PROJECT Promenade Samuel-De Champlain, Phase 3, Quebec City, Quebec

ARCHITECT Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker

TEXT Odile Hénault

In 2008, as Quebec City celebrated its 400th anniversary, its citizens received a major birthday present from the provincial government: a stunning 2.5-kilometre park along the St. Lawrence River. It was Phase 1 of Promenade Samuel-De Champlain (see CA, November 2008), named after the French explorer who founded the city in 1608. Designed by Montreal-based Daoust Lestage (now Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker) in collaboration with Williams Asselin Ackaoui and Option aménagement, the project was met with great enthusiasm as people flocked to it at all times of the day and in all seasons. 

Extending the Promenade

Fifteen years later, in 2023, a second stretch of this waterfront park has opened to the city’s residents. (A short connecting path west of the initial phase was completed in 2016, so the current project is technically the Promenade’s Phase 3.) Thankfully, the consortium led by Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker was once again commissioned to design this recent leg of the project. This meant continuity: in terms of philosophy, attitude to design, and architectural language. As in the 2008 project, wood was the signature material used for the Promenade’s pavilions, large and small, and for the urban furniture provided throughout. 

During the first phase, the architects had faced a number of challenges related to reclaiming the site from its previous industrial uses. To reconnect Quebec City’s residents to the river, they created a linear park, with a pedestrian path, bicycle trails, and access to the shore. The design was punctuated by thematic pier-shaped poetic gardens, evocative of the St. Lawrence’s tidal waters, windy storms, misty days, and the centuries-long presence of humans on the river. Phase 1’s focal point was the Quai des Cageux, a reference to the courageous raftsmen who floated logs down the St. Lawrence towards the coves of Sillery, the final destination for enormous quantities of timber bound for England.

Two decades later, preparations for the Promenade’s recent extension were equally—if not more—challenging. Significant infrastructural changes were needed to open up the site, including the relocation of the road—a process initiated in Phase 1—and its transformation into an urban boulevard with integrated parking. On another front, negotiations with CN authorities led to the shifting of a freight rail corridor closer to the nearby cliff. Thanks to these two major changes, some 37 acres of land were unlocked for recreational use. 

A design shaped by history

As the concept for the new 2.5-kilometre addition to the Promenade was being developed, it became obvious that history would play a significant role in the design. Remnants of former wharves were still present, severely damaged from decades of neglect. One of these was Frontenac Pier, a favourite spot for Sunday strollers in the first half of the 20th century. Then there was Foulon Beach, once a major summer attraction: traces of it were still visible along the shore, but, more importantly, memories of it endured in older citizens’ minds. Finally, a few hundred metres east from the beach, an existing marina was to be upgraded and incorporated into the new park. These three locations became the focal points of a triad of distinct sectors, each of which is served by a new pavilion: the Pavillon de la Côte, at the western end, the Pavillon des Baigneurs, serving the beach area, and the Pavillon de la Voile, next to the marina. 

The surrounding park was designed to reflect current ecological concerns. Major efforts were made to preserve and revitalize existing ecosystems, including ecologically sensitive marshlands. This led to the planting of over 1,000 trees and 29,000 shrubs, as well as the widespread re-introduction of plant species such as lyme grass, native to the St. Lawrence shores. Much appreciated by the public are three giant “pebbles,” placed along a sinuous path, which provide perfect observation posts for enjoying the new landscape and watching ships passing close by.  

The Promenade’s brightest jewel is its central sector, where the historic sand beach was resuscitated in the form of an infinity pool, cleverly inserted in the St. Lawrence River. There is an obvious reference to the seaside basin (1966) designed by a young Álvaro Siza Vieira in his native Matosinhos, Portugal. Of course, six decades—and the Atlantic Ocean—separate the two. The Portuguese pool is inserted among the rocky shores of a wild Atlantic—a stark contrast to the park setting of the Promenade’s pool, and the relatively tame shores of the St. Lawrence—which in part explains Siza’s use of robust monolithic concrete walls.

The Pavillon des Baigneurs expresses strength in its own way. The two-storey volume is much more elaborate than the smaller wood pavilions that Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker has placed elsewhere along the Promenade. The added level of complexity relates to the pavilion’s program, but also to the site’s topography, since the building acts as a transition point between the new urban boulevard and the shore, four metres below. A break in the pavilion’s stark granite walls marks the entrance to an upper-level restaurant, with an outdoor terrace facing the river. It also opens to an exterior stair leading towards the beach. 

At the bottom, a sandy expanse is capped by the pool, whose infinity edges create the illusion of its being part of the St. Lawrence. It’s a source of absolute delight, particularly for those of us who were children in the fifties, and who still remember the original beach. Younger generations—and new residents—are just as thrilled to discover this unusual bathing spot, more akin to a riverine beach than to a typical sports facility.

In actuality, the pool, 1.2 metres at its deepest point, is totally contained within concrete walls that, even at high tide, prevent the St. Lawrence waters from flowing into it. Adjacent to the pool is a shallow basin—just a few centimetres deep—where intermittent water jets are an attraction for young children or those just wanting to wet their feet. 

Faced with pool safety requirements and wanting to avoid the ubiquitous chain-link fence, the architects went on a worldwide search for a barrier that could disappear when the pool was open. They found what they were looking for in Poland, where they sourced retractable post fences that they were able to adapt to the needs of the project. The elegant solution matches the pool area’s bespoke lifeguards’ chairs and echoes the minimalism of the portals used throughout the Promenade to help break down its scale.

A new phase, an old conclusion

In 2008, I concluded my first article on the Promenade Samuel-De Champlain with the following words: “The project truly shows what can be accomplished when enlightened professionals manage to convince politicians to move towards the completion of a visionary concept. […] One can only hope this project will be a source of inspiration for professionals and politicians around the country as waterfronts and former industrial areas are being adapted to the 21st century’s new realities.” 

Unfortunately, the inspired vision that has led to the success of the Promenade Samuel-De Champlain continues to be rare. This April, the Crown Corporation which oversees Montreal’s Old Port announced that, for “financial reasons,” its 2017 project to revitalize the area would not be implemented as designed. The project, also by Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker, is a refined proposition that would have gone a long way to mend the unfortunate, piecemeal approach adopted in the Old Port since the destruction of Silo no. 2 in 1978. 

The same firm also authored an admirable proposition for the National Memorial to Canada’s Mission in Afghanistan. Last fall, the project was declared the jury-selected winning entry of an architectural competition held by the federal government, only for the decision to be overturned by the same administration in favour of an approach focused on more literal imagery.

What is obvious from these two recent events is that the message is not getting through to politicians. Fortunately, professionals continue to champion quality architecture at the urban scale: the Promenade Samuel-De Champlain was the recipient of the Ordre des Architectes du Québec’s Grand Prix d’excellence, the highest honour in its awards program. It is a well-deserved recognition of the value of contemporary, urbane architecture as practiced by Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker.

Odile Hénault is a contributing editor to Canadian Architect.

CLIENT Commission de la capitale nationale du Québec (CCNQ) | ARCHITECT TEAM Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker—Réal Lestage, Eric Lizotte, Caroline Beaulieu, Lucie Bibeau, Grégory Taillon, David Gilbert, Mélissa Simard, Luca Fortin, Maria Benech | CONSORTIUM  – LANDSCAPE Daoust Lestage Lizotte Stecker, Option aménagement et Williams Asselin Ackaoui | PARTNER Ministère des Transports et de la Mobilité durable  | ENGINEERING AtkinsRéalis, WSP, Tetra Tech | PROCESS ENGINEERING François Ménard | CONSTRUCTION MANAGER Pomerleau | CONTRACTORS Construction BML (Station de la Côte, station de la Voile and Boulevard); Construction Deric); Station de la plage, mirror of water and the swimming area); Construction Citadelle (Pavillon de la Côte and Pavillon de la Voile); Bauvais & Verret (Pavillon des Baigneurs) | AREA 150,000 m2 (Promenade) + 1,200 m2 (Buildings) | BUDGET $135 M | COMPLETION July 2023

As appeared in the June 2024 issue of Canadian Architect magazine

The post Down by the Riverside: Promenade Samuel-De Champlain, Phase 3, Quebec City, Quebec appeared first on Canadian Architect.

Designed Landscapes: 37 Key Projects

By Alan Tate and Marcella Eaton (Routledge, London & New York, 2024)

REVIEW Ron Williams

Fresh off the press, Designed Landscapes: 37 Key Projects, by Alan Tate and Marcella Eaton, is a beautiful and fascinating volume, and a pleasure to read. The book is a profusely illustrated exploration of a series of outstanding landscapes, all designed by human hand—though many are located within, and skillfully exploit or complement, the natural or vernacular landscapes in which they are located. 

The authors, both longtime professors in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Manitoba, previously collaborated on the second edition of Great City Parks (Routledge, 2015). The format of their new book is similar to that of their earlier work: a kaleidoscope of extremely varied projects, held together by a common theme. While Great City Parks focused on urban parks in North America and western Europe, the focus has been greatly expanded in the current work to include landscapes of twelve different project types, varying from private gardens to campus plans. 

A return to primary sources

Designed Landscapes is organized according to project types, allowing readers to compare and contrast the responses of different places, times, and cultures to similar design challenges and opportunities. Each type is represented by two, three or four contrasting projects, typically chosen from different countries and representing, overall, a wide variety of geographical locations. 

The projects span a vast time period, from the Alhambra in Granada, Spain (13th-15th centuries), all the way up to innovative projects from the first decade of the 21st century. They include such familiar faces as Vaux-le-Vicomte in France and Paley Park in New York City, along with lesser-known projects that merit attention, such as Chatham Village in Pittsburgh. 

Projects are primarily situated in the United States and western Europe, along with a sprinkling of Asian selections and two projects from Canada: Cornelia Oberlander and Arthur Erickson’s Robson Square in Vancouver (1972-83) and the Promenade Samuel-De Champlain in Quebec City, conceived by the Commission de la Capitale du Québec (CCNQ), designed by the consortium of Daoust Lestage, WAA Inc., and Option Aménagement, and realized over two decades beginning in 2002.

Grouping projects from different venues by type allows the reader to see and understand patterns of design that would be less evident from a sequential or territorial exposition. I was fascinated, for example, by the striking integration of Renaissance squares into pre-existing medieval town layouts in Pienza, Italy; Nancy, northern France; and Edinburgh in Scotland, all grouped under the rubric of “Urban Landscapes.”

Each project is described in a stand-alone essay of some six to ten pages; typically, the social and geographical context of its creation are explored, followed by a profile of the personages who gave rise to the project. Each text then provides a thoughtful analysis of the project’s principal design features, site organization, and vocabulary of materials and planting. Besides this in-depth analysis, each densely packed essay includes all the dates, names, facts, and references needed to satisfy the most enthusiastic and inquisitive scholar. As one would expect, Tate and Eaton identify and provide considerable information about the designers of their designed landscapes, including household names like Olmsted and Vaux, André le Notre, and Hideo Sasaki—and many who are relatively obscure despite their distinguished work.

In researching their book, the authors have followed the dictum of John Brinckerhoff (J.B.) Jackson that the primary sources to be studied are the landscapes themselves. They have personally visited and explored in depth all the projects that they discuss, and have taken all but one or two of the extensive colour photos that accompany each essay. While five of the projects in Designed Landscapes appeared in the authors’ previous book, it’s nice to see that they have recently revisited and rephotographed even these overlapping projects. A special treat—especially for freehand aficionados—is the inclusion of pen-and-ink site plans of each project, hand-drawn by University of Manitoba doctoral student Mojtaba (Moin) Hassanzadeh. On occasion, the overall site plan of a project is supplemented by a larger-scale sectoral plan, a cross-section, or an axonometric view. 

