenance 05 with splash pads. City staff still need to go around in the morning to are open. Sometimes wading pools will close around school sched- check for broken glass and debris, but other than that splash pads ules and/or on weekends, whereas splash pads will run until you can be completely automated. They can be set to turn on and shut turn them off in the fall. off at certain times on a schedule. They can run from the May long weekend to Labour Day, whereas wading pools normally wouldn’t CN: What are the most important considerations when designing open until the start of summer, June 21st, then they would need the a splash pad? operators, usually students, which limits the time frame in which they JM: Site considerations are important—how the splash pad fits in to pedestrian circulation, adjacent facilities, and playgrounds—and generally how it complements the site and the user patterns that already exist in the park. The zone surrounding the splash pad needs to include specific functions; for example, you need to create sufficient space for an area for the parents, a dry zone to spread out the towels and avoid any overspray from the system. A splash pad can’t be too close to a play surface or the drains will get clogged with sand or wood chips. Often, if you’re building a new splash pad the excavated materials can be used to make a nice berm for care- givers to sit on. Sun, shade, and drainage of the surrounding areas need to be considered.

CN: What is taken into consideration for the planting design surrounding splash pads?

04 JM: Shade is always a consideration. If you were draining into a 03/ "Circle of Fun" at Forks of the Thames in London, Ontario. wetland you would need wetland plants, or water-cleansing plants. IMAGE/ PMA Landscape Architects There are a lot of kids playing around so we like to have a two- to 04/ Bucket Dump custom water play three-metre barrier around the hard surface to handle any over- feature at Regent Park South wading pool conversion. spray. If the sod or lawn area is continually soaked, it will never IMAGE/ PMA Landscape Architects/Spray Play recover. We like to use concrete over rubber for our surface as the

05/ Forks of the Thames splash pad, London.

IMAGE/ PMA Landscape Architects/Spray Play Splash, Drip, Squirt, .09 18 and Mist

rubber can tend to collect glass, and the colour and texture we can ice available on site. Older parks may have water on site, but they put into concrete is great. We are looking at developing a shade don’t meet today’s plumbing requirements for backflow preventors structure that shoots water. There are a lot of possibilities and every and water meters. So you may have to install a meter chamber and designer should have fun with this—be creative and let yourself go. backflow equipment to prevent any contaminants from entering the water system. We usually like to have a minimum of a three-inch CN: Can you re-use the water? water supply line. The supply is based on the amount of water avail- able and the pressure. Sometimes you may have a lot of water avail- JM: Some cities will drain the water to the sanitary sewer because able but the pressure isn’t strong. Other times you can get a smaller the water has touched human skin and there’s a risk of disease. amount of water, so if the number of features that are on is greater, Other municipalities will re-use the water for irrigation just like grey you have a displacement of pressure throughout the system. You water. The water is captured in a cistern, or in a pool on site, and have to monitor the way you turn the features on and the amount of later used for irrigation. Other possibilities are to create a run off into water during operation. a landscape feature such as a wetland, holding pond, or a stormwa- ter pond system. CN: So you have to monitor the pressure through zoning, almost like an irrigation system? There are some systems that re-circulate the water, but that is a little tricky. For re-use, you have to capture the water and sterilize it with JM: In that way it is similar to an irrigation system; it has a timer ultraviolet light or chemicals that will kill all the organisms. Essentially, and a controller. you have to filter the water and then pump it back into the splash pad. This type of system can add up to $150,000 dollars to the cost of CN: What professionals and trades do you work with when the splash pad. Treating the water involves regulations and guide- building a splash pad? lines as to how often it needs to be tested, who can test it, and adjustments to the water would have to be made with chemicals. JM: Specialist mechanical engineers, who will analyze the water flow This would result in almost as much maintenance as with wading and the display; electrical engineers and civil engineers, who design pools, but you would be more environmentally conscientious the drainage connections. The hardest or most crucial part about the because you would be recycling the water. It’s a real debate. splash pad is the concrete pour. The contractors who pour the con- crete and those who set the elevation of the splash pad equipment CN: How much does a splash pad cost at the minimum should be on the site at the same time. You don’t want any pooling and the maximum? water or drainage issues.

JM: It all depends on the size. They can run anywhere from CN: What type of toys do kids like best? Can you give us $300,000 to $500,000, and that includes construction costs, exca- some examples? vation, installing a concrete base, asphalt surroundings, and ground jets. It gets more and more complicated with the type of sprays you JM: Big water equals big fun. We devised a twelve-foot Bucket want to provide. You have to consider electrical and water supply. It’s Dump—it’s really like a trough dump, it takes about twelve seconds hard to say you can build a splash pad for x cost since it’s all site to fill up then it dumps a huge amount of water. The kids really love specific. A very important consideration is the size of the water serv- that one. I have seen some of them get so anxious waiting for the bucket to fill that they try to pull it early. Ground jets can go on 45-degree angles; they can make arches or they can go straight up. Depending on the pressure, you can have them go really high. Another toy we use, Circle of Fun, is a large pot about 24” to 30” with a centre jet with a ring of outside sprays. It’s quite multifunction- al, since it has a variety of spray settings and it also incorporates a catchbasin, so the water comes out of the same place it drains to.

There are ground jets that shoot the water from jets in the ground and can be set in a bunch of different ways; water can fall, water can spray. We made these Piston Poppers—where water enters the toys and the pressure activates a switch and sets off a whistle. The kids could care less about the whistle but we were having fun getting really creative. We designed another feature with pipes that twist and turn and they all have holes in them so the kids can cover one hole and the pressure will increase on the other holes. That toy was not only fun but sculptural. Sometimes playground manufactures

06 Splash, Drip, Squirt, .09 19 and Mist

make animals that we can incorporate into our design. We have done dragons and bulrushes, I’ve seen frogs and turtles and whales. We try to stay away from gun stuff.

CN: Do you find that different age groups like different toys?

JM: The diaper kids or the tots like to just kick around in about a half-inch of water, near the bubblers, and we usually supply an area around that for the caregivers. The water that sprays at people is the area where the older kids like to be, and they like the areas where they can run through the water.

CN: Is there any all-season use for a splash pad?

