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tom arban

Atlantic explorations 11 News

Waterfront Innovation Centre to launch in Toronto; Brian MacKayLyons wins 2015 RAIC Gold Medal.

28 Insites

Jane Severs reports on efforts to preserve the 1959 Modernist gem of the Gander Airport’s International Departures Lounge in Newfoundland.

30 Report

Ryerson University’s Department of Architectural Science hosts a symposium concerning current models of architectural education.

31 Books

16 Purdy Crawford Centre for the Arts The Mount Allison University campus in Sackville, New Brunswick welcomes a new arts centre by Zeidler Partnership Architects with Martin Patriquin Architect Inc. TEXT Peter Sealy

Three recent publications on Canadian architecture are reviewed.

33 Calendar

Shift Rural planning conference at Dalhousie University; Gilles Saucier lectures at the National Gallery of Canada.

34 Looking Back

22 Newfoundland and Labrador

zach bonnell

The challenges of building in Canada’s easternmost province of Newfoundland and Labrador are explored. TEXT Jacob Allderdice

Marco Polo and Colin Ripley reminisce upon the Confederation Centre for the Arts in Charlottetown, a fine example of Brutalism in Canada.

COVER The Purdy Crawford Centre for the Arts in Sackville, New Brunswick by Zeidler Partnership Architects with Martin Patriquin Architect Inc. Photograph by Tom Arban.

v.60 n.03 The National Review of Design and Practice/The Journal of Record of Architecture Canada | RAIC

canadian architect

march 2015

coUrtesy oF coolearth architectUre

canadian architect 03/15

vIewPoINT

EDITOR elsa lam, mraic ASSOCIATE EDITOR leslie Jen, mraic EDITORIAL ADVISOR ian choDikoFF, oaa, Fraic CONTRIBUTING EDITORS annmarie aDams, mraic DoUglas macleoD, ncarb, mraic

An SR&eD tax credit partially funded an experiment conducted by Coolearth Architecture to improve the accuracy of energy models in their design process. using TheRM software, the firm modelled the flow of heat at the joints of two different insulated metal panel products to predict the effect of thermal bridging. aBOVE

REGIONAL CORRESPONDENTS HALIFAX christine macy, oaa REGINA bernarD Flaman, saa MONTREAL DaViD theoDore CALGARY graham liVesey, mraic WINNIPEG lisa lanDrUm, maa, aia, mraic VANCOUVER aDele weDer

COULD YOUR FIRM BE CLAIMING THIS TAX CREDIT? As tax season approaches, architects should know about a generous tax credit that may be available to them. The Scientific Research and Experimental Development Tax Incentive Program (SR&ED) encourages Canadian businesses in all sectors to conduct research and development in Canada. In 2013, the federal government gave out $3.4 billion in refundable income tax credits through the program to 22,000 businesses of all sizes. Although the program name sounds intimidating, SR&ED is intended for many kinds of research and development—not just high-tech. The program covers design, development and engineering for improved materials, products and processes in fields ranging from software development to agriculture. Salaries, materials and consultant costs can all be claimed. Claimants receive a refundable income tax credit of 15% to 35% on these R&D expenses. Many provinces run parallel programs that provide an additional 10% to 20% in tax credits. In total, small and mid-sized companies typically receive refunds for around 50% of qualifying expenses. “Many architects are not aware of the program, or they assume that they do not qualify,” says Theo Meimar, Vice President of R&D Tax Solutions, a consultancy that has helped several architecture firms apply for the credit. The program, he explains, supports initiatives that involve significant technological risks or uncertainties. One litmus test is asking: is there the possibility of failure? “Taking technological risks often creates new knowledge,” says Meimar. “Even projects that are not successful (ie., white elephants) can qualify. We can learn from our failures.” Diamond Schmitt Architects has applied for the program yearly since it was first brought to their attention. “At our firm, we pursue innovative design solutions all the time,” says principal Helen Kabriel. They’ve received credits for such initiatives as developing a cost-effective, long-span skylight for a building at Wilfrid Laurier School of Business

PUBLISHER tom arkell 416-510-6806

and Economics using leading-edge steel and glass technology and expertise. This technological advancement may have been achieved elsewhere, but Diamond Schmitt was not privy to the knowledge of how to build it at the time. They’ve also successfully applied for the costs of developing their Canadian High Arctic Research Station competition entry. Even though they were not selected as the winning team, the entry involved research into designing for a harsh climate and transportation logistics in the Far North. An installation that Diamond Schmitt Architects produced for Toronto’s Luminato Festival qualified for the program. Exhibited in David Pecault Square, it involved a series of robotic wind socks that were choreographed to move to music. Sheena Sharp, FRAIC, former OAA President and principal of Coolearth Architecture, has also taken advantage of the program. “It takes a lot of experimentation and research in order to offer your clients appropriate service,” she says. “The SR&ED program assists in doing that.” In the case of her small firm, which specializes in sustainable architecture, she regularly faces challenges that go beyond standard practice, such as developing a deep understanding of energy-modelling software. She found that SR&ED was able to defray some of these costs, which often go beyond billable hours. Sharp does note that “as a small firm, the owners do a fair amount of the billable Member of work but are not paid hourly,” so as a result, much of the time expended does not qualify. “That said, the program has been important to our ability to deliver innovative services.” While the paperwork—or the alternative of using an intermediary to apply—may be daunting, the high incentives make this program worth considering as part of a firm’s financial toolbox. Practices of all sizes could potentially benefit from this program, designed to help them do their work better—and more profitably.

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SALES MANAGER Faria ahmeD 416-510-6808 CIRCULATION MANAGER beata olechnowicz 416-442-5600 EXT. 3543 CUSTOMER SERVICE malkit chana 416-442-5600 EXT. 3539 PRODUCTION Jessica JUbb ART DIRECTOR lisa zambri PRESIDENT OF ANNEX-NEWCOM LP aleX papanoU HEAD OFFICE 80 Valleybrook DriVe, toronto, on m3b 2s9 TELEPHONE 416-510-6845 FACSIMILE 416-510-5140 E-MAIL editors@canadianarchitect.com WEBSITE www.canadianarchitect.com canadian architect is published monthly by annex-newcom lp. the editors have made every reasonable effort to provide accurate and authoritative information, but they assume no liability for the accuracy or completeness of the text, or its fitness for any particular purpose. Subscription Rates canada: $54.95 plus applicable taxes for one year; $87.95 plus applicable taxes for two years (hst – #81538 0985 rt0001). price per single copy: $6.95. students (prepaid with student iD, includes taxes): $34.97 for one year. Usa: $105.95 Us for one year. all other foreign: $125.95 Us per year. single copy Us and foreign: $10.00 Us. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Circulation Dept., Canadian Architect, 80 valleybrook Drive, Toronto, oN Canada M3B 2S9. Postmaster: please forward forms 29B and 67B to 80 valleybrook Drive, Toronto, oN Canada M3B 2S9. Printed in Canada. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced either in part or in full without the consent of the copyright owner. from time to time we make our subscription list available to select companies and organizations whose product or service may interest you. If you do not wish your contact information to be made available, please contact us via one of the following methods: Telephone 1-800-668-2374 Facsimile 416-442-2191 E-mail privacyofficer@businessinformationgroup.ca Mail privacy officer, 80 Valleybrook Drive, toronto, on canada m3b 2s9 MEMBER OF THE CANADIAN BUSINESS PRESS MEMBER OF THE ALLIANCE FOR AUDITED MEDIA PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT #40069240 ISSN 1923-3353 (ONLINE) ISSN 0008-2872 (PRINT)