Lessons for designers

The book concludes with a discussion of specific lessons that the authors wish to impart to readers. Recognizing and making the most of a project’s existing site conditions is high on their list: conditions first regarded as negative may prove to be highly advantageous, as at the abandoned limestone quarry that became the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont in Paris. They also emphasize the importance of historical context, and its evocation in the present-day landscape through the use of symbolic references and the inclusion of heritage elements. They underline the ability of landscape to establish powerful spatial structures through landform and vegetation (like the “apparently endless” Long Meadow in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park) and highlight the importance of strong positive relationships between client and designer, and among members of multi-professional design teams, as essential ingredients of successful landscape design. 

Finally, they explore the unique role of time in landscape projects. Tate and Eaton consider landscape design to be “a long-term endeavour that never ends.” While buildings are at their best on Day One and subsequently deteriorate under all the forces of nature and man (gravity, rust, wear and tear), a well-maintained landscape can continue to mature and improve for centuries. The authors note, for instance, that urban spaces are likely to last longer than the buildings that enclose them.  

Beyond providing a multi-dimensional and in-depth study of a broad spectrum of outstanding man-made landscapes, the book promotes understanding and preservation of designed landscapes generally, and inspires designers to achieve a high quality of work in their own projects. 

Who are its readers likely to be? The authors’ primary target would naturally consist of professionals and students in the fields of landscape architecture and urban design or city planning. In fact, many of the projects examined are studied in courses on landscape and planning history, though not always at the level of detail one sees in Designed Landscapes. Architects and students of architecture will also find this book fascinating: almost all the sites illustrated in the book are either settings for buildings; are enclosed by buildings; or feature incidental buildings such as follies, gazebos, or viewing pavilions, and provide many lessons in how to integrate buildings and landscapes. Beyond the world of professional and student designers, even the enthusiastic amateur or studious tourist will find this book highly readable, and a helpful guide while visiting the locations where the projects are situated. 

A splendid reference

How does this book fit into the existing literature on parks and designed landscapes? While it contains many historical examples, it is definitely not a systematic landscape history book that follows a clear through-line. It is, in fact, a compendium, defined by Oxford Languages as “a collection of concise but detailed information about a particular subject, especially in a book or other publication.” As such, Designed Landscapes will fit in well on the same bookshelf as Edmund Bacon’s Design of Cities (The Viking Press/Macmillan, 1961), Geoffrey and Susan Jellicoe’s The Landscape of Man (Thames and Hudson, 1975), Allan Jacobs’s Great Streets (MIT Press, 1995) and Steen Eiler Rasmussen’s Towns and Buildings (Harvard University Press,1951). All of these books include detailed drawings and descriptions of various town-planning, landscape and architectural projects; but surprisingly, they only rarely overlap with Tate and Eaton’s book, which largely explores new ground. 

Like these classics, Designed Landscapes provides a splendid reference to specific projects that can suggest general principles of design to readers, or inspire them in approaching similar design challenges. It deserves an honoured position in their company.

As appeared in the June 2024 issue of Canadian Architect magazine

The post Book Review: Designed Landscapes—37 Key Projects appeared first on Canadian Architect.

The biannual National Urban Design Awards program was established in 2006, through a partnership between the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, the Canadian Institute of Planners, and the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects. For the past 18 years, it has aimed to recognize the achievements of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary projects involving architects, planners, landscape architects, and other disciplines in creating places that enhance the quality of life in Canadian communities.

Submissions to the award include the winning projects from city-led Urban Design Award programs across Canada, as well as submissions received at-large.

The 12 winning projects that follow showcase the highest achievements of Canadian architecture, landscape architecture, and planning in working together to create people-centered spaces for our country’s diverse urban communities.

ESPLANADE TRANQUILLE 

Les architectes FABG et Fauteux et associés architectes paysagistes

LOCATION Montreal, Quebec

CATEGORY Civic Design

Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles stands out among North American theatre districts with its innovative use of outdoor spaces for free, year-round artistic events. The last phase of Daoust Lestage’s ambitious masterplan to manage and develop the district’s network of public spaces is FABG and Fauteux et associés architectes paysagistes’ Esplanade Tranquille.

The project transforms a 5,000-square-metre vacant lot at the corner of St. Catherine and Clark Streets into an all-season public space. A linear service building borders the Esplanade, while the main plaza is occupied by an outdoor concert area in summer festival season and a refrigerated skating rink in the winter. On the north side, a section of the plaza accommodates a mobile stage. Moveable planters and furniture invite activity into the plaza, while allowing for easy conversion into an open-air performance venue. Completing the composition, trees planted at the perimeter limit the heat island effect.

The service pavilion is an assemblage of CLT wood boxes over a post-and-beam concrete plinth. Folding glass walls open the building’s ground floor to the plaza, and allow access to heated terraces on the first floor. The building also includes a green roof planted with an herb and vegetable garden used for the Esplanade’s restaurant. Geothermal wells under the rink’s surface provide energy to heat and cool the building, and waste heat is recaptured from the compressors of the rink’s refrigeration system.

Jury Comment :: Esplanade Tranquille is a very well executed all-season space that becomes a collective gathering space for the active public to congregate. The design team’s collaboration is apparent in the flow between interior and exterior spaces and the animated level of activity day and night. This once derelict space has been transformed and brought to life with its moveable planters and furniture and vibrant, year-round activities. The idea of a metropolis with a diverse and rich central public place combining exterior and interior spaces is a visionary innovation worth recognizing.

CLIENT City of Montreal | ARCHITECT TEAM Éric Gauthier (FRAIC), Marc-Antoine Fredette, Amandine Mortka, Vincent Désy, Steve Montpetit, Catherine Doyon-Couturier, Pierre Joly, Giselle Bouron, Roberto Pareja, Anna Kreplak | CONTRACTOR TEQ Inc. | LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE Fauteux et associés | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL/CIVIL/STRUCTURAL WSP | REFRIGERATION Petropoulous, Bomis et Associés | URBAN FURNITURE Alto Design and Dikini | INTERIORS Zébulon Perron | THEATRE Sceno plus | AREA 4,959 m2 (Interior); 5,400 m2 (exterior) | BUDGET $51.7 M | COMPLETION January 2022

SΘQLXENM TS’EXWTS’ÁXWI7 (RAINBOW PARK) 

DIALOG

LOCATION Vancouver, British Columbia

CATEGORY Civic Design

The name of this new park, sqlxenm ts’exwts’áxwi7, was gifted by Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, and recognizes the site as a soft place known for abundant water where sun and mist danced around marshlands forming rainbows. Historically, it became a popular destination for the LGBTQIA+ community before being levelled for parking. 

The vision to revive the site as the Vancouver Park Board’s first new park in a decade was grounded in collaboration with the surrounding downtown communities. The result is an innovative, high-capacity, three-dimensional community space within a dense downtown that encourages relationships between shared histories and land. This was achieved through the creation of multilevel, multigenerational space; playful grading and experiential low impact design; and careful selection of culturally relevant plants. 

Three terraces negotiate the site’s 4.5-metre drop from north to south. As the land descends, a finely detailed bridge rises and zigzags above the urban world below. The lower terrace folds upwards into an urban amphitheatre and café around the multi-use plaza and houses the mechanical room. 

The dynamic design also includes Host Nation artwork, a bouldering zone, a twisting slide, built-in trampolines, urban hammocks, a multi-use splash pad, and rainwater-collecting pocket wetlands. Sweeps of meadow, woodland, and marshland are climate resilient and directly respond to the microclimates created by grade changes and the overhead walkway. An urban ecology arises that imprints traditional plants into the collective memory, promising a deeper connection to a shared and hopeful ecological future.

Jury Comment :: Rainbow Park is an exceptional example of a public engagement strategy with its tightly knit spaces intertwining neatly within the multi-level design. It’s a new way of imagining a public square within a context of high real estate densification. 

The metaphor of water and light through a rainbow expresses an idea that connects the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations together, while also speaking to the public using the space. A strong collaboration across the design team is evident, and the integration of native plant materials was completed thoughtfully. The garden shows how design can express the importance of change and reconciliation.  

The park seamlessly recognizes and integrates the history and presence of Indigenous life in Vancouver. The walkway offers a unique view of the city and neighbourhood, while the experience of walking through it is similar to the New York City High Line on a smaller scale.

CLIENT Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation ARCHITECT AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT TEAM Joost Bakker (FRAIC), Jill Robertson (FCLSA), James Godwin, Brady Dunlop (MRAIC), Dan Guenter, Paul Giles, Ryan McClanaghan, Stephanie Fargas Amador, Matthew Thomson, Mandy Yu, Steven Oosterhof, Thomas Wu, Cameron Franchuk, Graeme Johnston, Dan Prescott, Keith McDonnell, Andre O’Neill, Elizabeth Hand, George Unger, Elizabeth Orallo, Katherine Hurst | CIVIL WSP Canada ELECTRICAL AES Engineering | MECHANICAL/STRUCTURAL DIALOG ENVELOPE Elemental | CODE LMDG PLAY EarthScape | INTERIOR (CAFÉ) Scott Cohen | AREA 3,237 m2 (site) | BUDGET $13.8 M | COMPLETION April 2022

MAISONNEUVE LIBRARY RESTORATION AND EXTENSION

EVOQ Architecture + civiliti

LOCATION Montreal, Quebec

CATEGORY Urban Architecture

The new Maisonneuve Library forms an urban and architectural ensemble centered around the Cité de Maisonneuve’s former City Hall, built in 1912 by architect Joseph-Cajetan Dufort. The municipal building was occupied by various institutions until it became part of the public library network in 1981, and in 2017, a multidisciplinary design competition was launched in order to upgrade and expand the facility. The winning team was a consortium of Montreal firms led by EVOQ Architecture and Dan Hanganu Architects (now part of EVOQ) with the collaboration of urban design and landscape firm civiliti. 

One of the most important decisions taken by the architectural team was to rehabilitate the historic building and bring it back to its original splendour. The project also includes the addition of two contemporary wings carefully aligned with the heritage building, and the creation of a distinctive landscape that erases the boundary between the public realm and the institution’s private grounds. Thyme ‘carpets’, granite furniture, a sunken garden, and a subtle pattern of grey pavers create a dignified setting for the old City Hall, and harmonize with the library’s resolutely contemporary wings. The project extends to include the urban spaces adjacent to the library and the Maison de la culture Maisonneuve, as well as Place Ernest-Gendreau at the back of the library. 

The project’s architectural, urban, and landscape design mark this cultural hub as an important and accessible public space on Ontario Street. 

Jury Comment :: The restoration and enhancement of Maisonneuve Library is a beautiful execution of the merging of old and new, heritage and modern, civic and public space and a thoughtful landscape solution to complement the building. The project reflects a sensitive understanding of the urban and social history of the area, while the consideration of materials and grand scale of the project solidify it as a true landmark within the city. 

From the architectural expressions to the landscape details tying the site together, this is a very inviting place and a great celebration of civic investment in a community.