JM: In the shoulder seasons I could see some use by rollerbladers, skateboarders, and cyclists. You used to see that in wading pools. Splash pads are less concave than wading pools so not quite as friendly to that. Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do with a splash pad in the winter.

CN: Is there a lot of preparation for the winter months or regular 07 maintenance required? CN: Do you know of any green initiatives in splash pad design?

JM: It is very similar to an irrigation system. You just have to blow out JM: I think the green initiative is in the recapturing and re-use the system so there is no water in the pipes that can freeze and of the water. Features that integrate water re-use in a way that is crack the components. It’s basically a big irrigation system with a sympathetic to the site can make a better park design both aes- timer: there is an activator you turn on, there is a manifold housing all thetically and sustainably. Features such as green swales and the valves, and we usually use pressure valves, so you can use the recharge basins that help to recharge the groundwater table can valves to adjust the feature. be quite lovely. Also, as I mentioned before, we are now installing water meters in parks, so the cost of the water is now accounted CN: Would you ever install a new wading pool instead for, since it’s a municipal supply. This will provide a big incentive of a splash pad? for the re-use of water. Every time the splash pad is turned on the dollar signs collect. JM: We just did one in Dundas Driving Park [in Hamilton]. We installed a wading pool and a splash pad. The system was devel- We designed a splash pad in Kitchener where we used a well for oped to fill the wading pool in a quarter of the time it used to. The the water supply; however, about three years after its operation they splash pad component combined with the wading pool gave users didn’t want wells any more and they had to bring in a $75,000 water more play options, and adjacent to the wading pool we installed an line. So you could use a well, but you would have to make sure the outdoor ice rink, which doubles as a concert centre in the summer. water meets the safety standards. The state of New York is writing Dundas Driving Park requires a lifeguard, since the wading pool new guidelines, which will really influence how we design here. BIO/ JIM MELVIN, OALA, IS A PARTNER IN THE FIRM PMA LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS. needs to be supervised; however, the system was designed to auto- HE HAS BEEN DESIGNING INTERACTIVE SPLASH PADS FOR 15 YEARS, AND HIS SPLASH PADS HAVE WON CITY OF TORONTO AND CITY OF MISSISSAUGA URBAN matically supply the chemicals to the water, and the water is continu- DESIGN AWARDS. ously pumped so that there is no standing water. CARL NOVIKOFF IS CURRENTLY STUDYING AT THE ONTARIO COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN WHILE PURSUING A CAREER AND FURTHER STUDIES IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE. CN: What kind of site and social conditions would merit a wading pool? 06/ Fallingbrook splash pad, Mississauga.

IMAGE/ PMA Landscape Architects JM: A lot of municipalities aren’t building wading pools. There needs 07/ Brampton splash pad by Strybos to be a recognized program, and staff needs to be involved. In other Barron King Landscape Architects words, it’s a community park scale element. Splash pads, on the and Spray Play. other hand, can be really small and installed in parkettes. IMAGE/ PMA Landscape Architects/Spray Play Thunder Bay .09 20 Waterfront

01 Thunder Bay

02 Waterfront Planners, called The Next Wave—Charting a Course for Thunder Bay’s Waterfront, identified 55 kilometres of waterfront redevelop- ment potential. Drawing water into The city commissioned a Highest and Best Use Study for Marina Park Thunder Bay in 2005. Produced by O&Y Enterprise Real Estate Services, it called for a concentration of mixed uses including an expanded park and a waterfront village that connected the Port Arthur downtown

TEXT BY CHRIS HARDWICKE neighbourhood to the waterfront.

Water runs deep in the Canadian psyche. Many of our communities In June 2006, a team led by Brook McIlroy and Pace Architects was are located along rivers, lakes, and oceans. These cities, sited origi- chosen to create a master plan to implement the Highest and Best nally for shipping and industry, are coming to realize the power of Use Study. BMI/Pace was supported by a consultant team that their waterfronts as civic landscapes. included Montgomery Sisam Architects, Urban Marketing Collaborative, and Noel Harding Studio. Working with the Waterfront Shipping ports are part of the infrastructure of industrial Development Committee, city staff, and local stakeholders, the team economies. As cities across North America transform their eco- developed a document entitled Master Site Plan and Urban Design nomic future, utilitarian landscapes are becoming creative land- Guidelines to guide the transition of Prince Arthur’s Landing. Calvin scapes. Disused waterfronts are developing into sustainable Brook of BMI/Pace was compelled to create a master plan that rein- places that support liveable communities. forced the “iconic Canadian landscape” he saw in Thunder Bay.

Thunder Bay is reimagining its former working waterfront. Led by The master plan envisioned a new mixed-use plan that would Toronto’s BMI/Pace, Prince Arthur’s Landing is the first phase of create a sense of community identity and encourage tourism, Thunder Bay’s waterfront transformation. recreation, and private investment, concentrated at the foot of Red River Road in downtown Port Arthur. Thunder Bay owes its existence to the presence of water, and has since been defined by industry and manufacturing—a working land- The Prince Arthur’s Landing scheme is centred on a public space that scape of grain elevators, shipping piers, and warehouses. The includes a multi-use market square, pond, and waterfront plaza. The decline of the port began with the expansion of the Trans-Canada market square overlooks a waterfront plaza and is framed by a new highway, which significantly diminished shipping activity and resulted Artisan Market building, a restored historic CN Station, and a new in the closure of many grain elevators. In the late 1960s an Urban hotel. The square is designed to facilitate a range of uses such as Renewal Plan prompted the conversion of a significant length of the festivals, markets, and parking. Port Arthur waterfront into a linear park. During the 1970s three of the piers were converted into a marina, but the park continued to be Water is a theme that runs through the master plan. At the foot of separated from the city by a road and railway corridor. Red River Road, a water feature leads into the skating/model boat pond. The pond is located to the west of the Artisan Market and is A series of studies produced through the 1980s and 1990s imagined flanked by a Water Garden Pavilion. The pond overlooks the Lake the comprehensive revitalization of the waterfront. By 1998, commu- Channel and out to the waterfront. nity groups were actively seeking change. A study prepared by The Planning Partnership and Moriyama & Teshima Architects and Thunder Bay .09 21 Waterfront

05 01/ The Circle Plaza is located at lined with active uses, creates urban rooms that will be comfortable the base of the fabled Red River Road, and serves as in the winter months. Strict urban design guidelines ensure that the main entrance to the site. 03 views are protected to the waterfront from the city and terracing of IMAGE/ BMI/Pace the buildings. The condominiums and hotel allow for public access 02/ The Viewing Circle at Pier 2 is a landscaped overlook, to the waterfront while maintaining private landscape space for providing spectacular views to the Sleeping Giant. the residents.