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Projects

After an open and competitive selection process, Waterfront Toronto chose Menkes to develop the Waterfront Innovation Centre, a 350,000-square-foot uniquely designed commercial space located next to Canada’s Sugar Beach on Toronto’s lakefront. This important private-sector development will generate highvalue employment on former industrial lands and support the emergence of East Bayfront as a prime waterfront live-work-play community within minutes of Union Station. The centre will also act as a catalyst for additional employment and economic development in the area. Designed by Sweeny &Co Architects Inc., the building will create a work environment that allows tenants to interact and share resources in a series of interconnected private, semi-private and public spaces. State-of-the-art amenities for all tenants including a presentation theatre, sophisticated audio-visual and video-conferencing tools, and workshop facilities with digital production facilities will enhance productivity, the ability to network and exchange ideas. The development of the Waterfront Innovation Centre is the next step in the implementation of the East Bayfront Precinct Plan developed by Waterfront Toronto and the City, which was approved by City Council in 2006. The Precinct Plan outlines the development of the formerly industrial waterfront lands east of Lower Jarvis Street into a dynamic mixed-use community for over 10,000 residents. The new community is anchored by high-quality parks and public spaces (such as Canada’s Sugar Beach and Sherbourne Common) with modern infrastructure and high-value employment space for 8,000 jobs. Already, East Bayfront is home to two key employers—Corus Entertainment and George Brown College—and two private-sector mixeduse developments. Construction on the Waterfront Innovation Centre is targeted to start in late 2016. www.waterfrontoronto.ca

Canada House in London’s Trafalgar Square reopens after renovation.

Canada House on Trafalgar Square, the home of the Canadian High Commission in London, has reopened its doors after a massive renovation. Led by Stantec, the project not only renews the 200-year-old Canada House, it connects the Chancery to the adjacent building at 2-4 Cockspur Street. As a result, for the first time in 50 years, Canadian High Com-

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Waterfront Innovation Centre to launch.

The Waterfront Innovation Centre in Toronto by Sweeny &Co Architects Inc. will be a catalytic addition to the city’s new East Bayfront community, amidst parks and public spaces.

ABOVE

mission staff are under one roof in one of the most prominent squares in central London. A primary goal of the Canadian High Commission was to celebrate the best of Canadian art, design and manufacturing expertise while representing the cultural diversity and geographic uniqueness of Canada within one coherent space. Wood is used throughout, showcasing one of Canada’s most significant natural resources: hemlock, maple, oak and walnut are heavily utilized in both buildings. Key design features include a rooftop terrace and the cascading staircase within the Queen Elizabeth Atrium. Untouched since the 1980s, the interior offered a perfect opportunity to integrate several important design principles: infusion of natural light, the celebration of Canadian products, and the creation of an interactive environment. Throughout the building, meeting spaces and ceremonial rooms are named for each of Canada’s provinces, territories and oceans, embodying the design themes of climate and geography. Canada House also draws upon the diverse talents of Canadian artists and artisans from coast to coast, from whom art, furniture and custom-made carpets are sourced. The original library in Canada House, abandoned and filled in during the 1980s, has been restored, its double-height volume creating an open and light-filled workspace. The Trade Department finds a new home on the lower level, while a mezzanine boasts a gallery showcasing the Chancery’s collection of Inuit sculpture, alongside a library of literary works that have been honoured with a multitude of Canadian awards.

www.stantec.com

Awards Brian MacKay-Lyons wins 2015 RAIC Gold Medal. A Nova Scotia architect, whose internationally acclaimed buildings are grounded in the design and construction traditions of East Coast architecture, is the 2015 recipient of the RAIC Gold Medal. Brian MacKay-Lyons, FRAIC, is a founding partner of Halifax-based MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects. He is also a professor at Dalhousie University and the founder of Ghost Lab, an educational program that took place on his family farm during the summers of 1994 to 2011. His work has been recognized by more than 100 awards, 300 publications and 100 exhibitions. The Gold Medal is the highest honour the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) can bestow. It recognizes a significant and lasting contribution to Canadian architecture. Bestknown for houses, MacKay-Lyons has also designed university and commercial buildings such as the Canadian Chancery and Official Residence in Dhaka, Bangladesh; the Computer Science Building and the Architecture School at Dalhousie University in Halifax; and the Plaza building at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. “It is a great honour to be recognized by one’s peers,” said MacKayLyons. “In an increasingly globalized world it’s nice to reaffirm a way of making architecture about place—its landscape, climate and material culture. The RAIC Gold Medal is all the more meaningful because it recognizes a body of work rather than the fashion of the day.”

canadian architect 03/15

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canadian architect 03/15

News After studying and working around the world, MacKay-Lyons returned to Nova Scotia in 1983 to make a cultural contribution to Nova Scotia where his Acadian and Mi’kmaq ancestors have lived for centuries. The jury called him an “an authentic and original voice in the development of a contemporary expression of traditional regional architecture.” www.raic.org

Provencher_Roy named 2015 RAIC Architectural Firm Award recipient.

Provencher_Roy, a Montreal firm noted for a number of major projects including airports, hotels and university buildings, will receive the 2015 Architectural Firm Award of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC). Established in 1983 by architects Claude Provencher, FIRAC, and Michel Roy, FIRAC, the multidisciplinary firm of over 150 staff offers architectural and industrial design services, as well as urban design and planning, interior design and sustainable development. Projects include the renovation of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montreal (2013), Claire and Marc Bourgie Quebec and Canadian Art Pavilion at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2011), University of Montreal Biodiversity Centre (2010), and Jean Lesage International Airport in Quebec City (2008). Provencher_Roy also collaborated with the Danish architect Poul Ove Jensen in the design of the future Champlain Bridge in Montreal. The firm’s international projects include the Embassy of Canada in Morocco; the Diamond Peninsula Hotel in Dongguan, China; and the Karachi Race Course Gardens in Pakistan. Provencher_Roy has won more than 70 architectural prizes and awards. Founding partner Claude Provencher has served as a member and vice chair of the National Capital Commission’s Advisory Committee on Planning, Design and Realty. He sits on the advisory board of the Cultural Property Commission of Quebec. First awarded in 2003, the RAIC Architectural Firm Award recognizes the achievements of a firm for its quality of architecture, service to clients and innovations in practice. It also takes into account contribution to architectural education and professional organizations, as well as public recognition. www.raic.org

Nicki Reckziegel wins Prix de Rome for Emerging Practitioners.

