1. The Artists' Gardens at Harbourfront are pretty much exactly what the name implies - a collection of small whimsical "gardens" created by different artists, located on the south side of Queen's Quay near the foot of Lower Simcoe Street. Several buildings surround the property, including the Enwave Theatre to the south, the York Quay Centre to the west, and many tall buildings and condominiums to the east and north. The Canadian flag flies high on several tall flagpoles while a row of Harbourfront flags lines the area sidewalk and road. There are currently 24 gardens on site, each created by a different local artist and each representing a different theme. I imagine the gardens are quite spectacular in the spring and summer; however, like many of the sites I have visited so far, the shorter days and falling temperatures of autumn means that what was once leafy and green and full of blooms just a couple of months ago is now turning brown. I can still see some reminders of what must have been some very cool exhibits - one of them incorporates old television sets into its designs, another features several different sized parabolic mirrors - so there is still quite a bit to see. In addition to the artists' gardens, the entire west side of the property is lined with 40 large billboards displaying a photo exhibition that features aerial photographs of Canada's Boreal Forest taken by nine different Canadian photographers.
It is a Saturday afternoon, approximately 4:00 p.m., and while it is mild for mid-November, the overcast skies make it seem less pleasant than it actually is. However, this does not stop several children from using the colourful and large playground the sits in the middle of the property. In fact for the first time in my observations, even though this site is right next to the very busy road, the most dominant noise I hear while I am observing my surroundings is not traffic, but children screaming and laughing and yelling and screaming and yelling some more. A few minutes of that loud high-pitched wail that only young children seem to be capable of creating and all of a sudden, the car noises I had been complaining about this entire time all of a sudden did not seem all that intrusive.
2. I have finally discovered where all the people that have been conspicuously absent from all of the other sites that I have visited thus far have been hanging out! This area was incredibly busy, with all kinds of people sitting on the benches or standing around as their children play. The gardens are out in the open and fully accessible, and some of the children can't resist getting a hands on experience. Several people walk around and look at both the gardens and the photo exhibit. Some people take a rest on one of the many benches that surround the property. Many people come in and out of the York Quay centre holding shopping bags, perhaps getting a head start on their holiday shopping. A young couple walks through the area to the parking lot next door. No one is biking around the gardens, but people it must be going on somewhere since people are encouraged to take their bike down to the area (or so I assumed because of the dedicated bicycle parking area on the property).
3. This was a fun site to visit, simply because there was so much to see in such a small space, and the pieces themselves - or what was left of them thanks to the weather - were really interesting and creative. There seemed to be two distinct groups of people at the gardens: the people who came to the area with the specific purpose of sightseeing and taking in the exhibits, and the families who came to use the nice playground (that just happened to be located within the exhibit). I was certainly part of the former group, which also felt like the smaller one while I was there, but looking back at my pictures I realize that there were not as many people using the playground as I remember. The sound of children was so prominent during my visit that it must have altered my perception.
4. This site is far more pedestrian-friendly than many of the others I have sites I have been observing so far, and this brought to mind Peter Calthorpe's piece in the SUDR called "The Next American Metropolis" where he discusses the need for more pedestrian-friendly neighbourhoods and communities. He talks about "Pedestrian Pockets," and this is how I saw this site. While some of the gardens sit close enough to the road to be spotted from your car, they are little more than a blur while zooming by at 40km/hour. Queens Quay is a very well-travelled road, serving as an alternative to the other east-west roads and highways in the southern half of the city, and as a direct route to accessing the actual lakeshore and Harbourfront areas. Yet, at the same time the entire Harbourfront area caters to that part of the population who wants to get out of their cars and explore the sites around them, giving those people areas to explore and enjoy.
Pucher, Komanoff, and Shimek’s article about a bicycling renaissance is once again is relevant to a site like this for very similar reasons to the ones I gave above. While you are never going to get everyone out of their car, places like the Artists' Gardens (and most of the other sites around the Harbourfront) actively discourage people from driving in many ways, starting with the high prices charged for the limited parking in contrast to the plentiful and free bicycle parking provided. In addition, if you really want to see the sites in this area, you have to get out of your car. The very nature of the gardens' designs, with their intricate designs and hidden objects, need to be examined up close to be truly appreciated. Doing so is so much easier when on a bike than when in a car. Finally, separate paths are provided through the area for both walking and bicycle/inline skate traffic, making it much easier for people to travel through the area. And as they zoom by all the drivers in their cars parked in bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic, perhaps one of them will see all the benefits biking offers and decide to give it a try?
5. I don't know that it is a well-known site, but it was certainly the most popular of the ones I have visited for this assignment - regardless of the quickly falling temperatures and shorter days. However, I don't know that it was the gardens that were bringing the people out. In fact, I think it was a mix of things that make this site so popular to local (and perhaps like myself, not-so-local) residents. The playground is probably the most popular feature, and the one seemed to draw the biggest crowd on the day of my visit. Very much like the Humber Bay Habitat, this site is surrounded by large condominium developments whose footprint takes up so much space that there is often little room remaining for specifically designated play or leisure areas for the residents who live there. This site likely serves as one of the few remaining areas where local residents feel as though they can still enjoy their local surroundings.
I feel that this site is a good example of the "fetishization" of nature that goes on in urban environments. Harbourfront is often marketed as a place that is specifically made for the residents of the city, and the tourists who often join us, to enjoy nature and the outdoors. However, the majority of the area has been paved over to make way for paths or parking or buildings, leaving very little "natural" green space behind. The only "natural" part of the environment that remains is the lake that provides a beautiful backdrop for most of the area. The people who designed this site created small "oases" with controlled areas of plant growth in an area where the most ubiquitous site is cement to make the site more liveable for neighbourhood residents.
The Artists' Gardens are so close to Queens Quay, the highway, and other main arteries that run through the heart of downtown Toronto, that traffic is always going to be an issue. While the lake view provides some respite to the urban buzz that continuously lingers in the background, especially when the sun is reflecting off the water just right and making everything around it glow, there are so many remaining distractions in almost every other direction one faces. The children running around and screaming with the seemingly endless supplies of energy, the cars zipping past well above the speed limit, the large trucks and construction vehicles belching thick black smoke into the air, people passing through the area with their hands full of purchases from the local gift shops and craft stores - none of it is particularly conducive to experiencing nature in the city.
That being said, I still thought this was a really great site in the way it not only brings art to the people, but also brings them nature by way of the art pieces. Watching the young boy play around in the one garden with the television sets really made me realize how special it is to have access to sites like this. My first instinct when I saw him was to be horrified at him "messing up" the garden into which someone had put so much work. But then I noticed that there were no signs asking people to keep out of the gardens, and if they were really worried about people getting into them, they wouldn't have made them so accessible to even the smallest children. Not to mention that it was the end of the season anyway, and most of the plants were already dead or dying. So I took a page out of this kid's book and started touching the exhibits myself, immediately turning into an active instead of passive observer. It was so great because I spend a lot of time at the ROM and I spend most of the time fighting back the urge to touch everything I see, so this was a very liberating experience for me. I may be an especially tactile person, but I don't think I am alone in having a strong desire to touch things I find interesting or attractive. Sites like this can make people feel like they have a more active role in their community, environment, and the cultural events that take place in their neighbourhoods, making them more likely to participate and to advocate for similar events in the future.
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