IMAGE/ BMI/Pace

03-04/ Prince Arthur's Landing will Approximately four kilometres of additional boardwalk, park, and feature a splash pad during summer months, convertible bike paths span the linear park. To the west of the condominiums, to a public skating rink in winter months. a new, larger marina will be built between a proposed park and IMAGES/ BMI/Pace cruise ship pier on the historic Saskatchewan Pool 6 grain elevator 05/ The Water Garden Pavilion lands and the Spirit Centre Head, an existing peninsula. The design will be a year-round destination housing a team worked with First Nation representatives and Métis "Marina's Hall" Visitor Centre, a restaurant, and other organizations on the design of the Spirit Garden. public activities. 04 IMAGE/ BMI/Pace The master plan calls for the reappointment of the existing piers as well as public art, and custom-designed outdoor furniture and Water flows through the site toward the semi-circular waterfront lighting. Two piers will be punctuated with a light beacon. plaza at the foot of Pier 2. The large open plaza is sheltered by an alee of trees and looks across the marina to the expansive horizon. Public art was integrated into the planning process by including Along the waterfront, other water features include a floating dock, Noel Harding, a public art consultant, on the planning team. The plan children’s boating pond, a fishing pier, and a naturalized pond. allocates a generous two percent of the budget for public art fund- Looking out from Prince Arthur’s Landing across the bay, the ing. BMI has included artists in the design team for components of Sleeping Giant, an impressive rock outcrop, rises out of the lake the landscape design including Rebecca Belmore, a locally born, under a vast sky. Anishinaabe-Canadian artist. Pier Giorgio Di Cicco, the former Poet Laureate of Toronto, was engaged to gather texts from local authors The master plan includes a private development component made for public surfaces and art installations to celebrate the local culture up of three terraced buildings that face the waterfront. The seven- and landscape. storey buildings include a 120-unit boutique hotel and two condo- minium buildings, each containing 52 units. The development con- The landscape design is seeking LEED certification, and is using sortium is also renovating the Thunder Bay historic CPR train station local reclaimed building materials, green roof building materials, and into a restaurant and spa/wellness centre, as well as building and certified forestry products including the concrete pieces from the old operating the Artisan Market building. grain silos on site.

The location of the condominiums and hotel within the park land Katherine Dugmore hopes that the revitalized waterfront will help was controversial and publically criticized despite the fact that much stabilize the downtown, which is economically challenged and is of these lands were reclaimed with landfill. Katherine Dugmore, in a state of transition. The master plan calls for a central pedestrian Waterfront Project Manager for Thunder Bay, felt that having people crossing and one upgraded crossing to help connect the down- living on the waterfront was essential to the success of the project: town across the road and railway lines that divide the city from “We wanted people living and working in a new waterfront commu- its waterfront. nity.” The activities, destination spaces, retail, and housing will help BIO/ CHRIS HARDWICKE IS AN URBAN DESIGNER AND ASSOCIATE AT animate the waterfront year round. The series of tight urban squares, SWEENY STERLING FINLAYSON & CO ARCHITECTS INC. Urban Green .09 22 Streets

04

03 TEXT BY MELISSA CATE CHRIST, OALA

The imperative to “build green” is endorsed both by governments and the private sector. Augmenting or bypassing the crumbling net- Urban Green works of centralized “grey” infrastructure such as drains and pipes, a decentralized, distributed network of “green” infrastructure is captur- ing, detaining, and treating stormwater runoff in municipalities across Streets the U.S. and Canada. A critical component of this fledgling infrastruc- ture is the urban “green street” that mitigates the effect of storm Green infrastructure surges on combined sewer overflows (CSO). An ASLA award- win- ning pilot project in Portland and a proposed streetscape in down- in action town Washington, D.C., demonstrate a collection of techniques that embed stormwater management into a typical urban streetscape and show the potential benefits of widespread installation of this distributed infrastructure.

Green streets can become one of the sustainable tools that municipalities incorporate into their standard details. A case in point is Portland’s 2007 Green Street Policy, a comprehensive municipal program that defines a Green Street as a “street that uses vegetated facilities to manage stormwater runoff at its source... (to) reduce flows, improve water quality and enhance watershed health.” With more than two dozen pilot projects spread across the greater Portland area, the program utilizes a collection of standard techniques that are then adapted to fit each specific installation and the surrounding context.

01 These installations are most common in low-density residential

01-02/ Water is conveyed into or commercial areas, but are increasingly being applied to higher the interior street planters in the density urban situations where combined sewers make capturing, CityCenterDC project. detaining, and treating stormwater runoff urgently necessary. IMAGES/ Lee + Papa and Associates A pilot project in Portland can serve as an example of a green

03/ Stormwater planters street system in action. in Portland. IMAGE/ Melissa Cate Christ SW 12th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 04/ Reeds capture and filter stormwater runoff. It was a typical December day in the Northwest, 45˚F with a misty

IMAGE/ Melissa Cate Christ drizzle, when I visited Portland’s SW12th Avenue and the 2006 ASLA award-winning project designed by Portland’s Bureau of 05/ Stormwater enters from the street through curb cuts covered by Environmental Services and maintained in collaboration with custom grates in this Portland project. Portland State University. I was expecting an innovative, highly 02 visible design, which would stand out as green infrastructure IMAGE/ Melissa Cate Christ (even without its explanatory signage). I was surprised to find that the much-touted pilot project is a subtle design that blends into its context—a small city where continuous planting strips are com- mon and a variety of evergreen vegetative cover is possible. Urban Green .09 23 Streets