Montreal-based Nicki Reckziegel (McGill, M.Arch. 2014) is the winner of the Canada Council’s 2014 Prix de Rome in Architecture

for Emerging Practitioners. With this award, she will travel to “institutions of refuge” (crisis centres, safe houses, hospitals) in 18 locations across Central and East Africa. She will also intern with MASS Design Group, a non-profit organization that has designed health-care facilities in developing countries around the world. Through this travel and internship, she will study the role of architecture and memory in the aftermath of traumatic events. The Prix de Rome is awarded each year to a talented recent graduate of a Canadian school of architecture to broaden his or her knowledge of contemporary architecture culture. Reckziegel is interested in the subject of memory and architecture in institutions of refuge. The focus of her Master’s thesis was site of the Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocidal Crimes in Phnom Penh, Cambodia—a building that was once a high school, then a Khmer Rouge prison, before becoming a museum. http://canadacouncil.ca/council/blog/2015/01/5-questions_nicki-reckziegel_emerging-architect

Canadians listed in Top 10 World-Class Landscape Architecture Projects of 2014.

Two Canadian projects were included in Landscape Architects Network’s Top 10 WorldClass Landscape Architecture Projects of 2014. They are Landscape of Memory—Poppy Plaza in Calgary by the marc boutin architectural collaborative (primary design lead) and associated firm Stantec. The park was built to commemorate citizens who served in World War I to protect the freedom and security of the Canadian people. The river walk is the second phase of the Landscape of Memory and is designed to move visitors from the upper roadway down to the riverbank. Wood and folded steel components are interspersed with illuminated trees to provide a sense of nature. And to truly generate contemplation, the project draws upon the emotive qualities of the river to evoke remembrance by visitors. The second project honoured is Sherbourne Common in Toronto by Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg. As a winner of the 2013 ASLA Honor Award for Design, this space had been completed for more than a year, but continued to make headlines throughout 2014. Sherbourne Common, a formerly neglected brownfield site on Toronto’s waterfront, combines a stormwater treatment facility with landscape, architecture, engineering and public art to provide an outdoor living room for the new residents of the East Bayfront community. The remaining eight projects making the cut can be viewed on the website. http://landarchs.com/top-10-landscape-architecture-projects-2014/

Competitions ArchDaily + IIDEXCanada Virtual Spaces Competition invites submissions.

IIDEXCanada, Invent Dev and ArchDaily invite designers, architects and students to submit unbuilt and fantasy projects for this competition. Entrants are asked to submit rendered images of unbuilt projects and will be evaluated by an international jury of design and architecture professionals. Three winners will be selected in three square-footage categories and will have their schemes developed into virtual spaces by Invent Dev, and exhibited using virtual reality headsets at IIDEXCanada 2015 in Toronto. Winners will also be flown to the 2015 show for an awards ceremony on the IIDEXCanada Keynote Theatre Stage and for the launch of the exhibition. The new technology developed by Invent Dev provides boundless opportunities for architects, designers and developers to have their clients and investors experience their project designs before they are built. Those selected will have their space and studio featured at IIDEXCanada 2015 and on ArchDaily.com in December 2015. The submission deadline is April 1, 2015. https://iidex.formstack.com/forms/archdaily_iidexcanada_virtual_spaces_competition

What’s New Arctic Adaptations: Nunavut at 15 to launch Canadian tour at Winnipeg Art Gallery

The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) has announced the Canadian launch of Arctic Adaptations: Nunavut at 15, the award-winning exhibition that represented Canada at the 14th International Venice Biennale in Architecture. After being honoured at the prestigious competition with a Special Mention, the exhibition runs at the WAG from February 27-May 3, 2015. Arctic Adaptations is a team-based project initiated and led by Lateral Office of Toronto, an experimental design practice that operates at the intersection of architecture, landscape and urbanism. The exhibition surveys a century of Arctic architecture, an urbanizing present, and a projective near future of adaptive architecture in Nunavut. Arctic Adaptations features interactive architecture models, photography and topographical maps of the 25 communities of Nunavut, as well as Inuit carvers’ masterful scale models of some of the bestknown buildings in the territory. A new component to the exhibition will also be unveiled— a short time-lapse video (https://vimeo.com/ 118976180) that documents people interacting

with the exhibition inside the Canada Pavilion in Venice. Following the launch in Winnipeg, the WAG and Lateral Office are touring the exhibition nationally to the Yukon Arts Centre in Whitehorse (June-August 2015), the Museum of Vancouver (October-December 2015), and the Illingworth Kerr Gallery in Calgary (January-March 2016).

comes, speaker experience and how the particular topic complements the IIDEXCanada conference program. Speakers receive five free seminar passes and exposure to a community of over two million designers and architects. The submission deadline is April 1, 2015.

http://iidex.formstack.com/forms/2015_call_for_presentations

www.wag.ca

IIDEXCanada 2015 call for presentations.

University of Calgary to offer Master of Landscape Architecture program.

Push the boundaries of professional practice as a speaker at IIDEXCanada, Canada’s National Design and Architecture Exposition and Conference taking place December 2-3, 2015 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Topics are being sought in the following categories: building code, accessibility, architecture, business management, education design, facility management, health-care design, hospitality design, industry trends, innovation, institutional design, interior design, landscape architecture, lighting design, marketing, materials, P3s, residential design, retail design, sustainable design, technology and workplace design. Seminar topics will be selected based on varying criteria including: relevancy to the industry, timeliness, body of knowledge, learning out-

The University of Calgary recently received approval to launch the Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) in the Faculty of Environmental Design (EVDS). This is the first graduate program in landscape architecture in Canada to be launched since 1980, and is situated in the geographically and culturally dynamic context of Alberta and Western Canada. The program is strategically positioned to engage with the critical sociocultural and ecological challenges of placemaking, climate change and resilience. The MLA is intended as a program for the 21st century—to be leaders and to train leaders in becoming catalysts for positive local and global change. The Master of Landscape Architecture program complements the existing professional accredited

programs in Architecture and Planning to create a strong, robust and interrelated triad of graduate programs dealing with the built environment. The MLA is a three-year coursebased program consisting of a foundation year plus two years at the Master’s level, and will be seeking accreditation through the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA). As a professional degree program, curriculum design and methods of delivery reflect the CSLA accreditation requirements. This program for the 21st century is unique and distinctive: it aims to sustainably address the critical issues facing settlements, societies and environments using a landscape-based approach; it emphasizes and builds on the faculty’s strengths in the areas of urban design, ecological design, regional planning and cultural landscapes; the emphasis on interdisciplinarity is expressed through the overlapping relationships with the Master of Architecture and Master of Planning programs; and the faculty structure allows a student to ladder from a course-based professional degree program to a thesis-based research degree (MEDes or PhD). All of these factors facilitate the further development of creativity and innovative approaches to critical issues into the future.

http://evds.ucalgary.ca/programs/landscape-architecture

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canadian architect 03/15

Making a Scene

A new arts centre is a sophisticated addition to Mount Allison University’s campus—and a valuable asset for the town of Sackville. Purdy Crawford Centre for the Arts, Sackville, New Brunswick Zeidler Partnership Architects (Lead Architect) with Martin Patriquin Architect Inc. (Associated Architect) Text Peter Sealy Photos Tom Arban Project

Architects

Zeidler Partnership Architects’ new Purdy Crawford Centre for the Arts is an ambitious—and controversial—addition to the campus of Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. Housing the university’s Fine Arts and Drama programs, the Crawford Centre is part of an ongoing visual reconfiguration of Sackville’s townscape. First, the controversy. The Crawford Centre sits upon the site of the demolished Memorial Library, a 1927 Tudor building designed by Andrew Randall Cobb. Built through a public subscription as the university’s war memorial, Cobb’s building was much beloved for its elegant

Clockwise from above A courtyard entrance welcomes students to the new facility; view of the building from Main Street; the Crawford Centre acts as a gateway to both the Mount Allison campus and Sackville’s Main Street.

proportions, artful stonework and its familiar presence at the northwest corner of the Mount Allison campus. As Bob Eaton, MRAIC, a local architect and campaigner to save the library notes, “it was the iconic Mount Allison building.” While the library was no longer used as such and had been awkwardly amalgamated into a larger student centre, its removal provoked fierce debate among students, alumni and town residents, as well as an unsuccessful legal challenge. A 2002 campus master plan by Diamond Schmitt Architects identified the location as the ideal site for a long-desired university arts centre, and called for the library’s incorporation into a new structure. Mount Allison considered this option to be both unworkable and unaffordable—a claim contested by some—and pressed ahead with the design for an entirely new building. While the Memorial Library’s absence remains a loss for many, now that the new building is unveiled, it can be judged on its own merits.

