Join your sector peers and learn about what the Landscape Ontario Horticultural Trades Association Designer Group is doing on your behalf, and help shape future initiatives and projects.

Haig Seferian, CLD, OALA, CSLA, FASLA | Chair, Landscape Design Sector Group

Greetings from the OALA

Landscape design projects differ in scale and complexity, however, they are separated into various stages to allow for ease of management. Due to the variation in project types, the staging of landscape design projects requires a flexible approach to project management. The project stages often follow a similar pattern however, they may be shortened or not undertaken due to various factors including scale, complexity, client requirements, budget and so on.

This session will focus on project management topics such as:

• Scheduling and Budget

• Managing construction builds

• Organizing trade partners

• Overcoming obstacles in construction process

• Liability

Moderator: Haig Seferian, CLD, OALA, CSLA, FASLA | Seferian Design Group

Panelists:

Danée Marie Lambourne | Eden Projects

Founder and Creative Director of EDEN Projects; a full-service landscape design studio operating on Vancouver Island. Danée Lambourne is an expert in white-glove client services, and the art of the pivot, specializing in landscape and construction curation and project facilitation. The EDEN umbrella hosts 2 distinct branches: EDEN Projects, a Residential and Multi family Design/Build firm; Inventing Eden, focussing on holistic wellness and restorative land-use and livelihood. Since the inception of the company, Danée has been designing gardens across Vancouver Island for now 20 years+, leading the way in plant-driven design and construction management. Valuing client relationships and human connection, Danée is passionate about cultivating quality of life, leading with vision and executing with conviction, to transform master plans into emotive spaces.

Cheryl Cichon | ELP Environmental Inc

Cheryl Cichon is the founder and president of ELP Landscapes Inc. ELP is a woman-led company spearheaded by Cheryl Cichon who has been in the industry for decades and is a graduate from Niagara College Landscape Technician program. Cheryl is always pushing herself to continuously grow and perfect the residential landscaping industry. Cheryl’s experience shines in the creation of every project that ELP executes! Cheryl brings extensive experience to the construction industry and an innovative approach to professional project management.

James Garfield Thompson, B.Sc. Agr., OALA, CSLA, SOUL | J. Garfield Thompson Landscape Ltd

James was born and raised on the potato farm in Mount Albert Ontario, where he gained a love of the land, literally by getting his hands dirty. James graduated from the University of Guelph in 1977 with a degree in ornamental horticulture. He worked one year in the nursery/landscape industry and then moved on to operate a successful design/build landscape company, now and it's 39th year. J Garfield Thompson Landscape Ltd. focusses on large, medium and small residential landscapes. James and his partner, Vanessa Shand, started Seed Wonder, a floral and special event decorating company, in 1982. In 1986, they started Water Arts Inc. Fountain Company, a fountain and water feature design company.

Innovative technologies such as drones and 3d scanning have been widely adopted by the AEC industries in recent years. In this session, Mansoor will present the "why" and the "how" these new and innovative technologies can also benefit small and large landscape design projects by showcasing a few examples at LANDinc. Derived from his 1,500 hours of usage/experience, Mansoor will summarize the “pros and cons” of these innovative tools as “take-home” message for future considerations by landscape designers/architects as well as contractors --- and without heavy financial investment.

Mansoor Ma, OALA, CSLA, PhD Candidate | LANDinc

Mansoor Ma (OALA, CSLA) is the Associate Principal of LANDinc with a demonstrated history of working in the field of landscape architecture and urban design. He is the primary visionary actively involved in research and development of the LANDinc’s Immersive Media Portal --- an interactive virtual and augmented reality platform for design assessment and presentation. Mansoor is also an independent scholar and academic speaker at design conferences and universities addressing the integrated use of technologies as design tools and for design communication/interpretation (hand sketches, digital imaging, 3d modeling, animation, augmented and virtual reality, interactive tours, realtime visual simulation, photogrammetry, 3d scanning and documentation, etc). As a leader in the field, Mansoor is called upon across Canada and Internationally to give lectures as well as interactive design and visualization workshops.

