July, 2021 Committee Updates
In 2020, the CSLA members approved the 2021-23 Strategic Plan. That plan is based on three key pillars:
- Raising the profile of the profession,
- Advocating for and supporting issues of importance to the profession, and
- Providing services to members that builds professional capacity
One of the strategies included in the second pillar - Advocating for and supporting issues of importance to the profession – is to celebrate and protect Canada’s cultural and historic landscapes. This strategy is also reinforced by our commitment to uphold the Canadian Landscape Charter, which maintains one of the profession’s core values of inspiring stewardship.
Canada boasts a significant wealth of cultural heritage sites valued from coast to coast to coast, providing ecological and historical services, and in many locations unique economic and tourism staples. Landscapes of all types inform our identity and sense of belonging and legacy. Cultural landscapes are defined as those places that have been designed and intentionally modified by man; others have organically evolved through settlement and forces of nature and activities; while others are places of memory and story.
Some landscapes are forgotten and many are being revived and rehabilitated for more modern appreciation. Landscape architects have long advocated and had a role in protecting, managing and restoring these places for greater knowledge and enjoyment.
In the Fall of 2020, the Committee on Cultural Landscapes and Legacy was established by the Board of the CSLA and, since then, the Committee has established refined its mandate and scope, and established the following objectives:
- Build awareness about the importance of legacy to the profession
- Establish a national database of landscape assets, identifying those cultural landscapes and landscape architects that merit celebration
- Provide research resources and build awareness within the profession and the broader community
- Employ tools so to advocate for threatened cultural landscapes on a national basis through political engagement and public awareness
- Showcase, through various means, landscapes of cultural interest from across the country and/or bodies of work to a broader public and professional audience
Learn about and build this collection of knowledge with our team.
Click here to read the committee’s Terms of Reference and Action Plan
Committee Activities and Initiatives
Since its founding in early 2021, the Cultural Landscapes and Legacy Committee has:
- Developed its Terms of Reference and received CSLA Board approval on the TOR
- Provided advice to the CSLA Board on the endorsement of the proposed designation of the Scarboro Subdivision (originally called Sunalta Addition) in Calgary, Alberta as a significant cultural heritage landscape.
Resources
Click here to view the Cultural Landscapes Resources page
Committee Members:
Carolyn Woodland (Board Champion)
John Zvonar (Chair)
Alexander Topps
Carl Bray
Desirée Valadares
Jonathan Cha
Maxime Tudo
Blake Roberts
Michelle Legault (Ex-Officio)