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Site Plan

With its significant $30-million construction budget and sophisticated design, the Crawford Centre is clearly a cut above Mount Allison’s other recent buildings. For university president Robert Campbell, the Crawford Centre is a long-term contribution, “addressing the present need for quality facilities while respecting the past through its use of traditional materials” and setting “an architectural and aesthetic standard for the future.” Following Aldo van Eyck’s mantra that “the village is a house and the house is a village,” lead architect Tarek El-Khatib, FRAIC, and his team smartly organized the Crawford Centre into three blocks: workshop and studio spaces to the south; offices, classrooms and additional studios to the northeast; and the theatre with its annexes to the northwest. An 11.8-metre-high lobby connects these blocks. A lot is asked of this interstice, which alternately functions as the building’s circulation hub, an arts exhibition space and the theatre’s foyer. It also oscillates between formal and informal uses. One can imagine the weekday traffic of students coming to and from the building’s classrooms giving way to swanky receptions in the evening, while after hours, the space serves as a central hub for the studio culture wellknown to art students. A snaking staircase that links the building’s three levels traverses the void. Negotiating the space’s multiple func-

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tions, the stair’s elegant combination of black steel, white oak and woven wire mesh succeeds in being both casually playful and nonchalantly elegant. The lobby’s exposed ceiling—with its open grid of metal beams and carefully arranged mechanical services, uniformly finished in flat black—is striking, and the care taken in its detailing commendable. While maintaining a constant height, the internal space modulates in plan, widening to accommodate the theatre entrance and to frame a Venturiesque view of Main Street. The Motyer-Fancy Theatre maintains all the best qualities of a black box without actually being one. Glass windows in its side elevation dignify the daily grind of rehearsals with abundant natural light and a visual connection between theatre and townscape. Its flexible seating system allows multiple configurations for performances, while all external light can be occluded using screens placed inside the double-pane windows. With their rough texture and varied colour, the recycled wood boards that line the theatre stand out from the white walls elsewhere in the Crawford Centre’s interior. From the exterior, the Crawford Centre’s three sections break apart like puzzle pieces, framing a series of entry courtyards. The outer walls deploy the university’s signature red sandstone in black aluminum frames, which

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celebrate the material while subordinating it to the logic of modern construction. Surrounding the courtyards, where the internal spaces seemingly punch outward beyond the building’s envelope, white fibre-cement panels are used. The clear articulation of the building’s three volumes makes it feel like a precinct—what El-Khatib calls a “village for the arts.” The composition is least convincing from the south, where it sits at the bottom of a sloping campus quadrangle. The uneven elevation and the unfortunate absence of an entrance on the quad result from two logistical requirements: control of light entering the studios, and the need for a loading dock on Salem Street. However, the superb quality of the natural light that bathes the studios and workshops through their

clerestory windows more than compensates. El-Khatib designed the Crawford Centre as a diaphanous entrance to the university campus. The Crawford Centre’s two principal entrances combine with its internal space to form a pathway into Mount Allison. Aligned with a major campus axis, the east entrance—which will likely be the one most frequently used by students—is located at the end of a deep courtyard, which El-Khatib describes as an “exterior room” between the building’s south and northeast wings. The main north entrance doubles as access to the theatre, which is appropriate given the location of a large parking lot diagonally across Main Street. Most visitors will first see the Crawford Centre as they

Opposite Top, Left to right A sculptural staircase adds a dynamic presence to the main space; studios and workshops feature clerestory lighting and ample wall space for storage and pin-ups. Opposite bottom, Left to right The theatre includes a strip of windows that can be blacked out for performances; the entrance facing Main Street is a lantern-like beacon at night; a detail of the stair balustrade; the red sandstone cladding is contained in minimalist black frames.

descend Main Street from the Trans-Canada Highway; the north elevation, with its framed sandstone expanse punctuated by the entrance, visually marks this moment of arrival to both the town and the campus with great aplomb. However, the landscaping needed to negotiate the 2.7-metre change in level between the north entrance and Main Street has been carried out in a perfunctory manner. The conventional black iron railings lack the inventiveness of those used for the lobby’s interior

staircase, while the narrow sidewalk at street level fails to match the generous terrace at the level of the entrance. These landscaping details do not adequately support the building in its prominent position at the entrance to Sackville and as a gateway to the university. While change seems to come slowly to this town of 5,500 inhabitants, the last decade has seen the loss or transformation of many of Sackville’s major landmarks. Last summer, the town’s most well-known symbols,

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Above The choice of red sandstone cladding ties the Purdy Crawford Centre to other campus structures, including the adjacent Bennett Building.

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the Radio Canada International transmission towers on the marshland by the highway, were demolished. At the town’s main intersection, the United Church, built in 1875, is presently for sale for $1, likely to be demolished and replaced with apartments. The congregation has moved into the neighbouring town hall, left vacant thanks to the construction of a new municipal services building in 2012. The construction of the Crawford Centre contributes to this saga, both as a symbol of loss—but also as a sign of renewal. Does what is gained by the addition of the Crawford Centre outweigh what has been lost in the demolition of the Memorial Library? In consolidating the Fine Arts and Drama programs under a single roof and providing them with impressive facilities, Mount Allison has reaffirmed its commitment as a liberal arts college to these disciplines. And Zeidler’s design shows an admirable degree of care across multiple scales of intervention, from the building’s larger formal gestures to the detailing of its interior spaces. It is hard to know to what extent a town such as Sackville can succeed in choreographing its visual appearance—and whether small towns should even attempt such a task. The Crawford Centre is a welcome participant in such a discussion: a decidedly contemporary building that, through its design decisions, with time will become as rooted in its locale as its older neighbours. Peter Sealy is a doctoral candidate in architectural history at Harvard University. He grew up in Sackville, New Brunswick.

