Ground 51 — Fall 2020 — Pattern

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17542 m2 (11%)

265 m3pd (100%) 132 m3pd (50% of indoor use) 132 m3pd (50% of indoor use)

5293 m2

Fall 2020 Issue 51

Publication # 40026106

Who Belongs in Landscape Architecture?

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Parametric Design

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Ecological References 1619 people

06/ 265 m3pd (100% of indoor use)

66 m3pd (50% of total output)

132 m3pd (50% of indoor use) 66 m3pd (50% of total output)

0 m3pd (0%)

100 people per hectare Population Lot Coverage Total Outdoor Total Indoor Total Grey Total Potable Total Sewage Produced Wetland Area

Features Pattern as a Verb To Agriculture

Total OUTPUT

Round Table Shattered Patterns 08/ To Corridor

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Landscape Architect Quarterly

Masthead

OALA

OALA

­About­

About the OALA

Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly is published by the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects and provides an open forum for the exchange of ideas and information related to the profession of landscape architecture. Letters to the editor, article proposals, and feedback are encouraged. For submission guidelines, contact Ground at magazine@oala.ca.

Ground reserves the right to edit all submissions.

The views expressed in the magazine are those of the writers and not necessarily the views of the OALA and its Governing Council.

The Ontario Association of Landscape Architects works to promote and advance the profession of landscape architecture and maintain standards of professional practice consistent with the public interest. The OALA promotes public understanding of the profession and the advancement of the practice of landscape architecture. In support of the improvement and/or conservation of the natural, cultural, social and built environments, the OALA undertakes activities including promotion to governments, professionals and developers of the standards and benefits of landscape architecture.

Councillors Cynthia Graham Cameron Smith Justin Whalen

Upcoming Issues of Ground Ground 52 (Winter) Myth

Associate Councillor—Senior Leah Lanteigne

Ground 53 (Spring) Normal?

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Editor Glyn Bowerman

2020–2021 OALA Governing Council

Photo Editor Jasper Flores

President Jane Welsh

OALA Editorial Board Kanwal Aftab Shannon Baker Trish Clarke Jasper Flores Eric Gordon Mark Hillmer Eric Klaver Alexandra Ntoukas Nadja Pausch (Chair) Katie Strang Dalia Todary-Michael

Vice President Kendall Flower

Web Editor Jennifer Foden Social Media Manager Jennifer Foden Art Direction/Design Noël Nanton/typotherapy www.typotherapy.com Advertising Inquiries advertising@oala.ca 416.231.4181 Cover Graphics by Matt Perotto.

See Parametric Design, page 18.

Ground: Landscape Architect Quarterly is published four times a year by the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects.

Ontario Association of Landscape Architects 3 Church Street, Suite 506 Toronto, Ontario M5E 1M2 416.231.4181 www.oala.ca oala@oala.ca Copyright © 2020 by the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects.

Contributors retain copyright of their work. All rights reserved.

ISSN: 0847-3080 Canada Post Sales Product Agreement No. 40026106 See www.groundmag.ca to download articles and share content on social media.

Treasurer Steve Barnhart Secretary Stefan Fediuk Past President Doris Chee

Associate Councillor—Junior Chen Zixiang Lay Councillor Peter Hersics Appointed Councillor Liat Margolis

Deadline for editorial proposals: November 15, 2020 Deadline for advertising space reservations: January 13, 2021

Appointed Educator University of Guelph Brendan Stewart Appointed Educator University of Toronto TBC University of Guelph Student Representative TBC University of Toronto Student Representative Morgan Quinn OALA Staff Executive Director Aina Budrevics Registrar Ingrid Little Coordinator Juleen Anderson

See www.groundmag.ca for a digital, searchable, archival database, listing all articles, authors, subjects, key words, etc. published in Ground over the years.

TO VIEW ADDITIONAL CONTENT RELATED TO GROUND ARTICLES, VISIT WWW.GROUNDMAG.CA.

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Advisory Panel

Andrew B. Anderson, OALA – Inactive Member, BLA, MSc. World Heritage Management Landscape & Heritage Expert, Oman Botanic Garden John Danahy, OALA, Associate Professor, University of Toronto George Dark, OALA, FCSLA, ASLA, Principal, Urban Strategies Inc., Toronto Real Eguchi, OALA – Retired Member, Toronto Donna Hinde, OALA, FCSLA, Partner, The Planning Partnership, Toronto Ryan James, OALA, Senior Landscape Architect, Novatech, Ottawa Alissa North, OALA, Associate Professor, University of Toronto, Principal of North Design Office, Toronto Peter North, OALA, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto, Principal of North Design Office, Toronto Nathan Perkins, MLA, PhD, ASLA, Associate Professor, University of Guelph Victoria Taylor, OALA, Principal, Victoria Taylor Landscape Architect, Toronto Jim Vafiades, OALA, FCSLA, Senior Landscape Architect, Stantec, Toronto

Contents

Up Front Information on the ground

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Pattern Pattern as a Verb

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TEXT BY ALEXANDRA NTOUKAS

Round Table Shattered Patterns MODERATED BY DALIA TODARY-MICHAEL, OALA AND KATIE STRANG 08/

Ecological References A Q&A with Jonas Spring

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TEXT BY NADJA PAUSCH, OALA

Parametric Designs How computation and 3D modelling unlock the power of pattern TEXT BY MATT PEROTTO

22/ Letter From... Atlanta Who Belongs in Landscape Architecture?

TEXT BY CLARA KWON, OALA–INACTIVE MEMBER

26/ Member Survey Lessons for the profession after COVID-19 TEXT BY GLYN BOWERMAN 18/

Notes A miscellany of news and events

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Artifact Uncharted Territory TEXT BY SHANNON BAKER, OALA 42/

President’s Message

Editorial Board Message

President’s Message

Editorial Board Message

Patterns can give meaning and reassurance to our lives. But when they are disrupted, it can be an opportunity to question if they truly reflect our values about the way we live and work.

In a time where we may feel nothing is happening according to plan—as though the patterned overlay which so reliably charts our course and acts as a marker of time passed and life lived has been unceremoniously stripped away—we can take solace in the knowledge that this upheaval is, too, part of a pattern larger than us, the likes of which have been overcome before and will be again.

Strong new voices of landscape architects have emerged through the disruptions of the past year—the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests, and the climate strike.

They raise important questions and challenge past patterns, making us stronger as an association and profession.

I am excited and hopeful for the future of our profession as we continue to raise awareness of the importance and value of the work we do.

Landscape Architecture and the Power of Change Many members have raised their collective voices to challenge us, provincially and nationally, to more fully address diversity and inclusion. We are committed to ensuring that the important dialogue the BLM movement raised results in meaningful, proactive action.

The pandemic has illuminated a critical need for healthy outdoor space, and we can use our power as designers to promote health and recovery.

Advocacy and new thinking about tackling climate change continues to be advanced through the efforts of our members and allied professionals in the Design Climate Action initiative.

Increasing Awareness of Landscape Architecture It is more important than ever to use our collective voices to raise the profile of landscape architecture and the value of the work we do.

Since June, we have met with six MPPs to build support for why Ontario needs a Practice Act for landscape architecture.

We met with Hon Jeff Yurek (Elgin-Middlesex-London), PC Amarjot Sandhu (Brampton West), Gurratan Singh (NDP, Brampton East), Bhutila Karpoche (NDP, Parkdale-High Park), Chris Glover (NDP, Spadina-Fort York), and Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner (Guelph).

We also sent a letter to Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney and Premier Doug Ford on the province’s plan to introduce Billboards on the 400 series highways and Metrolinx rail lands.

Fall 2020 Issue 51

As we navigate the global crisis, we continue to work with our dedicated volunteers and allied professionals to adapt to the new normal. As always, OALA Council and staff are here to support you.

JANE WELSH, OALA, FCSLA OALA PRESIDENT PRESIDENT@OALA.CA

And while it can be comforting to know we are not alone in this experience of uncertainty, it is critical we confront the ways some of us benefit from systems of which are designed to actively dispossess so many others. In this collective pause, we have both the privilege and the responsibility to examine the patterns and systems which shape our lives, our cities, and our society, and to consider which are useful and which are long overdue for a redesign.

Old systems and patterns are showing the cracks of strain under their own oppressive weight. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted importance of our interaction with the natural world. Black Lives Matter and social justice movements across the globe have revived a keen understanding of public space as a stage upon which the fight for democracy and equity is played out. Climate change has facilitated a broader awareness of how status quo development is woefully inadequate to tackle the challenges of our time.

We do not know what the future is going to look like, but we have the tools to design it. One of our most precious skills as designers is our ability to envision futures which do not yet exist, and to communicate those futures to others. As landscape architects, we are well-positioned to be fierce advocates for, and designers of, a more just, sustainable, and prosperous way forward.

NADJA PAUSCH, OALA CHAIR, EDITORIAL BOARD MAGAZINE@OALA.CA

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Up Front

03

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trails, they had to take into account the width of the trails offered to the public (could social distancing be maintained), and their capacity (could they handle the influx of foot traffic), what “touch” amenities were located along those trails (washrooms, benches, signage). Even the Humble Trail became a source of scrutiny as administrations examined the risk of keeping them open to the public.

01 PARKS

the humble trail What are we doing this weekend? Prior to COVID-19, trails would have been an afterthought. However, as the pandemic progressed and the number of alternative activities decreased, one common recreational activity stood its ground: the Humble Trail.

I say the “Humble Trail” because it is often a place where you can go to escape, to quiet your soul, to get away from the screaming city, and (more recently) to travel from one part of the city to another. It is not built-up, overbearing, or overstimulating. The trail is peaceful, comforting, and always there when you need it.

A trail can be anything to anyone. If you are alone, it can present you with

Up Front: Information on the Ground

the opportunity to listen and reconnect to nature. Many trails lend themselves to multiple activities such as walking, running, and cycling. They also provide opportunities to discover new hobbies, such as bird watching, tree and plant identification, fishing, and water sports such as kayaking and canoeing. For my young family, our local nature trails provide us with grand adventures as we watched our children exploring the natural world. The opportunities on a trail are endless when you use your imagination.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, there was uncertainty as to how long it would last. As March unfolded, it became apparent that we were in it for the long haul. For some, social distancing has been a comfort. However, for many, cabin fever (pandemic fatigue) set in rather quickly.

Humans are social beings by nature, so to be separated and closed off to the outside world can begin to take a toll.

As Ontario closed its doors, trails remained open in many locations. Municipalities often encouraged trail use to alleviate pandemic fatigue, encourage physical activity, and to indulge in fresh air and the natural world. Trail use varied as each community set up their own interpretation as to how trails could be used and what amenities along these paths could remain open. As administrations reviewed their

If you were located in an urban pandemic hotspot, access to trails was frequently walk-through only. However, many communities in Ontario are rural and their trails are widespread. Due to the timing of COVID-19, spring trail maintenance—and therefore use—was delayed. However, as the weather warmed up, with snow melting and the ground becoming more stable, the pandemic caused an increase in demand and use of the Humble Trail. It became a saviour for Ontario residents as it offered many safe physical activities to do alone or with family.

