
Cascades of Time Garden Large Pergola - Banff, Alberta
N 51° 10.208 W 115° 34.394
11U E 599746 N 5669712
A large pergola at the highest point of the Cascades of Time Gardens in Banff, next to a large pool.
Waymark Code: WM18HAB
Location: Alberta, Canada
Date Posted: 08/04/2023
Views: 9
This large pergola is at the highest point of the Cascades of Time Gardens in Banff, next to a large pool. Like many of the older structures in the national parks, it uses logs with natural burls (round outgrowths) for a decorative effect.
The Cascades of Time Garden is part of the grounds surrounding the Banff Park Administration Building. Both the building and the gardens were designed by Ontario-born architect Harold C. Beckett and completed in 1936.
The Cascades of Time Garden was conceived as a way to introduce the lay person to the basics of geology and geologic time. In an Calgary Daily Herald article published on 16 May 1936, Beckett said, “A rock in a glass cage in a museum is about as dry and uninteresting an object to a casual observer as could be found, but take that rock out and put it in a natural setting, as part of a skillfully designed landscape with perhaps an unobtrusive label nearby, and it becomes an object of appeal to even the untrained eye. Make the whole a thing of beauty, and people scarcely realize that it is a complete outdoor museum, and not merely a delightful garden plot."
Although Beckett's very ambitious geological and educational vision was never fully realized, his rock garden with its cascades and pools have been a Banff attraction ever since.
Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada: Harold C. Beckett (
visit link)