A PLACE TO MEDITATE
Take a tour through the gardens of the Aga Khan museum,
The brand-new Aga Khan Park is un-Torontonian: there are no signs telling visitors what to do. Torontonians are a people used to overly officious and rule-ridden public spaces, and this kind of respect is disconcerting.
Both the Aga Khan Museum and Ismaili Centre opened here at Eglinton Ave. and the DVP last year, but the park that surrounds the buildings made its formal debut two weeks ago.
I met Sarah Pirani recently, who enthusiastically described the new park and gardens and offered to take me on a walk. She’s a volunteer at the museum and, with her background in landscape architecture, she assisted the team that created the park’s walking tours program. It was her infectious enthusiasm that made visiting the park a priority.
“It’s a modern interpretation of a garden from Muslim civilizations,” says Pirani, explaining that the core area of the park between the two buildings is a contemporized version of a chahar bagh, or four-part garden. Designed by Beirut-based landscape architect Vladimir Djurovic, five gently flowing infinity pools are surrounded by a formal orchard-layout of trees and stone benches.
“Muslim gardens were designed to be used all day, seated for enjoyment rather than long walks like in Europe, so the garden had to sustain them,” says Pirani. “Djurovic brought in serviceberry trees, sometimes called a saskatoon tree, that were used by the Cree as a high-energy snack.” In the winter, Pirani says, the twiglike nature of the trees create interesting shadows. “They offer something special every season.”
There was no park here before the Aga Khan came to town, just the Bata Shoe headquarters and its surrounding lawn and parking lot. Across the DVP, a cluster of highrises house thousands of people and many more live just south of Eglinton in Flemingdon Park. This is their new neighbourhood park.
“We consider this a public park on private property,” says Tasleem Somji, a spokesperson for the Aga Khan Museum. “The neighbourhood is beginning to use it. People cut through here to get down to Eglin- ton and we find people meditating in the gardens at 6 a.m.”
Other parts of the park are somewhat less formal than the centre is, with abundant benches, some positioned for private conversations, others for communal gathering.
The Aga Khan Park isn’t like most other Toronto places in another way: it isn’t built cheaply. The materials are so top-notch it feels like somewhere else. It’s all been done with the Aga Khan’s private money of course, which is why we haven’t seen any pictures of frowning city councillors at the park complaining of the price tag, as we did with Sugar Beach on the waterfront. However, judging by that park’s popularity and the fact that 14,000 people visited the Aga Khan Park during the Doors Open weekend this year, there’s a real desire in Toronto for this kind of quality.
Time spent in the serviceberry orchard is quite peaceful. Ducks skim across the water, temporarily scattering the shimmering reflections of the building. A motorcycle rips by on the DVP, puncturing the rather gentle white noise of the highway. Small groups of people stroll around and chat, their conversations mixing with the sound of running water. Shoes crunch on the crushed stone. The Toronto skyline can be seen from the park, seemingly closer than it really is, and the late spring sun reflects brilliantly off the downtown buildings just before it sets.
“There’s a really cool swale on the way down to Eglinton,” Pirani says as I leave, her landscape architecture roots showing. The rock-filled swale, or ditch, catches water as it runs off the raised site. The park seems simple, but the tour Pirani helped design reveals its engineering, ecological and cultural complexity that blends Muslim and Canadian traditions.
The park is open dawn until dusk and the hour-long walking tours occur every day but Monday at 4 p.m., with an additional 10:30 a.m. walk on weekends. On July 5, the park will welcome the Pan Am flame with an evening community celebration. Shawn Micallef writes every Friday about where and how we live in the GTA. Wander with him on Twitter @shawnmicallef.