Japanese garden, designed to highlight the city's twinning with Itabashi Japan, wins significant award.

By Staff

February 7th, 2020

BURLINGTON, ON

The Itabashi Garden at the Tansley Community Centre has won the Parks and Recreation Ontario 2020 Award of Excellence for Recreational Facility or (non-aquatic) Park Design.

The stone pagoda and the quiet little, what we would call a gazebo, give visitors a place to sit and just enjoy it all. Photo by Richard-Mandelkorn

A Stone Pagoda is part of the garden setting.

The Japanese garden, designed by Virginia Burt Designs, opened on Canada Day 2019 with the official delegation from Itabashi, Japan, members of Burlington City Council, and the Consul-General of Japan in Toronto, Takako Ito.

Burlington and Itabashi, Japan have been twin cities for 30 years.

The Japanese garden’s design was inspired by gardens of the Itabashi area and the local Burlington landscape, including the escarpment and local plants.

Allan Magi, Executive Director, Environment, Infrastructure and Community Services, whose team handled the oversight of the garden ‘construction’ said: “We are very excited about this Award of Excellence. The success of the Itabashi Garden is a result of the collaborative efforts of City staff with Burlington Mundialization Sub-Committee members, Landscape Architect Virginia Burt and the quality construction of the garden by Environmental Design Group.

The garden is Japanese in design and purpose that chose to use rocks from the Escarpment to give it a Canadian flavour. Here rocks are being put in place.

The Burlington team worked closely with the team in Itabashi, Japan which shows in the authenticity of the new Japanese garden. I encourage everyone to go see it for themselves. It truly is a beautiful garden.”

Winter isn’t the best time to appreciate what has been done with the space. When the weather is better we will do a full photo feature of a garden that is tucked away and perhaps not as appreciated as it should be.