CLIENT City of Montreal, Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve Borough DESIGN TEAM MEMBERS Gilles Prud’homme, Peter Soland, Sylvie Peguiron, Marianne Leroux, Nathan Godlovitch, Anne-Catherine Richard, Lynda Labrecque, Alexis Charbonneau, Georges Drolet, Fannie Duguay-Lefebvre, David Murray, Etienne Ostiguy, Martine Vincent, Jean-François Bédard | BUILDING ENVELOPE ULYS Collectif | STRUCTURE NCK | CIVIL Génipur | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL Pageau Morel BUILDING | ENVELOPE/QUALITY CONTROL UL CLEB | ELEVATOR EXIM DOOR HARDWARE/BUILDING COMMISSIONING Cima+ | FURNITURE, WAYFINDING, MULTIMEDIA GSM Project | ERGONOMICS Vincent Ergonomie | LIGHTING LightFactor | SUSTAINABILITY WSP | ACOUSTICS Octav | HISTORIC DOORS, METAL M&B Métalliers | MOSAIC Artès Métiers d’art ORNAMENTAL PLASTERS Plâtres Artefact | MASONRY Maçonnerie Rainville et Frères RESTORER, MASONRY Trevor Gillingwater | STONE CUTTERS Alexandre, Tailleurs de pierres + sculpteurs | STAINED-GLASS WINDOWS Studio du verre ARTIST | PUBLIC ART WORK Clément de Gaulejac | BUDGET $33.6 M | AREA 4,138 m2 | COMPLETION December 2023

STADIUM STATION

GEC Architecture

LOCATION Edmonton, Alberta

CATEGORY Urban Architecture

One of Edmonton’s original five LRT stations, the 1970s Stadium Station no longer met the community’s evolving needs or the city’s long-term
development goals. Extensive physical barriers, inward-facing and enclosed public areas, and grade-separated station access contributed to challenges in providing a safe and accessible experience. 

GEC Architecture (GEC)’s design transformed the transit infrastructure from a barrier between communities into something that stitches them together, instigating urban rejuvenation and vibrant redevelopment.

The new station and its supporting infrastructure integrate into the public realm, serving as an armature to realize the Stadium Station Area Redevelopment Plan’s goals of creating a sustainable transit-oriented community. Key to this integration was creating a contiguous urban realm that flows around and through the station, yielding seamless connectivity and visual permeability. A central plaza, which is universally and visually accessible at grade from every direction, has become a meeting place for the community.

Much of the original station remains intact as part of the new infrastructure, with the original underground concourse converted to back-of-house spaces and emergency egress routes. At the surface, the facility was converted from a grade-separated, centre-loaded platform to an at-grade, side-loaded station. Reconstruction of the station was achieved while maintaining continuous transit operations—a feat requiring exemplary interdisciplinary coordination.

Before GEC’s design intervention, Stadium Station was one of the top three facilities in the city for police and enforcement calls; it is now among the top three safest facilities in the Edmonton system.

Jury Comment :: Stadium Station is a very bright and inviting celebration of transit investment needed to reconnect a community to transit and upgrade the rider experience. It is a sensitive and thoughtful response to existing urban issues and is commended for its design emphasis on an infrastructure building.

 As a new piece of the public realm and an integral part of the community, this project acknowledges the value of design. The contemporary forms, strong landscape moves, public plazas, and bold public gestures together make this project feel like a bright and inviting public space. The playfulness of the colour and the strong linear lines help unite this piece of the city and lift the overall experience.

CLIENT City of Edmonton ARCHITECT TEAM MEMBERS Gary Mundy, Tyson Bolduc, Rob Wenarchuk, Charles Fung, Tim Morasch, Shayne Yap, Kyla Hall, Ethan Cohen | STRUCTURAL Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd. | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL/CIVIL (PHASE 2+3) Stantec | COMMUNICATIONS/LRT SIGNALS/LRT TRACK Stantec | SIGNALS COMMISSIONING Hatch | LANDSCAPE ISL Engineering | TRACTION POWER Platinum Engineering | CROSSING SAFETY WSP | BUDGET $45 M | AREA 7,000 m2 (including platforms, plazas, transit centre, pedestrian connections and landscaping) | COMPLETION December 2022

QUEEN’S MARQUE

MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects (Design Architect and Urban Design) with FBM Architects (Prime Consultant)

LOCATION Halifax, Nova Scotia

CATEGORY Urban Architecture

Queen’s Marque was born from the developer’s desire to build a significant Canadian landmark that would be created by Nova Scotians, for Nova Scotians. Through deliberate planning and sensitive design, Queen’s Marque is conceived as a district, with the aim to contribute to Halifax’s downtown urban fabric. 

The design devotes 70 percent of the site to open public space, and includes the city’s first significant public gathering place along the harbour. Multiple passages through the buildings make the development highly porous to the public, including lending direct access into the water via a riverside staircase.

The design began by moving parking underground and developing a mixed-use program to keep the site active 24/7. The configuration of the complex preserves views to the historic citadel, extends the civic grid to the water, repairs and completes the pedestrian boardwalk along the shoreline, and establishes a protected micro­climate. Materials speak to the local vernacular, and the development includes many site-specific art installations that reference the harbour’s history and the local environment.

Queen’s Marque has been designed to meet LEED Platinum standards. The development saves on cooling costs by using the frigid water of the harbour in a seawater loop. In anticipation of sea level rise, the ground level of the project has been raised, but remains engaged with the surrounding pedestrian experience. 

Jury Comment :: Queen’s Marque is a well-executed project demonstrating the balance between subtle architectural forms and open space where the city meets the water. The placement of buildings, the access to the water at Queen’s Landing, and the ambitious energy modelling using the local seawater all contribute to the meaningful relationship to the waterfront. The thoughtful consideration of climate change and how water meets the land is notable, as is how the local place, culture and design are expressed in the specifics of the Halifax environment. The thoughtfulness put into bringing this site to life is commendable. The project reflects the collaboration of various experts and is anchored in its history and geography. The project reveals the genius of the place and reflects a sensitivity to history, place, communities, art, and poetry.

DEVELOPER AND MASTER BUILDER Armour Group Limited (Scott Armour McCrea) | ARCHITECT TEAM MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects—Brian MacKay-Lyons, Shane Andrews, Will Perkins, Rimon Soliman, Izak Bridgman, Tyler Reynolds. FBM Architects—George Cotaras, Wayne Duncan | STRUCTURAL Campbell Comeau Engineering Ltd. | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL M + R Engineering | LANDSCAPE Fathom Studio and Brackish Design Studio; Queen’s Landing Staircase—MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects (Concept Design) and Fathom Studio (Detailing) | BUILDER Armour Group Limited in joint venture with Bird Construction | URBAN DESIGN MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects | INTERIORS Muir Hotel—Studio Munge; Lobbies, core and residences—MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects |  PUBLIC ART Tidal Beacon—Ned Kahn, Heavy Industries & MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects; The Sirens’ calling—John Greer; Water—Thaddeus Holownia; The Light Chocks—MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects with Heavy Industries; Sail—Tresoldi Studio | AREA 41,800 m2 | BUDGET Withheld | COMPLETION Spring 2023

DOWNSVIEW FRAMEWORK PLAN

Henning Larsen (urban design); KPMB Architects (architecture); SLA (landscape); Urban Strategies Inc. (planning)

LOCATION Toronto, Ontario

CATEGORY Urban Design Plans

People, place, and nature come together in this vision that will transform 520 acres of brownfield in Toronto into complete, connected communities. Downsview will become home to over 80,000 residents and create over 40,000 jobs. The Framework Plan will involve the design of 100 acres of new parkland, 1.2 million square meters of commercial and light industrial real estate, and 50,000 new units of housing across the full spectrum of affordability.

With the closure of Downsview Airport, the site—bisected by a regional commuter rail corridor, and with three major transit stations at its perimeter—represents one of the most significant city-building opportunities in North America. The vision is centered on adapting the airport runway as a two-kilometre-long, pedestrian-focused open space lined by active uses and interspersed with large urban parks. New public realm elements create connections to the city’s ravine system and surrounding open spaces. 

The Plan contributes to Toronto’s goal of a low-carbon future by delivering density at a comfortable, predominantly mid-rise scale. This approach to density takes advantage of existing transit investments and supports local opportunities to live, work and play. Walking and cycling are encouraged via the reimagined runway and a network of streets and spaces that prioritize active mobility. Climatic conditions and outdoor comfort guide decisions about block orientation, street alignments, and building massing. Deploying “blue-green infrastructure,” the 100 acres of new parks, along with streetscapes, courtyards, and buildings, will work together as an integrated nature-based stormwater management system.

Jury Comment :: Converting one of the largest contiguous spaces in Toronto into a nature-first community is ambitious. The 520-acre brownfield area comes with a strong history of an airport and requires a thoughtful re-integration of the city fabric across the lands. An ambitious goal that has been crafted by input from citizens, it is an example of how sustainable development can occur. Big ideas and aspirations are well bundled into this master plan with a strong focus on nature in the city. The plan focuses on six fundamental principles: nature, equity, accessibility, people, sustainable development, and transit proximity. 

The framework plan demonstrates good analysis of the site and its context. The plan aims to incorporate sustainable principles, connect to its surroundings, integrate public transit into its design, and create walkable communities. This project is a demonstration of how a once-negative industrial site can be transformed into a valuable resource for future generations and should be used as an example for other municipalities.

CLIENT Northcrest Developments and Canada Lands Company | DESIGN TEAM Henning Larsen: Michael Sørensen, Santiago Orbea, Gregory Haley, Francis Aguillard, Evan Shieh, Grant McCracken. KPMB Architects: Kevin Bridgman, Laurence Holland, Sahana Dharmaraj, Shirley Blumberg, Bruce Kuwabara, Geoffrey Turnbull, Jonathan Graham, Nellie Jalal-Zadeh, Andy Barat. SLA: Rasmus Astrup, Salka Kudsk, Nicoline Heather Madsen, Alessia Cacopardo, Francisca Álvarez, Anne Sofie Sørensen, Kristine Kjørup Rasmussen. Urban Strategies Inc.: Emily Reisman, Frank Lewinberg, Michel Trocme, Christine Fang-Dennisov, Giuseppe Tolfo | MUNICIPAL INFRASTRUCTURE ARUP | SUSTAINABILITY/CLIMATE RESILIENCE Ramboll | SUSTAINABILITY Purpose Building | PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT Third Party Public, Department of Words and Deeds | INDIGENOUS ENGAGEMENT Nibisiing Consulting Inc. EQUITY ADVISORS Monumental Projects Inc. | COMMUNICATIONS DESIGN Future Simple Studio | TRANSPORTATION BA Group ENERGY Transsolar | AREA 520 acres | COMPLETION September 2021

EXCHANGE: REALIZING RIVERWALK WEST

groundcubed (Ground3 Inc.), HEREBY Architectural Inc., SIKOMH KOKOMII, Bunt & Associates Engineering Ltd., Martinson Golly Ltd., RJC Engineering

LOCATION Calgary, Alberta

CATEGORY Urban Design Plans

The winner of the City of Calgary’s first public realm design competition, this proposal for the redevelopment of the south bank of the Bow River leverages a need for pathway connectivity to create a vibrant, inclusive public realm that responds to—and amplifies—its unique Bow River ecosystem context, while serving as a catalyst for broader civic transformation.

The plan’s “big moves” include strategically reconfiguring adjacent streets and consolidating underused parcels to re-acquire the river’s edge, softening the riverbank, balancing natural and urban eco-systems, and creating a dynamic pathway that undulates with the new topography. The design enhances wetland and fish habitats through ecosystem regeneration, and provides opportunities for Calgarians, and the city’s visitors, to view, access, and touch the Bow River. It does this all while satisfying the growing need for multi-modal connections to and through the city’s Downtown West.

The design approach and final proposal is shaped by traditional ways of knowing the land, shared by local Blackfoot Elders. From their stories, ideas of discovery, ceremony, gathering together from all over, art, exchange, and teaching emerged as significant to this place.

These ideas are central to the definition of six character areas, each with a unique approach to promoting thriving cultural and natural ecosystems: West Village Riparian Trail, Grassland Bowl, Main Street, Land Art Island, The Exchange, and Trickle Creek + Constructed Wetland.

“groundcubed’s design is very compelling, founded in the cultural and historical influences on the site and telling a story that recognizes everyone’s voice, both past and present,” wrote the City of Calgary’s design competition jury. “The concept is smart and thoughtful and meets all the key goals of the project.”

