Moving a river is a task for a giant or a God.
asserted
Moving → move → giant
Waterfront Toronto did it anyway.
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Toronto → do → it
Since last year, visitors have been able to see the Don River transformed with a new mouth, new wetlands, and Biidaasige Park, which instantly became one of Toronto’s most spectacular public places.
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which → see → places
This didn’t just happen.
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This → happen → ?
It is the product of 25 years’ work at the waterfront organization, which has been building places – and a design culture – in a city that neglects both.
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that → build → both
Last week’s conference Leading With Landscape, and an accompanying exhibition at the University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, carefully traced that history.
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conference → lead → history
It also raised an awkward question.
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It → raise → question
If Waterfront Toronto has figured out how to do this, why is no one following their example?
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one → figure → example
The three-day event brought together local talent, such as urban designer Ken Greenberg, with a rogues’ gallery of the world’s great landscape architects, all of whom have put their marks on the Toronto waterfront since 2001.
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all → bring → 2001
In 1991, The Globe’s John Bentley Mays wrote about the city’s Port Lands as a “wilderness of trees and rust.”
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Mays → write → trees
Then Waterfront Toronto emerged, jointly created by three levels of government to end a century of bickering and move ahead with the cleanup of the polluted Don River watershed.
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Toronto → emerge → watershed
They built a little utopia overlooking the ruins of the port, a fortress of solitude focused on landscape architecture and forward-thinking design.
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They → build → architecture
“Building parks first creates a there there,” Waterfront design czar Christopher Glaisek said last week.
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Glaisek → build → parks
“And those parks in the middle of nowhere have got to be great.”
They were.
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They → get → middle
Rotterdam’s West 8 created the Wavedecks and promenade that reframed the central waterfront.
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that → create → waterfront
Montreal’s CCxA gave the city the singular Sugar Beach, Love Park and HTO Park.
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CCxA → give → Beach
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates built the fine Corktown Common and the grand Don River ensemble.
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Associates → build → Common
Waterfront focused on landscape architecture, which in the 2000s was extending its reach as a discipline into shaping infrastructure, and they thought big.
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they → focus → infrastructure
Having three bosses has somehow given the organization freedom.
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Having → have → freedom
As the landscape architect and academic Charles Waldheim put it at the conference, it “acts as an agent of the state and also enjoys a kind of quasi-autonomy.”
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it → put → autonomy
But the organization has also built a culture.
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organization → build → culture
They took their mandate for “design excellence” seriously.
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They → take → excellence
To protect it, they created an arm’s-length design review panel to critique every park, street and building.
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they → protect → park
Such independent experts raised questions and made trouble.
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experts → raise → trouble
That helped when Waterfront, inevitably, made mistakes.
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Waterfront → help → mistakes
Its dalliance with the Google sister company Sidewalk Labs received loud dissent within.
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dalliance → receive → dissent
When they delivered a subpar plan for the new island Ookwemin Minising, Prof. Lister and Prof. Masoud were among those who pushed for something better.
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who → deliver → something
That is Waterfront’s crucial weapon: bringing in smart outsiders to challenge local ideas and norms.
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That → bring → ideas
The design culture in Toronto suffers from a stultifying politeness.
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culture → suffer → politeness
We’re not good at making public space, but one can’t say that out loud.
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one → ’re → that
Professionals see problems and hold their tongues.
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Professionals → see → tongues
This is how we have made generational mistakes such as the Ontario Place spa and – almost – a monster-sized Billy Bishop Airport.
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we → make → spa
At the conference, Mr. Glaisek laid out the lessons: hire the best design talent.
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Glaisek → lay → talent
And none of them have travelled crosstown to City Hall, where the story has been one of endless plans and “strategies,” false economies in hiring, and poor results.
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story → travel → hiring
Over the past 25 years, Toronto’s Parks department has spent billions building parks and facilities.
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department → spend → parks
How many good places have been built by any city agency?
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places → build → agency
For great places, Toronto has had to turn to the waterfront.
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Toronto → have → waterfront
It’s time that other governments followed the leader.
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governments → ’ → leader
The Aporia
