Toronto Leslie Lookout Park | ?m | ?s | CreateTO | CCxA

Towered said:
No fighting here - I love purple!
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Well sure, Purple was great 45 minutes ago, but now you've unleashed the vintage TTC crowd, and they'll have nothing but maroon and cream!

TL/dr for City Parks Dept types: We want umbrellas!

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Neon Thursday night ride hits the Lookout.
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christiesplits said:
Positive review by @AlexBozikovic in the Globe.

www.theglobeandmail.com

Leslie Lookout Park is a bold, friendly face for Toronto’s Port Lands

A waterfront space designed by the late, great Claude Cormier brings bright ideas to a neighbourhood in transformation
www.theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com
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I agree w/Alex's generally positive take, his omission of at least discussing the lack of trademark bold colour is curious, but the piece reads as a bit of an homage to Claude and I can see skipping over that in this context.

But I think the best, if most disheartening bit of Alex's column is close to its close and it speaks to the cultural problem in Parks...and Recreation.....in Toronto.

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What's worse? That in 15 years of work in Toronto, including arguably the City's most beloved small park, Berczy, no one helming Parks had ever even bothered to say 'Hi' to Claude or the absurdity that with arguably Canada's greatest living landscape architect (at the time) in attendance for the opening of a park he and his firm designed, no one asked him to speak?
 
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Northern Light said:
I agree w/Alex's generally positive take, his omission of at least discussing the lack of trademark bold colour is curious, but the piece reads as a bit of homage to Claude and I can see skipping over that in this context.

But I think the best, if most disheartening bit if Alex's column is close to its close and it speaks to the cultural problem in Parks...and Recreation.....in Toronto.

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What's worse? That in 15 years of work in Toronto, including arguably the City's most beloved small park, Berczy, no one helming Parks had ever even bothered to say 'Hi' to Claude or the absurdity that with arguably Canada's greatest living landscape architect (at the time) in attendance for the opening of a park he and his firm designed, no one asked him to speak?
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Yeah, absolutely shocking. I know from several design/architectural firms that they struggle to have their company leads get some time to address the audience at ribbon cuttings. It should be standard that the designer gets some words in, no matter how well known they are, but when it happens that even the most revered practitioners don't even get asked? Well, that's appalling... and it happens all the time. At least some PR managers manage to get their design leads in front of the podium too. Claude did get to talk when Berczy Park opened, but it's ridiculous that the head of PF&R wasn't there for that. Telling, isn't it?

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Not sure I get it - the city is commissioning the work ... they're paying ... it's up to them who they want at the opening ceremony. Just to be clear, I truly believe the designers should be there, but I can draw so many parallels in other industries where the people who "do the work" and yes I'm including the "design", and yes there are 100% equivalencies in other domains, they do not get any recognition from the client whatsoever - other then the pay cheque of course ... why is this different ?
 
taal said:
Not sure I get it - the city is commissioning the work ... they're paying ... it's up to them who they want at the opening ceremony. Just to be clear, I truly believe the designers should be there, but I can draw so many parallels in other industries where the people who "do the work" and yes I'm including the "design", and yes there are 100% equivalencies in other domains, they do not get any recognition from the client whatsoever - other then the pay cheque of course ... why is this different ?
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There are a few key differences here. Though, I will offer that I do think the people who make things happen in other industries should be recognized in those industries, by their employers etc. more than they are........as a rule of thumb.

But the differences are these:

1) Parks are public-facing projects, funded by public dollars, about which many people are passionate, not just UT'ers. That doesn't necessarily compare with the developer of a new consumer product, a new app, or the like. Where people in those industries do generate public-facing excitement (say, fashion design), those designers are typically recognized and spoken to by media at fashion shows. Likewise, Michelin-star chefs do get attention.

The real criteria is the extent to which the project is public-facing, and something about which the public takes keen interest.

2) I think we need to specifically single out Claude Cormier as different from 'just another landscape designer'. While we can all say that everyone involved in creating an achievement of one sort or another ought to be recognized and, in fact, mean that sincerely...... We all get that the 3rd string defense man on the Stanley Cup Champs doesn't get the same media space as the MVP. We can also recognize in that analogy that the Wayne Gretzkys, Mario Lemieuxs and Connor McDavids are a level apart from even a typical Hall-of-Fame player. In that same way Claude was a next-level contributor in his field. Not average, nor slightly above, but way above. There's no such thing as objective ranking.......so we could
debate if he was 'the best', or simply 'one of the best'......but there's no doubt his name belonged in that conversation.

Not everyone follows the architectural industry, the fashion industry, Michelin restos or Landscape architecture' but those who followed the latter knew that Claude made significant contributions that matter; and that his thoughts would be of interest to attendees.

Additionally, we were discussing above that no one in charge of Parks had ever bothered to meet Claude. His stature in the industry aside, the moment he clearly created a beloved space out of a Toronto Park (Berczy as example, but you could pick Sugar Beach or others); communicating with him wasn't merely a matter of respect or a formality, it was a chance to learn why that department has a pretty poor reputation with the public and how to do better. It would simply speak well of someone trying to do their job well that they would want to talk to someone who had brought their department a couple of its greatest successes. Only a handful of (of still operating) firms could remotely lay claim to anything similar, MVVA would be an obvious choice there.

So the absence of that meeting having taken place, when there were clear opportunities for it; reads not merely as disrespect, but complete indifference to the success or failure of parks in Toronto.
 
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