Composed of four 18’ by 5’ stormwater planters offset from the curb by a 3’ parking egress zone paved with sand set concrete pavers, only a few details differentiate these planters from the typical to all but the trained eye. A 4” raised curb surrounds each planter, with two cuts on the sidewalk side for water to enter. Two cuts on the parking egress side are flanked by 18”-wide concrete forebays inside the planter and 12”-wide decorative grates spanning the egress zone. The ADA-compliant grates connect the planter to the 05 street side curb cut that allows roadway runoff to enter and exit the planters depending on the storm intensity and volume. There is a 12” grade difference between the planter soil level and the 4’ x 10’ to 6’ x 15’, and are surrounded on three sides (or four sidewalk that allows for rainwater detention. The rushes (Juncens where there is a parking egress zone on the interior streets) by a patens) and trees (Nyssa sylvatica) in the planters capture and fil- 12”-high steel fence. These fences not only relate the aesthetic of ter the runoff. The shrubs and groundcovers at each end of the the new planters to the ones in surrounding neighbourhoods, but planters mark the pedestrian pass-through to the sidewalk and in this case they also protect pedestrians from the grade differ- serve as accent plants along the length of the whole installation. ence between the sidewalk and the planters’ soil level, 14” on the There was a minimal amount of trash lodged in the winter-rav- interior streets and 1” on the perimeter streets. aged rushes, and one of the grates was damaged, but overall the effect was one of a reasonably well-maintained roadside planting. The plant species chosen for all the planters, but especially those Most importantly, it also captures, stores, and treats stormwater on the interior streets, need to tolerate inundation and drought, as at its source. well as salt and other pollutants from the sidewalk and roadway. Spartina patens, a grass native to salt marshes on the Eastern CityCenterDC, Washington D.C. Shore of Maryland, will capture and filter the water when it first A Washington, D.C., streetscape in the final stages of permitting enters the interior street planters, whereas Myrica cerfiera and Ilex and bid documentation has several special conditions that differ glabra will provide the planters with the structure and formal aes- from the context of the SW 12th Street planters in Portland. Thus, thetic required in this downtown business district. it is a good test of the adaptability and performance of green street techniques. Although many of the techniques and details used in these planters build off of work in other cities such as Portland, the CCDC CityCenterDC (CCDC) is located on the 10-acre site of the former streetscape combines and incorporates them on a broader scale Convention Center in downtown Washington D.C. The planned and in a dense urban context. Another unique aspect of this project includes eight buildings with green roofs, a park, plaza, streetscape is the continuous biorentention soil trench below pedestrian alleys, and streetscapes for both sides of two newly grade that connects the planters to each other, increasing soil reconstructed “interior” streets: 10th and I; and one side of four volume for water storage and nutrient uptake for the trees, shrubs, “perimeter” streets: H, 9th, 11th, and New York Avenue. Due to grasses, and perennials along the length of the system. a special relationship between the city and the developer, the streetscape is being built and will be maintained by the developer Seen as a prototype by the designers, these new green streets in collaboration with the city. The opportunity to rebuild the interior will be monitored so as to inform and convince the public, regula- streets led Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd., Lee + Papa and tory agencies, and other stakeholders of their efficacy in dense Associates and the design team to design two bioretention urban environments. When asked about the challenges that lie systems, both of which aim to detain and treat the first flush of ahead, Ben Tauber, of Lee + Papa and Associates, stated that stormwater runoff (.75”) before it is released into the combined these “systems are by their very nature decentralized… down- sewer system. Due to existing utilities and roadway grading, the town is just one piece…we need to find a way to build all of our planters along the perimeter streets only collect water from the public spaces to incorporate these strategies.” sidewalk. On the interior streets, the planters collect water from the sidewalk and from the roadbed through street-side curb cuts. See: http://asla.org/awards/2006/06winners/341.html Once collected in the planter, the water infiltrates through a series for more information on the SW 12th Avenue pilot project. BIO/ MELISSA CATE CHRIST, OALA IS A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT of layers (i.e., fine gravel on the surface to ease trash cleanout, a LIVING IN SEATTLE, WASHINGTON. specially formulated bioretention soil mix that stores water for uptake by the plants, small diameter “choker” gravel to catch soil fines, dust, and small particles, then larger diameter “water stor- age” gravel) before entering a perforated pipe which is connected to the stormwater manholes in the street. Each system comple- ments the traditional stormwater infrastructure—inlets are located downstream from the planters so as to capture any overflow.

Incorporating downtown D.C. streetscape standards into the design was a primary concern. The planters range from the typical From Coast to Coast .09 24 to Coast

