Introduction

In some respects the University can be compared to a small city. It operates and occupies a large complex urban territory and has a significant resident and employment population base who rely on the University for services, including recreation amenities. In this municipal comparison, the open spaces would be planned, programmed and designed by a Parks, Recreation and Culture Department. Operations and maintenance might be integral to this unit or undertaken by a central Works Department.

In several locations in Ontario where the open spaces and landscape are critical to the sense of place, an additional agency overview is provided. The National Capital Commission in Ottawa, for example, is charged with setting and maintaining an image suitable to the Capital of Canada, within the framework of the Region of Ottawa-Carleton. The Niagara Parks Commission is a similar body whose mandate is to maintain the quality of the open spaces in cities within the corridor from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Fort Erie, including the open spaces at Horseshoe Falls, the Whirlpool and the oak savannah along the Niagara Parkway.

The open spaces of the St. George Campus and the Queen's Park district of the City of Toronto, while critical to the operation of the University and important to the City and the Province of Ontario, have no such institutional support to develop and maintain their future. The City of Toronto Parks Department plays no role in these spaces beyond the confines of Queen's Park.

Individual academic departments on the St. George Campus have a clearly expressed interest in their buildings. Generally, the departments prioritize building and space related improvements in budget allocations. The planning of new buildings follows the defined process of the City of Toronto Official Plan under the Ontario Planning Act. No comprehensive review structure exists for the common ground of all of these University facilities - the campus open spaces.

The existing University-sponsored volunteer committees on matters of design, while critical to the discussion of design on campus and communicating with the University community, cannot be expected to successfully undertake and manage such a time-consuming and complicated task as developing funding and maintaining a framework for open space design and management.