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The Alberta Association of Architects (AAA) extends congratulations to our new Registered Architects and Licensed Interior Designers. The 2014 inductees are as follows: Alison C. Hawkins, Architect, AAA Amber E. Bailey, Licensed Interior Designer, AAA Amy F. Morin, Architect, AAA Bao-Nghi Nhan, Architect, AAA Barbara A. Reid, Architect, AAA Barry D. Sullivan, Architect, AAA Beverly A. Korchynos, Licensed Interior Designer, AAA Chad R. Russill, Architect, AAA Chau H. Tran, Licensed Interior Designer, AAA Coreen L. Riley, Licensed Interior Designer, AAA Corrado M. Agnello, Architect, AAA Craig R. Dorward, Architect, AAA Daren R. Blair, Architect, AAA Darren F. Polanski, Architect, AAA David R. James, Architect, AAA Donald G. Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Dwyer, Architect, AAA Gaurav Sharma, Architect, AAA Gregory R. Wilson, Architect, AAA

Ian E.H. Evans, Architect, AAA Isam Hashem, Architect, AAA J. Michael Johhnson, Architect, AAA Jan T. Kroman, Architect, AAA Jason M.T. Lowe, Architect, AAA Joanne Sparkes, Architect, AAA Kristi M. Olson, Architect, AAA Kyle E. Bradshaw, Architect, AAA Lois E. Wellwood, Licensed Interior Designer, AAA Michael P. Rivest, Architect, AAA Monika Oystryk, Architect, AAA Patricia S. Mohrmann, Architect, AAA Seo Won Lee, Architect, AAA Songlin Pan, Architect, AAA Tracy Liu, Architect, AAA Vicky J. Couture, Architect, AAA Yvonne L. De La Fuente, Architect, AAA

The AAA would also like to congratulate the following Intern Architects who have successfully completed the 2014 Examination for Architects in Canada (ExAC): Amelia Hollingshurst Bradley Kimball Brett Woodrow Bryan Gartner Caroline Bomediano Christopher Sparrow Colin Gallant

Darin Harding Eric Longchamp Frank Van Roekel Grace Coulter Gregory Freer Jennifer Bielaskie Jennifer Rodger

Jessie Andjelic Jindra Bolo-Lardizabal Juliethe Beltran Kurtis Von Kuster Lisa Potopsingh Madyson McKay Maria Landry

Mary Ann Serrano Maryam Tabatabaei-Yazdi Meghan Bannon Meghan Proulx Michael Cojocar Michael Murray Michael Sczesny

The Alberta Association of Architects

Ricardo Brito Robert Slywka Sabrina Keichinger Siew Yong Stephanie Yeung

Duggan House, 10515 Saskatchewan Drive NW, Edmonton, AB T6E 4S1 www.aaa.ab.ca

theABarchitects

The Alberta Association of Architects

Building on the Rock Ned Pratt Photography

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Perched on the stormy edge of the Atlantic, Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easternmost province is a difficult place to build. Where are the young architects that will rise to the challenge? Text

Jacob Allderdice

Robert Mellin Stephen Wiseman

Newfoundland and Labrador is perhaps the hardest province in Canada in which to practice architecture. Farley Mowat’s description of the place bears repeating: “Settlements had to withstand such ferocity of wind and water that the buildings were sometimes bound to the rocks with ring bolts and iron cables.” Besides the climate, the workforce—long subject to economic forces that pull it away to greener pastures—is expensive, and materials hard to come by. Today, resource extraction and industrial development have created a surge in new home construction together with new schools, office buildings, roads and parking lots. As a result of this demand, construction has become even more costly. Traditionally, architecture was not a celebrated art form in Newfoundland. The former colony’s British overlords considered the island a summer fishing station, and permanent construction was discouraged or outlawed for centuries following its establishment in 1497. It’s said the winding roads of St. John’s owe their charm to the fact that much of the land was owned by absentee landlords, who could not be contacted to give up property for a proper street grid. In the outports, a strong material culture nonetheless developed, perhaps from necessity—commodities were scarce and ingenuity a virtue. While these communities may not have had architects, they had builders who learned by trial and error how to make a lasting structure in the harsh climate. Farley Mowat writes: “The houses stood as square as blocks of basalt. They are so strong that they can be levered off their foundation posts, trundled to the water’s edge, set afloat and towed miles across open water to be hauled up on shore at a new site.” Mowat may be romanticizing the builder’s craft, but he had no love for what Confederation with Canada, post-1949, wrought on outport culture. He saw people turned wage slave, out of touch with their roots. Within Burgeo, for example, where a new factory was established, “Men built hurriedly and, contrary to their wont, many built badly...all too many of those who had been forced or deluded into abandoning comfortable and wellbuilt houses in the now-deserted outports were reduced to living in unsightly shacks.” To mainlanders today, the phrase “Newfoundland architecture” may call up images of Tilting, the outport documented and in part restored by architect and historian Robert Mellin, FRAIC. Many more will know the tropical-hued clapboard houses marching up the steep streets of St. John’s, with the great bulk of The Rooms—the 2001 storehouse by St. John’s architect Philip Pratt, MRAIC, for the city’s art gallery, history museum and provincial archives—vying for pride of place with the 1850s Roman Catholic Basilica on the skyline. The other image stamped on Canadians’ minds is the Fogo Island Inn, commissioned by Newfoundlander Zita Cobb’s Shorefast Foundation and designed by Gander-born, Norwegian-based architect Todd Saunders with architect of record Sheppard Case Architects Inc., led by principal Jim Case, MRAIC, (see CA, November 2013). It’s worth chatting with Case to understand some of the difficulties that had to be overcome to achieve Saunders’ vision: “You had to meet the National Building Code for non-combustibility, durability and acoustic separations in a four-storey wood-clad building, just metres from the North Atlantic.” Case’s long career (he graduated from Dalhousie in 1981) is today in full bloom. His new firm, Lat49, is working on four recreation centres in Labrador, and has just completed a 12-storey St. John’s office building clad partly in orange-toned wood-grained Prodema siding. His new Reddy Kilowatt Credit Union building, also in St. John’s, is a staid Miesian box intersecting an upturned A-frame—a form that allows the building to include a drive-through while negotiating a steeply sloping site. Case’s diverse work typifies a new architectural energy in Newfoundland, as it moves from being a “have not” to a “have” province. Still, the roll of li-

Opposite Designed by PHB Group Inc (Philip Pratt, Charles Henley and Paul Blackwood), The Rooms sits prominently on the St. John’s skyline. Above, Top to Bottom Robert Mellin documented the traditional buildings of Tilting, a Newfoundland outport; Stephen Wiseman’s restored St. John’s residence includes several outbuildings.

censed architects in the province is heavily skewed toward folks with out-ofprovince addresses. Of 127 full members of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Architects (NLAA), just 42 live on the island. These include many native-born Newfoundlanders, as well as quite a few who came for work and who have fallen in love with the place. As the saying goes, “Complaints is many and various, but the odd divil likes it.” Consider architect Stephen Wiseman, a restoration expert, who moved to Newfoundland from Kentucky and Michigan in 2008, drawn by offers from multinational engineering firms. Today, he’s established a solo practice—with his own century house on the “Irish Loop” south of St. John’s as

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Chris Crockwell, Crockwell Photography

Lat49’s Fortis Place is a contemporary presence in the St. John’s cityscape; a credit union by Lat49 uses an A-frame to negotiate a sloping site; an award-winning project by Ron Fougere converted a storage facility into a youth residence. opposite, clockwise from top left Robert Mellin’s Texmo-Storey Residence reconciles passive solar orientation with ocean views to the west; two views of the 12 Forest Avenue Residence by Peter Blackie; a sketch showing the concept of attaching outbuildings to the main house.