As I walk the trails located within my own municipality of Chatham-Kent, I have watched trail use skyrocket. Last year, it would be common to walk a trail anywhere within the community and

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Erie Shore Trail, Chatham-Kent, Ontario

IMAGE/

Genevieve Champagne

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South Lakeshore Trail Boardwalk, Chatham-Kent, Ontario

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Genevieve Champagne

Up Front

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only encounter a handful of people over the course of the entire trek. During this pandemic, I have witnessed families rediscovering the simplicity of walking or cycling through their local trails. The appreciation for these amenities is reflective in the residents’ interaction with them. Locally, our residents have added their own dash of creativity into trails by placing painted “positivity rocks,” giving hope and inspiration to the community around them.

Unfortunately, as trails are quiet sanctuaries, they are often forgotten by local governments and landscape architects. That has changed throughout the pandemic. As Professionals in our varying fields of expertise, if we could take one thing away from this experience it would be to respect our trails: advocate for their use, demand more funding, and stand with your administration for new infrastructure to be established.

As landscape architects, we are often looking at the built features we can design; however, these quiet spaces also need our attention because it is from these we can have a huge impact on the communities where we live and work.

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Rotary Eco-Trail, Chatham-Kent, Ontario

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Genevieve Champagne

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HUD Plaza, Washington D.C.

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Courtesy of Martha Schwartz Partners

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Broward County Civic Arena, Fort Lauderdale, Florida,

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Courtesy of Martha Schwartz Partners BTB Siam Skywalk, Bankok, Thailand

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Courtesy of Martha Schwartz Partners

pattern inspired landscapes

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Landscape architects often incorporate these patterns into designs in a variety of ways, as can be seen in the following projects.

Martha Schwartz uses patterns in her projects through programming, planting, and lighting. Some of the examples are HUD Plaza, and the Broward County Civic Arena.

TEXT BY GENEVIEVE CHAMPAGNE, MOTHER OF TWO VERY ACTIVE LITTLE GIRLS AND THE ACTIVE TRANSPORTATION AND SPECIAL EVENTS COORDINATOR FOR THE MUNICIPALITY OF CHATHAM-KENT.

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DESIGN

Landscapes can have a variety of patterns, both natural and man-made. Sometimes geometric patterns intersect with organic ones to create a desired effect, and sometimes the opposite. Patterns can also rely on seasonal changes or regular maintenance. These patterns can be found on a variety of scales and can showcase a specific designer’s style and aesthetic.

In the HUD Plaza design, Schwartz uses circular forms in repetition for various programming such as planters that 07

Up Front

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Beiqijia Technology Business District, Beijing, China

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Courtesy of Martha Schwartz Partners

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Farrar Pond Residence, Lincoln, Massachusetts

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Courtesy of Mikyoung Kim Design

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Farrar Pond Residence, Lincoln, Massachusetts

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Courtesy of Mikyoung Kim Design

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Levinson Plaza, Boston, Massachusetts

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Courtesy of Mikyoung Kim Design

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double as seating and canopies that provide shade. Throughout the day, the shifting of light and shade creates dynamic patterns.

The arena project also makes use of forms and shadows. The large sculptural canopies play with pattern with colour and placement. These canopies are lit from within, creating patterns with light at nighttime, at the same time providing guidance for pedestrians walking into the arena. A striped paving pattern echoing the building’s geometry reinforces the arrangement of the canopies in the plaza.

Another landscape architect who uses patterns in her designs is Mikyoung Kim, and she uses a variety of materials and methods to create these. Two of her projects come to mind, both in Massachusetts.

used for train and other vehicular traffic.

Layered hedge rows of river birch and zelkova add to the patterning and filter urban conditions, while providing safety throughout the space.

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The Levinson Plaza in Boston is a space for worship, and a combination of hardscape and landscape. Kim uses pavement materials and green spaces to create this pattern. Pavement materials are specifically chosen to endure long and challenging winters. The design is inspired by the herringbone patterns of residential landscapes. The paved areas are carved to allow access to the garden space between major entry points. The design deals with residents’ concerns of both visuals and sound, due to the nearby thoroughfare

Kim’s design for the FlexFENCE at Farrar Pond Residence in Lincoln, Massachusetts tries to create harmony between contemporary materials, native plants, and kettle kame topography. The pattern flows from landscape to materials, weaving seamlessly within the existing forest. Conceived as a flexible structure, the dynamic, weathering steel fence was formed on site and opens and closes with transformations of the ground plane throughout the changing seasons.

TEXT BY IQRA NAQVI, MASTER OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE CANDIDATE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO, A MAKER, AND AN ARTIST.

Pattern as a Verb

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TEXT BY ALEXANDRA NTOUKAS

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University Avenue is one of Toronto’s most prominent patterns. Since its inception, University has continuously changed to reflect the dominant ideologies of the times. Named College Ave. in 1829, University was a gated toll featuring a centre lane for carriages and lined on both sides with a sidewalk and double rows of chestnut trees designed by landscape gardener André Parmentier.

As a white settler, I often reflect on how landscape architects across North America design on stolen land. Despite many Indigenous nations successfully occupying these lands for thousands of years, colonization has, and continues to introduce foreign patterns like the French allée into the physical landscape.

& Stensson in 1964 that, while underused today, was a spectacle at the time. It is a place where monuments have risen, parades have marched, and protests have thrived. In an international context, University Avenue presents Toronto as a place of economic vitality and world-renowned hospital care and scientific research.

Monuments such as Canada’s participation in the Boer War, which saw colonial forces fighting over control of South Africa, reveal the importance University played in controlling the colonial narrative. This control extended even further into the public realm. Infrastructures, like the gated toll established in 1829, depict the growing significance of the public realm as a place for social regulation in the Victorian era. As Joanna Brück describes in Landscapes of Desire, public spaces in Victorian Ireland were similarly places where dominant social ideologies were constructed and perpetuated. The infrastructures within these public landscapes, from drinking fountains to benches, created regulated spaces where people were evaluated based on their behaviours.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the patterns of colonization across Toronto’s streets have become ever more apparent.

COVID-19 is undoubtedly highlighting the general lack of space and infrastructure along the streets of Toronto. It is also highlighting the disparity between these streets, where advocacy and financial support are given to prioritized physical and social infrastructures in prioritized spaces, including University Ave.

With its promenades and extended view, this allée originated from the French formal garden. The trimmed rows of chestnut trees, straight sidewalks and road, and orderly grass were all patterns expressing symmetry and order that suggested power and control over nature. The introduction of this colonial landscape was an important message for prospective settlers in the early 1800s. The Crown had recently purchased an astonishing 250,830 acres of land for 10 shillings in the 1805 Toronto Purchase Treaty with the Mississaugas. Successful settlement on this land, as David Wood describes in Perspectives on Landscape and Settlement on Nineteenth Century Ontario, would require the clearing of trees for an agricultural lifestyle.

University evidently remains a place of power and control, physically and socially. It continues to be viewed as a representation of Toronto’s, and even Canada’s, historical and present-day dominant ideologies.

Now considered a boulevard, it is a major transit corridor with six car lanes above ground and the Yonge-University subway line below ground. In the middle runs a linear park designed by Dunington-Grubb 01

In June, protected bike lanes were installed along University Avenue and Queen’s Park Crescent in Toronto, from Bloor Street to Adelaide Street. Using the existing street, white plastic posts and road markings create a safe way for University Ave. hospital workers to get to their destinations and maintain physical distancing. The shift to create bike lanes and permanently take space away from cars is an ideological one reflecting decades-long advocacy combined with the urgent need for health professionals to safely commute to hospitals along University during the pandemic.

Although bike lane infrastructure is not exceptional, the time and advocacy required to implement it is. The presence

Pattern as a Verb

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or absence of infrastructures, from adequate sidewalk space, bike lanes, benches, street trees, and so on, is a matter of public inequity. In times of COVID, this inequity is putting the health and safety of the public at risk.

to first apply for expansions, thus limiting where sidewalk expansion can occur. This has created inconsistent spacing along sidewalks, and often results in bottlenecks.

While improvements to the public realm along popular streets like University are welcomed and important, the majority Toronto’s streets are far from on their way to creating equitable public spaces during this COVID-19 pandemic. Prioritizing cars over pedestrians and cyclists, small and uneven sidewalks that make life difficult for people who use mobility devices, and benches discouraging a good rest are all examples of infrastructure that perpetuates power imbalances in the public realm, and where car ownership dictates whether or not you have adequate space to move through the city.

Conversations around the lack of cycling and pedestrian infrastructure elsewhere in Toronto’s public realm have spiked since the onset of COVID-19 as commuters started to avoid public transit. Narrow sidewalks have made the two-metre social distancing requirement impossible, even along large, popular streets like Yonge. A video from the Toronto Public Space Committee revealed how one person wearing a “social distance machine”—a two-metre wide circle of plastic tubing—struggles to move through the sidewalks of Toronto while maintaining the appropriate distance from other people and obstacles, often being forced to step out into the road and risk their safety.

Although City projects like CaféTO and CurbTO are expanding outdoor restaurants, business storefronts, and pedestrian clearways, these changes are temporary.

These projects are also inherently flawed, requiring businesses and organizations

Amidst a global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter Movement, a radical change in our priorities seems vital and imminent. The historical white and male-dominated design profession has created and perpetrated a pattern of inequity. With unprecedented spending now earmarked for economic recovery in Toronto, how will landscape architects respond to the inequalities that exist within the public realm? As designers, we must first look backwards and inwards to acknowledge the legacies of power and control embedded in designed landscapes and the ideologies we hold dear. Only this way can we find new patterns to move forward with.

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Victoria’s Birthday, 1923. Looking north on University Ave. from Queen St. W. The Boer War Memorial is pictured in the background.

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Courtesy of Toronto Public Library

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University Avenue looking south from Queens Park, 1908. This postcard photograph by Arthur S. Goss, Toronto’s first official photographer, captures University and beyond in a picturesque composition.