could be applied to the land, coast, and oceans. With no university in Canada or the U.S. offering relevant courses, he developed and From Coast proposed his own program and applied to Harvard University, combining courses with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. to Coast to University summers spent working with Conservation Authorities found Dobbin studying and exploring the Trent River from a tourism, recreation, and ecological perspective. After graduation Coast from the University of Toronto, he worked with Richard Strong and Steven Moorhead Limited and, as project manager, developed A conversation with numerous marine protected area management plans, including a management plan for Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland James Dobbin, OALA (a UNESCO World Heritage Site). Through working closely with marine biologists and ecologists, the project proposed extending the boundaries of the park offshore to establish a marine protect- ed area parallel to the shoreline. This soon led to the manage- ment plan and classification and “marine spatial planning” and TEXT BY ANDREW B. ANDERSON zoning of offshore areas. Ontario is defined by some of the most spectacular coastlines in the world: from the shores of the St. Lawrence River; the Great Eager to further explore how landscape architecture and planning Lakes and their innumerable islands, bays and inlets; Heritage principles could be applied to coastal and offshore planning, Dobbin Rivers like the Grand, French and Missinaibi; countless smaller pursued his master of landscape architecture at Harvard University lakes and rivers scattered throughout the province like watery four years after graduating from the University of Toronto: “I wanted legacies of glacial retreat; to the desolately beautiful and often to find out what we could learn from looking at the marine environ- forgotten saline coastlines of James Bay and Hudson Bay. ment from the perspective of a landscape architect and regional If you’re in Ontario, chances are you’re not very far from water. land planner, and what could be learned and brought back to work- ing with the land.” Having consulted for the International Union for James Dobbin, OALA, founding principal of Washington, D.C.- the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and participated in the first based Dobbin International, has carved a niche as the world’s International Conference for Marine Parks in Tokyo, Japan in 1975, foremost expert in Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) Dobbin identified a gap between science and management: “At that planning. Since establishing his firm in 1976—likely the first firm in time, the approach to marine protected areas was very science the world to specialize in Integrated Coastal Management plan- based, with very little local consultation, capacity building, or introduc- ning, Marine Protected Area (MPA) planning, and Marine Spatial tion of planning processes to bridge science and management. Planning (MSP) of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)—these fields There was little consideration given to people.” have now become widely recognized. ICM is defined by the Subsidiary Body [to the Convention on Biodiversity] on Scientific, Now, thirty years and hundreds of successful projects later in Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA), as “... the participato- more than a hundred countries, Dobbin International is a global ry process for decision making to prevent, control, or mitigate leader in multidisciplinary collaboration. The firm addresses land, adverse impacts from human activities in the marine and coastal coast, and ocean conservation and development issues, including environment, and. . . the restoration of degraded coastal areas. oil, gas, and mineral exploration and development activities and It involves all stakeholders, including: decision makers in the public increasing pressures for use of the world’s coastal zones for and private sectors; resource owners, managers and users; non- tourism, urbanization, industrial, and regional development. While governmental organizations; and the general public.” Something the scale of his work may vary, the fundamental planning princi- special happens where water and land come together. ples that Dobbin applies to his work remain the same: follow an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach across sectors and at multi- With an undergraduate degree in landscape architecture from the ple scales; always involve local communities from the very outset University of Toronto and following several years of work with Gros of a project; and remain cognizant of biophysical, cultural, political, Morne National Park and Fathom Five Provincial Park, Dobbin and socioeconomic context and working across multiple sectors: began searching for a university to further develop his research “Landscape architects bring together knowledge and disciplines and studies related to ICM planning. He was driven by the thought across space. Sometimes you need to step back and take in the that perhaps regional ecosystem and land-planning principles big picture to see the natural and cultural processes at work. Only then is it possible to understand the specifics.” He emphasizes the importance of working with local people during the planning process. “Once the consulting project is done, local team mem- bers become the leaders who are well trained to lead and implement the project.” From Coast to Coast .09 25 to Coast

The portfolio of work completed by Dobbin and his team covers the globe and includes some of the most significant terrestrial and marine environments on the planet. From Caribbean-wide marine conservation strategies, critical marine habitat studies for walrus management, and sea otter translocation studies in the Bering Sea and western USA coast, to strategic regional planning in Gabon, Mozambique, and the Arctic, he brings an integrated strategic approach to problem solving at every imaginable scale, cautioning that the potential benefits of any project can be skewed by a “single sector viewpoint.”

The diversity of Dobbin’s projects is staggering. He has been involved in the production of coastal and marine atlases of all the coasts of the U.S. and Canada; he has prepared management plans for all the original U.S. national marine sanctuaries; he has developed a coherent Environmental Management Program (EMP) strategy for the Mediterranean Basin, a marine conservation strat- 01 egy for the Caribbean Basin, and management plans for coastal resources in the Arabian Gulf, Egypt, Lebanon, Albania, China, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malawi, and Cuba. He has been the Chief Technical Advisor to Cuba since 1991 for the Cuban Sabana- Camaguey Ecosystem Global Environment Facility (GEF) project cov- ering a 75,000 km2 watershed, coastal area, and ocean zone established to protect biodiversity and establish sustainable tourism development.

In recent years, the firm has been heavily involved in the strategic spatial development planning for a 125,000 km2 region in south- ern Tanzania and northern Mozambique that encompasses three national parks, 12 districts, three towns, and the entire trans- boundary coastal zone of Lake Niassa.

Despite the broad nature of landscape architecture, calling James Dobbin a landscape architect seems too narrow a term. He speaks with conviction and exudes a quiet confidence, having 02 seemingly perfected the ability to translate complex and messy multi-disciplinary scientific information and knowledge into a form that is logical and easy to understand. On any given day, perhaps 01/ Coastal lagoon rich in shrimp and fish near Fort-Dauphin, the seamless transition of his work between land and water, Madagascar. between people and place, defies definition. Integrated Coastal IMAGE/ James Dobbin Planning, Marine Spatial Planning, and Marine Protected Area 02/ East Africa Swahili Planning have become commonly accepted terms and disciplines, coastal dhow offshore from Zanzibar sailing while the recent strategic spatial development planning of land, by the offshore sand dunes. coastline, and oceans conveys new directions. Continuously build- IMAGE/ James Dobbin ing on the foundations of knowledge gained from studying land- 03/ One of the seven scape architecture, James Dobbin continues to chart new waters unusual baobab species found in the while leading by example. Anosy Region in Madagascar. IMAGE/ James Dobbin For more information on Dobbin International, please visit www.dobbin.org. BIO/ ANDREW B. ANDERSON, ROVING REPORTER FOR GROUND, LIVES IN DUBLIN, IRELAND, WHERE HE IS PURSUING A MASTER OF SCIENCE IN WORLD HERITAGE MANAGEMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN—A SHORT BIKE RIDE AWAY FROM THE ROCKY COASTLINE OF THE IRISH SEA.

03 Cultures of .09 26 Play

TEXT BY CHRISTIE PEARSON

I recently went to a public charrette for input on parks in my west-end neighbourhood of Toronto. One of the items that the group raised for discussion was the local wading pool. Is it used? By whom? In our climate, which affords us only about 60 days of wading, do wading Cultures pools warrant such a large chunk of the park? I have not seen a new wading pool built in Toronto in my lifetime, but I have seen many wading pools destroyed, filled in with soil, or transformed into a of “splash pad,” our era’s standard take on water play. A splash pad is a wet zone without standing water, where objects can be triggered or programmed mechanically or electronically to spray water. It does not require pool attendants, or the labour of filling and emptying. While spraying is something enjoyable that we Play can do with water, splash pads reduce the variety of opportunities for water play in comparison to wading pools. What you are really engaging with in the splash pad is an electronic sensor. No doubt, Wading into sensors are cool. But playing in a tub of water is perhaps cooler for a wider variety of ages—what we do with it is an exploration requiring water’s delight our active participation and imagination synchronized with our sens- es. What I notice about wading pools is how everyone brings their own level of development and interests to the space in a way that nearly precludes boredom. In thinking about water and land- scape, I’d like to make an appeal to maintain existing outdoor pools and create more watery spaces for unstructured play in urban environments.

