I just skimmed through Our Common Grounds [PDF], the city of Toronto's Parks and Recreation Strategic Plan for 2004. If you're interested in such things, it's worth a glance.
The way we shape the greenery of the city, the way we use living things to frame and interpenetrate our buildings and roads, the way we conceive of parks has evolved like a language, like any other aspect of a human society. “Landscape,” as the innovative landscape architect Peter Latz recently explained in the New York Times Magazine, “is not the opposite of the town. Landscape is culture.” Toronto’s parks are as important to building the quality of life as our major institutions for music, theatre or visual art. It is the evocative presentation of Toronto’'s diverse cultures through parks and plantings that will draw the world'’s attention, not our capacity to make a pretty green space that mimics a London square. We want to invent our own Tuileries.
Also, Summerlicous is on right now. I went to Monsoon last night. The Summerlicious $30 dinner menu was as follows:
I'm assuming it's the 'language' of landscape bit to which you were referring me, although I am also interested in your Summerlicious sampling (you know me...). Very interesting and exciting stuff! It reminded me to look up the author I was talking about who wrote about how the design of cities shapes our societies. Check out Christopher Alexander. The books of his that I was looking at were A Pattern Language (how very apt!) and The Timeless Way of Building. Now I wonder what the City of Toronto's Parks and Rec. plan says about Dundas square.....
Posted by: Meghan at July 6, 2004 07:53 PMI'm not sure, but I think "interpenetrate" might be my new favourite word.
Posted by: Susan at July 26, 2004 03:00 PM