Her interest in plants began in childhood, encouraged by her mother the horticulturalist and author Beate Hahn 2/
After escaping Nazi Germany, she studied at @smithcollege and @HarvardGSD, then worked with pioneers of modernist landscape architecture. This project with Dan Kiley and Louis Kahn, Mill Creek public housing in Phila, drawing via @ccawire 3/
In 1953 she moved to Vancouver. She would work on public housing, parks, and many significant private houses. Her own house, architecture by Barry Downs with Peter Oberlander. 4/
She had a long collaboration with the architect Arthur Erickson, and played an important role on the Robson Square complex. The architecture and landscape “were integrated from day one,” a colleague said. 5/
She was a mother of three, and a leader in Modernist efforts to reimagine children’s play. Here, her playground for the Canadian pavilion at Expo 67. She would design 70 playgrounds across the country. 6/
She always favoured native plant species and often use them to create a sense of place. Here at the @MOA_UBC, Designed to mimic a landscape of Haida Gwaii. (📷 @ccawire and family photo) 7/
Some of her concerns: “Wilding”; climate adaptation; bringing nature into the city; stormwater and wastewater management; green roofs; social housing; integrated public space. (📷 Kiku Hawkes) 8/
A sad postscript: she died of complications from COVID-19. May her memory be a blessing. 9/9
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Modest proposal for Toronto: the city's real estate agency @_CreateTO should be empowered to *shape* what city agencies do with their sites. Public assets should be managed holistically with an eye to top city priorities and first-tier design.
A critically important site @ExPlaceTO has been underused and degrading. Acres of underused land next to a rapid transit hub. Its use and management are of citywide concern.
The theatre agency @TOLiveTweets is pursuing a major and very expensive project that has little hope of happening
I have a piece coming @globeandmail, but: It’s shocking how quickly things have changed on this file, and yet much more change is both possible and necessary
Watching the Toronto council debate on multiplexes. It's very calm. Seems very much as though this proposal is going to pass. Set up by Dustin Cook here theglobeandmail.com/canada/article…
This political shift has been late, but it's been fast. The xenophobia and straw men so evident in Vancouver and California are relatively absent here
There's some nonsense, to be sure. Stephen Holyday now mad that a fourplex is allowed to be bigger than a single monster home. The injustice!
"Very few buildings have truly significant historical or cultural value, and we must differentiate between those that do and those that simply offer a nostalgic aesthetic." theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
I think this is exactly right. While the Australian context is foreign, the insight carries over: heritage includes more diverse stories and people. But a 40-year bloat of dubious listings in rich-white-people neighbourhoods remains intact.
In my local Toronto context, there is both too little protection -- of public and/or Modern buildings -- and far, far too much protection of other things. A reckoning is necessary.
In an uncharacteristically bold move, Tory just announced some YIMBY planning reform. This must continue.
Unfortunately, city staff aren’t up for it. Today: planning agrees that the new downtown waterfront Villiers neighbourhood can be 30% more dense. In fact it should be 100% more. secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda…
Mark Sutcliffe: “Downtown could be a 15-minute neighborhood and Barrhaven could be a 15-minute neighbourhood.” One of these things is true, and the other is absolutely not. Barrhaven:
If the city decentralizes, a low-density, car-oriented exurb like Barhaven will not just acquire any of the qualities of the “15-Minute City.” Neighbourhood retail and services are very hard to run in a place like that.