Emergence and Uncertainty in Urban Landscapes : A Model for the Toronto Public Landscape

This thesis was initially predicated on early research carried out on Toronto's Public Open Space - in quite a broad framework. Texts based on the topic of Toronto's formation and its policy on public open space from the earlier days surrounding Lord Simcoe's first plans of the city provided a point of departure for the research. OMA and Bruce Mau in their design entry to the Downsview Park competition offered further insight into the perceptions and policy of Toronto in relation to public parks and lack of investment and maintenance. While other contributors on the topic of Toronto included Robert Fulford (Accidental City), Mark Osbaldeston (Unbuilt Toronto: a History of the City That Might Have Been), Jane Jacobs (Death and LIfe of Great American Cities), Howard Moscoe (Councillor Moscoe and his views of the city), Rob Ford and many others offered unforeseen accounts or facts on the city over the past century. Such people and the views they have published defend the very reason for the selection of Toronto as the subject of this research. Coinciding with the topic of Toronto, the recent emergence of the discipline of Landscape Urbanism and the capabilities of landscape in dealing with Modern and Post-modern failings within the city was deemed very early on to be the platform or medium upon which to offer any solution to the research on Toronto. Charles Waldheim, Professor and Chair of the Landscape Architecture Department at the Graduate School of Design in Harvard University, has on occasion referred to his term Landscape Urbanism as follows: Across a diverse spectrum of cultural positions landscape has emerged as the most relevant medium through which to construct a meaningful and viable public realm in North American cities. (Waldheim, C. 2006. p.41)