Landscape & Design

U of T's One Spadina Crescent: merging the past with the future

ullahnor — Mon, 08 May 2017 21:41:34 +0000

U of T's One Spadina Crescent: merging the past with the future

ullahnor Mon, 05/08/2017 - 17:41

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“The Globe and Mail” writes about the new home of the University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design (photo by Tom Ryaboi)

Topic

City & Culture

Daniels

Architecture

One Spadina Crescent

Cities

Landscape & Design

The Globe and Mail's Alex Bozikovic calls the new home of the University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design “one of the best Canadian buildings of the past decade.”

“Up front, the old Knox College is all Victorian adornment, an array of gables, turrets and lancet arches,” writes Bozikovic, of One Spadina, an 1875 building, designed by Smith & Gemmell as a Presbyterian seminary. “But around back it has a very different vibe. A long, flat glass façade pulls in northern light. Green roofs feed on rainwater. Zigzagging concrete forms say, in their own language: Welcome to 2017.”

He says the building is “spectacular....rich with arguments about how contemporary architecture, landscape and urbanism can work with history and build the city of the future.”

Going with the flow: U of T students tackle Toronto ravines’ pressing issues

Romi Levine — Thu, 15 Dec 2016 19:39:03 +0000

Going with the flow: U of T students tackle Toronto ravines’ pressing issues

Romi Levine Thu, 12/15/2016 - 14:39

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U of T landscape architecture students ventured to Boston to learn about the city's ravines (photo by Alissa North)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

Cities. Faculty of Architecture

Landscape & Design

Toronto’s ravines snake through the city, providing a quick escape from the concrete jungle while serving as a haven for the city’s wildlife. But the ravines are under threat as climate change, rapid growth and even invasive species threaten their future.

University of Toronto landscape architecture master’s students at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design are hoping to inspire City of Toronto planners with innovative design solutions to the biggest issues facing the ravines.

They’ve spent the past semester drafting and perfecting their ideas, biking along the Don and Humber rivers and touring Boston's Emerald Necklace, the city's 1,100 acre chain of parks, to get a first-hand look at how other cities interact with their ravines. Their final projects, which were part of a public exhibit at Daniels on Monday, took into account actions proposed as part of the Toronto Ravine Strategy – a city-led initiative to create a vision for the city’s ravines.

Students went on a 15 km-bike tour to the mouth of the Humber River (photo by Alissa North)

“The city is really growing and population and density is increasing a lot. It puts a lot of pressure on the ravines, and so we're seeing a lot of the issues like flooding and ecological deterioration of the ravines,” says Alissa North, an associate professor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture and director of the master of landscape architecture program.

North grew up right next to the Humber River so she is keenly aware of the importance of preserving the ravines.

“It's a big issue and a big opportunity to see how we can find more productive relationships between the city and the ravines,” she said.

Students picked a particular issue to focus on – like promoting cultural heritage or preserving ecological features – mapping out a big-picture strategy while also focusing on site-specific solutions.

Andrew Hooke looked at how to save at-risk plant species while mitigating invasive plants and flooding.

“I learned a ton about different plant species, and how they're able to spread throughout the ravines,” he says.

Stephen Brophy chose to re-imagine Black Creek, a watershed that connects with the Humber River, to incorporate cultural programming while also preventing flooding. He says Toronto’s ravines should play a more important role in the city’s identity.

“Central Park in Manhattan is its main defining feature. Toronto has a Central Park. It's in the ravines, and it's way bigger but completely overlooked,” he says.

Stephen Brophy wants to include public art in his re-imagining of Black Creek (photo by Romi Levine)

North says students’ involvement in the Ravine Strategy is a great way to provide them with real-world opportunity. In turn, city workers can find inspiration from the students.

“Their creativity and unbounded enthusiasm can have a lot of impact on the people who are in the roles that are shaping our city right now,” she says.

The City of Toronto provided students with base map material and city representatives have been present at many of the students’ presentations, including their final exhibition.

“It’s quite lovely to see little gems of ideas that could be very useful,” says Jane Welsh, a project manager for Toronto’s city planning department as she admired some of the final projects.

