You can see a copy here

20
Landscape
Architect
Quarterly
12/
20/
22/
Round Table
The Big Chill
Features
Design in a
Cold Climate
Chilling Out
with Nature
Publication # 40026106
Winter 2012-2013
Issue 20
Contents
03/
Up Front
Information on
the Ground
Chill:
06/
12/
Northern Inspiration
Cornelia Hahn Oberlander in
conversation with Nancy Chater,
OALA
Round Table
The Big Chill
Helle Søholt and Gil Peñalosa
in conversation
MODERATED BY ADRIENNE HALL
18/
20/
22/
26/
A Fun Run on Chilly Hills
The Ultimate Tobogganing Design
Design in a Cold Climate
Werner Schwar, OALA, on
designing in the North
Chilling Out with Nature
William Sullivan in conversation
with Todd Smith
Plant Corner
Plants for Winter Interest
TEXT BY TODD SMITH
28/
Technical Corner
Environmentally Friendly
Alternatives to Road Salts
TEXT BY KATE NELISCHER, WITH RESEARCH BY FUNG LEE, OALA
32/
42/
Notes
A miscellany of
news and events
Artifact
Grow Op: Exploring Landscape
+ Place
TEXT BY LORRAINE JOHNSON
Winter 2012-2013
Issue 20
President’s
Message
Editorial Board
Message
President’s Message
Editorial Board Message
As I write this, we are heading into the holidays and
many of us are looking forward to taking a little time to
“chill.” With the holidays comes winter weather; the deep
freeze allows us to change our type of recreation as well
as enjoy beautiful, sparkling, winterswept landscapes.
As an Ottawa resident, I look forward to the opening of
the “largest skating rink in the province,” the Rideau
Canal. This UNESCO site hosts hundreds of skaters daily
throughout the season.
The winter landscape has a unique hold on northeners’
minds. We love it or hate it in the instance, but beyond our
conscious experience of it, perhaps our subconscious is
also busy interpreting the many cultural archetypes and
symbologies that resonate in this chilly season.
In a province affected by weather extremes, landscape
architects who work in the field of design must consider
seasonal aspects of the spaces they create, and address
winter dormant views as well as those at the height of
bloom in late spring and summer and the transitional
views of fall.
As an Association, we are currently undertaking work
that will consider all aspects of practice our members
undertake throughout careers and across many expressions of the profession. It is absolutely fascinating to ponder
how the creativity of our members has affected the many
types of professional landscape architectural practice. On
the first Saturday of December, I was privileged to attend a
seminar on the legislative process regarding practice legislation. As I looked around the room at the many familiar
faces, I was struck by the value that we, as landscape
architects, bring to a community and how very important
it is that we position ourselves on par with our allied
professionals so that we may, without debate, be the ones
who provide professional services regarding landscape
architectural matters…from the very beginning of
the process.
During the seminar, it was reassuring to hear that of the
steps to ready ourselves to advance a practice legislation
case, most have already been taken. To name a few:
a representative Council, an Executive, adequate staff,
specific educational and entrance requirements, governing
bylaws, a means of reporting and disciplining those in
contravention of bylaws and policies, and members
capable of supporting a budget that addresses
professional practice.
So, we are very close to being in a position to advance
our case for defining a scope of practice of landscape
architecture and to have that scope protected with a
provincial statute. That would be chill!
JOANNE MORAN, OALA
[email protected]
Adam Gopnik’s book Winter and his “five windows on the
season”—romantic, radical, recreational, recuperative, and
remembering—remind us of how our experience of winter
has been tempered or conditioned by our cultural histories
and mores, and that the landscape of winter, and our
designs upon it, is a reflection of these stories. Of course,
winter just carries on with no regard for us—we choose to
ignore it or celebrate its existence.
As the climate changes and winter freezes and thaws
increase (or decrease) in frequency, does the winter
cultural landscape become a “new” space within which to
consider public space, circulation, and flora? What are the
changes you are experiencing in your Ontario winter?
Perhaps people wish to be outside more in the winter—
definitely an opportunity for landscape architects.
Ground has joined the Twitter revolution with a delightful
bang. If you have never used Twitter, you will be amazed
at some very interesting and helpful industry information
within the network. Please follow us: @Groundmag and
send us a tweet!
