Brent Reaney
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 30/04) - Architect Gino Pin says Yellowknife developers should begin by "working with the site" when designing a new project.

"As a designer, I've found that it's important to really understand the media you're working with and that starts with the land," Pin told about 25 concerned citizens, environmentalists and journalists who gathered for the talk that was part of Yellowknife's Earth Week celebrations.

Bob Bromley, of Ecology North, agrees.

"There's lots of sensitivities to the landscape and we need to recognize that in whatever we do," Bromley said.

Extensive observation and environmental consideration went into Pin's plans for the NWT legislature, something he said more designers should be doing.

After much consideration, Pin decided to make use of the naturally rocky area surrounding the legislature instead of removing it.

"If you're starting with something beautiful originally, why destroy it?" he asked.

Construction of the legislature was started from the inside out as opposed to the usual method of outside in, leaving more of the existing trees intact.

And only a narrow eight-to-10-foot corridor of trees were removed outside where the walls of the building were to stand.

When surveyors began cutting down trees outside this corridor, the government stopped them.

"What we wanted was to be able to look out the building directly into trees," he said.

Pin also called on community leaders to pass bylaws that define responsible development.

"Development should not be lead by developers but by members of the community," he said.

Developing land in a way that's more sensitive to the natural environment can be more expensive, Pin said, but he doesn't think it will be a problem to get developers to adhere to these concepts.

"As long as they know ahead of time what they're getting into, they'll price it accordingly," Pin said.

The event was one in a series held during Earth Week by Ecology North.