Jury Comment :: Building upon the Indigenous practice of meeting at the water’s edge, this master plan embraces the interplay between land and water, and keeping this as a car-free, active experience. The flow of circulation, creating spaces and diversity of experiences is well portrayed through plans and renderings.

RiverWalk West showcases rich cultural diversity and a coherence with existing public spaces, and demonstrates how multi-use pathways can connect a city. Respectful and ambitious, the project shows excellent sensitivity to context and community history. The richness of the spaces and the opportunities for exchange of ideas, stories and culture by the people who share the river is well expressed, and is an aspirational goal.

CLIENT City of Calgary DESIGN TEAM MEMBERS groundcubed: Greg Stewart, Emma Brodie, Michael Chamberlain, Jaimie Johnson, Benjamin Hettinga, Jonathan Sagi, Trent Workman, Andrea Kennedy, Justin Bhatia, Tessa Larsen. HEREBY: Matt Stewart, Yves Poitras, Michael Zabinski. SIKOMH KOKOMII: Jared Tailfeathers. Bunt & Associates: Glen Pardoe. Martinson Golly: Ryan Martinson. RJC Engineering: Kieran Gaston. BUDGET $40-55 M AREA 74,000 m2 COMPLETION OF PLAN September 2023

SKENNA TERRACE COMMUNITY PLAN

Perkins&Will with PWL Partnership Landscape Architects

LOCATION Vancouver, British Columbia

CATEGORY Urban Design Plans

Skeena Terrace is home to a diverse community on 4.4 hectares in Vancouver, and includes a terracing landscape designed by Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, but its 1960s-era buildings require extensive repairs. The community plan to revitalize Skeena Terrace protects and enhances the site’s urban forest, while planning for new buildings that significantly increase the supply and diversity of affordable rental housing on the site. The plan envisages an equitable community with 1,930 new units, 60% of which will be family-oriented, within a 10-minute walk of Rupert Skytrain Station. 

Prioritizing tenant rights, the development minimizes off-site displacement and performs robust engagement to ensure needs are met and culture remains intact. The existing Thunderbird school and community centre are emphasized as the focal point to the neighbourhood, and enhanced through a new adjacent public plaza, childcare, and local-serving retail. At the heart of the plan, the “Skeena Hut”—an existing multi-purpose community facility—is recreated to anchor the redevelopment. 

In the new development, communal outdoor courtyards are sited around the existing open spaces and significant tree groves. These “neighbourhood rooms” are connected through a greenway and path network that privileges active mobility and accessibility. 

Buildings are contextually sensitive and sited to mitigate steep slopes and protect existing trees; below-grade, structures are set back from on-site water courses and significant trees. The design includes a centralized public space built around a celebrated watershed feature tracing the topography of the site. This landscape-driven approach results in building site coverage under 40%.

Jury Comment :: This intensive community plan, based on adding housing units, exemplifies a well thought-out relationship between buildings and open space. Skeena Terrace Community plan’s balance of community needs for facilities, open spaces, daycares, and urban agriculture exemplifies a people-centered approach to intensification. The plan is well-presented and executable, and can serve as a model for other communities with a similar history as they move forward and reinvent themselves.  

The master plan aims to transform a community into a transit-oriented one, with seamless connections to surrounding areas. The plan creates a hierarchy of open spaces that are framed by buildings and link to the larger open spaces. The overall design is well anchored in the values and objectives of our time.

CLIENT BC Housing ARCHITECT TEAM MEMBERS Joseph Browner, Xiangdi Cai, Long Dinh, David Dove, Andrew Gavel, Rossana Ho, Islam Ibrahim, Jason LeBlanc, Negin Shakibi, Kathy Wardle, Akiko Watanabe LANDSCAPE PWL Partnership PLANNING & ENGAGEMENT Modus Planning Design & Engagement LAND ECONOMICS Liveable City Planning Ltd. ACCESSIBILITY Level Playing Field Inc. CIVIL Binnie TRANSPORTATION Bunt Engineering AREA 43,170 m2 COMPLETION OF PLAN December 2023 ESTIMATED COMPLETION OF PROJECT 2027 (Phase 1)

THE RING / L’ANNEAU

CCxA Architectes paysagistes Inc.

LOCATION Montreal, Quebec

CATEGORY Urban Fragments

The recent revitalization of Place Ville Marie included the construction of a stairway between the historical McGill College Avenue and the elevated Esplanade—an element integral to architects Henry Cobb and I.M. Pei’s original 1962 design intention. CCxA was mandated to suspend a signature sculpture above this new threshold to signify a new urban gateway.

The Ring is a formal counterpoint to Place Ville Marie’s orthogonal purity. Scaled on the proportional constraints of the existing buildings, the circular form frames a view that encompasses 200 years of history, leading through the financial district and the McGill University campus, up to the Royal Victoria Hospital and the illuminated cross on Mont Royal. 

Although an unconventional work of landscape architecture, The Ring was realized through the unique strengths that are the hallmarks of the CCxA practice: blurring boundaries between design and art, placemaking through spatial arrangement, connecting an urban framework to prioritize the pedestrian experience, and coordinated across a diverse team of consultants and stakeholders. The landscape architects orchestrated and led an expert team made up of ten distinct disciplines who worked through continually emerging challenges. This spanned from metallurgy, vortex-induced oscillation, weld strengths, glass-bead sandblast finishes, and illumination on various metal finishes, to the complex choreography to precisely position and secure the 23-tonne, 30-metre-diameter object. The process also involved many cycles of risk assessment and myriad approvals, including from architect Henry Cobb’s office.

Embodying a deep love for Montreal, The Ring engages the public imagination and has already become an iconic part of Montreal’s cityscape.

Jury Comment :: The Ring is a simple, yet powerful, landmark in downtown Montreal. The project, situated in Place Ville Marie, is based on the historical development and urban structure of Montreal. The idea is clear, the expression is simple, and the execution is strong, demonstrating creative leadership and a significance in reconnecting the city to its past. This contemporary solution is applied with absolute clarity, serving as a key urban fragment that effectively unites time and space, while effectively framing various views of the city.

The Ring is an iconic work of urban art that strikes a balance between audacity, elegance, efficiency, and control while magnifying the experience of the city.

CLIENT Ivanhoé Cambridge | Landscape Architect Team  CCxA (formerly Claude Cormier et Associés): Claude Cormier, Sophie Beaudoin, Damien Dupuis, Yannick Roberge | Fabrication and Installation Advisor Claude Bernard – Formaviva Inc. | Lighting Designer Gilles Arpin – Ombrages / EP Éclairage Public | Structural Franz Knoll – NCK | Industrial Design Advisor Michel Dallaire | Masonry and Sealing COHÉSIO Architecture | Mechanical/Electrical Stantec | Technology Integration The Attain Group | Machining/Fabrication/Assembly Marmen Inc. | Tube Bending Bendtec | Building Work JCB Construction Canada | Wind RWDI | Electricity  Patrice Blain Entrepreneur Electricien | Blasting Sablage au Jet 2000 | Budget $5 M | Completion September 2022

BENTWAY STAGING GROUNDS

SHEEEP in partnership with Agency—Agency

LOCATION Toronto, Ontario

CATEGORY Urban Fragments

Transforming a vacant space below the Gardiner Expressway into a living laboratory, Bentway Staging Grounds collects and leverages runoff water from the highway above to irrigate large planters in the space below. These planters support the growth of diverse, flowering native plant species such as Milkweed, Agastache and Yarrow, while passive water filtration and retention helps to reduce the risk of local flooding. 

In order to track how the system is doing, monitoring technology in the experimental planters tests for water quality, flow volume, and soil health. This information informs ongoing maintenance requirements to keep the planters operational and provides valuable insight into how stormwater management can be improved across the Gardiner Expressway. 

The design for Bentway Staging Grounds introduces a network of ramps and elevated walkways that allow visitors to travel deep into the space as an extension of Canoe Landing Park to the north. These new pathways continue The Bentway’s ongoing efforts to transform the Expressway into a better connector for pedestrians and cyclists, celebrating their procession to surrounding waterfront parks and trail systems. 

Over the project’s two-year duration, The Bentway will commission artists to present original, rotating artworks on a series of scaffolding towers that line the site facing Lake Shore Boulevard West.

As a new type of public infrastructure, Bentway Staging Grounds cultivates a heightened awareness of the ways in which infrastructure and nature can collaborate under the Gardiner, blending art and education, public space and experimentation, and repositioning the Gardiner as a site of environmental regeneration.

Jury Comment :: An experiment in urban environmental change, ecology and runoff, this underutilized space has been recaptured into an expression of innovation and urban design. It is an excellent example of a cyclist and pedestrian space from a “leftover” part of a city and responds perfectly to the idea that good urban design projects must tackle abandoned spaces. 

Bentway Staging Grounds draws people from all parts of the city and all age groups with an interest in design and environment to learn about change and what is possible. It is a great example of how urban fragments can unite a city with infrastructure and human behaviour.

CLIENT The Bentway | Conservancy Robert McKaye, Jess Misak, Joshua Harskamp | DESIGN TEAM MEMBERS SHEEEP: Reza Nik, Sam Shahsavani, Connor Stevens. Agency—Agency: Tei Carpenter, Jake Rosenwald, Tanya Maneeintr | STORMWATER ENGINEERING Buro Happold | STORMWATER MONITORING Toronto & Region Conservation Authority | GRAPHIC DESIGN Neil Donnelly Studio | INDIGENOUS DESIGN & PLANTING Brother Nature | SCAFFOLD ENGINEERING S3 Specialized Scaffold Services | ADDITIONAL CONSULTING City of Toronto Parks, Forestry & Recreation; City of Toronto Engineering & Construction Services; City of Toronto Transportation Services | AREA 2,500 m2 | BUDGET $390 K | COMPLETION September 2023

KIDS REIMAGINE SCHOOL STREETS

SPECTACLE Bureau for Architecture and Urbanism, Sustainable Calgary, Everactive Schools, Toole Design, University of Calgary Faculty of Engineering

LOCATION Calgary, Alberta

CATEGORY Community Initiatives

What would streets look like if we built them for kids? This question guided Kids Reimagine School Streets, a collaboration between non-profit organizations, four elementary grade schools in three communities, university students, designers, fabricators, and local community members. The aim: to co-create safe, comfortable, and interesting routes to school; and to empower kids—and the rest of the community—to lower their carbon footprint by walking and biking for daily trips. Active travel reduces pollution and is understood to lead to improved physical and mental health, including better school grades.

This program took kids out of the back seat (figuratively and literally) and got them involved in planning low-carbon, healthy communities. It connected city builders with students’ point of view, and showed kids they can make a difference when it comes to climate change. 

Building on the momentum of collaborative co-design workshops, tactical urbanism interventions were implemented adjacent to the three schools, including the Connaught Play Street (2022), Meridian Active Alley (2022), and Martindale Calm Collector (2023). Each intervention encouraged more walking and biking by students and the larger community. Weekly pop-up activities took place at Connaught over the summers of 2022 and 2023, and provided free, family-friendly outdoor events. In addition to the shorter-term interventions, Neighbourhood Active Travel Networks (NATN) proposals were developed that set long-term visions for turning the three school communities into walkable, safe and welcoming places. The aesthetics for the design interventions and networks were inspired by the direction provided by the elementary grade school students, which included bright colours and patterns, and lots of trees and green.

Jury Comment :: When kids, non-profits, schools, teachers, students, parents, designers and fabricators collaborate to create safe and inclusive active spaces, it’s worth celebrating. It gives children a voice and shows them the importance of such spaces. They get exposed to the idea of designing for the future. The project demonstrates effective community collaboration to design safe and kid-friendly school streets, showcasing various examples and strategies implemented in Calgary.

