Following his graduation from the University of Guelph in 1970 with a B.L.A., Mr. Thomas Sparling became an associate with Michael Hough & Jim Stansbury working on projects such as Campus planning for the University of Alberta and guidelines for Forest Management in Ontario. Following that, he established the Toronto office of New York based BHI Limited, Environmental Planners, As Chief Landscape Architect he was charged with determining locations for high voltage transmission line corridors in the Greater Toronto region.
Since joining the Department of Architectural Science and Landscape Architecture at the Ryerson Polytechnic University in 1975, he has been both Professor and Program Director, where he has enjoyed learning from his many students who have become stalwarts of the profession throughout Canada.
In addition to teaching, Tom’s recent focus has been the design and restoration of private and institutional landscapes from city gardens to rural estates. Projects designed by Tom have been featured in books including in a Canadian Garden by Nicoly Eaton and Hilary Weston, and Foliage and Design by Marjorie Harris, as well as publications including Toronto Life, Canadian Gardening and Canadian House and Home Magazine.
Since 1991, through his volunteer efforts as both Design Director of the Winter Garden Show at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, and of Canada’s premiere garden show, Canada Blooms, he has become noted for promoting landscape architectural design at the public level.