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Courtesy of Toronto Public Library

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University Avenue, present day

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Alexandra Ntoukas

BIO/

ALEXANDRA NTOUKAS IS A 2020 MLA GRADUATE FROM THE DANIELS FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, LANDSCAPE, AND DESIGN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO, WHERE SHE ALSO RECEIVED AN HONOURS B.SC. WITH DOUBLE-MAJORS IN ECOLOGY & EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY. HER 2020 THESIS WORK FOCUSED ON THE EXHIBITION OF FOREST CYCLES THROUGH THE LENS OF INVASIVE SPECIES, LARGELY STEMMING FROM HER ROLE AS “IN-MUSEUM SCIENTIST” IN MARK DION’S THE LIFE OF A DEAD TREE EXHIBIT AT THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART IN TORONTO, 2019. SHE HAS PREVIOUSLY WORKED FOR THE IRVINE DESIGN GROUP AT BRIGHTVIEW LANDSCAPE DEVELOPMENT INC., WHERE SHE WORKED ON COMPREHENSIVE DESIGN-BUILD-MAINTENANCE PROJECTS ALONG THE GOLDEN COAST. SHE IS ALSO A GROUND EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBER.

Round Table

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Designing the “New Normal” MODERATED BY DALIA TODARY-MICHAEL, OALA AND KATIE STRANG

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Round Table

BIOS/

CHERISE BURDA IS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE RYERSON CITY BUILDING INSTITUTE, WHERE SHE LEADS RESEARCH, ENGAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIES TO ADVANCE URBAN SOLUTIONS, INCLUDING AFFORDABLE HOUSING, SUSTAINABLE PLANNING AND TRANSPORTATION. SHE HOLDS AN M.A. FROM UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA IN ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, AND A BSC. IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND BACHELOR OF EDUCATION, BOTH FROM UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO. SHE HAS AUTHORED DOZENS OF PUBLICATIONS AND IS A REGULAR PRESENTER AND SPOKESPERSON. @CHERISEBURDA CHRISTOPHER J. RUTTY IS A PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL HISTORIAN WITH SPECIAL EXPERTISE ON THE HISTORY OF PUBLIC HEALTH, INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND BIOTECHNOLOGY IN CANADA, EARNING HIS PH.D. AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO IN THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, WITH HIS DISSERTATION ON THE HISTORY OF POLIOMYELITIS IN CANADA. SINCE 1995, DR. RUTTY HAS PROVIDED A WIDE RANGE OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH, WRITING, CONSULTING AND CREATIVE SERVICES TO A VARIETY OF CLIENTS THROUGH HIS COMPANY, HEALTH HERITAGE RESEARCH SERVICES. HE ALSO HOLDS AN ADJUNCT PROFESSOR APPOINTMENT IN UOFT’S DALLA LANA SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, BASED IN THE DIVISION OF CLINICAL PUBLIC HEALTH, AS WELL AS THE CENTRE FOR VACCINE PREVENTABLE DISEASES. ANNE-CLAUDE SCHELLENBERG, OALA, CSLA, IS A PRINCIPAL AT CSW LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS LIMITED IN OTTAWA, CANADA. SHE IS THE FORMER CHAIR OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE OTTAWA, THE EASTERN CHAPTER OF THE OALA. B. CANNON IVERS IS A CHARTERED MEMBER OF THE LANDSCAPE INSTITUTE AND A DIRECTOR AT LDA DESIGN IN LONDON, UK. HE HOLDS A MASTER OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE DEGREE WITH DISTINCTION FROM THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF DESIGN (GSD). CANNON IS A TEACHING FELLOW AT THE BARTLETT SCHOOL OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK STAGING URBAN LANDSCAPES: THE ACTIVATION AND CURATION OF FLEXIBLE PUBLIC SPACES PUBLISHED BY BIRKHAUSER. KATIE STRANG IS A MEMBER OF THE GROUND EDITORIAL BOARD, AND WORKS AS A LANDSCAPE DESIGNER AND ISA CERTIFIED ARBORIST AT THE PLANNING PARTNERSHIP. SHE HOLDS AN MLA FROM THE DANIELS FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, LANDSCAPE AND DESIGN. HER WORK IS CHARACTERIZED BY RESEARCH AND ATTENTION TO DETAIL, AS WELL AS THOUGHTFUL CONSIDERATION OF HORTICULTURAL TRADITIONS AND ECOLOGICAL PROCESSES, IN BOTH URBAN AND RURAL ENVIRONMENTS. DALIA TODARY-MICHAEL, OALA, CSLA, IS A MEMBER OF THE GROUND EDITORIAL BOARD AND A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT, MAKER AND INTERDISCIPLINARY DESIGNER WORKING AT THE INTERSECTION OF SPATIAL INTERACTION + EXPERIENCE DESIGN, KINETIC ART, AND LANDSCAPE + URBAN DESIGN. SHE COMPLETED HER GRADUATE RESEARCH AT THE BARTLETT SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE UCL IN LONDON, UK WHERE SHE FOCUSED ON THE EXPERIENCE OF NATURE EMBODIMENT IN KINETIC ARCHITECTURE AS A PERFORMATIVE AGENT, REKINDLING PERCEPTIVE NUANCES OF LIVELINESS THAT ARE FADING OR AT RISK OF BEING LOST.

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Detail from “Density Done Right”

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Courtesy of Ryerson City Building Institute

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Dalia Todary-Michael: In the context of everyone jumping in and out of virtual calls, I want to start by asking how the current pandemic has affected your work or life patterns in significant ways, especially given the novel ways we’re communicating and working in this pandemic.

place of trade, of movement, a circulation corridor for over 2,000 years—and suddenly putting the pedestrian and the cyclist first. It’s exciting to see how we’re going to emerge from this in a strategic and incremental way, and if we can’t hold on to some of these great gains.

Christopher J. Rutty: I’m a professional medical historian, so I’ve done quite a bit of media interviews in the last few months: different perspectives on the pandemic, the flu of 1918, and a lot on polio (that’s my specialty area and, in many ways, the closest disease to COVID). The situation is keeping me busy and it’s opened a lot of different perspectives. I’m working with new people, media, and other projects and online conferences have come up.

Anne-Claude Schellenberg: On a micro scale, talking about work flow and daily life with the pandemic, we very quickly moved to remote work. I saw it coming, freaked out, and called my I.T. guys. It was almost seamless. In fact, our workload increased and we’ve found major efficiencies. There is an expectation that we all need brickand-mortar offices, but some companies are going completely mobile as a result of the pandemic. It’s not easy for everyone. For friends who live alone, for example, work is also their social space. So I set up a daily online coffee break in my office. It’s optional, anyone can sign in, and we just talk. It helps keep us grounded and together as a group.

This all ties into the idea of resilience and building redundancy into systems so that if something happens in one place, it doesn’t have a huge impact on everything else, and we can rebound quickly.

Cherise Burda: In terms of running a research institute, what’s really struck me is the issues we’ve been championing for years now are even more exposed. We’re dealing with public space, overcrowded parks, and the fact we don’t have enough parkland dedication. All these things that we’ve managed to scrape by on in terms of how we plan, design, and resource our city, we can’t scrape by on anymore. These issues are even more critical. We’ve been working on policies to create missing and gentle- and medium-density affordable housing, and suddenly we have this pandemic response where people want to run to the hills and embrace sprawl. We’re actually seeing municipalities respond and take us back decades. So the work we’re doing is now is suddenly urgent in ways that it wasn’t before. It was aspirational, now it’s immediate.

Cannon Ivers: People are really acknowledging the value of good design, open space, and access to streets. That’s one of the fundamental shifts in cities in terms of urban fabric: how people are using streets, their accessibility to neighbourhood streets in the dense urban core of cities, has been profound. Even things like fatalities involving cyclists and buses wasn’t enough to spark change. But we’re now taking cars out of streets in the City of London—a

DTM: As designers, we sometimes act as agents of the public, and socially responsible design takes that public into consideration and consults with them. Are we starting to think about novel methods of public engagement, and consulting community groups about how their spaces are going to be designed, throughout the pandemic and beyond?

ACS: I’ve done many projects with the City of Ottawa and they’ve had a really solid online consultation process going for a few years now already. So it’s not new and, in fact, I would argue you would probably tend to get a better response to an online survey, compared to inviting people to the local arena for their feedback.

CI: We’ve seen online platforms where you see people’s real-time engagement, even before the pandemic put us all in our homes and new work environments. Even some

Round Table

of the platforms we use for conferences can be used to engage the audience in a meaningful way, and I can see those being a really powerful tool going forward, if you still have set consultation events where you’re working with the local planning authority and planning departments to reach those community groups. A direct, digital platform might yield answers you may not get in person because people are not as open or outspoken, whereas, if they can just simply hit a button on their phone, it’s a really honest response. I think we’ll also get more meaningful feedback from people about how they want to see their spaces designed because people are now more attuned to the fact that they need these spaces in a way we haven’t seen before— not just to the notion of open spaces, but their quality as well. We’re going to get better responses because people have been educated, through this pandemic, to be able to respond in a way that helps guide design.

CJR: Historically, the whole idea of a park goes back to the mid-19th century and the idea of an escape. Infectious diseases, things like cholera and typhoid, are what really inspired urban planning in the first place. It was all pretty chaotic, especially in North America, until 1830s and beyond.

Cholera, especially, forced urban planning to have sewers and so forth. All that was driven by infectious disease management because there was nothing else: the only thing they could do to respond to a cholera epidemic, in particular, was manage the physical space. And that’s where we’re at right now. We’ve gone through three phases. We had the nebulous, pre-germ or miasma theory of disease, where quarantine was the only tool they had. Next was the bacteriological revolution, the germs theory of late 19th to early 20th century, where there were very few vaccines, so a lot of the basic infrastructure and modern urban design we’re used to is based on trying to manage public health. It caused shifts from Victorian ornateness to smooth, hard surfaces, driven by an awareness that germs and microbiological threats

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were more manageable that way. For the wealthy, it defined the whole design of home spaces, bathrooms, and living rooms. When vaccines were finally more broadly available, into the mid 20th century, the emphasis on physical space and objects declined. Since the ‘50s and ‘60s, where infectious diseases were mostly at bay, we relied on vaccines.

But now, suddenly, we’re in a global pandemic with no tools. The only tools we have are physical, so we’re all scrambling to restructure the physical world around the pandemic threat. Until we have a vaccine, we’re back, in may ways, 100 years or earlier, trying to adapt the physical to the medical.

Katie Strang: Is there anything you see on the horizon that could reengage us with that idea of public or park space being part of disease and infection management?

CJR: That’s exactly what we’re doing in a sense. The environment and the physical have been disconnected. People obviously talked about it, previously, but we’re really being forced, through this situation, to recognize why we have parks in the first place. It goes back a long way.

ACS: Though there’s also the advent of the suburbs. Before there was a middle class, we had upper classes in their countryside chalets, and then these urban areas. But with the suburbs, everyone had their own little park. I think the use of parks changed at that point, and now we’re returning to promoting higher density development.

CJR: The density issue is what’s creating the problems with COVID, in particular. We’ve allowed ourselves to get very dense, for a lot of reasons, but now we’re in a situation where that’s actually causing problems.

So, how do we de-densify in a smart way?

Ironically, the post-war baby boom suburbs is what created the situation with polio, which shifted from endemic to pandemic because that was the ideal situation for polio to become a serious problem.

