Add To Collection
Add to Collection
Channelled Buried Moved Lost: Where Did Mill Creek Go?
Channelled Buried Moved Lost: Where Did Mill Creek Go?
Toronto, Canada
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
Other Projects by PLANT Architect Inc.
Channelled Buried Moved Lost: Where Did Mill Creek Go?
Toronto, Canada
Firm
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2012
Photos
Cambridge Galleries commissioned this outdoor installation as part of Common Ground, an exhibition/public art/landscape awareness event staged in 2012 in Cambridge, Ontario. Channelled Buried Moved Lost: Where Did Mill Creek Go? encompassed multiple locations, mapping the journey of Cambridge’s once-important but long-buried Mill Creek. Our team also designed a still-active website (www.millcreekgalt.ca) paired with this 10-point walk; the website showcases the creek’s evolution through archival maps and photographs.
Mill Creek’s intersection with Main Street sparked our curiosity, as it is where the rushing waters that form the backbone of Cambridge’s major green spaces plunge without celebration into a giant concrete culvert and disappear. (It subsequently re-emerges, after being rerouted to an unexpected place.) Through archival maps, we discovered the creek’s true paths and its pivotal historical importance: Cambridge was founded at this spot in 1816 because it is where Mill Creek and the Grand River intersect. How could such an important piece of natural infrastructure disappear visually and culturally? How long does it take to forget?
We created a walk-cum-installation that takes visitors on an urban ‘scavenger hunt’, complete with clues mapping the lost creek’s path from where it is buried to where it merges with the Grand River. Instead of overwhelming with historical detail underfoot, we kept the text brief and developed graphic treatments for it that would convey the poetic, funny, tragic nature of what really happened to the creek. We conceived this project as a series of prompts that might cause people to view their surroundings with newfound curiosity. Our hope is that by creating a physical tracing of memory, in conjunction with the web archive, we have helped the people of Cambridge rediscover a piece of their history—one that has only recently faded away.
Mill Creek’s intersection with Main Street sparked our curiosity, as it is where the rushing waters that form the backbone of Cambridge’s major green spaces plunge without celebration into a giant concrete culvert and disappear. (It subsequently re-emerges, after being rerouted to an unexpected place.) Through archival maps, we discovered the creek’s true paths and its pivotal historical importance: Cambridge was founded at this spot in 1816 because it is where Mill Creek and the Grand River intersect. How could such an important piece of natural infrastructure disappear visually and culturally? How long does it take to forget?
We created a walk-cum-installation that takes visitors on an urban ‘scavenger hunt’, complete with clues mapping the lost creek’s path from where it is buried to where it merges with the Grand River. Instead of overwhelming with historical detail underfoot, we kept the text brief and developed graphic treatments for it that would convey the poetic, funny, tragic nature of what really happened to the creek. We conceived this project as a series of prompts that might cause people to view their surroundings with newfound curiosity. Our hope is that by creating a physical tracing of memory, in conjunction with the web archive, we have helped the people of Cambridge rediscover a piece of their history—one that has only recently faded away.
Product Spec Sheet
Were your products used?
Join as a manufacturer to add your products.