This project stands out for its educational value and emphasizes a fundamental concept in the field: the quality of cities, their developments, and their architecture is dependent on the knowledge, culture, and vision of the people who inhabit them, imagine them, make laws, and ultimately make decisions. 

SUSTAINABILITY CONSULTANT/CLIENT Sustainable Calgary | TEAM MEMBERS Vlad Amiot, Jessie Andjelic, Lucia Blanco, Tracey Coutts,Dr. Alexandre de Barros, Tripty Kaur, David Kowel, Roxanne LeBlanc, Celia Lee, Katie Lore, Srimal Ranasinghe, Veronique Ulrich, Philip Vandermey and Vanessa Wang, Grade 4-6 Students at Calgary Islamic OBK, Ecole la Mosaique, Manmeet Singh Bhullar, Connaught School 

FIELDS AND FLOWS

Preston Stronach, Dalhousie University School of Architecture

ADVISOR Brian Lilley

CATEGORY Student Projects

This thesis project proposes a type of township development that integrates industry with water-based communities toward the promotion of healthy environments and nature-based infrastructural systems. The design site is centered on a kilometre-long section of a sediment-filled shallow river in the community of Fall River, Nova Scotia.

Surrounded by dense woodlands, and nestled between two freshwater lakes, the site is explored through the lenses of industry, inhabitation, and environment. Each is considered in the context of the broader Shubenacadie water system: a waterway that is under immense stress from its various functions, through serving urban centres and agriculture to hosting the world’s highest tides.

To integrate human habitation in an ecologically sensitive manner, new canal locks are proposed to manage water levels and control sediment. Sediment buildup is a major problem in the maintenance of canals and is primarily mitigated through periodic dredging operations. During a three-day, 100-kilometre canoe expedition on the waterway, hand-dredged sediment was collected from the locations of the proposed locks. The sediment was then later catalogued, dried, and recompressed to explore its potential use in the creation of construction components.

Building from this hands-on research, the design proposes a series of rammed earth structures, including a three-storey town centre, a lock-keeper’s house and studio, and an outdoor classroom. Within and around each building, water is recycled and runoff controlled through the use of greywater systems, permeable paving, strategically placed bioswales, and subgrade sand filters.

Through the harmonization of material use, environmental impact, and human habitation, the project proposes an architecture that integrates environmental management with our everyday lives.

Jury Comment :: A thoughtful and historic consideration of an important societal issue—how to protect waterways and promote a circular economy. The project considers how to use the waterway ecosystem infrastructure to benefit the environment while educating visitors about these benefits. The study covers the impact of a large ecosystem, and how it is manipulated and displayed at the point where the public can interact with the system to learn, explore and recreate. It demonstrates an ability to visualize topography on a large scale while remaining sensitive to historical and geographical context.

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Innate Terrain

By Alissa North (University of Toronto Press, 2022)

REVIEW Jason Brijraj

Landscape architect and scholar Alissa North is no stranger to giving her field a platform to shine. Her symposium at the University of Toronto, Innate Terrain, first set out to assess the state of contemporary landscape across Canada in 2010. It began to put a spotlight on the voices of both established and emerging talent.

More than a decade later, a book has emerged that builds from the foundation of that symposium, and it’s essential reading for designers with an interest in landscape. While many existing resources have typically taken on either regional or cultural approaches to covering the field, North touches on both through a carefully selected compilation of essays written by 22 authors. Together, these texts demonstrate how Canada’s landscape architects are collectively practicing an approach that is focused on the innate qualities of the terrains that their practices are tied to.

Following a foreword by Ron Williams (whose own Canadian Landscape Architecture (2010) is a milestone in the discipline), the first chapters of Innate Terrain are concerned with land use, claims and management. Several essays delve into the crucial role that Indigenous knowledge has played alongside the work of landscape architects in changing policies, acquiring stolen lands from unjust treaties, and implementing successful resource management strategies. Particularly inspiring are projects that show how the combination of scientific knowledge and traditional knowledge can lead to successful outcomes, including saving threatened ecosystems along rivers and documenting ancient histories of the land.  

A second group of chapters examines the field’s impact on shaping ideas of regionalism. After an essay by North that theorizes the contemporary meaning of ‘nature’, sections on projects from the Maritimes, Quebec, and the Prairies allow for an appreciation of the distinct character of work in each of these regions. On the East Coast, maritime deindustrialization has served as a basis for a burgeoning approach to landscape architecture that displays resiliency through playfulness. Quebec, on the other hand, draws on French Canada’s tumultuous history to develop thriving public spaces that speak directly to the marriage of social sustainability and nature. And Prairie projects show how the region is shedding outdated notions of being a vast, monotonous landscape, through approaches centred on the lived experience of the land.

The last part of the book highlights how landscape architects are transforming Canadian cities. New and emerging technologies used in Canadian institutions are lauded for their success in introducing the dynamic factor of ‘time’ into the design process. Further texts examine how Toronto’s landscape architects draw on silviculture to create healthy, long-lasting urban forests, and highlight the transformed waterfronts of both Toronto and Vancouver. A concluding chapter analyzes how landscape architects are learning from the failures of established urban parks to influence the sustainable development of contemporary parks. 

The book comes at a critical time, when reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and the impacts of climate change will have important roles in shaping the future of Canadian landscapes—and Canadian identity. Addressing these issues is the responsibility of everyone who partakes in the design of our built environment, making Innate Terrain an important text for all of the country’s wide array of designers, not just landscape architects.  

The book’s content is, in fact, so far reaching that it acts as a crash course for understanding the past, present and future of the field’s most pertinent issues. Innate Terrain is a welcome addition to the growing canon of texts on Canadian landscape architecture, and is a welcome reading for a range of audiences as diverse as the authors and subject matter that span its pages.

Jason Brijraj is an intern architect working in Toronto with Diamond Schmitt Architects.

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Pergola Garden, officially unveiled last May, is a device for contemplating the age-old struggle between man and nature. Commissioned by Richmond’s public art program, in partnership with the city’s parks department, the project speaks to Polymétis’s previous interventions that marry the built environment with new ecologies, such as their Three Arches project in the midst of a Mississauga wetland.

“Over time,” says Nicholas Croft, Polymétis co-founder with his partner Michaela MacLeod, in a recent phone interview, “nature always wins.”

The project is sited on a former tree nursery turned park, now surrounded by a forest of new condominiums and suburban tract housing. Constructed in weathered steel, steel cable and yellow cedar, the parabolic canopy fulfills many functions. It acts as a giant trellis for white chocolate akebia, a flowering climber that will eventually overtake the structure as it grows, and doubles as a theatrical set piece for the park—a natural stage for events, performances, and happenings. It was designed, says Croft, to attract insects, birds, and bees, creating a micro ecology system expressing “the inner life of vegetation.”

As one leaves the park’s children’s playground and approaches Pergola Garden, perched next to a timber building housing the geothermal system for the surrounding condominiums, it appears as a stand-alone sculpture. But as one enters under the canopy, it becomes a dynamic frame for nature that shifts as the light and weather change: a moveable spatial feast.

Three ovoids offer slices of sky and opportunities for airplane and eagle viewings (the site is a five-minute drive from the airport). At once a study in solidity and transparency, groundedness and flight, the design was inspired by the low elevation of the Richmond flood plain and the highly sedimented tidal flow of the Fraser. “We wanted it to feel like something that had emerged naturally from the earth and was revealed through erosion,” notes Croft.

As one moves through the shape-shifting choreography of the installation, there are memorable individual moments. One mise-en-scène suggests that the steel cables juxtaposed against the patinaed steel are musical strings of an ancient lyre; another recalls the bridge one must cross from Vancouver to enter the rapidly developing suburb, or the old industrial hangars that line the Fraser River. (The latter are quaint remnants of a time when industries that produced things trumped price per square footage.)

The sprigs of akebia climbing up the weathered steel and offset by glulam cedar trim offer a simultaneous sense of decay and new life. The effect is reminiscent of the last scenes of the 70s sci-fi flick Logan’s Run, when Michael York and his girlfriend, seeking sanctuary, meet Peter Ustinov in a once grand edifice overrun with vines and cats. 

At the edges of a city famous for its money laundering, real estate prices and destruction of homeless encampments, Pergola Garden raises the question: what will remain here in a century? Will the floodplain rise and drown the vacant condos until all that is left is wildlife? Meanwhile, the fragrant akebia, creeping a few more metres every year, will gradually strangle the steel, and keeps silent watch.

Hadani Ditmars is a Vancouver-based journalist, author, and photographer.

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On Friday, over a dozen of Ontario’s most prominent architectural firms issued an open letter to Premier Ford and Minister Clark in response to Ontario’s Bill 23, which was passed on Monday, November 28. The letter read as follows:

We are writing to you as leading architects, landscape architects, and urban designers in Ontario.

The More Homes Built Faster Act, introduced on October 25, proposes extensive and significant legislative changes that would, if enacted, radically alter land use planning and city building in Ontario. The stated intention of this proposed legislation is to accelerate the construction of 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years to address our housing crisis.

We firmly believe that this legislation will not achieve its stated intent.

Instead, it will inhibit the construction of affordable housing in our province; dismantle regional planning and urban design considerations; undermine heritage protection, environmental protection, and climate change mitigation; and limit public participation in how we build our communities.

We have summarized our major concerns below:

• Bill 23 will reduce the supply of truly affordable housing by reducing the affordable housing requirement in Inclusionary Zoning from 20% to 5%. The required period to maintain affordability is reduced from 99 to 25 years. This will exacerbate generational poverty and extend inequitable access to resources and infrastructure for the people of Ontario.
• Bill 23 will encourage urban sprawl and undermine local democracy by effectively dissolving 50 years of regional planning in the Golden Horseshoe. This will certainly lead to a substantial conversion of farmlands, loss of green lands, and suburban sprawl.
• Public participation will be limited by removing the requirement for a public meeting for plan of subdivision. The Minister will have new powers to amend Municipal Official Plans at any time, for any reason, without public consultation.
• Bill 23 undermines environmental protection by limiting the role of Conservation Agencies to solely that of flooding and erosion hazards. Removed from their oversight will be watershed planning and management, coordinated flood protection, conservation of green lands and biodiversity, which are all core to climate change mitigation.
• Bill 23 threatens the Greenbelt. There are 86,500 acres within the GTA currently zoned and ready for development. This is more than enough land available now that can be used to meet government targets. Housing construction needs to start without delay on these lands that are close to transit and urban services, where people already live, work and play.Yet the government wants to remove 7400 acres of protected green space and farmland in the Greenbelt. Our Greenbelt lands protect the headwaters of the rivers flowing into Lake Ontario, preserve valuable farmland, connect forests and wetland ecosystems that form a continuous arc from the top of the GTA to the Niagara region, and limit suburban sprawl. The Greenbelt belongs to current and future generations of the people of Ontario.
• Bill 23 removes design from the municipal approvals process. Exterior design, landscape and streetscape design should be reviewed during Site Plan Control.  Design review at the municipal level is considered best practice nationally and internationally.We must emphasize that design is not a superficial aesthetic overlay. It is fundamental problem-solving, directly related to the quality of the built environment, and to climate change mitigation. The design review process is critical in delivering safe, healthy, affordable, socially and environmentally sustainable communities to the people of Ontario.

We agree that the current system of municipal approvals needs to be streamlined to deliver urgently needed affordable housing. Bill 23 is not the way to do it. It needs to go back to the drawing board.

To effectively address our affordable housing crisis, we strongly urge the Government of Ontario to rethink Bill 23 and invite the Government to a robust and immediate consultation with leaders in our industry. In collaboration with municipal and provincial governments, we can produce the best possible outcomes for the people of Ontario.