The Editorial Board would like to give wholehearted and
grateful thanks to Nancy Chater, OALA, and Rob Walkowiak
for their time and dedication to Ground. Rob has moved on
to other pursuits, while Nancy remains a member of the
Editorial Board. She was Co-Chair for nearly four years
(attending virtually every one of our monthly meetings
in those four years!) and her leadership and organization
were inspirations. Thank you! We welcome with
enthusiasm our new interim Chair, Denise Pinto,
whose initial efforts on the Editorial Board include
launching Ground into the Twittersphere and facilitating
an improved, searchable platform for Ground on the OALA
website. (You can now, for example, send pdfs of specific
Ground articles to friends and colleagues.)
Wherever you are this winter, we hope you enjoy
perusing this issue dedicated to all things chill.
TODD SMITH
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBER
Masthead
.20
Editor
Lorraine Johnson
2013 OALA
Governing Council
OALA Editorial Board
Nancy Chater
Eric Gordon
Adrienne Hall
Jocelyn Hirtes
Fung Lee
Leslie Morton
Kate Nelischer
Denise Pinto (interim chair)
Maili Sedore
Todd Smith
Netami Stuart
Victoria Taylor
President
Joanne Moran
Art Direction/Design
www.typotherapy.com
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Cover
OALA member Eric Gordon’s
design of an ideal tobogganing run.
See page 18.
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Andrew B. Anderson, BLA, MSc. World Heritage
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Chilling Out
with Nature
01/
Windsor skyline.
IMAGE/
En:Adoch, Creative Commons
.20
22
Chilling Out
with Nature
William Sullivan in
conversation with
Todd Smith
23
.20
We all enjoy a walk in the park or a view across a meadow.
This good feeling is a qualitative evaluation of how greenspace
impacts our sense of well-being. William Sullivan, Professor of
Landscape Architecture at University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, is conducting research into how these impacts
can also be quantified. This is important data for landscape
architects as it informs policy and strengthens the argument
for public greenspace.
Landscape designer and Ground Editorial Board member
Todd Smith recently spoke with Sullivan about his latest
research and thoughts on the subject.
Chilling Out
with Nature
.20
24
02
Todd Smith (TS): Why is the work of landscape architects important to this research?
William Sullivan (WS): We have had, for
centuries, artists and poets and great writers who have all engaged in the creative
process in which they talk about the healing
benefits of being exposed to nature. And,
within the past few decades, we have
developed a compelling body of empirical
evidence to support those ideas. It is now
very clear that the work of landscape architects can be productive towards the health
of ecosystems, and in turn very important for
the health of families and communities.
TS: How do we know a healthy ecosystem
when we see it?
WS: We can take measurements of nonhuman systems by assessing healthy landscape indicators such as biodiversity levels,
water balance, soil content, and biotic
potential. With respect to people, of course,
qualitative surveys are helpful, but these
indicators are harder to measure. One
recent study, though, indicates a strong
correlation. The American Journal of
Epidemiology published a study that
showed the health impacts of greening
vacant lots in Philadelphia. The impacts are
impressive. There was a marked reduction
in gun violence and reported assaults; the
residents reported less stress and more
exercise; and there was a significant
decrease in vandalism. If we think of this
increased presence of natural systems as
a remedy, then nature can have a huge
financial and social impact on the health
of communities. What is amazing is that
we have landscape architecture as the
profession that is dedicated and highly
qualified to deliver this remedy in the landscape towards better community and
ecosystem health.
TS: Is this evidence only recent and fairly
new to the collective consciousness, or have
we just forgotten how important natural
systems are to healthy communities?
WS: That is a good question, because millions of North Americans are disconnected
from natural places, even urban greenspaces, either by design or culture. I don’t
think it is an either/or issue; I think what we
need now are comprehensive interventions
that are based on science and based on
experience and education, and that are
directed at young people and old people,
and at scales both near home and regional.
We need a more multifaceted approach
to this issue.
TS: Please explain your theory on landscape
benefit-delivery mechanisms.
WS: The evidence suggests that landscapes
deliver health benefits through at least three
mechanisms, each of which has significant
implications for public health policy. The first
mechanism is simply to have exposure or a
view to a greenspace. Having this vantage
seems to reliably reduce the physiological
experience of stress. When I say physiological stress, I am talking about cortisol
and adrenaline levels, and heart rate and
blood pressure; muscle tension seems to
be reduced when we have exposure to a
greenspace. This can have profound and
positive long-term health implications. The
second mechanism is that this exposure
also reliably increases people’s capacity to
pay attention, which is a phenomenal thing!
