George F. Dark

Year of Investiture:

Category(ies) of Investiture:
Executed Works of Landscape Architecture
Service to the Community or the Public on Behalf of the Profession

George Dark is an urban designer, landscape architect and member of both the College of Fellows of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects and the Council of Fellows of the American Society of Landscape Architects. George also received the 2018 Governor General’s Medal in Landscape Architecture.

During the past 20 years, George has developed a focus on the strategic design direction of large scale urban regeneration and regional landscape undertakings, putting him at the centre of design decisions for some of the largest urban and rural projects in Canada and abroad. George is very active in the charitable and not-for-profit sectors, having served as Board Chair of the Evergreen Foundation of Canada for over 12 years while creating Brickworks, leading to his appointment as Chairman Emeritus of the organization. He is currently Chairman of the Social Innovation Foundation at the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto and was appointed by the Province of Ontario as a Trustee of the McMichael Canadian Collection Gallery. George was the founding Chair of the Academic Advisory Council of the Willowbank School of Restoration Arts. 

George has directed numerous master plan projects for communities throughout North America including Toronto, Ottawa, Orillia, Hamilton, Calgary, Edmonton, Oakville, Charlottetown, Moncton, Markham, Windsor, Providence, Rhode Island, St Paul Minnesota, Youngstown, Ohio and Sarasota County, Florida.

George directed the award-winning University of Toronto Open Space Master Plan. He led the Downtown Ottawa Urban Design Strategy 20/20 and three subsequent district plans based on the strategy; the Escarpment Area District Plan, the Mid-Centretown District Plan and the Scott Street Community Design Plan. These include frameworks for community improvement, targets for site-specific and precinct-wide actions as well as design guidelines to evaluate future developments.

He completed the Bridgepoint Health Neighbourhood Redevelopment Plan and the Master Plan for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, large institutional sites in the center of Toronto, to be redeveloped as complete neighbourhoods while re-integrating their current uses into the existing urban communities. Currently George is working on several large mixed use redevelopments in downtown Toronto, including East Harbour Master Plan (Unilever site), The Well at Front and Spadina, The Galleria Mall redevelopment, Bathurst + Bloor Honest Ed’s redevelopment, and the redevelopment of the Golden Mile Shopping Centre on the new Eglinton LRT line. 

George led the Cornell University’s Comprehensive Campus Master Plan, the Public Space Framework for Toronto’s Central Waterfront, a 4-year Comprehensive Master Plan for the University of Ottawa and a master plan for the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus . He led the Central Corridor Development Strategy for a new LRT in St. Paul, Minnesota, including 11 station area plans along the line. Additional transit related work includes LRT station area plans in Calgary, and the Community Building Strategy for the  Waterloo Region LRT line. 
George has directed station area plans for the  new LRT in Ottawa,  at Tremblay Road and Lees station areas.

George led the USI team in the creation of the Barbados National Physical Development Plan and National Park 17 years ago and was invited back in 2016 to undertake a comprehensive review of these policy directions for consideration by parliament.

George has served on the strategic steering committees , the design juries and review panels for some of the most important public projects in Ottawa and Toronto, including the 1812 Fort York National Historic Site, the HtO park in Toronto, Lansdowne Park and Nepean Point Park in Ottawa.
 

CSLA | AAPC 12 Forillon Crescent, Ottawa ON K2M 2W5