Thank you,

Adamson Associates Architects
Diamond Schmitt Architects
DTAH
ERA Architects
FORREC
Greenberg Consultants
Janet Rosenberg & Studio
KPMB Architects
LGA Architectural Partners
MJMA Architecture & Design
Moriyama & Teshima Architects
Perkins&Will
PMA Landscape Architects Ltd.
PUBLIC WORK
Superkül
The Planning Partnership

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TEXT Shannon Bassett

PHOTOS Vid Ingelevics and Ryan Walker

Something big is happening east of downtown Toronto. The Don River runs through one of Toronto’s major ravine systems, and is one of the most urbanized watersheds in North America. In the largest design and construction project of its kind currently underway in North America, crews are restoring the natural systems of the mouth of the Don River, where it empties out into Lake Ontario. The river, in its current configuration, is being moved.

It’s a monumental effort to carve a new river channel out of the existing industrial lands. This entails dismantling buildings, remediating soils, layering new habitat on top, and setting the stage for future development. This de-engineers over a century of development, and will ultimately recover the site’s deep ecological history as a dynamic estuary: the mouth of the Don River was once the largest freshwater wetland on the Great Lakes. But people are also a big part of the picture: the result will include large-scale urban parks, as well as an urban neighbourhood embedded in nature.

A landscape architecture firm—as opposed to an engineering firm—is leading the overall master planning and design efforts for this project. This meant that the design process for Villiers Island, as the landform defined by the re-directed river will be known, began with a close examination of the area’s ecology. Michael Van Valkenburgh and Associates (MVVA), the winner of a design competition for the masterplan in 2008, asked: How could the infrastructure of the river bed become the foundation for place-making in this part of Toronto? By considering the larger hydrological network and reconnecting to the Don River Ravine system, the scheme also designs for resiliency in the context of climate change.

The design strategy takes its form from the morphology of the Don River, rather than from colonial urban grid laid down by John Graves Simcoe in the late 1700s, or the Keating Channel that redirected the Don through a sharp 90-degree turn in 1893. A single, complex parkland is used to naturalize the mouth of the Don River, provide a floodway for storm events, and allow for recreational uses. Rather than attempting to restore back the site to a pre-settler “pastoral” condition, MVVA’s design for Villiers Island takes a more layered approach which reveals the site’s previous uses, including its industrial regimes, creating references between the restored ecologies, the river, and the City of Toronto itself.

Layers of context

Dating back to prehistoric times, Toronto was a meeting place for First Nations, and Ashbridges Bay was a fertile fishing and hunting ground. The site’s history as an Indigenous cultural landscape added another layer to the design. MVVA has integrated Indigenous professionals into the design team, and Waterfront Toronto has established a Memorandum of Understanding with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, which holds Treaty 13 with Toronto, moving their role towards partnership rather than simply consultation. This input has helped to inform the project, which for Indigenous stakeholders represents an important healing of the land and re-engagement with the river, providing renewed access to the water. The design of the area’s interconnected green spaces also support Indigenous-led programming: an event lawn includes a lookout and spaces for pow wows along the river, fire pits allow for ceremony, and gathering areas invite sunrise gatherings. The planting palette is also informed by Indigenous knowledge, with species chosen for their cultural and ecological importance to the pre-settler landscape.

The design is also attuned to the needs of local animal species. In the future Promontory Park, a restored wetland is already attracting local wildlife. Colourful flags have been strung up to protect the growing fish population from predatory birds until it is fully established. In other parts of the site, new sandy riverbanks are attractive to swallows: the ecological restoration team includes a trained falconer, who is charged with keeping the birds away until the landscape is completed—if they become established, nesting birds could mean a stop to construction.

Much of the design is geared towards protecting new development, as well as adjacent neighbourhoods, from flooding—but in a way that works with nature, rather than against it. In 1954, Hurricane Hazel brought 110-kilometre-per-hour winds and dropped 285 millimetres of rain on Toronto in 48 hours, resulting in widespread flooding that was exacerbated by the artificial mouth of the Don River. The new river valley in the Port Lands is designed to mitigate similar events: the river is set in a 30-metre-wide floodplain, with wetlands lining the river to act like a sponge, and a new channel helping to draw floodwaters out, conveying them to Lake Ontario. Nature trails allow the wetlands to be enjoyed during drier times; these trails would not be accessible during a flood event. More permanent programming is located at the top of the bank, including parks, picnic areas, and play structures.

Green infrastructure & the Villiers Island masterplan

Toronto-based Urban Strategies led the development of the Villiers
Island masterplan, which is currently being updated by O2 Planning & Design. Over the next several years, RFPs will be going out to developers, who will in turn be hiring architects to design the individual parcels.

All new development in the Portlands will follow design guidelines crafted by the City of Toronto in partnership with Waterfront Toronto. These guidelines will includes requirement for green infrastructure in all new developments, such as green roofs that will assist in Villiers Island’s role as an important flyway for North American bird migrations.

The urban plan also integrates innovation in its urban massing: the planned mid-rises maintain view corridors and gradually increase in height from south to north, giving the buildings greater access to sunlight. MVVA’s initial design proposal included the managing and conveying of stormwater flows from buildings through the streets into the parks, but this was not permitted under current city guidelines. A district energy plant is in the works for the Island as part of a 30-year plan.

The area will be home to some 10,000 residents, living in 5,000 residential units; schools and some 3,000 employment opportunities are also envisaged for the Island. Alternative mobilities are also part of the plans: the area is close to the East Harbour GO Train station and the new Ontario Rapid Transit Line, currently being built. The Toronto Waterfront Business Improvement Area is actively campaigning for funding to implement a light rail transit line that will traverse the area.

Villiers’ streets will include integrated pedestrian and bike systems; its waterways will invite boating—a shared kayak system is in the works. Four new bridges were added to the site, designed by Entuitive, Grimshaw Architects, and SBP—one of these, the Cherry Street North Bridge, is designated for a future transit line into the Port Lands. In several cases, the bridges currently span dry land, making the construction of supports easier. As a final step when the landscape is completed, plugs at the ends of the new waterway will be removed, allowing the river to be filled.

Conclusion

Introducing a naturalized river mouth, the plan for Villiers Island stands in contrast to the willful engineering of the Keating Channel, which forced the Don River into a right-angle turn towards Lake Ontario. The island also resists the existing Simcoe street grid to instead develop topography-sensitive diagonal elements and through-block pedestrian connections. It is itself an act of engineering, even more intense than the original redirection of the Don: a $1.25-billion effort, funded equally by all three levels of government, that has involved moving 1.4 million cubic metres of soil, roughly the volume of the Rogers Centre. The new riverbed and wetlands are set into place, rather than being open to changes over time, and fully lined to prevent groundwater contamination.

But rather than confronting nature, the landscape and urban design takes its cues from—and even strives to enhance—its ecological and environmental setting. It suggests how Canadian cities can be more sensitive to the topography of places and landscapes that were long stewarded by First Nations.

There is still more work to be done. It will be crucial to leverage the new development in order to advance equity, particularly in the face of Toronto’s housing shortage. This would include a targeted percentage of subsidized affordable housing units, as well as incentives for artists’ live-work studios, to maintain the historic presence of artists in the Port Lands from when it was an industrial zone. At the building and architectural scale, it will be instructive to push for architectural solutions which key into the larger site and ecological recoveries. How can the next iteration of the masterplan implementation, as well as the residential and mixed-use typologies, integrate relationships to larger ecological and hydrological systems? In addition to the already mandated green roofs, this might further include living walls, green infrastructure and other low-impact design strategies at the lot, block and neighbourhood scale.

As we move towards the increasingly dire need to design our coastal cities for resiliency, Villiers Island will serve as a best-case practice model. The project will usher in the next generation of sustainable waterfront developments, defining new relationships between nature and city, human and non-human, and the restoration of original Indigenous landscapes. It will help us reimagine—and rebuild—our cities, with green infrastructure and resilient communities at their heart.

Shannon Bassett is Canadian-American architectural and urban designer, and an assistant professor at Laurentian University’s McEwen School of Architecture, where she teaches architecture and urban design. She holds a Masters of Architecture in Urban Design from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

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The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA) has announced that Professor Ron Williams, AAPQ, FCSLA, FRAIC, is the 2022 recipient of the Governor General’s Medal in Landscape Architecture.

“Over the course of a career spanning more than 50 years, Ron Williams has been at the forefront, both witness and protagonist, of questions about the place of design in landscape architecture. Through these questions, two positions were confronted. The first was based on the rich heritage of the history of the art of gardens and advocated the combination of contemporary culture, technology, and nature in the creation of meaningful spaces. According to the second, landscape architecture was essentially about creating functional, sustainable, healthy, and pleasant places to be. Ron Williams’ work is forged at the intersection of these two positions, in a balance that is entirely consistent with his personality,” says Isabelle Giasson, AAPQ, FCSLA.

The long-time professor and director at the School of Landscape Architecture of the Université de Montréal, graduated from McGill University in architecture (1964) and the Sorbonne (Diplôme de civilisation française, 1965).

During the late 1960s and 1970s, Williams worked in Montreal with John Schreiber, architect and landscape architect, as an employee and a partner. From 1970 to 1972, he studied landscape architecture at the University of California, Berkeley (MLA). 

In 1987, he co-founded the Montreal landscape architecture/ urban design firm WAA (Williams, Asselin, Ackaoui and associates) along with partners Vincent Asselin, Malaka Ackaoui, and Sachi Williams.

He participated in many of WAA’s award-winning projects including the Montreal Beach Park on Ile Notre-Dame; the Biodôme de Montréal; and the Jardin de l’Espace Saint-Roch and the rehabilitation of avenue Honoré-Mercier in Quebec City.

Williams has also written and lectured extensively at academic, professional, and cultural events. His most significant contribution to the history of landscape architecture is the book he has been diligently writing over fourteen years of research: Landscape Architecture of Canada. The book chronicles the evolution of landscape architectural thought and practice in changing geographical, historical, and cultural contexts.

“A leader, an academic, a practitioner, an author, a researcher, an advocate: Ron Williams has had a significant national impact in every facet of his 50+-year career,” says the CSLA jury. “He helped develop the landscape architecture program at the University of Montreal, became a beloved professor, applied rigorous research standards to his own work, and built a nationally recognized repertoire of work as a founding partner of WAA (Williams, Asselin Ackaoui and Associates).” 

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INTERVIEWER Adele Weder

Nina-Marie Lister has made a career of embedding nature within the design of our daily lives. As founder of the studio Plandform and leader of the Ecological Design Lab at the soon-to-be-renamed Ryerson University, she has developed a nature-centric, interdisciplinary approach to landscape interventions. Her work spans between design and policy, from animal crossings built over highways, to the wilding of her own Toronto front garden, to supporting the development of the Meadoway park system on a 16-kilometre hydro corridor.

Lister has been recently honoured with the $50,000 Margolese National Design for Living Prize, administered by the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of British Columbia. Canadian Architect contributing editor Adele Weder interviewed her at Massey College, where Lister is a Senior Fellow. The following is excerpted from their conversation.

CANADIAN ARCHITECT: Tell me more about how you work.

LISTER: The medium of my work is landscape, and it is things that are alive. When we design at a small scale and when we design responsibly—for example, with an ecological application or with the lens of ecology—we don’t risk the system. We engage in ways that are safe to fail. I work almost exclusively in partnership arrangements and in collaborations, where we co-create designs, particularly because I’m at work in a living system that is complicated and complex.

We’re living in a time of tremendous urgency between the climate emergency and global biodiversity collapse. Anything we do has to be done quickly and urgently, but with a lot of different approaches. This means trying things quickly with enough information to act now, but on a scale that’s responsible and safe to fail.

CA: In your Margolese acceptance speech, you talked a lot about projects that you didn’t get and competitions that you didn’t win. So is it fair to say that you’re more optimistic about the potential of design than the reality of current practice?