Maintaining waterways is crucial to creating sustainable cities, says Carolyn Woodland, a senior director at Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.

“It's great students are thinking long-term because they'll be the professionals of the future,” she says.

Students presented their final projects during a public exhibition at Daniels (photo by Romi Levine)

Future city builders: Shelley Long

Romi Levine — Thu, 24 Nov 2016 21:13:28 +0000

Future city builders: Shelley Long

Romi Levine Thu, 11/24/2016 - 16:13

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U of T alumna Shelley Long is a landscape designer at Hapa Collaborative in Vancouver (photos courtesy of Shelley Long)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

City & Culture

future city builders

John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture

Landscape & Design

Toronto

Cities

They're the new generation of Toronto city builders. Meet the ambitious University of Toronto students and recent grads poised to become big players in shaping urban identity and city development.

U of T News writer Romi Levine continues the Future City Builders stories with a profile of U of T alumna Shelley Long, a landscape designer in Vancouver.

Whether it’s the hint of greenery between skyscrapers or a leafy inner-city courtyard – there’s an art to finding the balance between the built and natural environments in a city.

It’s this interaction that drew Shelley Long to landscape architecture.

“With landscape projects, the day you finish building your project, it starts to grow and change. Whereas, with buildings, the day you finish your project, they start to deteriorate in a sense,” says Long, who received her master's in landscape architecture from the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.

For her thesis, Long explored these notions of native versus invasive landscapes by re-imagining the Trans-Canada Highway between Calgary and Banff as Canada’s next national park.

“Along the way you experience a spectrum of different human ecologies from the city to an industrial cement mine to agricultural fields to First Nations reserves, which are very Canadian landscapes – and finally, the national park itself,” she says.

Long currently works for Hapa Collaborative, a landscape architecture and design firm in Vancouver.

At Hapa, she’s been able to work on a range of different projects – from residential developments to revitalizing areas of the Simon Fraser University campus.

But it’s the art installation projects that she talks about most enthusiastically.

This year, she was part of a team who designed and created a giant megaphone in a west-end Vancouver plaza. The sculpture, called “Speaker’s Corner,” (pictured below) pays tribute to Jim Deva, an active community member and LGBTQ advocate.

“That was a whirlwind process, but it was really exciting to start a project and see it built in a span of 2 1/2 months,” says Long.

“People put boom boxes behind it. Musicians perform inside it,” she says. “It’s been a really successful centrepiece of that part of the west-end.”

Having lived both in Toronto and Vancouver, Long has observed the cities’ different approaches to city building.

“Vancouver is very outward-focused city in that we are blessed with this abundance of scenery and natural life,” she says. “Our architecture and our built environment definitely reflect that. Our sea wall is the most important public space in the city.”

“Toronto is a much more inward-focused city in that it really loves itself,” says Long. “I don’t say that in a bad way. I say that in a way that it really celebrates its identity. It’s much more culturally focused. It’s much more multicultural. That really comes across in the built landscape.”

Long says Vancouver can learn from Toronto’s rethinking of the waterfront and ravines with an emphasis on landscape architecture.

“We’re saying how can we reintegrate these waterfront spaces and give them back to the public in really interesting ways and develop them into new communities. Likewise, how can we naturalize our streams to make more resilient storm water systems.”

She hopes to see similarly bold perspectives on city building in Vancouver.

“It’s starting to happen, but it’s a long process.”

Walking the talk: Jane's Walks with a U of T connection

lavende4 — Mon, 02 May 2016 17:38:38 +0000

Walking the talk: Jane's Walks with a U of T connection lavende4 Mon, 05/02/2016 - 13:38

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U of T's Dylan Reid (centre) leading a previous Jane's Walk (photo by Alexandra Guerson via flickr)

Topic

City & Culture

Toronto

Daniels Faculty of Architecture

Landscape & Design

Jane's Walks

This year's Jane's Walks — a series of free, citizen-led walking tours held in nearly 200 cities around the world — take place the weekend of May 6 to 8. Inspired by writer and activist Jane Jacobs, the event gives participants the opportunity to explore neighbourhoods through the eyes of local residents.