Nate Gates

Top to Bottom

Emily Campbell, Fougere Menchenton Architecture

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a calling card. The dwelling demonstrates a standard outport typology, with a root cellar and two ancillary sheds spiralled across the property. Wiseman’s restoration included locally milled back-primed Cottle’s Island black spruce clapboards, and US-made stainless steel ring-shank nails. With cable and turnbuckle used for guardrails that preserve the ocean view, and painted traditional colours of dory green and buff, it’s a marriage of modern and ancient methods: Mowat would have been proud. The meeting of modern and traditional elements also features prominently in the inaugural Lieutenant-Governor’s Awards of Merit in Architecture, handed out this January on behalf of the NLAA. The entries demonstrate an active architectural community and a wide variety of work, with projects from across the island plus Labrador presented to the jury. Each of the three winning projects is a residential piece in the St. John’s region—private houses by Peter Blackie and Robert Mellin, and a multiunit adaptive reuse by Ron Fougere, MRAIC. Peter Blackie’s house is conceptually an outport dwelling brought to the city, with the traditional outbuildings pulled in close and reattached as “sheds” on the main house. The residence features large windows oriented to the sun, together with heated floors and a thick service wall on the north. Blackie, formerly the art director of the TV show Republic of Doyle and a man who understands the power of the image, is today helming a project to build an eco-resort in Newfoundland actor Shaun Majumder’s hometown of Burlington. Robert Mellin has a longstanding architectural practice in St. John’s, where he has lived since moving to Newfoundland in 1974. Today he teaches architecture full-time at McGill University and manages his St. John’s office part-time. Mellin refers to himself as a “practice-based re-

Greg Richardson Greg Richardson

Robert Mellin

searcher”—that is, he uses his architectural practice to advance and explore ideas around the subject of built culture. His Lieutenant-Governor’s Award was for the Texmo-Storey residence in St. Phillips, a short drive outside St. John’s. This residence features a wraparound veranda that capitalizes on the view as well as making the most of passive solar gain, plus a heat pump for further energy efficiency. He speaks enthusiastically about the contributions of his contractor, Keith Piercey, and his client, the late Del Texmo, a well-known St. John’s entrepreneur and designer. The third project to win an Award of Merit is the Lilly, a former St. John’s storage building converted into a residence for at-risk youth. The architect, Ron Fougere, is a Nova Scotia-born Dalhousie graduate who has practiced in St. John’s since a university work term in 1981. The design is notable for its inclusion of a range of spaces with varying levels of privacy, allowing residents to engage in community life as desired. Fougere carefully managed dialogue with the surrounding community, using charrettes to overcome NIMBY fears and to achieve a sense of ownership among nearby residents. Newfoundland and Labrador’s architectural scene is fertile, even while dominated by a few well-established firms. How does one discover the newer, fresher ideas? The Lieutenant-Governor’s Award is one way; another is the Canadian Architect awards. This past year, only one Newfoundland firm submitted work to this magazine’s awards program: Woodford Sheppard Architecture. Chris Woodford, MRAIC, is the firm’s licensed architect, a Goulds native and 2001 Dalhousie graduate who previously worked with Todd Saunders in Norway. These days, he is hopeful that a sparkling new scheme for a corporate campus in the town of Paradise—which has received zoning approval—will get off the boards. The project proposes a new ecological preserve of wetland bog at the centre of a curved, partially underground building, with a skewed and cantilevered tower in the background. What makes this scheme remarkable is its setting: Paradise, the fastest-growing municipality in Atlantic Canada. The contemporary proposal is a striking contrast from a previously considered scheme—a development that Woodford likens to a cul-de-sac subdivision, planned around a central parking lot. An observer of the scene in Newfoundland and Labrador might be excused for being puzzled about the exuberance of some aspects of the pro-

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Woodford Sheppard Woodford Sheppard

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ABOVE An ambitious corporate campus, designed by Woodford Sheppard Architecture, wraps office space for Newfoundland’s offshore oil industry around a restored wetland in Paradise, a community on the outskirts of St. John’s.

fession set side-to-side with the conservatism of other aspects. If, as Mowat conjectured, the people of the province are natural builders of homes that meet the Vitruvian standards of “firmness, commodity and delight,” what does it say that two of three Lieutenant-Governor’s Award winners were born out of province? Why only one applicant for a Canadian Architect award? Where is the natural talent of the people? One might begin by asking a different question: what course of action is available for a Newfoundlander or Labradorian with a natural bent toward design? The answer: it’s complicated. At the western end of Newfoundland, Memorial University’s Corner Brook campus offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Elsewhere, Toronto firm ERA Architects has worked with Ryerson University and Dalhousie to offer students the opportunity to spend time in Newfoundland outports. The Shorefast Foundation has a grant program in place for artists to develop work on Fogo Island.

But the fact is, Newfoundland and Labrador offers no training in architecture. “Newfoundlanders are very smart people, but are not prepared for the needs of architecture school,” says Dalhousie architecture professor and Gander native Talbot Sweetapple, MRAIC, of Halifax firm MacKayLyons Sweetapple Architects. He has recently been in talks with architects and interns to see what can be done to improve the quality of Newfoundland students’ portfolios. Perhaps what is yet needed in the province is a pre-architecture studio option at Memorial University, one that will show the province’s citizenry a way forward—or backward—to a time when the “culture of making” included the creation of sturdy dwellings that exhibited exuberance and restraint in equal measure. Says Sweetapple, “This would be a remarkable— and much-desired—development.”

Jacob Allderdice, MRAIC, is an architect, writer and educator currently based in Toronto.

F C

Winnipeg Art Gallery

February 28 - May 3 2015 wag.ca | +1.204.786.6641

Arctic Adaptations: Nunavut at 15, the award-winning Canadian exhibition at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezia, surveys a recent architectural past, a current urbanizing present, and a projective near future of adaptive architecture in Nunavut. This unique exhibition reveals acts of architectural resistance and identifies an unrecognized modern Canadian North. Iqaluit, photograph by Mosesie Ikkidluak.

Presenting Sponsor

For more information on Arctic Adaptations and its Canadian tour please visit arcticadaptations.ca

Presenting Partners

Diamond Sponsors

With the participation of the Government of Canada

Platinum Sponsors

Avec la participation du gouvernement du Canada

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Insites

Gander’s Glorious Room Text

Jane Severs Zach Bonnell

Photos

Dialogue is developing around the fate of the International Departures Lounge in Gander’s air terminal, a 1959 Modernist gem in need of costly repairs. In April 2014, the Gander International Airport Authority (GIAA) announced plans to replace its existing terminal with a smaller, more efficient building. Their rationale was simple. Passenger traffic was up. In fact, it had doubled over the last decade, with forecasts for continued growth. At 106,000 square feet, the current terminal building provides plenty of room to grow, but that room is in all the wrong places. A new terminal building could accommodate three times the current capacity in the critical arrivals and departures areas, and dramatically reduce operating costs. The news set the heritage and design communities abuzz. Within

