 Part I: A Successional History |  Part II: Succession as Metholody |  Part III: Silt as a Device |
|---|---|---|
 Part IV: Succession of Masterplan |  Part V: Succession of Program |  Part VI: Ecological Succession |
Social Craters
Landscape Urbanism Project (Undergraduate Thesis)
Toronto, Canada
Spring 2012
The goal of this independent study is to activate and re-characterize the South side of the Outer Harbour East Headland, more commonly known as the Leslie Street Spit, into an experimental place of social activity. This is done by incorporating a series of successions (including physical, scalar, programmatic, and ecological) that parallels the evolving and ephemeral quality of the land.
Ever since the original plans in 1959 to construct the Leslie Street Spit for “port-related” facilities fell through, numerous proposals have been put forth to determine the new land’s identity. Argument was primarily over the intensity of proposed activities, but after decades of debate, the current consensus for the land is to “let it be,” establishing it as an urban wilderness and opening the park to visitors for passive activities. Managed by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA), the plan is respectful of the spit’s history as an important environmental area (which was created naturally through ecological succession), but it does not allow for the spit’s true potential to be fulfilled. Currently, there is a vast difference between the more developed North side and the undeveloped South side. While the North side, already established as Tommy Thompson Park, is aptly forested and now used for education, research and nature organizations, the South is still in development and changes every day by the dumping of dredged material and construction rubble.
Instead of “letting it be” and simply adding to the park, this project proposes that before ecological succession takes place, the South side gets built up and sculpted to create experimental environments for a diverse range of social gatherings. Using the dumped material of construction rubble and dredged silt, I propose to “plant” round basins that are able evolve, grow and adapt through the years as visitors discover innovative uses and inform new spatial requirement. The succession of different types of program will inform the succession of the physical landforms, which in turn will influence the rate and intensity of ecological succession and ultimately the character of the spit. By seeding this vision into the land’s foundation now, the Leslie Street Spit can finally have the potential to play a strong role in Toronto social and cultural identity.