LISTER: Yes, in that we need to be brave and daring and not be afraid to break things, including boundaries. That’s why they say that second place is often the winner. Design competitions give us the space to try new ideas. Just being in competitions is an opportunity for innovation. Even if we don’t win, we still learn something from that, and we carry that forward into the next project. And we can put forth an idea that is compelling, engaging and different.

So much of design work—particularly in the private sector, or even by private sector suppliers in the public sector—when the project is completed, the designers walk away. A lot of my work is about monitoring, evaluation and resetting of goals. We consider design an engaged process of learning.

CA: Your practice involves complex biological systems. The market economy is also a very complex system, in a different way. How do you reconcile those two systems?

LISTER: I come from a very privileged position, working in a university where I’m paid to do research. But on the other hand, I’m highly motivated by the urgency of our times. And frankly, the corporate market system that created a lot of the problems we’re trying to deal with right now will not get us out. We need to find different ways of working. And while “partnership” sounds like an escape clause for both the private and public sector, it actually allows us some interesting space to innovate.

A lot of the work that I do right now is around landscape connectivity through wildlife crossing infrastructures. How do we allow humans and wildlife to get where they’re going to safely? These are not the same as the highway bridges we use for truck traffic, military vehicles, or rescue vehicles. For example, they have to support landscape overburden, and you can’t allow the edges of these bridges to settle differently for wildlife.

This means the way we think about design has to not only include the structure and the landscape for different clients—one of whom can speak and the other one who can’t—but also the system of governance and the system of maintenance, implementation and decision-making about them.

What we can do is issue procurement processes differently. We can partner with the private sector, which has more risk capital available, particularly if there is a new category of infrastructure that has very different requirements. The public sector can issue a requirement for this infrastructure on a widespread basis with the private sector. We can also establish different standards of success for infrastructure like bridges intended for wildlife.

CA:  You’ve described animals as “clients.” How do you engage in that kind of relationship with a species that doesn’t speak?

LISTER: Oh, they do speak—just not to us. And let me clarify: nature owes us nothing, but we owe nature a pretty big debt right now, since we’re the one species that takes over the space of multi-millions of them. So it’s imperative that I work with a group of scientists and particularly people who cross the disciplines to interpret how we’re going to make sense of a world that allows for connectivity and interaction.

It’s common to talk about ecosystem services, for example, which rankles me. The living world does not provide only a service to us. It’s important for us to be able to change the way we design with, and for, the natural world, beyond simply thinking of it in utilitarian terms. That’s something that our Indigenous communities have taught and shared with us.

As a planner, I will never use the term “land use” again, even if it means relinquishing my licence. I’m a land-based practitioner. That wording is critical, because it means that I am looking at what can I do with this landscape that provides for others socially, ecologically, and economically.

CA: How do you establish performance metrics for your projects? For instance, in your wildlife-crossing: how did they measure the attempted crossings with and without the intervention?

LISTER: It is amazing how the ecological data world uses all kinds of creative observational tools. My colleagues in conservation ecology, biology, and zoology will use everything from camera trap evidence, to hair traps, to tracking evidence from footpads. Graduate students spend a lot of time measuring footprints. A purpose-designed wildlife crossing is tracked and sampled using at least three different methods. We know for sure that these projects are overwhelmingly successful. Long-term data has been gathered from different lenses, using different types of knowledge bases, for multiple species.

That analogy could be used in urban settings to look at how we understand not only green roofs, but, say, biofuels, green streets or parks. How quickly is water absorbed after a storm event in our parks, versus in hard surface areas? Our parks can be seen as so-called nature-based solutions or green infrastructure during flood events, not just for public recreation. That’s great. That’s a win. We know they’re supposed to be used for that. But what if they are also seen as cooling the urban heat island? What about as carbon sinks, for the soil sequestration of carbon?

CA: You’ve described the magic that you feel when you put your arms around a tree that’s hundreds of years old. A person can also feel that way about buildings that have been around and inhabited for centuries. The feeling is really of immortality–the sense that both the built and natural landscape can carry on and provide joy to others long after we ourselves are dead and gone.

LISTER: Yes, they connect us to each other through history. When we alter the landscape, we remediate and sometimes reaffirm the value of a landscape that has to last through time. We should treat our buildings with that long-term perspective.

CA:  That ethos you’re describing applies to Massey College, the building where we are sitting right now. It’s almost 60 years old, a low-rise in the centre of Toronto, and is in no danger of demolition. But this building has caregivers—or, I guess a better word for that is stakeholders.

LISTER: Actually, I think that “caregivers” is exactly the right word. They’ve made sure that it’s updated for the times and maintained beautifully. It could have been designed and built a thousand years ago, or five years ago, and could still be here 50 years from now. Cultural heritage
is deeply and profoundly tied to natural heritage.

CA:  Has the pandemic changed your approach to your work?

LISTER: Yes, it has. it’s one thing to appeal to people on behalf of other species, and another to speak to them about their new self-interest in green space. How is their health being affected by access to nature, or the lack thereof? That’s changing the way we ask research questions.

CA: Now that you’ve won the Margolese Prize, what is your ambition for the next ten years?

LISTER: Well, my goal is to be out of a job because our society will have no more need for what I do. That’s probably a longer-term plan than 10 years. In the meantime, I’ve returning to Harvard this January to co-create and teach a course called Wild Ways, which looks at landscape connectivity.

CA: And what is your hope for the future?

LISTER: I hope for more meaningful and robust connections to nature every day in our cities for everyone. I want to see those connections manifest in the material world and in public policy. Most of all, I want every person to feel that they have innate human power.

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This Sunday, a tribute to Cornelia Oberlander, LMBCSLA, FCSLA, FASLA, CC, will take place in Vancouver, honouring the famed landscape architect who died earlier this year at age 99. Organized by UBC’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), the tribute will feature a line-up of speakers associated with Oberlander and her work. On-site speakers will include UBC professors Susan Herrington and Daniel Roehr, Vancouver architects Eva Matsuzaki and Peter Busby, West Vancouver Art Museum curator Hilary Letwin, and others.

The virtual tributes will include Berkeley architectural historian Marc Treib, New York landscape architect Hank White, Toronto architect Shirley Blumberg, and Martien de Vletter at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal.

Cornelia Hahn Oberlander was involved in numerous ground-breaking projects involving complex and forward-thinking technological approaches. She worked frequently with Arthur Erickson and became renowned across North America for her lectures and her work with Renzo Piano Building Workshop and HMWhite at the New York Times Building courtyard, as well as other high-profile projects.

Shortly before her death in May of 2021, the West Vancouver Art Museum mounted a retrospective exhibition of her work and conducted a panel discussion in partnership with the West Coast Modern League.

This Sunday’s tribute will take place at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at the University of British Columbia from 2:30-4 pm and will be live-streamed and recorded. The event is free, but in-person seating is strictly limited and attendees are required to follow current COVID-19 guidelines. Register here for in-person seating or live-stream attendance.

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When Cornelia Hahn Oberlander passed away this May, Canada lost a trailblazing landscape architect and a dear friend. Always a step ahead—and a quick step at that—Oberlander forged new territory in Canadian landscape architecture, introducing many new ideas and techniques to the field. Reflecting on her life and career, this trailblazing quality of her work really came home to me.

Born in Mülheim, Germany in 1921, Oberlander immigrated to the United States as a teenager. She was part of the second cohort of students that included women to attend Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD). After graduating with a BLA in 1947, she was determined to participate in the postwar transformations taking place in North American cities. Key to this endeavour was her collaboration with architects. This commitment to collaboration was forged at the GSD, where teachers such as Walter Gropius introduced collaborative studio problems to architecture, landscape architecture, and planning students. It was further reinforced by her time in the Philadelphia, when she worked with architect Louis Kahn and landscape architect Dan Kiley, as well as with architect Oscar Stonorov.

Cornelia and her architect-husband Peter Oberlander arrived in Vancouver in the 1950s. Both were proponents of cross-disciplinary collaboration, and soon Oberlander was working on single family homes with architects such as Frederic Lasserre, Harry Lee, and Thompson Berwick Pratt and Partners. In an article for The Canadian Architect in 1956, she advised architects and landscape architects to “explore the possibilities of a site, so that the house and the area around it be planned as one unit.” She stressed the importance of fitting the house to the land: a site-focused design approach that would become emblematic of architecture and landscape architecture in British Columbia. 

Oberlander was also landscape architect for the city’s first experiments in social housing, McLean Park and Skeena Terrace, with the CMHC, Harold Semmens and Underwood McKinley Cameron. Oberlander’s 1962 planting design included trees with grand canopies, such as copper beech and gingko. These stately trees are still standing today, and contribute greatly to the atmosphere of their projects, providing dappled light and counterbalancing the scale of the towers, helping them fit into their surrounding neighbourhoods.

Oberlander’s collaboration with Arthur Erickson on Robson Square was her most celebrated. The project also commenced a professional relationship that lasted 36 years and involved numerous projects in Canada and the United States. Erickson once remarked, “most landscape architects I’d use before were too […] sentimental […] not tough enough. Not intellectually up to the challenge. But I remember Cornelia felt the potential.”

At Erickson’s office, she met young architects Bing Thom, Nick Milkovich, and Eva Matsuzaki, who would fashion their own successful practices and work with her on future projects. It was also at Robson Square that Oberlander began to pioneer her skills in successfully bringing plant life into complex urban projects, an aptitude that she would continue to hone working with Erickson at The Canadian Chancery in Washington DC (1988) and the Laxton/Evergreen Building (1981, 2009), with Moshe Safdie at Library Square (1995, 2018) and The National Gallery (1988), and with KPMB Architects at the Canadian Embassy in Berlin (2005).

Sometimes her landscapes became the key symbol of a project. The New York Times Building Courtyard (2007)—a project she collaborated on with Renzo Piano, Fox & Fowle, and H.M. White Site Architects—is a good example. Visible from the main lobby and the auditorium, her lush green courtyard with its tall birch trees has appeared in numerous photographs of the project and features prominently in The New York Times’s promotional material. This notoriety came with its price, however. Apparently, birds like the courtyard as much as humans. One disgruntled tenant called Oberlander in Vancouver and asked her to get rid of the birds, because they were making too much noise.

Oberlander also blazed trails in the creation of children’s outdoor play environments. Never a subscriber to off-the-shelf playground equipment, she continually explored how natural materials and spaces created with earthen mounds and plants could function as conduits for play and spontaneous exploration. Decades ahead of her time, Oberlander also embraced risk-taking in play—witness her signature “wobble walls,” created with logs stacked on-end in a line. This play feature was adopted in other playgrounds throughout Canada—although they were usually much shorter than Oberlander’s wobble walls, which sometimes reached well over a metre in height.

Her first landscape for children was the Bigler Street playground in Philadelphia, which was so innovative, it was featured in Life magazine in September 1954. But her most famous children’s environment was for the Children’s Creative Centre at Expo 67. Here, Oberlander used the basic elements of landscape—terrain, water, plants, and structures—as well as loose parts, such as logs, that could be freely manipulated by children. I still encounter adults today who fondly remember playing in Oberlander’s Creative Centre at Expo 67.

As Oberlander’s career progressed, she continued to create sustainable landscapes that were sensitive to ecological processes. She also forged new ground by incorporating plants valued by Indigenous peoples well before other landscape architects were doing so. Oberlander was decades ahead of the times in her work at UBC’s Museum of Anthropology, where she designed an ethnobotanical landscape featuring plants used by Indigenous people for medical and nutritional purposes. Ferns—whose spores had been used to make powders for healing wounds—and mahonia shrubs—whose berries were consumed raw or used in jams and jellies—were planted in the undergrowth of the preserved forest. Oberlander’s entryway mounds were planted with her custom seed mix of long grasses and sand dune flowers. This could be considered one of the first instances of the now-popular “rewilding”–and it was 1976!

