Editorial Board Message

As landscape architects, we are often considering how we might make the greatest impact through our work: how we might design for all users, while bolstering ecological resilience, along with pressing issues such as access, environmental degradation, or climate change, in order to create spaces which are greater than the sum of their parts.

We regularly discuss our unique and valuable intersection of skills, which make us prime candidates to spearhead diverse and collaborative teams, and throughout this issue is an encouragement for landscape architects to continue to be vocal about all the work we do, and are capable of doing, to make clear our roles, our importance, and to take up space in conversations and on projects.

The goal of this issue is to focus on the impact and importance of municipal landscape architecture for people in Ontario. It is an initiative of the OALA’s Municipal Outreach Committee (MOC), born from a desire to discuss, highlight, and celebrate the contributions of landscape architects at a municipal level.

While the OALA is regulated provincially, the work of OALA members touches lives where people reside, work, and play. Much of which is implemented through local municipalities in parks, open spaces, and influenced by municipal policies, by-laws, and plans.

MOC members noted that the work of landscape architects at a municipal level isn’t often top of mind, and felt an issue of Ground focused on this work would be an interesting way to increase awareness of this part of landscape architecture in Ontario. As municipalities continue to navigate the challenges of climate change, increased public visitation to naturally sensitive areas, changing demographics, and maintenance budgets—to name a few—our skills and systems-based approach to design is of tremendous value, and can have tremendous impact.

The Ground Editorial Board would like to thank the Municipal Outreach Committee for their efforts in leading the creation of this issue, including many of the articles you will find in the following pages.

Nadja Pausch, OALA, CSLA
Chair, Editorial Board
[email protected]

Cynthia Graham, OALA, CSLA
Co-Chair, Municipal Outreach Committee