Because of density, it was circulating among infants, who were able to fight it. It was a

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subclinical disease and rarely moved to the nervous system to cause paralysis. But health standards improved, we became more suburban and spread out, had a lot of kids, and the situation became became epidemic. The early, almost universal exposure for infants was becoming delayed by our progress in public health and, when older kids got exposed to the virus at school, when their immune systems were no longer as good at responding to it, we saw more paralysis. So, polio is the kind of ironic undercurrent of the suburban thing.

CB: The issue isn’t so much density, the issue is crowding. It’s not how dense you make it, it’s how you make it dense. You can achieve the same amount of density in a tall building with 300 units as you would distributing throughout an existing urban neighbourhood in the form of apartments, triplexes, mid-rises, things like that. This really helps us advance the conversation about finding medium density, because we’ve been building Toronto and many other cities with two options: tall and sprawl.

We’ve been sprawling further away, creating a whole bunch of challenges, and achieving our density targets with very tall buildings in small, hyper-concentrated nodes. Now is an opportunity to be looking at distributing density and looking for possibilities for adding density to our current urban landscape.

We’re also talking about planning and designing our spatial landscape, and we need to have a conversation about how we respond to our vertical city. In Toronto, I know upwards of 50 per cent of residents live in towers, high-rises, condos, and apartment buildings. And while we can think about how we plan for future density, we have a critical issue with people living in these vertical dwellings. One of the things we’re struggling with right now is how to innovate these spaces. There’s an opportunity to change how and where we design our buildings or residences going forward, but, currently, we have to figure out things like elevators. Many people in Toronto can’t even get out of their buildings safely, and there are a lot of highrise, low-income neighbourhoods where

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Urban typologies and the “missing middle”

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Courtesy of Ryerson City Building Institute

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A graphic depiction of parkland access disparity

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Courtesy of Ryerson City Building Institute

people had challenges with elevators and crowding, even before the pandemic. This situation exposes a lot of challenges around our current and future density.

CJR: The challenge seems to be inequity.

That’s what’s generated epidemics in the past, and the worst situations with COVID today in the very crowded nursing care situations, or inner cities where multi-generational families live together like New York City or parts of Italy. That’s where the diseases hit hardest because they thrive in that kind of situation.

Pandemics tend to exploit the greatest weaknesses in a society, and COVID’s doing that very well. We have a legacy of built society around us—the big towers, low-rises, suburbs, etc. A lot of what we have right now was built when infectious diseases were not a big problem. We’ve grown up in a vacuum of awareness or understanding of what it’s like to deal with infectious disease, beyond small outbreaks or seasonal flu. COVID’s really

thrown that out the window. But we’re stuck with all this stuff, a whole culture that’s very crowd-oriented.

KS: Arguably, we’re seeing that we don’t have enough space downtown, and the per-person amount of parkland seems to be a lot less than we need right now.

CJR: Yeah, anybody with a dog downtown can see that.

CB: There’s 25 per cent less park space per person in downtown Toronto than there is in the surrounding suburbs, not to mention the Greater Toronto Area. In addition to that, people who have more access to park space also typically have backyards, so condo and apartment neighbourhoods are stung twice, without access to either.

CI: My hope, as we start to think about what recovery looks like coming out of this, is to see this against the backdrop of the climate crisis. COVID has taken all the

Round Table

headlines—rightfully so, we’re all adapting to this extraordinary new way of life across the world—but we are also in the middle of a climate crisis. In the UK this year, it’s been the hottest spring on record since the late 1800s. Huge changes are happening that are even bigger than COVID. So we need to be reminded, particularly as those in political power begin to think about how cities come back to life, that the city is one of the most sustainable ways of living. If we can do urban transport well, and encourage active transportation, if some of our most polluted and congested, car-dominated cities can start to adapt and become places for pedestrians and cyclists, then those cities become even more sustainable.

I’m also really fascinated with what the psychological transition time is going to be for us to shake hands again, give each other a hug, or pass each other on the sidewalk without stepping off to the side to give more space. Because, ultimately, I think there’s going to a need to come back to a city where there’s tons of activation playing out in public space. But for that to happen, there’s going to naturally be a transition period where we recalibrate how we come together as a population. I think there’ll be a natural draw to inhabit public space as we did before, but it will take some time.

CB: There are a lot of ways we haven’t been getting cities right that we now have an opportunity to change. Like the cities with hyper-density, rather than with distributed density; housing development that’s developer-driven, rather than community-driven; the lack of public space and how we let that reach a critical point; unaffordable housing; congested commuting and transit overcrowding; sprawl; and the lack of protections for agricultural land and sustainable, locallygrown food. The magic question is how bold are our politicians going to be? I love the fact we’re implementing bigger public spaces for walking and cycling. How permanent will those be when we have a vaccine and say ‘enough bike lanes, let’s get the cars back on the road.’ This is a long game and there’s huge opportunity.

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I just hope we end up doing some great things in response to this.

ACS: I hope we establish a new normal through this and discard assumptions we had about daily travel: that you have to go to the office every day. We’re seeing the tangible positive effects of taking cars off roads. You can use that to gather momentum for street openings.

Unfortunately, here in Ottawa, we’ve just seen an expansion of the urban area. If it’s transit oriented development, okay. But the fear is that it’s just more of the same, and, as we can see, that wasn’t the best for the planet or people’s health.

DTM: I wonder if things like wildlife creeping back into the deserted city is bringing back value that people took for granted, maybe even an understanding of what a resilient, biodiverse ecosystem can offer a city. Is this something you’ve thought about, in terms of future patterns?

ACS: For most of our projects, we’re trying to use primarily native plant material to support local insect and bird populations.

If you’re in a dense urban area, is it better to plant a tree that will struggle or a tree that will thrive? Is the tree for shade, or are you trying to help the larger ecosystem?

We used to bring in exotic plants, simply because they were exotic. Now, there’s a greater appreciation for native material.

KS: Are there any new patterns you hope become permanently established? Have we learned anything from this pandemic?

CI: Recovery is going to happen in our public spaces. The fact we have an abundance of streets and parks that haven’t been used to their potential is going to be the roadmap for how we come out of COVID. I just hope we’re adaptive and able to respond. It’s amazing how quickly we’ve been able to adapt to an entire new way of life, how quickly technology has allowed us to do what we’re doing here, and how readily we can share knowledge. My hope is that we don’t lose that. And that we respond, rather than just react.

CB: It’s not as though we don’t know how to change. We don’t want to change. But we’ve seen a rapid response from cities all over the world that are redesigning their right-of-ways to accommodate cyclists and pedestrians. Is that going to be permanent? There’s opportunity to use this as a huge pivot point. In my lifetime, I haven’t seen us adapt and change this quickly. We should remember this the next time we’re pushing through some big, important planning or design change.

CJR: It’s a good opportunity for designers to start thinking again through a public health lens. Because the situation will be an ongoing issue for a while. Some other threats don’t give us this chance, because they’re more short-term or localized, and we’re not forced to think about something new.

ACS: I agree it’s an opportunity. It’s made us stop and question our behaviours and change quickly. We also have an opportunity to define our priorities: our ability to have a local economy and be self-sufficient, while also maintaining global relationships; the importance of green space; opening roads and creating cycling facilities and shared streets. As bad as a pandemic is, I think it’s given us chance to reset, especially for designers.

This is stuff we’ve all been talking about and has always been a priority for us, but we have a bigger audience now.

CJR: Pandemics do that. It’s happened on several occasions over past centuries, in different parts of the world. Major epidemics force changes. They force people to think in a different way, at least for a short term, and that, in turn, creates new challenges.

ACS: All hail the new normal.

THANKS TO DALIA TODARY-MICHAEL AND KATIE STRANG FOR COORDINATING THIS ROUND TABLE.

Ecological References

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A Q&A with Jonas Spring

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TEXT BY NADJA PAUSCH, OALA

Jonas Spring is the owner and operator of Ecoman, a residential landscaping and gardening practice in Toronto and President of the Landscape Ontario Toronto Chapter.

He holds a certificate in landscape design from Ryerson University and a Bachelor of Science in Agroecology from the University of British Columbia. He is passionate about working with natural systems and ecological references to put spaces to their highest use.

We sat down to discuss patterns in nature and how Jonas incorporates ecological references into his work.

NP: Can you introduce the concept of ecological references?

JS: The basic idea is every landscape or project we take on has similar site dynamics to established ecosystems. We can use those ecosystems as ‘references’ to inform our design work.

Conservationists do this work with degraded sites. There may be remnant populations of previous plant communities on the site, and they collect seed from those remnant areas and rehabilitate the larger area. The reference is the site in conservation biology.

But in our case, the reference is never the site, because we live in a city. And the city, is a novel ecosystem. There are plants which 03

have naturalized to this place, but they’ve done so in a matter of a hundred years.

We look at patterns from ecosystems surrounding Toronto and connect those to the sites we’re designing based on their dynamics. The most obvious parallel is cliffs—that buildings mimic their conditions. Then, we research cliff ecosystems and produce a list of plants that would thrive on balconies, roof terraces, green roofs, and walls.

“Buildings are cliffs” was the centerpiece of the ecological reference concept.

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Jonas Spring and his box of plants

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Courtesy of Jonas Spring

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Vertical planters

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Courtesy of Jonas Spring

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NP: Ecological Land Classification (ELC) relates directly to this concept.

JS: Initially, I wasn’t working with ELCs at all.

However, in the process of hosting the first “Reference” ecology seminar, we wanted to add rigour to the process and provide designers with a practical tool. We created a matrix based on moisture and soil type and narrowed down roughly 40 ELCs which are most relevant.

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Where hardscape and softscape intersect

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Courtesy of Jonas Spring

During a site inventory you consider the soil and the aspect of the site and can subsequently utilize this matrix to provide an ELC that has reference to your site.

The nice thing about ELCs is you’re able to have a preliminary plant list quite readily.

It’s adding another tool to the landscape architect’s toolbox, particularly for professionals who don’t have an extensive knowledge of plant material.

NP: And once you have a list with half a dozen species, you can research what commonly exists in the same ecosystems or conditions.

JS: Exactly. It’s a starting point.

NP: Do you find it important to focus solely on local, native analogues, or do you think global, non-native analogues are also important?

JS: There’s been a large, cantankerous, unhelpful debate about native versus nonnative plants. The concept of ecological references is powerful because it sidesteps the debate completely. You convince the client first about the reference and then have justification for all sorts of local plants.

Furthermore, we haven’t even begun to tap into the usefulness and diversity of local plants. I’m not against cosmopolitan

Ecological References

plants, but I want to explore the plants we haven’t yet taken advantage of. For me, it’s about using plants already geared to this environment. Then, we can bring in other things to fill a hole, or which are just aesthetically beautiful. I just think we haven’t done the work of identifying all the fantastic species, locally. There are so many interesting plants, and we can also support local business like nurseries in the process.