Drawing is a great asset to have to convey concepts to your clients and equally as important being able to flush out your innovative ideas to yourself and your builders.

Beth will walk you through some sketching exercises that will rid you of the stigma "that you cannot draw" or give you permission that you do not have to produce Rembrandts for your presentations.

Beth Edney, CLD, CIFD | Designs By The Yard

Beth is entering her 35th year in the world of Horticulture. She began her career as a landscape designer at Weall and Cullen Garden Centre. She studied Landscape Architecture at Ryerson and opened her design firm, Designs By The Yard in 1994. Beth discovered her love of teaching when she taught workshops at Landscape Ontario for the certification program. This led to her teaching part time at numerous colleges throughout Ontario. Beth is currently teaching online courses, is the Artistic Director of The Toronto Christmas Market at The Toronto Distillery District and enjoys being selective about the Landscape Design Projects she now pursues.

So you are called to design a site with a long wish list from the client but when you get there you discover its a size of a closet! Now what? Learn some tricks to overcome some of the spatial challenges from award winning certified landscape designer Welwyn Wong and Glenn Curtis as they walk through a few of their past projects with the challenges of oddly shaped spaces and how they overcame these obstacles transforming each small space into their full potential.

Welwyn Wong, CLD | Welwyn Wong Landscape Design

Welwyn Wong, has a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree from the University of Guelph. Over the last 2 decades, She has designed beautiful high-end landscapes in Toronto, Thunder Bay, Newfoundland, United States, Hong Kong, Grand Cayman, and Ottawa. Her clients benefit from her love of travel as she pulls inspiration from all over the world to create innovative designs in both the residential market as well as the commercial realm. Her and her company continue to be the recipients of Landscape Ontario’s Awards of Excellence winning in the design category for 16+ years! As she puts it “We don’t follow the trends but make them.”

Glenn Curtis | Plantenance Landscape Group

Glenn Curtis is the Co-Founder and President of Plantenance Landscape Group & Design Plantenance. For more than 42 years, the company has strategically grown to become a multi award winning design-build and horticultural care firm. Recognized in the Montréal luxury landscape market for their imaginative one-of-a kind projects and unique creative process, the company recently debuted the Plantenance Design + Inspiration Center to provide clients a more enjoyable and collaborative design through build experience.

Alexandre Rescat, LA, AAPQ, AAPC | Plantenance Design & Plantenance Landscape Group

In 2014, Alexandre graduated with a Bachelors in Landscape Architecture from the University of Montreal. He has since been an active member of the AAPQ and AAPC. In 2018, he advanced his career by joining Plantenance Design and Plantenance Landscape Group and was soon promoted in 2020 to Landscape Design + Operations Manager. Under his direction, his team has received numerous industry awards and professional recognition for their creative outdoor living projects.

Discover the importance of teamwork through the collaborative process of creating a unique landscape design in a Landscape Design Charette. A Landscape Design Charette is a participatory planning process that shares the professional expertise of an interdisciplinary team who share a common goal of creating a conceptual landscape design together. Join fellow participants in a collaborative Landscape Design Charette where teams will apply a specific garden style to create a unique and creative design solution for a proposed project site. Teams will be given background on the site character, biophysical factors and conditions and program requirements of the given project site and offered an introduction of the various garden design styles to be explored by teams in the Landscape Design Charette. Groups will be assigned a specific garden style such as the Cottage Country Garden, Woodland Garden, Asian Inspired Garden, Italian Garden, Contemporary Garden, English Garden, Sustainable Environmental and Habitat Garden, New Perennial Layered Garden, Xeroscaping / Rock and Scree Garden, Raised Garden Bed and Container Garden, Rain Harvesting and Water Garden and Edible and Kitchen Garden and given some key identifying factors of the style that may be incorporated within the design. Teams will interpret the meaning and spatial forms of a specific garden style through the collaborative and experiential process of creating an illustrative landscape design concept. MVP prizes are to be awarded within each team to recognize one participants outstanding contribution to the project. All materials will be supplied and landscape solutions will be displayed at the reception of the conference for viewing and discussion. It will be fascinating to see how all the teams interpreted a particular garden design style and as well observe all the various design responses that have been applied to the same site. Enjoy the experiential process of designing in a supportive team environment and learning from your fellow conference participants. As the old saying goes, “Two Heads are Better than one,” and this Landscape Design Charette will show case that landscape design solutions can be developed more quickly and with higher quality by a team working in collaboration.