days, freshly minted Facebook sites implored government and the GIAA to “save Gander’s International Terminal,” an online petition quickly garnered more than a thousand signatures, and by July, multiple nominations had earned the building a spot on Heritage Canada’s 2014 list of the nation’s top ten endangered places. At first glance, Gander’s terminal has none of the obvious hallmarks of an architectural wonder. But look past its utilitarian exterior, beyond the recently added glass-and-aluminum security corridor, and you’ll find the International Departures Lounge—a near perfectly preserved 1959 gem widely considered to be one of the most important Modernist rooms in Canada. In May 2014, the Association of Heritage Industries NL (AHI) assembled a coalition of organizations and individuals interested in preserving the lounge. Meetings were held. Efforts were coordinated. But by late summer, when the standard tactics of lobbying and advocacy failed to produce any tangible results, frustration set in. Despite months of press eulogizing the lounge’s Mad Men-esque interior and countless impassioned admonitions that the space must be saved, heritage advocates had achieved...not a whole heck of a lot. The reasons? With many of the building systems deemed beyond their useful service life, necessary repairs and maintenance costs pegged in the millions, and energy expenses nearing $900,000 in 2013, no level of government was interested in designating the terminal an official heritage site, regardless of its significance. Then there was the lounge it-

self—a historic interior replete with original furnishings and finishes. Could it be adapted and reused without destroying much of what heritage advocates sought to save? The GIAA quickly pointed out that they are in the business of managing an airport, not a museum. And with 20% of Gander’s total labour force directly tied to airport activity, the impact of their management decisions extends far beyond the airport’s boundaries. Among heritage groups, there were grumblings about a lack of local grassroots enthusiasm for “the cause.” Some blamed apathy. Some blamed a lack of historical consciousness—a natural condition, perhaps, for a town that did not exist before 1933. But many suspected it was a simple case of income over ideals. Like so many battles over built heritage, the debate surrounding the future of Gander’s International Departures Lounge pitched preservation against progress and the result was inertia. Heritage advocates are often quick to brand opposition as singleminded, short-sighted and inflexible—while being guilty of the same crimes. Must preservation always equal stasis? Is there room for creative transformation? Have we become so averse to loss that we are unable to recognize opportunities? Is it time to stop criticizing each other and start critiquing the process? Heritage preservation begins with an assumption that a significant resource must be saved in a manner that involves as little loss as possible. The problem? That assumption immediately places heritage advocates in opposition to some property owners. But more importantly, it eliminates avenues of opportunity before they can be explored, things like partial preservation, creative recycling, or even preservation by record with the original eventually being removed. In the case of Gander’s International Departures Lounge, rethinking the process required letting go of the emphatic demand to save the space, and replacing it with a question: can the lounge be saved? This is more than semantics. In addition to economics, there are structural, mechanical and code compliance issues to be assessed. These are serious challenges that must be approached methodically and rationally. Earlier last summer, a representative of the Newfoundland and Labrador Historic Trust, an organization known for its commitment to the built heritage of the province, spent considerable time in Gander, initially to inventory and record the heritage features of the lounge. But his presence—and patience—led to conversations with GIAA staff and eventually its board. By summer’s end, he had gained the confidence of the GIAA and the necessary groundwork was in place to begin considering the problem in a cooperative and creative way. In the fall of 2014, AHI and the GIAA agreed to partner on a study. This is explicitly not a plan to preserve the lounge. Instead, it’s an exploration of the problem. And with only partial funding in place, it’s not a done deal yet. The information collected will not only inform AHI’s next steps, but potentially the GIAA’s course of action. The hope of reaching a solution that maintains the lounge’s qualities in some form remains precariously alive. As Reg Wright, GIAA President and CEO notes, “there are potential aviation applications of the lounge and also for concepts that dovetail nicely with the airport’s goals. I am really hopeful of an adaptive use of the space that is commercially sustainable and at least keeps the spirit of the design intact.” A lesson for all involved—and for others concerned about preserving historic spaces—is that creating an atmosphere of mutual respect and dialogue involving all stakeholders is more than a courtesy. It’s at the core of heritage: finding ways to bring our inherited resources into the here and now, in ways that remain relevant and viable. Jane Severs is the Executive Director of the Association of Heritage Industries NL, and principal of Jane Severs Interpretive Planning.

Kenneth Lochhead’s 22-metre-long mural Flight and its Allegories adorns the lounge; the bronze sculpture Welcoming Birds by Arthur Price is a centrepiece; a view of the terminal’s nondescript exterior. Above, top to bottom The lounge includes a Mondrianesque floor; designer furniture occupies the generous space; a view of the terminal’s vintage signage. Opposite, clockwise from top left

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Insites

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REPORT

Fire in the Belly Text

Alykhan Neky, Anna Pavia, Adryanne Quenneville and Rebecca Tsang

Ryerson students report on a recent symposium that asks: what should architecture schools teach? “Architectural education should be an unforgettable and incendiary experience, where all concerned are restless, curious and committed to putting out fire with gasoline,” says David Gloster, Director of Education for the Royal Institute of British Architects. Gloster was one of four panellists who participated in Designing the Architect: Reshaping Architectural Pedagogy for the Information Age, a recent symposium hosted by Ryerson University’s Master of Architecture class. The evening event brought together educators from Europe and North America to re-examine the notion of the architect and her education in the face of a rapidly changing world. The widespread availability of knowledge has reoriented society around information production and synthesis. Furthermore, students are facing an urgent sense of obligation to mitigate climate change. How will architectural education empower students to participate in this information age? In particular, how will it embrace digital means of representation and fabrication? How will architectural education embody the breadth of ideas beyond design? Lastly, how can schooling adequately prepare students to operate responsibly in professional practice? In response to these questions, moderator Zahra Ebrahim, founder and principal of the design think tank archiTEXT, opened the discussion by asking, “What does it mean to be an architect in the digital age?” Gloster responded by emphasizing the importance of design through making. “The old adage ‘beware of technologies bearing gifts’ I think still stays true,” he says. “The reality is that students’ engagement with materials and technologies is at best fair, and at worst pretty tenuous.” As more digital tools become ubiquitous in architectural design, the tie to the tangible remains necessary. He cautions, “We have to form a better, deeper and more profound understanding of what technology can offer architects.”

ABOVE Architectural education must integrate new technology, agree panellists David Covo, George Baird, Zahra Ebrahim, Michelle Addington and David Gloster.

Like technology, the panellists asserted that the notion of sustainability is futile without its thorough integration into the design process, and therefore it must be inherent to the way design is taught. David Covo, FRAIC, past president of the Canadian Architectural Certification Board (CACB), likened the topic to the issue of accessibility that was, not long ago, a challenge for architects. Today, barrier-free design is so ingrained in architecture that it is simply common sense to the average designer. Likewise, sustainability, he says, “has to become pervasive.” Michelle Addington, professor at Yale University, voiced her perspective of sustainability very precisely: it’s about simply knowing how building systems work. She says, “If you understand how things work, [they can be designed to] work at the most effective and efficient scale.” In her approach to environmental design, an understanding of material, process and method will ultimately ensure that buildings function at their greatest efficiency. The notion of collaboration with other expert consultants was also raised. The panellists recognized the soft skills required to communicate with a wealthy client just as easily as with a tradesperson. One of the challenges of architectural education, remarked George Baird, FRAIC, former dean of the University of Toronto and partner at Baird Sampson Neuert, is when the intellectual integrity of design is compromised for the mere sake of being provocative. This self-indulgent manner of designing may reflect what Gloster deems a “curious internal paradox” that exists in the current model of architectural education: students are often taught individually whereas practice works in teams. Further considering reality outside of the classroom, Covo advocated for co-op education and suggested that the school and the profession should aspire to operate “in partnership to actually improve the discipline.” Despite the potential for a symbiotic relationship of this nature, it is (continued on page 33)

Making Toronto Modern: Architecture and Design, 1895-1975

Shim Sutcliffe—The Passage of Time

Architecture and National Identity: The Centennial Projects 50 Years On

By Christopher Armstrong. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014.