NP: In translating these ideas into practice, how do you gain client buy-in? Specifically, for references which are outside our cultural acceptance of either productive or aesthetic landscape typologies?

JS: The reference is exceptionally accessible as an idea, and many times that’s all I need to gain buy-in. One day I decided to lead with the reference and see what happened. I showed the client two pictures: one of a natural ecosystem and one of their garden. And I said, ‘these are the same thing.’ They understood immediately. It’s so visual.

It works well because it isn’t about plant choices, specifically, but an overall approach.

It’s also about moving the needle. If a client is at a one out of 10 in terms of where their thinking is, rather than push them to a nine, we try to get them to a three. Otherwise, they would walk away. However, leading with the reference has been beneficial.

Initially, it was a tool in my design process, but it’s grown to be useful in business development and even employee retention.

NP: Do you consider the advocacy you do, and the implementation of these ideas, ecological or environmental activism? Or do you approach this concept purely from a functional standpoint?

JS: I am trying to change the conversation.

The next big conversation I want to facilitate is about softscape versus hardscape: plants as infrastructure. We need to infiltrate hardscape—meaning we need to find a way for plants to be a part of walls, steps,

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and paving. In my mind, the new paradigm is that hardscape is softscape. I want to work with the material we have, and use plants that thrive in gravelly soil left over from construction. It is activism, but maybe in a way that’s in opposition to more traditional environmentalism.

NP: Let’s explore this idea of hardscape versus softscape, and blurring those lines. How do you envision it manifesting in our designs?

JS: I think the low-hanging fruit is water management. It’s 2020 and most buildings are still concerned with keeping the heat in and the rain out. There’s little regard for the water that falls, the wind that blows by, and the sun that beats down for free. All these resources, these wonderful opportunities to interact with the environment, are missed.

Green roofs are a great example of a refutation of this, but not everyone has one.

What we can also do is take water off the building and create staged water, then continue to use it throughout the landscape, strategically. Then, the plants become a critical component of the infrastructure integrated with the building system. And similarly, the building becomes a productive part of the landscape.

NP: A fascinating ecological reference from this year’s Reference Symposium was the ‘post-glacial’ analogue. Have you experimented with this landscape typology?

JS: Peter Del Tredici—a very polarizing character—described suburban development as post-glacial; he wrote it offhandedly, as an insult. The topsoil is scraped away, everything becomes compacted through construction, and after the townhouses are built, a thin layer of topsoil is added back. It’s really compacted and hard for plants to grow.

My question was: what would a postglacial plant community look like? Let’s play with this idea. I found a researcher, Sarah Finkelstein, who studies archeological plant

communities. She spoke at the symposium and provided a plant list for us.

I’m working on a site now where the house was renovated, and the front yard is a prime example of a post-glacial analogue. They had bins on it, machines on it. So we’re using species which have been shown historically to move into post-glacial landscapes.

NP: Most of these analogues go through a process of succession. How do we mimic the patterns of succession as professionals who almost always implement our designs in a singular construction event?

JS: Great question. Unfortunately, we’ve moved away from management, toward maintenance in our profession. Sustainability, if it means anything, means a continued relationship with the land. Monitoring and management need to be re-integrated into our process. We simply cannot go on designing, implementing, and leaving.

There’s great intellectual interest to be found in the management phase; it’s where the ecology is. Ultimately, astute designers will realize this intimate, practical knowledge is what will set them apart from the rest.

The system is broken, in that it’s not financially viable to include management in all our design proposals. Maybe design firms will absorb maintenance companies, or the design-build model will gain popularity. I believe the separation of design and build was a mistake, and we should be looking to re-integrate those sides of the same coin.

And that will lead to hiring people with more education, who can be paid a living wage, who are going to manage the landscape in more meaningful and thoughtful ways. There are so many opportunities to create a new profession. But, really, it’s an old profession.

BIO/

NADJA PAUSCH, OALA, CSLA, IS A GROUND EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBER AND CURRENT EDITORIAL BOARD CHAIR. NADJA WORKS AS A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT AT A MULTIDISCIPLINARY DESIGN OFFICE IN TORONTO.

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226 Lpd (24%)

52 m3pd (67%)

12 Lpd (2%)

Other

Faucet

Leaks

23 Lpd (3%)

Other

Faucet

Leaks

Shower

896 m3pd (100%)

15 Lpd (2%)

12 Lpd (1%)

12 Lpd (2%)

Faucet

23 Lpd (3%)

Toilet

Other

Faucet

Leaks

Bath

815 Lpd (100%) 526 Lpd (68% of indoor use)

8 Lpd (1%)

618 m3pd (68.9% of indoor use)

0 Lpd (0%)

Dishes

Total Grey Potential

Leaks

Shower

Toilet 206 Lpd (25%)

178 Lpd (22%)

0 Lpd (0%)

Total Indoor

155 Lpd (19%)

21317 m2 (13%)

132 Lpd (16%)

2970 people

Lot Coverage

101 Lpd (12%)

183 people per hectare Population

Clothes

505 Lpd (67% of indoor use)

8 Lpd (1%)

Bath

751 Lpd (68%)

Other

Unit Indoor

Dishes

350 Lpd (32%)

Unit Grey Potential

Unit Grey Potential

Clothes

Toilet 195 Lpd (26%)

322 m3pd (68%) 217 m3pd (67% of indoor use)

Unit Outdoor

Unit Indoor

165 Lpd (22%)

150 m3pd (32%)

Total Indoor Total Grey Potential

How computation and 3D modelling unlock the power of pattern

130 Lpd (17%)

38108 m2 (24%)

Total Outdoor

125 Lpd (17%)

1196 people

Lot Coverage

101 Lpd (13%)

74 people per hectare Population

8 Lpd (1%)

815 Lpd (37%) 526 Lpd (68% of indoor use)

Bath

Unit Indoor

Dishes

1347 Lpd (63%)

Unit Grey Potential

Unit Outdoor

Shower

Toilet 206 Lpd (25%)

115 m3pd (37%) 79 m3pd (68% of indoor use)

Unit Outdoor

Total Outdoor

178 Lpd (22%)

150 m3pd (63%)

Total Indoor Total Grey Potential

101 Lpd (12%)

35425 m2 (22%)

Total Outdoor

132 Lpd (16%)

409 people

Lot Coverage

155 Lpd (19%)

25 people per hectare Population

Clothes

624 Lpd (67% of indoor use)

Bath

12 Lpd (1%)

1800 Lpd (67%) 926 Lpd (33%)

Unit Grey Potential

Dishes

Unit Outdoor Unit Indoor

10 Lpd (1%)

60 Lpd (6%)

26 m3pd (33%) 18 m3pd (67% of indoor use)

Shower

Total Grey Potential

178 Lpd (19%)

14873 m2 (9%)

Total Outdoor Total Indoor

160 Lpd (17%)

93 people

Lot Coverage

150 Lpd (16%)

Population

Clothes

SINGLE FAMILY LOW DENSITY POTABLE DISTRIBUTION POTABLE DISTRIBUTION POTABLE DISTRIBUTION

6 people per hectare

130 Lpd (14%)

URBAN FORM & WATER USE

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TEXT BY MATT PEROTTO

But what is parametric computation, and why are we talking about it in the Pattern edition of Ground? Computation is simply the act of mathematical calculation, generally involving a computer. Parametrics refers to the use of variables to inform said computation. For example, when creating a landform within a defined space, we can easily establish what its possible maximum height is, given known slope tolerances—generally we’d do this calculation with our desk calculator or by manually crunching numbers. However, when we put Computation and Parametrics together in a 3D modeling platform, we’re able to merge the calculation steps into the modelling process so that we no longer need to calculate and draft (in 2D or model in 3D) with fixed factors, but rather with variables that we can set, question, change, and iterate alternatives.

Halfway through my MLA degree at the University of Toronto, I was introduced to parametric computation in Landscape Architecture. In this particular Viscom class, we were asked to download Grasshopper (a plugin for Rhino 3D) and follow the Teacher Assistant as they created an algorithm to model single family homes (cubes) that were then set back and arrayed along a road (a curved line). The script allowed us to batch scale the size of buildings, their separation distance from one another and the road, and the curvature of the road, all on the fly. While this was a mundane first exposure to parametric scripting with a 3D output, the potentials for an alternative approach to design problem exploration was intriguing.

For the remainder of my MLA, I took every opportunity to test how this software could be utilized at different stages of studio projects: from exploring large-scaled conceptual questions to solving smaller technical issues.

After a few years of professional practice at Hargreaves Jones, parametric computation has become an important tool in the office,

augmenting the typical design process for streamlined study of multi-scalar design elements and their resulting documentation.

The following represent three categorical examples of how I’ve utilized parametrics in professional and personal projects, and why I believe these tools are a valuable asset to contemporary practice: Patterns in Design The entry application of parametric software in professional practice is its use for simple, binary relationship design investigations—most often this manifests with small scaled design elements like paving patterns. Unlike a regular 2D drafting or 3D modelling program where a designer begins by arraying an individual paver to create a pattern within a defined hardscape area, in Grasshopper, it takes arguably less time to string a few operators together to create an algorithm which does the same. But since we’ve used scripted variables rather than fixed model inputs, we no longer have to redraft/remodel by

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NOTE: TOTAL ZONE PERCENTAGES FOR SUM OF ZONES 1, 2 & 3: ZONE 1 = 24% ZONE 2 = 34% ZONE 3 = 42%

aggregate) allow for increased stormwater infiltration rates and encourage the growth of resilient pioneering flora. This blending of hardscape and softscape within the plaza is then controlled by the distribution of the varied sizes in paver cuts (the cut size gets larger the closer the paver is to the edge of the paved area). We’ve also implemented a similar blending of hard and soft with Grasshopper through the tapering of pavers at the edges of paths in Zaryadye Park in Moscow.

TOTAL PAVER PERCENTAGES FOR SUM OF ZONES 1, 2 &3 (MIX VALUES FACTORED): PAVER A = 21% PAVER B = 60% PAVER C = 19%

PAVING COLOR A - 50% OF ZONE 1 RANDOM COLOR MIX

us to identify the underlying patterns in the way we model—we’re no longer simply designing the final element, but rather it’s an exploratory process to arrive at a final element.

