Palmer Park
gets a much
needed facelift

Dan O’Brien brings his talent home, to give a much
needed facelift to Port Perry’s aging lakefront park

A portion of the interlocking brick lakefront walk, which is now
used extensively by both locals and visitors to the community.

 

“Some are born to success, some achieve it, and others have it thrust upon them,” (Shakespeare). It’s hard to say which of the bard’s descriptions applies most accurately to the career of successful Port Perry landscape designer Dan O’Brien.

While hard work and talent have contributed to his national acclaim, he insists the career path was merely “happenstance.” “A fluke,” he summarizes. “Sure, I was interested in art, and took it throughout high school, but no one identified it as a special talent. You could say it all started with grass cutting.”

A typical teenager, Dan accepted his earliest employment with any company willing to take him on. True to his “happenstance” explanation, a local landscaper hired him: for the physically-demanding aspects of that work, manual property maintenance and grass cutting.

Dan parlayed that initial experience into less punishing part-time work – this time at a garden centre, which further expanded his knowledge and whetted his appetite for more. His next step would formalize his training and define his life’s direction.

Despite the advancement of planning with computers,
Dan O’Brien still likes to begin his projects on the
drawing board with hand-drawn plans.

 

“One of the programs offered at Fanshawe (College, in London) was Landscape Design. That really appealed to me.” But the road to commercial independence and business success is rarely simple or swift, and on graduation, Dan began a lengthy “apprenticeship” of sorts.

“I worked in Ottawa, at a large design and building firm, for three years before applying to the City of Oshawa Parks Department. I stayed there for 11.” One significant Oshawa project foreshadowed his future as Dan participated in designing the revitalization of the city’s Lakeview Park.
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Satisfying, perhaps, but still he chafed to strike out as an independent landscape designer. In 1987, with the encouragement of Port Perry business acquaintance John McDougall, Dan made the perilous move forming “Daniel J. O’Brien and Associates Landscape Architects”.

Like any new company, Dan’s felt growing pains. “You build a reputation project-by-project,” he explains. “I took all levels of work – small and large jobs at private homes, commercial work. But I’d say it was working for the municipal government on the Lindsay waterfront project that really made it take off.”

The Lindsay project drew on his earlier Oshawa experience, designing a boardwalk and public park to beautify the town’s riverfront. Similar jobs in Cobourg and Newcastle followed as, in Dan’s words, “one thing led to another.”

“Waterfront projects tend to be popular and successful,” he explains. “The parks become gathering places and sources of pride for the whole community. Many municipal governments look to their waterfronts for potential improvement.”

The City of Peterborough proposed one such project in 2000, work which would ultimately garner national accolades. “The project’s timing coincided with two significant events: the new millennium, and the city’s 150th birthday. Its budget was $2.5 million in the initial phase.

“The specifications were challenging: the park needed to reflect overlapping aspects of Peterborough’s history, blending rustic and modern elements. The results were nominated for the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects’ annual award, and won.”
The landscape designer’s job requires painstaking creative planning as well as flexibility throughout development.

“A municipality will come to us with a concept and budget, and we produce an initial plan. Extensive input is then required from the public and other stakeholders, which results in numerous revisions and suggestions. We put it all together.”
Once a final version is approved, Dan’s role varies.

“Sometimes, I’ll just produce the master plan, then send out for bids. In that case, I’ll provide ‘contract administration’ to ensure accurate completion by the successful bidders.”

The same philosophy, he says, applies to residential projects. “This firm’s small, so we don’t have a ‘construction group,’ which means we work hand in hand with trusted contractors.”

The company’s compact size, in Dan’s opinion, offers benefits to customers as well as personal satisfaction to its founder.

Dan stands beside the attractive arch which invites the public
into the new, people friendly Palmer Park.
Photos by J. Peter Hvidsten

“I see it as a plus,” he says of the two-man operation. “We can concentrate on the design end of each job, and I can be hands-on with everything, the way I like best.”

Residential work has become a sizable portion of his business over time. Though the square-footage will be smaller than a town’s waterfront, Dan’s task is just as challenging.
“People often make large investments, and don’t want to waste dollars. Some lakeshore estates in Oakville will top $1 million, similar money to the spending on Port Perry’s waterfront park!”

Dan’s fingerprints decorate that ongoing Scugog project. “I produced an overall plan not long after I came here,” he remembers. “The recent changes are the first big piece.”
Those improvements are well known to Scugog residents: Palmer Park’s facelift, as well as “streetscaping” at the foot of Queen Street.

Government funding accelerated implementation of those long-drafted concepts, creating what Dan terms a “compressed timeframe” for its final planning and tendering.

“This phase was driven by the pedestrian trail, connecting to the formal promenade with places to sit as well as the streetscape – all of them tied together. We’ve set a tone for the future, when the mill will be the next focal point.”

Dan cites the Water Street dock as a point of particular pride. “That element was more a ‘renovation’ or a ‘rehab,’” he says. “I’m pleased to see what it’s become. There were challenges, too: having to work around fishes’ spawning schedules, which gave us limited time to work in the water.”

In his experience, the first phase of waterfront improvements will likely spur further development. “Private sector spending often follows expenditures of public funds on a waterfront space. There’s a potential for commercial development, now that the groundwork’s been laid.”

Demanding jobs require relaxing activities to maintain personal balance, and Dan O’Brien’s slate of downtime activities reflect that thinking.

“I took up karate at 18, intrigued after Bruce Lee made it the rage. Today I have my fifth-degree black belt.

In winter, Dan and Beth, his wife of 33 years, enjoy skiing and snowboarding. The couple has two grown children, Patrick, 29, and Jaci, 25.

As the former grass cutter looks back with pride – and a hint of whimsy – at his 20-plus years in Port Perry. “I enjoyed different jobs for different reasons, but I suppose the Peterborough project might be my favourite,” he confides.

By Scott Mercer
Focus on Scugog