Play does not have a purpose, although purposes and interests become readily attached to the play impulse and then tend to destroy the play spirit. Play has a generative cultural function whose dynamism is maintained through lively participation. When a cultural game becomes stagnant, it suffocates, and so must remain flexible enough to adjust rules that no longer seem vital. One thing I have learned from Dutch cultural theorist Johan Huizinga (in particular, his 1938 book Homo Ludens) is that all environments can be seen as settings for some type of play; another is that the rules of the game must be understood; then, that the rules must be able to shift continually and so the environment must adapt.

The playground as a feature of urban life has a rather brief history. The dense industrial working class city increasingly made the street the only outdoor play space for children. In the early twentieth centu- ry, American social reformers began the charge for people to create spaces expressly for working class children to play in, at the same time as they were pressuring cities to create public baths to get these same children clean. The aims were to alleviate the physical suffering of the poor, and moreover to morally improve a group now seen as a hygienic and social threat to the middle and upper class- es. Olmstead’s great American parks arose in this same movement. These three roots of public playgrounds, baths, and parks are still intertwined in our cities’ recreation spaces, and merge in the chil- dren’s wading pool.

Early playground equipment was principally made of steel to be van- dal proof above all else, and swings, slides, and monkey bars are

01 Cultures of .09 27 Play

02 ground, designed by Halprin, for example, you can walk in water, stand under a fountain, and climb to its summit. Halprin’s legacy of fountain playgrounds emerges from a less litigious and more sensu- ally optimistic time. The Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain in London, England, by Kathryn Gustafson (2004) is a fine example of a more contemporary design based on wading for un-programmed play in an abstracted simulation of a river in solid granite. Barefoot children and adults explore its irregular ring-trough of changing sec- tion and elevation that speeds up or slows down the flow of the water. Textures beneath your toes transform from smooth to rough to pebbly to stepped.

The potential for water play is great. I wish that we could explore more seasonal uses for outdoor water play spaces in cold climates.

03 I wish that we could resist somewhat the fashions of technology and design essays in the mechanical means of production—basically ideology when we come to design spaces for play, grounded in our machines for playing in. While the inventive can usually discover experiences of water’s sheer delight. BIO/ CHRISTIE PEARSON IS AN ARTIST, WRITER, AND ARCHITECT AT LEVITT the latent possibilities of anything, there is a “right way” to use a GOODMAN ARCHITECTS IN TORONTO. SHE CO-FOUNDED THE WADE FESTIVAL FOR PERFORMANCE AND INSTALLATION ART IN TORONTO WADING POOLS slide or a swing. (WWW.WADETORONTO.CA), URBANVESSEL PERFORMANCE COLLECTIVE (WWW.URBANVESSEL.COM), AND THEWAVES (WWW.THEWAVES.CA). FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT WWW.CHRISTIEPEARSON.CA. In the 1960s, the adventure playground movement began to form. The focus on experience, rejection of authority, the human potential movement, and the attempted reconstruction of certain cultural 01/ Louis Laberge-Cote dancing in Dufferin Grove Park wading pool, Toronto; games all inform the adventure playground. This is more than an choreographer Peter Chin. unstructured play space: it is a proposition to build and destroy. IMAGE/ Cheryl Rondeau Landmark 1960s and 1970s playgrounds, such as Jacob Riis in New 02/ Projection work on water at night, by Tony Stallard, in Bellevue Square York by M. Paul Friedberg, were fixed miniature landscapes of basic wading pool, Toronto. elements such as steps, hills, and walls, and appear inspired by Van IMAGE/ Cheryl Rondeau Eyck and Isamu Noguchi’s provocative playground designs of highly 03/ Bellevue Square wading pool, Toronto, where Chrysanne Stathacos has floated abstracted landscape elements. Lawrence Halprin is part of this rose petals. wave of 1970s play spaces with a focus on water. In a Seattle play- IMAGE/ Christie Pearson Technical .09 28 Corner

Schollen summarizes the difference between past and present approaches to Retrofitting stormwater management as a paradigm shift; previously, stormwater was viewed as wastewater, now it is recognized as a vital the resource. Instead of efficient systems to con- vey storm water away, we are introducing systems to allow for groundwater recharge Suburbs and infiltration to occur, which helps to restore the source of water that contributes to base flow rates in streams. These infiltra- TEXT BY NANCY CHATER, OALA tion systems also replenish shallow ground- Remaking water stores, nourishing soil and contribut- How do we retrofit low-density industrial ing to slope stabilization by supporting veg- sites and suburban neighbourhoods to inte- stormwater etation. This riparian vegetation is also criti- grate current best practices for stormwater cal to sustaining habitat for terrestrial and management? Large suburban residential, systems aquatic species. commercial, and industrial areas are serv- iced by aging infrastructure that requires The good news, according to Schollen, is repair or replacement at tremendous cost. that retrofitting the suburbs is doable: “the Not only is this infrastructure breaking down solutions aren't tricky.” They are also cost physically, but these existing systems were effective, partly because they are not designed based on an outdated approach intensive in terms of construction and to stormwater management that focused degree of intervention in existing sites. on conveying runoff as quickly as possible, Several of the systems are low-tech and sending it at uncontrolled rates, and com- proven. Techniques such as permeable pletely unfiltered, into the storm sewer sys- pavement, infiltration galleries, increased tem. Storm pipes discharge directly into the tree canopy cover, expanded vegetated nearest river tributary (in the GTA, primarily buffers, and pocket detention areas can the Don, Rouge, and Humber rivers as well be installed in a variety of situations without as numerous creeks), wreaking havoc by extensive excavation or disturbance to dumping pollution and sediment into natural existing storm sewer infrastructure. water systems and destabilizing stream banks, resulting in erosion. Storm sewer Schollen notes that as a by-product of 01 systems often combine stormwater runoff sprawl, municipalities created very large with sanitary sewage, resulting in unfiltered road right-of-ways that are often 20 metres overflows during large storm events. A new wide, with pavement widths that exceed approach focused on treating runoff at its what is typically required. This situation source takes the pressure off these com- affords the opportunity to narrow the width bined systems, resulting in less frequent of the paved surface and reassign the overflow situations and, consequently, reclaimed real estate to create open improvements to downstream health. space on the road margins that can accommodate new stormwater manage- According to Mark Schollen, OALA, principal ment systems that are not only efficient but of Schollen & Company Inc. and widely can be beautiful as well, creating new recognised for his expertise in innovative identities for suburban areas. stormwater design, retrofitting vast tracts of the suburban landscape using non-structur- Permeable Pavement al stormwater management techniques is Comprised of precast unit pavers with one of the biggest and most exciting oppor- voids filled with free-draining aggregate that tunities for landscape architects today. This allow a percentage of surface water to per- 02 area of work has the potential to make radi- meate into the ground below, permeable 01/ Warden Woods community, cal improvements to water management Toronto—typical streetscape paving materials make immediate sense, condition. systems, water quality, aquatic habitat, and allowing for rapid infiltration that can reduce IMAGE/ Schollen & Company Inc. overall watershed health. 02/ Proposed "sustainable runoff rates to near zero during minor storm street" with narrowed pavement, bioswale, and infiltration gallery. events. However, one of the objections