Moderators:

Beth Edney, CLD, CIFD | Designs By The Yard

Beth is entering her 35th year in the world of Horticulture. She began her career as a landscape designer at Weall and Cullen Garden Centre. She studied Landscape Architecture at Ryerson and opened her design firm, Designs By The Yard in 1994. Beth discovered her love of teaching when she taught workshops at Landscape Ontario for the certification program. This led to her teaching part time at numerous colleges throughout Ontario. Beth is currently teaching online courses, is the Artistic Director of The Toronto Christmas Market at The Toronto Distillery District and enjoys being selective about the Landscape Design Projects she now pursues.

Shawn Gallaugher MLA, BLA, BFA (Hons) | Shawn Gallaugher Design

Shawn Gallaugher has an educational background in Fine Art and Landscape Architecture and offers a creative approach to design thinking. As principle of Shawn Gallaugher Design and an Instructor at Ryerson University, The G. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education, Certificate of Landscape Design Program, and George Brown College, Landscape Design Certificate Program, he incorporates contemporary practice with academic research. An avid exercise enthusiast, Shawn has developed the concept of the Otium Outdoor Exercise Garden where landscape features in the natural and designed environment double as exercise equipment to allow the activation of an outdoor exercise circuit.

Heather Schibli and Jim Dougan will examine some key issues in ecology, and emerging restoration design approaches which can offer effective solutions.

Heather Schibli, BFA, MLA, OALA, ISA | Dougan & Associates

Heather Schibli, BFA, MLA, OALA, ISA draws upon her passion for the creative process and her deep affinity for ecological health when designing landscapes. Prior to joining D&A in 2015, Heather worked within the design field in fashion and product design for over a decade. Her interest in the natural world first led her to horticulture and eventually to landscape architecture, ecology, and arboriculture. Now as a certified ISA arborist and terrestrial ecologist, she designs outdoor spaces that benefit people, wildlife, and the natural environment alike. Her design practice is complimented with project management, report writing, construction administration, tree assessments, and botanical surveys. Heather brings her enthusiasm for the natural world to her work at CanPlant, D&A’s native plant initiative. She assists Canadians with their urban reforestation projects by guiding plant community lists, utilizing restoration design principles, and connecting organizations and individuals. She is currently developing a visual guide to trees of northeastern North America.

Jim Dougan, BSc, MSc, OALA (Hon) | Dougan & Associates

Jim Dougan, BSc, MSc, OALA (Hon) is a senior ecologist and founding Director of Dougan & Associates, Ecological Consulting and Design. Jim’s career in ecology began in 1972 with graduate studies at the University of Guelph Dept. of Environmental Biology, focused on the ecology and biological control of a harmful exotic weed species. After completing his MSc in 1975, Jim founded Dougan & Associates and has led a wide range of natural heritage planning and design studies, from site to watershed scales. In over 4 decades of consulting and teaching (University of Toronto, University of Guelph, Niagara College) Jim has advocated innovative strategies to better manage ecosystems for the long term. From 1996 until 2019, he was co-owner of Grand Moraine Growers, a plant nursery based in Wellington County that engaged in production of a wide range of native plants. Jim was a founding member of the Society of Ecological Restoration Ontario Chapter in 1992, and more recently of the Ontario Native Plant Growers Association.