Oberlander’s deep commitment to ecology and Indigenous cultures ultimately led her to the North—another trailblazing direction in her career. About ten years ago, landscape architects began looking to the North, where the impacts of climate change are exacerbated. In 2011, for example, the Nunavut Association of Landscape Architects hosted the Canada-wide CSLA congress. Of course, Oberlander had been there decades earlier. Beginning in 1991, she consulted with Pin/Matthews Architects and Matsuzaki Wright Architects on the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly in Yellowknife. This project prompted her to invent a novel planting approach that embraced her dictum “plant what you see.” In the 1990s, no nursery in Yellowknife was willing to grow plants from seed for her landscape. So, she collected seeds, clippings, and tissue cultures of kinnikinnick, rose hips, saxifrages, vaccinium and other plants from the Yellowknife site. This material was transported back to Vancouver for cultivation in greenhouses. When planting in Yellowknife began, she returned with the vegetation—genetic progenitors of the plants that had been growing on the site.

These were planted using a technique she called “invisible mending.” Borrowed from sewing, the goal of invisible mending was to attract as little attention as possible to the stitch itself. Applied to the landscape, plants were not installed in defined planting areas, but instead interspersed in disturbed areas and bare patches—an approach that made the planting process invisible. Oberlander liked to joke about an American garden historian who visited the Yellowknife site. The historian kept complaining to the tour guides that she couldn’t find Cornelia’s planting beds.

Oberlander returned to the North to work on the landscape of the East Three School in Inuvik with architect Gino Pin. In Inuvik, Oberlander combined her commitment to collaboration, her knowledge of children’s play environments, and her “plant what you see” approach. She also invented a unique layout scheme for trees that addressed the extreme conditions of the North. A major challenge in the Arctic is the formation of snowdrifts, exacerbated by the Coriolis Force—the deflection of wind movement caused by the rotation of the earth, which is greatest at the poles. With climate change, lower, stronger blowing snow combined with the Coriolis Force made snowdrift calculations increasingly complex. To protect the school and the children, Oberlander devised a tree layout method that created a landscape-integrated shelterbelt, helping to refract blowing snow and avoiding accumulation up against the school and its entranceways.

Interestingly, her tree layout method was inspired by a point-and-line exercise which Oberlander had been exposed to as a student at the GSD in 1946, when the school was experimenting with Bauhaus Vorkurs methods. The exercise was meant to create a balanced randomness. Oberlander drew random lines across the borders of the East Three School site plan, and placed dots where lines intersected each other, with each dot locating the position of a tree. The original intent of this Bauhaus-inspired method was to enhance the movement of the eye and the visual imagination. For Oberlander, it also provided a means of refracting snowdrifts.

Oberlander’s trailblazing approach to landscape architecture has yielded outstanding results. Canada’s designed landscapes would not have been the same without her. It has been an honour to learn from her amazing work—and to become one of her many friends who admired her quick sense of humour, unstoppable determination, and contagious optimism for the future. She is sorely missed.

Susan Herrington is a professor in the landscape architecture program at the University of British Columbia’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA). She received the John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prize for her book Cornelia Hahn Oberlander: Making the Modern Landscape (University of Virginia Press, 2014). 

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Sara Jacobs, an assistant professor of landscape architecture at the University of British Columbia, has received a Graham Foundation grant for her project Landscapes of Racial Formation: Warren Manning in Atlanta, Georgia and Birmingham, Alabama.

Landscapes of Racial Formation examines how landscape architectural practice was folded into the racial formation of the United States in the early twentieth century, according to the Graham Foundation website. Jacobs’ archival and site-based research examines the relationship between landscape architect Warren Manning’s white supremacist environmental atlas, “A National Plan” (1919), and city plans Manning implemented for Birmingham and Atlanta, in 1919 and 1922, respectively.

A significant designer who completed over 100 built projects, Manning was a founding member of the American Society of Landscape Architects and a long-time employee of Fredrick Law Olmsted. The research looks at how Manning’s representation of landscape intersected with Progressive era anxieties to legitimize the design of racialized urban landscapes in Birmingham and Atlanta. Examining how Manning naturalized eugenic-based racial segregation in these cities reveals how white supremacist logics are enacted through the making of landscape, a legacy that landscape history has yet to fully address.

Sara Jacobs holds a master’s in landscape architecture from Harvard University and doctorate in the built environment from the University of Washington. is assistant professor of landscape architecture at the University of British Columbia. Jacobs writes and draws about how socioecological relations become legible through landscape to work toward just land futures. Her research considers how practices of care, biopolitics, and race and racialization within historic spatial processes shape the politics of landscape practice in relation to social and ecological life.

Jacobs’s design work has been recognized internationally, including from the American Society of Landscape Architects, and her research has been supported by the Clarence Stein Institute for Urban Landscapes, Garden Club of America, and Center for Land Use Interpretation. Her writings appear in the Journal of Landscape Architecture, Landscape Architecture Frontiers, and the SITE Magazine. Jacobs was previously the Thaler Visiting Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia.

Jacobs is one of 71 grant recipients selected from nearly 700 applicants to the current cycle of the Graham Foundation Grants to Individuals.

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VANCOUVER — Canadian landscape architecture icon Cornelia Oberlander has died at the age of 99.

The Cultural Landscape Foundation, which created a prize in Oberlander’s name, says the landscape architect passed away on Saturday in Vancouver, where she had been living since the 1950s.

The Washington, D.C.-based foundation says Oberlander was named the inaugural recipient of the Governor General’s Medal in Landscape Architecture in 2016, and became a Companion of the Order of Canada the following year.

It lists some of her notable projects as the grounds of Ottawa’s National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Embassy in Berlin and Vancouver’s Robson Square, among many others.

The organization says Oberlander spent much of her early career working on public housing and designing playgrounds, including the Children’s Creative Centre at Montreal’s Expo 67.

A funeral is set to be held at the Temple Sholom Cemetery in Vancouver today.

Her namesake Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize was established by the Cultural Landscape Foundation in 2019. The prize is to be awarded every other year, starting this year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 24, 2021.

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Edited by Frederick Steiner, Richard Weller, Karen M’Closkey, Billy Fleming

Our society is grappling with the effects of an anthropogenic climate crisis. Intensive industrialization and resource consumption lie at the core of this crisis, and the implementation of rigorous regenerative policies and practices—from all disciplines of work—will be critical in the coming years.

For landscape architects, urban designers and planners, Ian McHarg’s 1969 book Design with Nature played a crucial role in introducing design strategies for balancing the needs of humans and the natural world. A new book—Design with Nature Now—commemorates the 50th anniversary of McHarg’s volume, offering a collection of 25 contemporary projects that are exemplary in combining social, ecological and urban goals.

The book starts with essays—by James Corner, Laurie Olin, Anne Whiston Spirn, and other prominent designers and theorists—that reflect on McHarg’s teachings and design philosophy, and assert their relevance today.

The case studies at the core of the book show how McHarg’s principles are being successfully deployed in large-scale urban areas. Qianhai Water City in China is one example: it revives an old landfill and transforms it into a master-planned city adapted to tidal patterns, mitigating flooding in the region. The book also examines the wildlife corridor connecting Yellowstone National Park and the Yukon, Bjarke Ingel’s BIG U, designed to combat future flooding in Manhattan, and Medellin’s new River Parks master plan, aimed at fostering social equality through a system of public parks. Each example is richly illustrated with plans, sections, renderings, photos and maps.

These projects are bookended by another set of essays, including a text by Canadian designer Nina-Marie Lister, that draw attention to both the potential and limitations of design in the face of our climate emergency. Challenges include the role of governance and difficulty of coordination amongst disciplines, the disparate impact of design policies on various cultural groups, and the varied effect of design policies at different scales.

Overall, Design with Nature Now is a timely reminder that ecology is not something to be “remedied, fixed and transformed,” as essayist James Corner puts it. Rather, the tools and precedents exist to design in ever greater harmony with the natural world. It’s a book that brings home the urgency of  taking action—and leaves this reader with the inspiration to design better.

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In an exhibition co-presented by the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design and Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival, Guelph-based artist Susan Dobson’s site-specific project Back/Fill explores the detritus of Toronto through images of construction debris dumped at the Leslie Street Spit.

Featuring a massive mural adhered to the north elevation of the new Daniels Building and large-scale photographs mounted within, the project raises questions about the cyclical nature of the built environment’s material character, with its phases of demolition, construction, preservation, and renovation.

Commonly known as Tommy Thompson Park, the Leslie Street Spit is a manufactured peninsula and wilderness reserve built entirely from Toronto’s construction waste.

Much of the rubble depicted in Dobson’s photographs can be traced to buildings demolished in the downtown core around 1980, a period when houses and significant 19th-century brick buildings were torn down to make room for steel-and-glass business towers.

Debris from the recent renovation and addition to the Daniels Building was also dumped at the spit.

Dobson’s panoramic mural on the building’s glass façade stretches between two sloped earth walls. Her image reveals layers of rubble, creating the illusion of backfilling with material culled from the Daniels Building’s construction.

To create the mural, Dobson digitally stitched together multiple photographs captured at the spit.

Inside the Daniels Faculty, Dobson’s photographs of construction remnants retrieved from the spit—such as wire, brick, and piping—are positioned in its main public space.

Affixed to custom-built support structures, the works activate dialogues with the surrounding architecture and creative community.

The exhibition is on display until July 12, 2019.

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The Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP), the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA), Engineers Canada and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) are pleased to announce the signing of a Letter of Understanding.

Through this Letter of Understanding, they have agreed to continually seek opportunities for cross-over, cross-promotion, the sharing of resources and the transfer of knowledge. These include but are not limited to:

• Hosting speakers from other associations and inviting staff and Board members to attend conferences held by each of the respective association
• Inviting members from other associations to participate in certain committees, especially on those committees which exist in each association
• Collaborating on advocacy initiatives involving the promotion of our professions, such as considering adopting each other’s position papers on briefs when interests align and contributing to research
• Holding regular meetings between Executive Directors or CEOs and relevant staff to discuss common issues and areas of collaboration as well as considering planning a summit of each association’s Executive Directors or CEOs and senior leaders every two years
• Ensuring that each association receives each other’s magazine, annual report, bulletin and press releases

For many years, these associations have worked together to mutually benefit the allied professions they serve. This Letter of Understanding will ensure that their relationship continues and strengthens, as they explore more – and enhanced – opportunities for exchange and collaboration particularly in responding to today’s pressing issues. Each association strongly believes that this will no doubt be of benefit to all their members and their respective professions and be of benefit to society.

About the CIP

The Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP) works on behalf of over 6,900 planning professionals nationally and has served as the voice of Canada’s planning community since 1919. CIP advocates for planners nationally and internationally and provides membership services that help planners advance in their careers.

About CSLA

The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA) is a professional organization with landscape architect members, associate (or intern) members and student of landscape architecture members. As the voice of the profession in Canada, the CSLA is an advocate for its members on issues such as urban design, urban renewal, sustainable development, climate change and cultural heritage. 2 / 2

About Engineers Canada

Engineers Canada upholds the honour, integrity, and interess of the engineering profession by supporting consistent high standards in the regulation of engineering, encouraging the growth of the profession in Canada, and inspiring public confidence. For over 80 years, we have worked on behalf of the provincial and territorial associations that regulate engineering practice and license the country’s 295,000 members of the engineering profession.

About the RAIC

The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) has operated continuously since 1907 as the national voice for architects and architecture in Canada. Its mission is to advocate for excellence in the built environment, demonstrate how design enhances the quality of life, champion sustainability and promote responsible architecture in addressing important issues of society.

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