With more than 175 walks to choose from in Toronto alone, deciding on a walk to take can be overwhelming. Here are some Jane's Walks with a U of T connection on the May 6-8 weekend. Several are led by Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape & Design faculty and alumni, others are taking place on the U of T campus.

Green Roof and Walk Tour (at U of T's St. George campus)
Walk leader: Jonathan Silver (MA, Philosophy)
May 6, 2016, 12:30 PM, 2 Hours

Why Socks Are Not Enough: Social Justice on the Danforth
Walk leader: Denise Pinto (MLA 2011) and Lois Didyk
May 6, 2016, 4:00 PM, 1.5 Hours
May 8, 2016, 4:00 PM, 1.5 Hours

East Danforth East - A Culinary Walking Tour
Walk leader: Phil Pothen (MLA 2006), Elise Aymer, Danning Liao, and Janet Masching
May 6, 2016, 11:00 AM, 2 Hours
May 8, 2016, 1:00 PM, 2 Hours

King and Spadina: One of The Two Kings
Walk leaders: Margie Zeidler (BArch 1987) and Paul Bedford (U of T Adjunct Professor)
May 7, 2016, 10:00 AM, 2.5 Hours

Walking around Gerrard Square
Walk leaders: Todd Irvine (Co-Instructor, Urban Ecology Field Course) and Dylan Reid (BA 1989, Faculty of Law web communications officer, Spacing Magazine senior editor)
May 7, 2016, 10:00 AM, 2 Hours

Listening to the Language of Plants
Walk leaders: Yi Zhou (MLA 2013), Jasmeen Bains (MLA 2013), andTyler Bradt (MLA 2013)
May 7, 2016, 11:00 AM, 1 Hour

Modern U: Modernist Architecture on the University of Toronto's West Campus
Walk leader: Robert Moffat
May 7, 2016, 1 PM, 1 Hour

Summerhill Summerdale
Walk leader: John van Nostrand (BArch 1972)
May 7, 2016, 2:00 PM, 2 Hours

Little Free Libraries: An Impromptu Reading Walk With Neighbours
Walk leader: Denise Pinto (MLA 2011)
May 7, 2016, 4:00 PM, 1.5 Hours

Walk the Green Line: Infrastructures of Park Space
Walk leader: Netami Stuart (MLA 2004)
May 8, 2016, 10:00 AM, 1 Hour

Kensington Unseen
Walk leaders: Daniella Levy-Pinto (PhD Political Science 2016), Maureen Coyle (MSc 2013, PhD candidate, lecturer in Kinesiology & Social Work)
May 8, 2016, 11:00 AM, 1 PM

Walk with us Woodbridge!
Walk leaders: Gail Shillingford (BLA 1995) and Moira Wilson (MLA 2006)
May 8, 2016, 2:00 PM, 1 Hour

Bloor on Wheels: Prepare to be Bloored!
Walk leaders: Adam Cohoon and Maureen Coyle (MSc 2013, PhD candidate, lecturer in Kinesiology & Social Work)
May 8, 2016, 3 PM, 1 Hour

Did you know?

Jane's Walk originated in Toronto, and Master of Landscape Architecture alumna Denise Pinto (MLA 2011) is the Global Director of the festival.

Read a profile of Denise Pinto published bythe Daniels Faculty last year

Jane Jacobs, who lived in Toronto from 1968 until her death in 2006, would have celebrated her 100th birthday this year on May 4. In honour of her centenary, a number of events are planned throughout Toronto (and beyond), including an exhibition at Urbanspace Gallery,Jane at Home, curated by Jim Jacobs and Margie Zeidler (BArch 1987).

Visit flickr to see the original of the photo at top

Landscape & Design

U of T's One Spadina Crescent: merging the past with the future

Read more at the Globe

Going with the flow: U of T students tackle Toronto ravines’ pressing issues

Future city builders: Shelley Long

Walking the talk: Jane's Walks with a U of T connection

Did you know?