In 1967, Bill Coates arrived at the University of Guelph with an extraordinary wealth of experience, and a determination to make a difference. He immediately involved his LA students in pragmatic community projects, like the re-construction of Victoria Park, Kitchener. He wanted, he said, to make them aware, of “the extremely complex planning problems facing our cities today.” He found time to advise the university’s new Orienteering Club.
But primarily, he immersed himself in designing the university’s planned Arboretum. “This will most decidedly not be just another fancy piece of parkland,” he said. The Arboretum would, he believed, be vital, both as an outdoor classroom and laboratory.
The Arboretum did, indeed, continue to exceed expectations, and over the half-century since, it has come to define not only exceptional programming, but its community.
Coates’ time at Guelph was brief. He left the university in 1971 to launch W.E.Coates and Associates, but he and his Guelph peers were fundamental to the launch of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects. Coates co-chaired the OALA’s second Congress (1973) with Owen Scott, and served as President from 1973-75.
In the 1970s, Coates’ firm rapidly became a force in the region, building upon his unique blend of skills. Born in Michigan (1928), Coates had graduated from Cleveland’s Case Institute of Technology, BSCE (1946-50). For 13 years, he worked in civil engineering. In 1963, he shifted gears, heading to University of California (MLA 1965), studying and simultaneously building skills in the nursery trade, as a teaching assistant, and as a job captain (environmental planning).
He worked initially with prominent landscape architectural consulting firms in San Francisco and Pittsburg, but by January 1966, Coates was in Canada with Sasaki, Strong (project manager for the university campuses of York and Brock, planner of institutional, industrial and park developments.)
By the early 1970s, Coates’ firm was master planning parks and conservation areas (Filsinger Park 1973/ Rondeau Provincial Park 1974), designing gardens and sports fields, facilitating recreational planning (Ontario Trails Council), and guiding scores of pit and gravel projects. By 1979, Coates had partnered with Owen Scott to produce pit and quarry rehabilitation studies, and his firm would continue to win awards for rehabilitation work (Queenston Quarry Extension), to conduct environmental assessments, and to lead Ontario firms in the field. (CSLA Fellow Glen Harrington credits Coates’ pioneering work with pits and quarries, as a key building block in the development of Ontario standards.)
Coates, who was at the leading edge of so many initiatives, was the first chair of the College of Fellows (1979-84). He became an OALA Emeritus in 1981. After his death, the University of Guelph established the W.E. Coates Memorial Scholarship, funded by friends of Bill Coates.
Sources
William E. Coates collection (University of Guelph Library). 1968- 1985. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/628702792
Photo Sources
Bill Coates with Emiel Van der Meulen. Courtesy Owen Scott and the OALA.
“Landscape Architecture Students Plan Park,” University of Guelph News Bulletin, 28 March, 1968.
R.J. Hilton and W.E. Coates studying the Guelph Arboretum Master Plan.
Schematic Master Plan of the University of Guelph, Arboretum, by W. E. Coates, May, 1970. www.arbhistory.uoguelph.ca.
Plaque: University of Guelph Arboretum Planning Committee, 1982. University of Guelph
University of Guelph Arboretum Master Plan (Booklet), 2004. Overview.
Omark Courtyard in Guelph, 1980 OALA Citation Professional Award. Landscape Architectural Review, April 1981.
Queenston Quarry Extension. 1981 OALA Merit Professional Award. Landscape Architectural Review, April 1981.
Glenridge Quarry Landfill Operation
Aberfoyle Pit: Telephone City Gravel Company
