Results tagged “torontobotanicalgarden”

Shhh—listen, do you hear them? The silences echoing through the air are the songs of the bluebirds, wrens, swallows, and purple martins, migratory birds whose populations are declining at alarming rates. Before stepping into the sunlit gallery at the Toronto Botanical Garden, you might go to the grocery store, the gym, or the pub oblivious to the plight of these birds, blithely accepting the pigeon as our emblematic avian.

Whatever else you may have thought of former mayor Barbara Hall, she will forever be a champion for besting Boston, whose Brahmins looked down their noses at what would eventually become the award-winning Toronto Music Garden. After much bureaucratic red tape, landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy and collaborator cellist Yo-Yo Ma gave up on trying to build a music garden in New England’s famed city by the sea. Instead, they headed north to Toronto where they were warmly welcomed by Mayor Barbara Hall, Director of Parks Susan Richardson, and financial backer Jim Fleck. Starting with a windy plot at the western reaches of Harbourfront near the foot of Spadina Avenue, Messervy and Ma began to transform the lakeside property into the Toronto Music Garden.