When you think about our lives in the modern world, almost everything we care
about—our relationships, problem solving,
planning, and creativity—all relies on our
capacity to pay attention. Greenspaces
seem to give the brain a break and allow
for this capacity to renew itself. The third way
in which greenspaces impact health is that
they bring neighbours together. In communities that have more greenspace, folks rely
on each other, they know each other better,
and from decades of social research, we
know that people who have stronger social
networks have more favourable health outcomes. When you consider these results,
public policy should demand “nature” at
every doorstep! This would deliver
measurable impacts.
Chilling Out
with Nature
25
.20
Psychological
Health
Attention
Restoration
Contact
With Urban
Nature
Physical
Health
Individual Benefits
Stress
Reduction
Physical
Activity
Underlying
Mechanisms
Social
Interactions
Reduction in
Incivilities
Community Benefits
Human
Benefits
TS: I want to go back to your comments
about violence and guns and vandalism,
and their inverse correlation to greenspace.
How does CPTED (Crime Prevention Through
Environmental Design) relate to your work?
WS: There is a lot of overlap but it’s not the
same thing. I think the CPTED programs
could be clearer about their effects. What I
know from my research is that greenspaces
pull people outside; neighbours come out of
their condos and their row houses. When
that happens—when neighbours occupy
the same space at some time—a whole
bunch of wonderful things are more likely to
happen. People become much more comfortable with who their neighbour is, this
recognition breeds familiarity, and they are
more likely to intervene on behalf of one
another, or on behalf of the neighbourhood.
So CPTED is all about sending signals to
would-be perpetrators that “you will be
observed and seen here...there are sightlines in place to notice you.” What greenspaces do essentially is they put people on
the street. They also create a social network
and a stronger set of social ties within which
neighbours are likely to intervene on behalf
of each other.
TS: Your report Urban Nature: human psychological and community health, published
last year in the Routledge Handbook of
Urban Ecology, is a comprehensive account
of so much research dedicated to the relationship between landscape and health.
Thinking back to Olmstead and his claims
that parks provide sanitary benefits to users,
what do you make of his interpretation
of health and landscape, and how has
this idea translated to the 21st century?
WS: I think that people such as Dick
Jackson, a professor at the UCLA School of
Public Health, and Howie Frumkin, author of
the recent Making Healthy Places:
Designing and Building for Health, WellBeing, and Sustainability, along with Andy
Dannenberg and Dick Jackson, for example,
are really picking up the charge left by
Olmstead. Olmstead was very charismatic
and put forth arguments that made people
listen. Today, we need to go beyond that:
we need hard evidence that supports the
health of public spaces. I don’t think that the
passionate arguments of the past are going
to be enough to secure the investments
needed to create public spaces. But the evidence is there, and the people I’ve mentioned, and also Rachel Kaplan, have been
very good at putting the arguments and evidence together. I think that is a distinction
between Olmstead’s day and the present
day. Today, we need a small army of scholars, writers, and designers, all of whom are
doing their best to keep this issue alive and
capture the attention of the media.
TS: If we assume that the average
rural view has more greenspace, what are
some urban precedents of a good greenspace ratio?
WS: There are several cities that stand
out. Chicago is increasing its forest canopy;
Washington, D.C., is also working hard to
increase canopy cover from past decades.
We need places like Central Park and
Millennium Park, but we also need, perhaps
more so, animation of the city fabric with
greenspace, almost like a bloodstream.
We need green infrastructure that delivers
greenspace and functions as a water utility
at the same time.
TS: Any final thoughts about urban ecology
and health?
WS: As we get more serious about understanding and taking care of water in the
urban landscape, we will learn a new set of
opportunities to engage in green infrastructure. We still have this habit of referring to
the stuff that comes out of the sky and falls
to the ground as “storm water.” And since
we don’t like storm water, we want to get
rid of it. If we call it “rainwater,” well, that’s a
resource! We then think about ways to use
it as a resource, then we need landscape
architects to design infrastructure that allows
water to stay close to where it falls, or to be
stored, or harvested for later use. This
source-control design will encourage a new
green infrastructure that provides more
greenspace views and better health.
More information about William
Sullivan’s work is available at
www.willsull.net/William_Sullivan/
Welcome.html.
BIO/ TODD SMITH, MLA, ISA, IS A LANDSCAPE
ARCHITECTURAL INTERN AND CERTIFIED ARBORIST
AT IBI GROUP IN TORONTO.
02/
Hamilton skyline.
IMAGE/
Nhl4Hamilton, Creative Commons
03/
Landscape benefit delivery
mechanisms.
IMAGE/
Dr. William C. Sullivan, ASLA