Peter Henry Oro
130 Cedar Lane,
Salt Spring Island, BC
Education:
Bachelor of Landscape Architecture, University of Guelph, 1990.
University of California , Berkeley,
1989.
Membership/Affiliation:
American Society of Landscape Architects, (ASLA), Japanese Garden Society
(Salt Spring Island).
Background:
Peter worked, studied and travelled throughout North America and Europe
absorbing garden theory and cultural landscapes before working in Ottawa
(National Capital Commission street scape on ceremonial route in Hull,
Quebec) and Calgary (Spencer Design Group residential and industrial
re-mediation) after completing his degree. His interest in California
modernists led him to a semester program at Cal Berkeley's school of
Environmental Design. Where the California culture of outdoor
living made
a significant impact on his design philosophy.
He was particularly impressed by the synthesis of European and
Asian building traditions (that people in northern California in particular
freely
borrowed from and expressed in their home and gardens). This
has been
going on for about a hundred years (best exemplified by Greene and Greene
and Joseph Eichler)... and still going. Now it has evolved into a style
all its own.
Aside from a stylistic perspective of the hard landscape/ exterior
architecture. It respects the mediterranean/ desert climate of the region.
The landscape architecture of this region appealed to him somehow and he was
fortunate enough to find a similar region in Canada to put into practice
some of these same indoor/ outdoor theories.
After leaving Calgary in 1993, he visited friends on the West Coast.
They
told him of a special place between Victoria and Vancouver called Salt
Spring Island which according to realtor speak experienced a
"tropical/mediterranean" climate. They even tried to sell
the idea that
they didn't get snow in winter. Well, it does get some snow and a heck
of a
lot of rain! But best of all it has the mildest climate for growing
a wider
variety of plants than the rest of Canada!
