Christopher Hume profiles local landscape architect Janet Rosenberg in the Star today. She says interesting things about the difficulty of creating attractive, original public spaces in Toronto.
Take HtO, for example, the “urban beach” at the foot of John St. at Queens Quay W. her firm designed three years ago … From the start, Rosenberg has fought against the safety tyrants who rule Toronto: The sandbox almost had to go; some years ago a razorblade was found at Cherry Beach. The terraces almost had to go; someone could fall into the water and drown. The umbrellas almost had to go; someone might climb up and hurt themselves. The slope of the terraces almost had to go; if they were too steep someone could trip and scrape a knee.
Janet Rosenberg will lecture on the New Landscape this Friday, November 17, at 8 p.m. at Convocation Hall, University of Toronto.
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I became interested in going to this after reading Hume’s article this morning, but $20? Really? I appreciate that the proceeds will to the Toronto Botanical Garden, but can Rosenberg really fill Convocation Hall at $20 a ticket?
Good on Janet Rosenberg for having the chutzpah to book the cavernous convocation hall, home of so very many bitter memories.
And good on her, as reported in the Hume column, for questioning the missed opportunity on St Clair, where the city has so thoroughly shafted the “ballet of the sidewalks” (Jane Jacobs’s phrase) by narrowing the sidewalk at every turn (turning cars that is) and every intersection.
She has some great ideas, it’s true. Nonetheless, there’s something imperious and controlling about Ms Rosenberg that throws people off. When I had the chance to work with her in a charrette for design ideas to replace the Toronto Island Airport last spring, her facilitation of the group was backwards and distracted. In the end we reached “consensus by attrition,” where no one seemed truly happy, not even Ms. Rosenberg (read about it here: http://allderdice.ca/?p=118 ). That charrette, by the way, was sponsored by the city, in part to generate ideas for the expo 2015 bid. The group “Office for Urbanism” ran the show. When you’re asking why Toronto didn’t get the bid together for the world’s fair, ask yourself first why no one has seen the report of this charrette.
Did anyone make it to her lecture last night?