Rustic Pavilion in Cascades of Time Garden - Banff, Alberta - Western Canadian Heritage on Waymarking.com

This gazebo is on one of the higher terrace levels of the Cascades of Time Garden, 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. The Rustic Pavilion is one of three "pavilions" in the garden. The other two are the Cambrian Pavilion (at the bottom of the hill), and the Devonian Pavilion (midway up the hillside).

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 case 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 gardens with their cascades and pools have been a Banff attraction ever since.

Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada: Harold C. Beckett (visit link)

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The gazebo, pergola, pavilions, bridges and other structures in the Cascades of Time Garden are in the Rustic style characteristic of the national parks. The Rustic style in Banff and the other mountain national parks emphasizes "log structures with shingles, prominent rough stonework, deep eaves, rough board siding and verandahs, and also as a deliberate Swiss quality, supported by rectilinear or diagonal bracing with deep eaves..."

HistoricPlaces.ca : The Rustic Style in Canada's National Parks (visit link)

Official Heritage Registry: [Web Link] Address: 101 Mountain Avenue Banff, Alberta Heritage Registry Page Number: Not listed

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