IMAGE/ Schollen & Company Inc. often raised is the question of where water Technical .09 29 Corner

goes below the paving, especially in areas determined the sizing. The idea is that once that are underlain by predominantly clay the orifice is in place, it is left alone, though soils. The need for sub-surface drainage there does need to be a degree of “tunabili- systems tied in to traditional overflows (to ty” built in because designers are working the sewers) can become an expense gen- from models and actual volumes may vary. erated by the permeable paving surface. Schollen counters this by pointing out that One of the key issues is the space infiltration natural clay soils in predevelopment situa- galleries take up. Landscape architects can tions do have a degree of permeability, it is steal back real estate in wide road right-of- just slower than more porous soils, such as ways. There are also issues with utilities sand. Infiltrating into clay soils takes more below grade competing for space. Schollen time. “The relationship that’s important is the typically looks for parks, schoolyards, lanes, predevelopment condition compared to the and streets as well as other left-over spaces Rain gardens are another simple method post-development condition.” Even if clay in the public realm. The other challenge is of source control. By creating a low point soils allow 180 mm of rainfall per month to that the infiltration gallery needs to be rela- with appropriate soil to facilitate infiltration infiltrate in the predevelopment condition, tively close to a low point. and installing plants that transpire lots of this is considerably more than zero, which is water, such as willow or some poplars, the result when a site is covered with imper- Increased Tree Canopy stormwater runoff is significantly reduced. meable paving. Tree canopy slows down rainfall as it hits the ground. The leaves are a form of inter- Stormwater Detention Ponds How do you create the time that infiltrating ception. Schollen suggests that a general While these were state-of-the-art from into clay soil requires? By using infiltration rule to follow is: the more canopy, the bet- the 1980s until about 2005, the current galleries, and designing them to allow for ter, particularly over impervious surfaces. approach is to focus on source controls, the maximum interface between soil and Trees set in grass are not as critical as trees infiltration methods, and Low Impact water. Wide and shallow dimensions of infil- that cover impervious surfaces. Like infiltra- Development (LID) techniques to minimize tration galleries, for instance, increase con- tion galleries, trees need space for their reliance on “end-of-pipe” facilities such as tact between water and soil when com- roots and for the soil volume they require, stormwater ponds. By employing a compre- pared with narrow and deep trenches. along with adequate moisture. hensive source control strategy, the size of the traditional end-of-pipe pond can be Another approach is to cut out portions of Expanded Buffers reduced and in some cases the require- existing pavement to create islands of per- Vegetative buffers of layered, native ment for a pond can be eliminated. When meability when the paving sits on naturally woody and herbaceous plant material a pond is located at the end of a system of sandy soil. By removing just 10 percent of a protect slopes from erosion from rainwa- source control technologies, the pond tends parking lot and directing runoff into the per- ter. Expanded buffers are particularly impor- to perform more efficiently and require less meable area, intelligent landscape design tant in areas built right to the ravine wall and maintenance over the long term since it is can compensate for large expanses of beyond. By extending native plants up to the receiving water that has already been treat- impermeable surfaces. crest of the ravine slope and beyond, we ed within the source control system. help to regenerate valley systems. Schollen Infiltration Galleries notes that there are a number of good Wave of The Future Similar to a French drain, an infiltration examples in Toronto’s Don Valley system For Schollen and his firm, retrofitting the gallery is, at its most basic, an excavated where expanded buffers and enhanced suburbs is “a huge opportunity to do some area filled with granular material and lined native plantings have assisted in stabilizing really good work with a significant environ- with geotextile. Water seeps back into the slopes. Unfortunately, there are also many mental benefit. There is an opportunity to soil around the gallery. But, as Schollen examples where the removal of native step in, incorporate smart growth plan- points out, an infiltration gallery is more than vegetation has resulted in slope failure. ning, and allow some imagination to take a “dumb trench.” It is a purpose designed hold. All this real estate could be made system, with intake and outflow points to Source Controls more efficient and retain its purpose while regulate flow rates and attenuation vol- This refers to capturing water where it lands, also being renewed to be a model of umes, and to accommodate overflow close to the source, rather than sending it efficiency and sustainability.” requirements. The stone-filled trench has an into the storm sewer. Disconnecting down- BIO/ NANCY CHATER, OALA, IS THE GROUND inlet and outlet pipe with a control orifice. spouts and letting water spill onto lawns to TECHNICAL CORNER COLUMNIST. A valve can be used, or a smaller diameter be absorbed into the ground is an example pipe, to slow down the flow. The inlet and of source control. While some source control outlet methods are passive, not automated. methods are “no brainers,” many places still They need to have some flexibility built in so have roof leaders that are not disconnected that they can be adjusted if the flow does and that send rainwater directly into the not exactly match the calculations that storm sewer. Notes .09 30