PAVING COLOR B - 50% OF ZONE 1 RANDOM COLOR MIX

NOTE: PATTERN SHOWN IS EXAMPLE ONLY AND NOT MEANT TO BE USED AS A MODULE FOR THE PAVING SYSTEM. PAVING COLORS IN ZONE 1 ARE TO BE LAID OUT IN A RANDOM MIX BY THE CONTRACTOR AND FIELD APPROVED BY LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. SEE L140-L144 FOR RANDOM COLOR MIX ZONE LAYOUT

COLOR MIX - ZONE 1

PAVING COLOR A FAVORS THIS SIZE OF ZONE 2

COLOR MIX - ZONE 2

PAVING COLOR A: ACKER-STONE BRICK GRANADA WHITE FM HEAVY SHOT/ BLAST FINISH

PAVING COLOR C FAVORS THIS SIZE OF ZONE 2

PAVING COLOR B: ACKER-STONE BRICK ISRAEL PEWTER FM HEAVY SHOT/ BLAST FINISH PAVING COLOR C: ACKER-STONE BRICK PEWTER FM HEAVY SHOT/ BLAST FINISH

PAVING COLOR A - 25% OF ZONE 2 RANDOM COLOR MIX PAVING COLOR B - 55% OF ZONE 2 RANDOM COLOR MIX

Patterns in Modelling The use of parametric software puts more emphasis on how we approach design problems from onset as we are required to clearly define the task, the information needed for modelling, and the specific goals of the iteration process all prior to modelling—this helps us form a clear understanding of what inputs are fixed, and what we’re intending to iterate (the focus of the study). In this way, the software DETAILS PAVEMENT 2 forces us to think critically about the task at hand in a much more articulate way than 1 approaching a blank piece of paper or an L-511 empty Rhino modelling screen, prompting

PAVING COLOR C - 20% OF ZONE 2 RANDOM COLOR MIX

NOTE: PATTERN SHOWN IS EXAMPLE ONLY AND NOT MEANT TO BE USED AS A MODULE FOR THE PAVING SYSTEM. PAVING COLORS IN ZONE 2 ARE TO BE LAID OUT IN A RANDOM MIX BY THE CONTRACTOR AND FIELD APPROVED BY LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. SEE L140-L144 FOR RANDOM COLOR MIX ZONE LAYOUT

COLOR MIX - ZONE 1 COLOR MIX - ZONE 2

PAVING COLOR C - 30% OF ZONE 3 RANDOM COLOR MIX PAVING COLOR B - 70% OF ZONE 3 RANDOM COLOR MIX

NOTE: PATTERN SHOWN IS EXAMPLE ONLY AND NOT MEANT TO BE USED AS A MODULE FOR THE PAVING SYSTEM. PAVING COLORS IN ZONE 3 ARE TO BE LAID OUT IN A RANDOM MIX BY THE CONTRACTOR AND FIELD APPROVED BY LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. SEE L140-L144 FOR RANDOM COLOR MIX ZONE LAYOUT

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PAVEMENT COLOR MODULE 1"=1'-0"

AS NOTED

On a recent mixed-use commercial landscape project at Hargreaves Jones, the design intent for a custom stainless-steel tube-rail bench on a roof deck amenity space was already established, but we wanted to explore layout configurations which would create playful relationships with adjacent planting areas. Once the bench profile was generated in Grasshopper, simple curvy-linear lines and points were drawn within the 3D context model. The algorithm then referenced the lines to create straight or curved lengths of the bench (essentially a horizontal extrusion path for the bench profile), and the points became the centre of each tightly-radiused segment when the bench would change direction. This referenced geometry was paralleled with various limiting constraints such as minimum separation distance between facing seating sections for comfortable leg space and maneuverability

scaling patterns up or down when testing alternative length-to-width ratios, or redraw altogether for different patterns or paver types. Furthermore, Grasshopper shows the 3D model output of change in variable entries on the fly, fundamentally shifting the efficiencies of studying design options in the office and the pace of dialog between designers, associates, and principals.

As one gets more comfortable with the scripting process, more complexity can be added. At Hargreaves Jones, we’ve used Grasshopper to develop paving designs on a number of different projects which have iterated paver type, size, pattern, color, and more. On one recent project, we’ve created a custom precast concrete unit paving system where one of the six sides of an 8-inch diameter hex-paver is sliced at lengths varied between 0-2 inches. Once installed, since only one of six sides has been trimmed, the pavers stay locked together, and the openings (filled with a mix of growing media and

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Hydrological analysis of current typologies of urban form Decoding Water, Recoding Urbanism Matt Perotto

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Proposed agricultural urban module Decoding Water, Recoding Urbanism

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Paving pattern via color distribution generated in Grasshopper

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Paver patterning creates a feathering of hard and softscape, Zaryadye Park, Moscow Hargreaves Jones

Parametric Design

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room. Since we had a profile designed already, Grasshopper was used differently than in the first example. Rather than iterating model elements with scripted variables, once the algorithm was built, by simply manipulating the referenced line and point geometry within the 3D model the 3D output regenerated on the fly and was complemented with associated linear-foot takeoffs and correlated estimated costs. This allowed us to quickly study a variety of permutations of each bench with consideration for anticipated passive and active programming of the space. We’ve also used Grasshopper in a similar application on another project to create custom retaining seatwalls where wood slatting above weathering steelfaced concrete was undulated in both vertical and horizontal axes.

Patterns in Process These past two themes demonstrated how parametric computation allowed for the efficient analysis of design options, leading to more robust and thoroughly considered design elements. These processes generally occur in the schematic design or design development phases of a project where an overall design intent has been identified, and we’re now looking to study how the intent takes form. We can also apply similar computational approaches at a much larger scale in more earlier conceptual phases of the design process .

While we can’t ask Grasshopper to generate a conceptual design from scratch (as we need to tell the program what to do via script), we can look to it to factor a greater range of information to help us make more informed design decisions.

As landscape architects, we’re tasked with designing the interface of people (culture) with the environment. This requires us to be experts in the design and detailing of the immediate public realm, as well as coordinators between other related consultants who traditionally have a more focused scope of design consideration.

While cross-discipline collaboration in professional practice is absolutely necessary, parametric computation does offer us a whole new realm with which to consider complex relationships between typically disparate design layers when making site-scaled conceptual decisions in early phases of design.

Parametric Design

In my final year at U of T, my thesis considered water scarcity issues in the American South West, focusing on the Phoenix, Arizona metro area. The project explored alternative typologies of urban form that could be more water efficient than the current single family home sprawl.

Grasshopper became the venue with which regional- to state-scaled Geographic Information System (GIS) shapefiles were conflated with researched metrics for existing water sources, filtration, uses; waste water treatment processes; and the juxtaposition between stormwater viaducts and base flows in river corridors that bisect the metropolis. Discrete metrics defined by research in each related field formed the fixed constants used in the algorithm, and variable inputs included density, and the ratio of how reclaimed water would be partitioned into various types of reuse. For example: the more reclaimed grey water

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dedicated to agriculture would mean a greater economic benefit, but larger plot sizes had to be balanced with massing and density of the urban fabric. In contrast, the more density added (and in more intensified forms of development with xeric landscapes) meant more efficient use of water, and more potential reclaimed grey water that could be recirculated into the system—but how much density is too much? In essence, Grasshopper allowed for the layering of many if-then relationships simultaneously to test a wide array of possible scenarios, each producing multiscalar spatial patterns of urban design and hydrology in 3D as well as associated nonspatial performance metrics.

Bench layout iterations—Grasshopper 3D output

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Retaining wood slatting seatwalls undulate horizontally & vertically East & West—2019 World Horticulture Expo, Beijing

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Hargreaves Jones Grasshopper script snapshot—the algorithm was also used to provide quantifiable metrics of each iteration for evaluation Decoding Water, Recoding Urbanism Matt Perotto

Value?

Just like discipline-focused discussions surrounding Building/Landscape Information Modeling (BIM/LIM), there is skepticism regarding the value parametric computation brings to the field of landscape architecture, as well as what computer generated design means for the role of the designer. In contrast to many other design fields, living elements make up a significant proportion of the landscape architect’s design palette—how can living things that evolve organically over time based on so many interrelated environmental and contextual factors ever be quantified?

The intention is not to rely on software to perfectly predict a performative attribute of a landscape at a given point of time, or perfectly simulate how it will evolve.

But, there is an ever-growing body of researched data from different ecological related fields that these softwares allow us to utilize in order to make more informed design decisions. And while computational design does mean we now can explore an incredible amount of design iterations with new efficiencies and quantifiable output metrics, computers will never be able to evaluate the qualitative aspects of outputs or consider anything beyond what the algorithm was created to factor.

Landscape architecture is subjective in nature and, at its core, a form of artistic expression—parametric computation simply provides us new processes with which to explore creative ideas.

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MATT PEROTTO WORKED AS AN ASSOCIATE AT HARGREAVES JONES LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE IN THEIR SAN FRANCISCO OFFICE BEFORE MOVING BACK TO TORONTO THIS PAST SUMMER AND NOW WORKS WITH HARGREAVES JONES AS A COLLABORATOR ON PROJECTS THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA. WHILE IN SAN FRANCISCO, HE TAUGHT AT THE ACADEMY OF ART UNIVERSITY’S SCHOOL OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND IS NOW A SESSIONAL LECTURER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO DANIELS FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, LANDSCAPE, AND DESIGN IN THE GRADUATE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE PROGRAM.

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TEXT BY CLARA KWON

In 2015, I moved to the Black mecca of Atlanta from the multicultural mecca of Toronto. From one mecca to another, I have seen how the myths of diversity and inclusion can mask racial exclusion.

Through my professional experiences, I have become more attuned to how racial power and privilege show up in landscape architecture. Here in the home of the civil rights movement, I have turned to the work of Black activists, intellectuals, and design professionals to understand how white dominance affects Black lives in public spaces. This city has shown me the possibilities and challenges in counteracting these effects, fighting back, and building political and cultural power.

Despite being part of a large demographic of Asians (East, South, Southeast, and West) in Toronto, my Korean immigrant parents wanted me to assimilate into white Canadian culture for my success and survival. In Atlanta, I am now part of a four per cent minority group. Being part of neither dominant group of Black or white, I contend with a feeling of “not-being.” In

this perceived void, my individuality is often lost to stereotypes where I am sometimes privileged, sometimes docile, sometimes a threat. These experiences, ranging from comic to near-violent, have given me a window into the worlds of both the Black and white experience, deeper insight into my own, and the racialized power dynamics at play.

Belonging and safety in public space look and mean different things depending on who you ask. In North America, landscape architecture’s heritage is European and people of European descent form a large majority of practitioners. This dominant group usually feels they belong everywhere and they design as if theirs is the only reality.

This results in inequitable outcomes in the workplace, in our institutions, and in our designs for individuals and communities that are not white.

To my fellow landscape architects who may be unpacking Canada’s myth of multiculturalism, I share a few stories from “The City Too Busy To Hate” that illustrate how

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anti-Black racism and white dominance is embedded in our profession. I hope my experiences translate into lessons for antiracist design practice in Ontario.

