The Facts

Location: Windsor, Ontario, CA
Size: ? Acres
Partners: Noel Harding Studio
Client: City of Windsor
Budget: N/A
Completed: 2008

About the Project

The Green Corridor is a ground breaking initiative for generating a green redevelopment of the International bridge corridor linking Canada to the United Sates in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Green corridor aims to generate local, national and international focus by integrating Public Art, sustainable technologies, and scientific monitoring along the two kilometer multi-lane trade route. Traveling along its 2km length, visitors will experience a new conception of the urban landscape –shifting from a concrete jungle to a “regenerative green zone” where landscape ecology is celebrated. landLAB collaborated with the Green Corridors team on the conceptual design of an interpretive wetland located between The University of Windsor’s Sports Complex and the Assumption Catholic high school in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The project will incorporate native habitat restoration, as well as interpretive outdoor classroom areas and boardwalks that will be linked to other green corridor projects including the adjacent “green bridge”. landLAB will work closely with the City of Windsor to link the project with the City’s bicycle master plan, as well as the University of Windsor proposed pedestrian spine.

Proposed Site Plan

Landscape Typologies

Outdoor Classroom

Concept Scheme 1

Concept Scheme 2

The Facts

Location: Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Size: 400 Sq M
Partners: Noel Harding Studio
Client: City of Burnaby
Budget: N/A
Completed: 2012

About the Project

A celebration of an intimate relationship with Nature. A vessel… a watering vase… inviting notions of nurture. The vase holds stems identifying the personal character of composing flowers or branches. The vessel’s metal at its base creases as if being the human action of stepping forward or a subtle reminder of a rain boot. There is whimsy and play associated. Branches reach upward holding wings, abstracted leaves collecting rain. A mesh of reflecting metal suggests a tree canopy of foliage or a cloud in the sky. Climbing vines trace and grow with mesh being a trellis for vines to extend. A rainy day spouts water falling into the planter below. A sunny day gives a glint to a trickle of water on the surface of the steel. The scheduled cycle of plant irrigation creates a parallel display of water dripping from the spout. At the base there is a transition of plantings as the sculpture saturates surrounding soil. The

Structure Hydrology

Structure Materials

The Facts

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Size: 65 Sq. M
Partners: Noel Harding Studio
Client: City of Toronto
Budget: N/A
Completed: Under Construction

About the Project

The Mimico Creek project is a public art project in collaboration with artist Noel Harding in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The main concept of the project is to interpret and display a sense of local “folklore,” the wilderness “not discovered” of Mimico Creek, its ecology, flora and fauna in the form of visual story telling. The “book” form of the piece not only tells the story of the landscape, but it also takes part of its story as it interacts and changes hour by hour each day, season by season in the year. Attention to detail in the materials proposed for the project help establish mimicry, a reflection of the surroundings, durability and sustainability. The paving pattern follow the flow and form of the creek that “runs through it” while the planting reveals the riparian ecology of the creek. The team was the winner of # teams short-listed for this project.

The Facts

Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Size: 40 Sq M
Partners: Noel Harding Studio
Client: Minto
Budget: N/A
Completed: 2010

About the Project

Artist Noel Harding and landLAB were selected as the winning team for a public art commission at 180 Kent Street in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada for the private developer Minto. The work, as titled, points outside itself – being a city mind dreaming of the woods. The silhouettes of plantings imagine, identify, and celebrate a symbolic character of the Canadian Wilderness that resonates in a quintessential relation as if holding the reality of Tom Thompson’s “The Jack Pine.” Plant material becomes more than simply landscape as they pay homage to nature itself; celebrated within a grand vessel. Reflective steel becomes the giant trunk of a fallen tree with an extruded branch, renewal in the reality of living trees and grasses protruding – turning (1RPM) in the physical illustration of time. NORTHSHORE is a confirming statement. The meanings are rich in evolution and layering yet succinct and pointed in symbol.

Design Scheme

The Facts

Location: Toronto, Ontario,Canada
Size: 1000 Sq M
Partners: Noel Harding Studio
Client: ?
Budget: N/A
Completed: 2013

About the Project

The structure silhouette is reminiscent of Toronto’s agricultural past while the oak beam structure is iconic to Canada’s bountiful resources. A symbol of community resonance, the installation is identified and linked to it’s cultural ‘past’ thereby enabling community to evolve identity as the perceivable sense of having a ‘location’ of reference. Located on a trade route of significance, ‘Dawes Crossing’ is titled in a parallel evocation as integrating community enabling objectives. As a transit point the site moves the people into it and often to wait and sit. The site as harvesting sun and wind to provide income. Income provides community with resources to seed a vision. Establishing place as framework allows completion as community amplitude. The sculpture provides free wireless Internet access. AC outlets are accessible. Lighting can be programmed. Events can be staged. A plaza for markets and kiosks can appear. A lawn and audience space allows music evenings or community festival.

Site Plan

Solar Energy

Wind Energy

Water Collection

The Facts

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Size: 14500 Sq M
Partners: Noel Harding Studio
Client: Canadian Plastic Industry Association
Budget: N/A
Completed: 1999
Publications:

Bennett, Paul. “Slouching Towards Toronto.”
Landscape Architecture Magazine 1 Mar.
2000: 72-77

“Elevated Wetlands, Toronto, Canada.
” Paisea / El Elemento Vegetal 1 Sept.
2009: 34-39

McLeod, Virginia. “The Elevated Wetlands,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada.”Detail in Contemporary
Landscape Architecture. London: Laurence King,
2012. 46-49. Print.

About the Project

Neil Hadley collaborated with Artist Noel Harding on the “elevated wetlands” public art project in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The elevated wetlands were designed to intrude and locate itself, as being evident from the speed of a major traffic artery into downtown Toronto. The project consists of six polystyrene containers filled with recycled plastics acting as hydroponics planters for native plantings from the Don River Valley. Water from the polluted Don River is pumped via solar photovoltaic pumps into the sculpture, and is filtered through the planted containers, and then cascades into large ground level wetlands, returning to the river significantly cleansed. As a functioning sculpture commissioned by the Canadian Plastics Industry Association, the work draws attention to the importance of wetland ecosystems, and more importantly the rate at which they are disappearing. Subsequently, the City of Toronto has identified and designated the site as one of seven green tourism locations.

Breaking Path for Giants

The structures rest on the Don River that cuts across Toronto.

The water gets filtered biologically as it transfers from structure to structure.

The water is then cleansed when it returns to the river.

Page Excerpt from Details in Contemporary Landscape Architecture,2012