Notes: water new members Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) is The Ontario Association of Landscape launching a new professional course on Architects is proud to recognize and A integrated water management principles welcome the following new full members and technologies to be introduced in June to the association. 1, 2010, at its Regional Green Roof and Miscellany Wall Conference in Washington, D.C. “Our Richard Archibald * future ability to retain the many positive Jeffrey Briggs benefits of vegetation in cities will hinge Darlene Broderick * of News directly upon the wise use of our water Gerald Dieleman * resources in an increasing number of Joseph Fry markets,” said Steven W. Peck, Founder Britta Hild * and and President of Green Roofs for Healthy Michelle Lazar * Cities. “This expert committee will apply Stacia Stempski integrated design and management prin- April Szeto * Events ciples and technologies to the issues of water shortage and urban greening,” Asterisk (*) denotes a Full Member he added. For more information, visit not having custody and use of the www.greenroofs.org. Association seal.

symposium pollination

A national symposium on the exemplary A course offered by the University of work and ideas of established and emerg- Guelph Arboretum will provide an intro- ing Canadian landscape architects was duction to the world of pollination and recently held in Toronto. Sponsored by the pollinators. Learn how to identify major Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation groups of pollinators and then conduct and the OALA, and organized by University field observations using Pollination of Toronto professor Alissa North Canada’s citizen-science program. (Landscape Architect Intern), the event Explore the Arboretum to find pollinator- included speakers who were invited to friendly plants, and discuss ways that you present their projects over the last decade can help stop the decline of pollinator and discuss a Canadian-specific trajectory. populations. For information, visit www.uoguelph.ca/arboretum. Of particular highlight were those specializing in the design and planning of heritage Native landscapes: Aarluk Consulting out of Iqaluit and Hilderman Thomas Frank Cram out of Winnipeg. The panel discussion that followed the presen- tations of seasoned Ontario practitioners was enlightening and focused on the role of design competitions. The final panel consisted of emerging designers from across Canada, from Toronto to Montreal to the east coast.

For a full list of speakers, go to 01/ Michael Hough receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from http://www.daniels.utoronto.ca/events/ the World Green Building Council. symposia/2009/11/4975. IMAGE/ World Green Building Council

02/ Margery Winkler

IMAGE/ Margery Winkler family Notes .09 31

sionals. Without show or rhetoric, Margery biodiversity seemed to be a promoter of better things: ideas, methods, and the enhancement of The United Nations has proclaimed 2010 as the landscape architecture program at the International Year of Biodiversity, mark- Ryerson. She made us think, and she made ing a unique opportunity to increase our us laugh. Margery gave her all to her aca- common understanding of the vital role that demic endeavours—her boundless energy, biodiversity plays in sustaining life on earth. her creative ideas, and her willingness to May 22nd is the International Day for help. Her infectious spirit was pervasive in Biodiversity, and the Canadian Museum of the design studios and lecture halls. In Nature in Ottawa will mark this milestone reading cards of condolence, many from date with its own milestone: the celebration colleagues and students, it is evident that of the 100th anniversary of the construction her kind, gentle, and respectful way, and of its historic building. For more information, her readiness to both listen and give guid- please visit the Canadian Biodiversity ance, was greatly appreciated and will be Information Network (www.cbin.ec.gc.ca), fondly remembered. the Convention on Biological Diversity (www.cbd.int), the International Year of Wherever there was a need, Margery Biodiversity (www.cbd.int/2010/welcome), 01 responded to it. She had a special interest or the Canadian Museum of Nature and success in connecting Ryerson to the awards (www.nature.ca). larger community; a schoolyard became an oasis of green, a middle school now has an The World Green Building Council present- engaging entrance where students gather. ed their 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award Recently, Margery was part of an esteemed to Michael Hough, OALA. jury of seven who selected the winner for Toronto’s new June Callwood Park, in mem- Hough was presented with this award ory of June Callwood, a Toronto community on September 23, 2009, at a special cere- activist and humanitarian. Some of the mony following the World Green Building primary concepts of the winning entry Council Leaders Summit in Toronto. The are “community engagement,” award ceremony took place at the “ecological responsibility,” and “timeless Canadian National Exhibition’s (CNE) themes of human play”—ideas that Heritage Courtyard Building. Margery espoused.

Michael Hough is the first landscape This past year, Margery masterfully architect to have received this award. developed and directed the RU GREEN 02 Student/Alumni Sustainable Open Space Design Competition for the Ryerson cam- preservation in memoriam pus. This competition was an opportunity for young designers to create a dynamic, The Alliance for Historic Landscape Margery Winkler, OALA sustainable, multi-functional urban open Preservation’s upcoming conference is Professor in the Department of Architectural space. Beyond her work at Ryerson, on the theme “Enchanted Landscapes: Science, Ryerson University Margery was the core and inspiration Exploring Cultural Traditions and Values.” for her close and loving family. We will The event takes place April 21 to 24, 2010, An Appreciation by Sue Macaulay remember her as a colleague, for her in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more and colleagues friendship and her bravery. information, see www.ahlp.org. Margery Winkler died of cancer in December 2009. Margery was a wonderful mother to Ali, Michael, and Jackie, and the wife of Vladimir. Margery joined Ryerson in the late 1970s and it seems we have known her forever. We taught together, ate togeth- er, and celebrated together the develop- ment of our students into competent profes-

Artifact .09 42

Molar Bears

01 More than ten years ago, sculptures appeared in Toronto’s Don pods were soon crowded with invasive exotics. Vandals couldn’t Valley. Motorists speeding down the D.V.P., twisting and turning resist the clean white canvas on which to make their graffiti marks; along with the river, hugging the valley slopes, can’t help but the ground around the sculptures became scarred with the notice these blocky, almost comical shapes. Some liken them to evidence of frequent bonfires. molars; others to bears or elephants. “Molar Bears” sounds about right. Some embrace them as a striking addition; others consider But also like the valley, the “Molar Bears” have survived them odd and out of place. the indignities. They stand, both gateway and guard, inviting comment, interaction, a smile, a lament. Called Elevated Wetlands and designed by artist Noel Harding, WITH THANKS TO CARL NOVIKOFF FOR RESEARCH. the sculptures pump water from the Don into vegetated pods that were originally intended to function like wetlands but over time have evolved into dry meadows. Much like the Don Valley, the 01/ Noel Harding's Elevated Wetlands project, in Toronto's Don Valley.

IMAGE/ Casey Morris