Cede Dollars and Decision-Making Now If racism isn’t part of your lived experience, it takes extraordinary effort, mindfulness, and time to empathize with a reality that is not your own and sit with a truth that is damning and uncomfortable. Diversity training, reading a few books, tuning into a few webinars can start to open minds and scratch the surface. One white parks advocacy leader who had completed a diversity training liked to educate me on equity while failing to examine his own organization’s policies. Two years ago, I mapped how this non-profit organization’s grant-matching policies were favouring white, wealthy communities, year after year, and proposed changes to the philanthropic criteria to correct this inequitable imbalance. After we had this uncomfortable conversation, I was no longer invited to their meetings.

I followed up with this non-profit this year, asking what transformative action would be taken to create a team reflective of Atlanta’s demographics and to embed equity into their policies. I learned this organization’s major donors had been reluctant to support radical policy changes until this year’s overwhelming eruption and support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Now, they are eliminating the matching grant requirement for a small portion of the grant applications.

This gatekeeping of wealth and priorities by predominately white environmental organizations impedes equitable distribution of resources. It leaves Black, Indigenous and People Of Colour (BIPOC) communities at the charitable whims of white leadership, staffing, and board members. In the environmental non-profit world, power and funding need to shift directly to BIPOC grassroots organizations in the community who know best how to serve it. A more equitable kind of green development will ensue.

Letter From... Atlanta

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Washington Park, Atlanta, Georgia Clara Kwon Bitsy Grant Tennis Center, Atlanta, Georgia Clara Kwon

Challenging Yesterday’s Dominant Narratives In my last trip to Seoul, South Korea, I noticed many small urban gardens in both contemporary and historic settings around Seoul. They were naturalistically planted with Asian native ornamental grasses. I had always assumed Piet Oudolf created this style. I started to wonder how our profession’s Eurocentric heritage in North America steers us away from a design heritage that is not only indigenous to this land, but also from Asia and Africa.

Unchallenged, Eurocentrism slips by as normative and neutral in our multicultural world.

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During my time in local government, my Black colleagues, none of whom were landscape architects, introduced me to the history of Washington Park, Atlanta’s first planned Black neighbourhood—built by Black business magnate Heman Perry a hundred years ago. This neighbourhood had Atlanta’s first public park open to Black citizens, with tennis courts, a swimming pool, and dance hall. In another neighbourhood, an amusement park called Joyland was also built for the Black community in 1921. In 1955, Black golf champion Alfred “Tup” Holmes fought and won in the US Supreme Court to desegregate public golf courses so that he could play at Bobby Jones Golf Course.

Next to this golf course is Bitsy Grant Tennis Center, where Black civil rights leaders were barred from playing tennis in 1961. They fought to desegregate all of Atlanta’s public parks and recreation facilities. Many white Atlantans reacted to this enforcement of the law by moving to the suburbs in the mass exodus known as “white flight.” This racist history of exclusion is rarely talked about amongst my white

In Atlanta, landscape architecture is a predominately white profession. The Georgia American Society of Landscape Architects chapter celebrates Frederick Law Olmsted’s birthday in veneration of the greatness of his parks. These parks were enjoyed solely by white Atlantans up until less than sixty years ago.

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colleagues here in Atlanta. In their silence, they often choose to ignore how this continues in other guises today.

The Values that Will Shape Tomorrow By this point in 2020, I hope you are familiar with the numerous calls to action put forth by Black and Indigenous designers on how to dismantle racism in our profession. Please listen and support.

The radical change this requires asks us all to centre our work on humane values such as dignity, respect, justice, cooperation, and coexistence. Landscape architects claim to design for the needs of all people, but we mostly focus on environmental concerns that affect white people. We talk about climate change but less about environmental racism and how dominant groups force marginalized groups, whether by economics or law, into neighbourhoods that are severely impacted by climate change. Rarely do we confront the bigger problem of European colonialism and the racialized imbalance

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Joyland neigbourhood, Atlanta, Georgia Clara Kwon Bobby Jones Golf Course, Atlanta Memorial Park, Georgia Clara Kwon

of power and resources it has created around the world, of which our designed landscapes are both symptom and setting.

In Atlanta, the Department of Watershed Management (DWM) is leveraging its enterprise fund and its scale as a government authority to correct some of the racialized power imbalances that result from inequitable landscape development. DWM issued its first ever Environmental Impact Bond (EIB) last year to finance green infrastructure projects and the workforce needed to build and maintain these projects. While the bond repayment is tied to the volume of stormwater captured through green infrastructure, DWM has also committed to meeting socioeconomic goals that have been defined by community stakeholders and a Water Equity Task Force. Through an equity lens, this group focused on severe flooding and contamination that have historically plagued Black neighbourhoods, due to poor infrastructure and industrial siting. The desired outcomes included authentic community engagement and

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workforce development opportunities in the green infrastructure industry to mitigate the gentrifying effect of capital investment in Black communities. Local Black environmental leaders and DWM planners and engineers have been working together for nearly a decade to understand each others’ perspectives and expertise and build trust and cooperation.

The EIB points to a new way of creating systems and structures that value the socio-economic health of communities, as well as their environmental health.

The engagement process and project outcomes centre humane values in a design domain that has often ignored the racialized consequences of its choices.

For a profession at the crux of multiple disciplines, and operating at the landscape scale, it is our obligation to create systemic, societal change, not at the pace that suits white comfort, but at a pace and on the terms of Black and Indigenous communities that have been harmed by silence, inaction, violence, and exclusion for hundreds of years.

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If we feel a sense of urgency about climate change, we need to feel a sense of urgency about racism. Environmental degradation, racial exclusion, and erasure are interconnected. Understanding white dominance in landscape architecture, its history, biases and blind spots, is key to rebalancing power and perspectives in public realm design so that BIPOC designers can freely lead in the creation of our landscapes. To truly serve a multicultural and equitable society, we must continue working to expand our concept of belonging.

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CLARA KWON, OALA, FOUNDED STAND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE LLC AND RECENTLY SERVED AS DIRECTOR OF PARKS DESIGN FOR THE CITY OF ATLANTA’S DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION. SHE IS AN OALA FULL MEMBER - INACTIVE, A LICENSED PLA IN THE STATE OF GEORGIA, AND A SITES ACCREDITED PROFESSIONAL.

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Lessons for the profession after COVID-19

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As we return to equity among all species and productive landscapes with enhanced local food security, we will also become more aligned with nature. In contrast to the design of our hyper-safe communities that delude us into believing we are not vulnerable to natural processes, the restoration of landscapes that support us locally will inherently promote an awareness that we are. This will give communities a foundation and agency for addressing future biological threats.

The pandemic has forced all of us to reexamine the way we live, and our relation to the places we live in. It’s a challenge every profession must address, as we face a seemingly inevitable second wave of the COVID-19 virus. And, while we all hope to be able to return to some sort of normal, perhaps we can glean some lessons from the experience of the past seven months.

We asked you, our readers and OALA members, what needs to change about the way we design spaces, in order to provide future public health resiliency, and what has changed irrevocably about the profession and the process of design, as a result of this pandemic?

Real Eguchi, Retired, Ground Advisory Panel Member: To support public health, we need to expand our practice of designing resilient landscapes that embody localization and biodiversity. Healthy landscapes need to continue to demonstrate the importance of using local plant and other materials, while respecting ecological parameters.

Speciesism and our anthropocentric hubris will clearly lead to social dysfunction with future natural disasters like climate change.

Our landscape designs need to be livedin works of art that enhance our ability to co-habitate with all species and support us physically, intellectually, and emotionally.

Perhaps this virus is a gift that reminds us we are all mortal and that we need to support those of us who are most vulnerable. With this awareness, we are inspired to plan and design landscapes that expand our sense of wholeness and deepen our level of ecological and emotional integration.

Jana Joyce and The MTBW Group: Generally, it is understood that COVID-19 may not be the last global public health crisis we will experience: future potential crises will likely place the same demands on publicly accessible spaces we’ve seen this year. We examined four components of public space design for which new strategies may apply.

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Movement Strategies: Movement to and through a public space has been highly impacted due to the physical distancing requirements.

Safe Gathering Strategies: People need to have safe spaces to express gratitude, protest, or hold vigils for loved ones that have passed away.

Being able to connect to our fellow humans seems to be a critical necessity during times of uncertainty.

Although physical distancing needs to be accommodated, providing space for people to gather or visit is important.

Amenity Design Strategies: We noted changes in how site amenities are being utilized. For example, benches and picnic tables, litter/recycling containers, water bottle refill stations, public washrooms, playgrounds.

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Thinking about how these features may exacerbate a public health situation allows us to consider design alternatives to make these features more accessible during a crisis.

Temporary Scenario Strategies: Many temporary measures have been implemented to either restrict use of an area, or allow access to an area previously not intended for recreational use. Provisions could be made in park design to facilitate the implementation of temporary solutions.

At the planning and urban design level, we discussed the concept of spatial equity and the right for everyone to have equitable access to open space, particularly during a public health crisis. For infill areas, this becomes difficult, as the surrounding context is not a blank canvas in which to strategically allocate park space. Looking to the adjacent space network such as public streets, lanes, parking areas, school yards, and other privately-owned open spaces will be important in identifying opportunities to expand usable and available open space during an emergency. Having an ‘Emergency Response Open Space Plan’ in place for each neighbourhood would be helpful in managing the implementation of the response, educating the community, and in providing as much equitable access to space as possible.

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Nick Onody, Director, MT Planners, Ltd.: I believe (and hope) we will shift away from the highly programmed, highly designed public spaces that have become popular in the profession and sought after by city leaders in recent years. The pandemic has shown these spaces do not function when such programmatic opportunities are taken away. Instead, a shift towards larger, more ecologically focused, more flexible public spaces that can safely accommodate indeterminate programming and social distancing is clearly necessary. More ecologicallyfocused public spaces also have proven benefits as they relate to climate change, resiliency, human health, and an individual’s overall well-being.

In many ways, the pandemic is just one driver. The current Black Lives Matter Movement is further catalyzing a major shift in how landscape architects must approach equitable design. This is a real, top-down issue that starts with how cities, municipalities, and private organizations approach design team selection, and design applications and responses.

Organizations must collectively become the voice of communities and focus on ensuring more equitable placemaking.

This will also mean new approaches and methodologies to co-design that ensure inclusivity and representation from all—for example, shifting away from large town hall forums that have inherent biases, to digital and other tools brought to the people, making the process more equitable.

Andrew Macpherson, Division Manager, Parks Planning & Operations, City of London: The pandemic has demonstrated the inherent value we, as professionals, place on parks and natural areas as a common value. It’s not just that all other places for the public to go were closed: parks were shown to be places of critical importance to people’s social, physical, and mental health. What’s changed is that these facts are now being touted

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publicly by others, like Medical Officers of Health. Even with “distancing,” parks are the busiest they have ever been—some over capacity. We’ve had to adjust these lands to accommodate more users.

Trails were made one-way. Pavilions, spray pads, and playgrounds were closed and, in some cases, reopened for reduced numbers. Park driveways were closed to cars.

Perhaps some of these temporary measures will continue—there is a lot of pressure to permanently close road lanes for cyclists. Other public spaces like main street boulevards are now coming back to life with the opening of patios, with larger ones competing for space in closed road lanes. Even if we return to “normal,” some of these positive, temporary changes to urban spaces may stick, and the space available for the work we do will grow.

Either way, we need more flexibility in the function of our spaces to permit multiple uses, or non-use, while designing desirable places in our cities.

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In contrast, we have too many small parks, or large parks that are primarily grass fields, that encourage human concentration. The nature/culture balance has been lost in the urban planning policies of cities and towns, with cultural requirements taking precedent over ecological systems. The resultant loss of diversity enhances epidemics and fosters the absence of landscapes which possess utility, commodity, and delight.

Walter Kehm, Senior Principal, LANDinc: This current malaise must be seen in context of other epidemics we have faced and will continue to face. We have only to look at the demise of elm, chestnut, ash, lodgepole pine, and the evolving threats to oak, beech, maple, and hemlock, to witness virtual extinction of species in our lifetime.

My experience after observing Tommy Thompson Park for over 35 years, relating now to the current nature/culture conditions, reveal the following: • The urban wild principles that structure the master plan have allowed for a diversity of vegetative spaces to evolve with varying landscape niche spaces and qualities.

• Many small natural wild spaces create self-regulating conditions for dispersing people—no need for round circles.

• Natural succession has evolved into ever-changing plant, bird, fish, and mammal communities. Ecological centres of organization become selfregulating and enduring.

• The large land and water areas of the park allow for a variety of habitats to evolve and provide sufficient space for isolation and contemplation.

Leslie Norris, MLA, University of Toronto: Working in Stockholm, Sweden, COVID has illuminated design aspects here that are reflective of a more egalitarian, communityminded approach, which facilitates the creation of a robust, resilient public realm.

Two lessons to apply to Ontario for a more resilient public realm are: Lesson 1: Returning to basic tenets from my biology background, corridors that connect habitat patches—in this scenario, parks—elevate the value of these individual patches, allowing for safe movement of individuals between them. In Stockholm, this connection exists as a ubiquitous network of bike and walking paths, and in many areas very wide sidewalks, that allow for the expansion of the private realm into the public realm, with minimal competition for space between the two. This allows the intricately intertwined public and private realms to interact and thrive outdoors together with increased safety, and creates large public swaths throughout the city, rather than tenuous tendrils of connection between heavily-used park patches. Within these corridors, smaller public spaces are imperative, as these allow individuals with limited mobility to seek refuge close to their residence.

Lesson 2: Quality public space cannot be a privilege for those with means, while existing as an afterthought for those without. Envisioning public space as a fundamental component for positive public health outcomes, especially in a crisis, allows more value to be placed on the many services provided by it, but it must

be treated as a necessity for all residents.

Public space in Stockholm consists of a rich array of parks, squares, pedestrian streets, and forest patches, both in the downtown core, as well as extending out towards the city periphery. Rather than shoehorning public space into leftover remnant spaces, post-development, public space is cohesively embedded in neighbourhoods.

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Notes: A Miscellany of News and Events

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green buildings This October’s 15th annual Green Building Festival, for which the OALA was an industry partner, explored topics that resonate with the work many of us do as landscape designers and architects to deeply integrate biology in urban developments.

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awards

The festival theme was “BIO: Ecological Principles in Buildings & Cities” and featured 10 visionary practitioners who are leveraging natural processes in design, materials, construction, and operations.

The OALA invites you to nominate your peers for the 2021 annual awards.

The first deadline for nominations is November 30th, so if you have someone in mind who deserves recognition, make sure to put their name forward.

If you missed the festival but want to learn more about the best bioregional practices, “growing” building materials with negative carbon footprints, biodiversity, bioresources, bioeconomy, biomimicry, integrated project delivery, and the biomorphic future city, you can still register to watch the programming on-demand through the end of the year (http://gbf20.eventbrite.com/), or wait until 2021 when the videos will be posted to Sustainable Buildings Canada’s YouTube channel for free.

You can read about the various award categories and how to submit here: www.oala.ca/awards/oala-awards-callfor-nominations/

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Biomorphic Cities Courtesy of Peter Kindel

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Courtesy of Liat Margolis

podcast The American Society of Landscape Architects has a podcast, and it’s a great resource for both students and practicing professionals. The ASkLA Podcast’s goal is “to provide insight and perspective for students and emerging professionals by interviewing a variety of professionals in the field of landscape architecture.”

You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or your favourite podcatcher.

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Park People has launched its second annual Canadian parks report, which examines data from 27 cities across Canada.

In it, you’ll find information about biodiversity, creative park development, community engagement, and homelessness.

You can read the full report here: ccpr.parkpeople.ca/ In addition, Park People conducted a national survey on COVID-19 and parks in June. Over 1,600 residents and 51 municipalities shared their perspectives on how the pandemic has changed our perception and appreciation for parks, and the how the parks themselves have been impacted by COVID. Findings include increased use of park space, parks’ increasing role in mental health, strained operating budgets, and the need for public health amenities like washrooms.

You can read the survey highlights here: parkpeople.ca/2020/07/16/covid19-and-parks-highlights-from-ournational-surveys/

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Parc Mont Royal, Montreal Quebec

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Parc Jarry, Montreal, Quebec

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Charles Olivier Bourque

Charles Olivier Bourque

reporting credits All full members and associate members of seven years or more are required to obtain continuing education credits (CEC) for every three-year reporting period. The current full reporting period covers 2018 through 2020. By December 31st 2020, members should have 30 credits entered onto their accounts. The Mandatory Continuing Education Section of the Members’ Area includes documents to support members to complete their credits.

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new coordinator The Ground team is pleased to introduce the new OALA Coordinator for Communications and Marketing, Juleen Anderson.

Juleen started on August 4th and has quickly been learning about the Association and role. She already has some great new ideas to build engagement with OALA membership!

Her previous experience of coordinating meetings and events at The College of Family Physicians of Canada, and her education in Communications, Event Marketing and Management will be an asset to the team. If you’d like to reach out to Juleen, she can be reached by e-mail at coordinator@oala.ca

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New coordinator Juleen Anderson

equity resources

congress

In the hopes of promoting diversity, equity, and understanding, Ground will be sharing members’ favourite resources for supporting, encouraging, and celebrating racial justice in the landscape architecture field. Here are a few selections:

The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects and Ontario Association of Landscape Architects invite qualified experts to submit abstracts for concurrent sessions and panels to be made at the upcoming 2021 CSLA-OALA Congress scheduled to be held in Ottawa, Ontario, May 27-29, 2021.

The Danger of a Single Story, TED Talk

by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Link: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg “It is difficult to effectively implement inclusive and non-discriminatory policies in our organizations and practices without improving our understanding of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour. The starting point of understanding a group of people or an individual is to know their story. Unfortunately, the stories of BIPOC are not validated unless told through a white or Western lens. In this Ted Talk, acclaimed author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie urges us to listen to the whole story to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the ‘other.’”

— KAARI KITAWI, OALA, GROUND EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBER

Interview with Walter Hood: Black Landscapes Matter, by Jared Green for ASLA’s The Dirt.

Link: dirt.asla.org/2020/06/24/interviewwith-walter-hood-black-landscapesmatter/ “As landscape architects, we are taught how to read a landscape. Unfortunately, we aren’t taught to try on other people’s glasses when we do it—to see the landscape through other people’s eyes, from a different perspective. This piece with Walter Hood is so poignant, and underlines that, just as we can be taught to see site conditions or ecological characteristics, we can and must also be taught to see the diversity of cultural relationships with landscape so that we can respond accordingly.”

— SHANNON BAKER, OALA, GROUND EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBER

Juleen Anderson

If you’d like to go deeper, the CSLA is providing a Diversity & Equity Resources page on their website: www.csla-aapc.ca/ mission-areas/diversity-equity-resources

While the future of the pandemic is still up in the air, the CSLA and OALA have been examining virtual or hybrid formats for the upcoming event, should it be necessary.

The theme of the congress is “A Green Recovery for a Great Recovery,” and the call is open until November 20th. Formats include Concurrent Sessions (20-minute oral presentations with a 5-10-minute question period), Panels (90-minute presentations with up to three participants plus a moderator), and Spark Sessions (15-minute pre-recorded and/or live video stream oral presentations presented at the Congress with an opportunity for moderated discussion).

For more information, look here: www.csla-aapc.ca/events/call-abstracts

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

Valerie Manica

Joshua Bernsen

Lindsey McCain *

Jason Bobowski

Heather Pelz

Erika Bullock

Jonah Rannie *

Amanda Cadger

Karen Shlemkevich *

Patrick Gauvreau

Laurelin Svisdahl

Ryan Herm

Philip Wiersma *

Shelley Long

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

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Artifact

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TEXT BY SHANNON BAKER, OALA 01-03/

Social distancing circles in Domino Park, Brooklyn, New York

04/

Exercising on a social distancing lawn at the Galleria EL Art Centre, Elblag, Poland

IMAGES/

IMAGE/

It’s a common refrain these days: we’re living in unprecedented times.

The COVID-19 global pandemic has destabilized so much of what we thought to be solid and unchanging in the world, and its full effects may not be understood for years to come. Yet nearly as soon as it began, its marks were made on our public spaces. From social distancing circles painted on lawns in public parks such as Trinity Bellwoods in Toronto, to ubiquitous two-metre queue markers on sidewalks outside of shop doors, COVID-19 has inspired myriad public space demarcations that range from clumsy to elegant. These markings, like the term ‘social distancing’ itself, were not part of the urban design lexicon just six months ago, and yet they are now everywhere.

Marcella Winograd

Łukasz Kotynski ´

It was Brooklyn’s Domino Park that first turned to painting social distancing circles on the grass in an effort to maintain public safety as the weather warmed and people pent up inside flooded out 04

into the sunshine. In Elblag, Poland, the contemporary art gallery let it’s public open space, a large lawn, grow fallow during lockdown until a giant checkerboard pattern was mown into it to create appropriately distanced gathering spaces.

Pandemic inspired tactical urbanism has also transformed many of our streets, taking back space from cars and returning to pedestrians and cyclists.

These changes have been made in cities like London, Ottawa, and Toronto, with bollards and signage in their most temporary form, and more permanent changes reflected in concrete curbs and paint.

These patterns in the urban landscape allow us to be together while safely apart.

It remains to be seen how many will persist long after COVID-19 is gone.

BIO/ SHANNON BAKER, OALA, IS A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT

AT WATERFRONT TORONTO AND A MEMBER OF THE

GROUND EDITORIAL BOARD.

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