Edited by Annette W. LeCuyer. Halifax: Dalhousie Architectural Press, 2014.

Edited by Marco Polo and Colin Ripley. Halifax: Dalhousie Architectural Press, 2014.

Not since Eric Arthur’s Toronto, No Mean City has an author succeeded in constructing a similarly comprehensive narrative about the forces at work that shaped the city’s architecture. Author Christopher Armstrong presents a detailed description of events and personalities, tracking changes in architectural form in Toronto. His research is impeccable and he displays remarkable insights into the rationale behind building processes, client requirements and design decisions. However, by choosing to highlight historical data and events, the larger cultural story sometimes takes a back seat. The sheer force of Modern architecture—the presence of wave upon wave of new buildings and their influence on the city’s image and on its citizens—remains largely unexplored. Modernity changed the way Canadian cities looked. Moreover, it impacted the lives of ordinary citizens and the attitude of our profession towards innovation. Making Toronto Modern is an ambitious undertaking and would be a welcome addition to any architect’s library. But there are many more stories to be told about the onset and impact of the Modern. Telling these stories remains an important challenge, especially given the pressures exerted upon the stock of Modern buildings now being considered for demolition. For this reader, Making Toronto Modern makes evident the need for broader architectural histories that build from Armstrong’s meticulous work: narratives that give voice to the spaces, places, monuments and everyday experiences that architecture creates. Such histories will provide exemplars for our profession to continue insisting on innovative, highquality architecture with the power to impact the daily lives of Canadians.

Since setting up their practice in 1987, Brigitte Shim, FRAIC, and Howard Sutcliffe, FRAIC, have garnered 12 Governor General’s medals for their work. These accolades—whose quantity outstrips the number of staff—recognize the firm’s attention to detail at every step, from a building’s solar orientation to the crafting of each door pull. This slim monograph offers a compelling case study of two intimate projects: a city dwelling and a waterfront cabin that Shim and Sutcliffe have built for their personal use. “Our own house in Toronto and the Harrison Island Camp at Georgian Bay are personal experiments,” they explain in the book’s main text, compiled from conversations with the editors. “They have enabled us to explore and test a range of issues.” The Laneway House is a manifesto on how the couple wanted to live in the city: they rehabilitated a derelict urban site, carving out a compact sanctuary complete with a fireplace, courtyard and fountain. The Harrison Island Camp is a two-room summer dwelling that sits lightly on adjustable steel jackposts bolted to the exposed Canadian Shield bedrock. A minimum of components—an industrial greenhouse ridge skylight, SIP panels, art made from construction waste, and the necessary insect screens—are meticulously assembled in thoughtful ways. Both projects act as a testing ground for new techniques the firm plans to introduce to its work for other clients. The Toronto Laneway House garnered a Governor General’s Award in 1994, but the couple continues to modify it: its elegant handrail, made of a wrapped steel sheet that seems to emerge from the wall plane, was designed and installed in 2011. Architects’ work, particularly when it comes to their own dwellings, is never finished.

In Canada, 1967 meant more than than it did elsewhere. Not only was it the summer of love, it was the year a country came to love itself. Celebrating its Centennial, the nation had a new flag, a young and charismatic Prime Minister, and Montreal hosted an international exposition par excellence. While the architecture of Expo 67 has been well explored, the built legacy of this moment is broader and includes the hundreds of projects funded by centennial grants and memorial programs. It’s this pan-Canadian heritage that is examined in this book. The text doubles as an exhibition catalogue, a companion to a show of the same name recently staged in Charlottetown. The book does an admirable job condensing its major themes. Foremost is exhibition cocurator Marco Polo’s introductory essay, which argues persuasively for the cultural impact and distinction of the Centennial buildings. Mostly spaces devoted to the arts, these projects form an impressive collection. Architecture and National Identity presents over 20 examples in entries that are brief but compelling. This was a constructive endeavour of a scale rarely found in Canada’s history. The buildings that resulted were largely responsible for introducing Modernism to Canadian cities in a big way and serve a vital role in this country’s architectural culture. The slim tome’s lone shortfall is its brevity. One simply wants more: an exploration of how these facilities fostered the arts, a look at their urban impact, a full list of centenary projects. Yet it is an invaluable and pioneering contribution. As the country’s sesquicentennial approaches, let’s hope it serves as an inspiration as we consider how we might once again commemorate an important national anniversary.

George Thomas Kapelos, FRAIC, teaches architecture at

Elsa Lam is editor of Canadian Architect .

Jeffrey Thorsteinson is a writer and researcher with the

Ryerson University.

Winnipeg Architecture Foundation.

canadian architect 03/15

Books

CANADIAN ARCHITECT 03/15

PRODUCT SHOWCASE smoke and Fire curtains The Bilco Company offers a full line of hidden automatic smoke and fire curtains that activate in case of fire to create a physical barrier to smoke and heat movement, allowing for safe building evacuation while helping fire-fighting efforts and minimizing smoke and heat damage. Visit www.bilco-colt.com

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The Space of Difference

Sylvia Smith lecture

Gilles Saucier lecture

Process Artifacts

January 1-March 29, 2015

March 9, 2015

March 16, 2015

March 19, 2015

This multi-media projection art piece by Operative Agency at the Chuck Bailey Recreation Centre in Surrey demands the active engagement of the public, offering them a place of their own making.

Sylvia Smith of FXFOWLE Architects in New York lectures at 6:00pm in Room G10 of the Macdonald-Harrington Building at McGill University.

Gilles Saucier, founder and principal of Montreal-based Saucier + Perrotte architectes, lectures at 6:00pm at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

Jimenez Lai presentation

Philippe Block lecture

March 10, 2015

March 16, 2015

Maria Denegri and Tom Bessai of Denegri Bessai Studio Architecture will present a series of recent projects at 1:00pm at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto.

Jimenez Lai, leader of Bureau Spectacular, lectures at 6:30pm at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto.

Architectural engineer Philippe Block, principal of the Block Research Group and associate professor in the Department of Architecture at ETH Zurich, lectures at 6:30pm at UBC Robson Square in Vancouver.

Shane Williamson: Incremental

Teddy Cruz lecture

Ma Yansong lecture

March 16, 2015

March 25, 2015

Teddy Cruz, founder of Estudio Teddy Cruz, lectures at 6:00pm at the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Architecture.

Ma Yansong, founder of MAD Architects in China, lectures at 6:00pm at the University of Calgary’s downtown campus.

March 11-14, 2015

Public Space Rules

One of a Kind Spring Show

This planning conference at Dalhousie University will discuss strategies for building successful rural communities in Nova Scotia.

March 16-April 10, 2015

March 25-29, 2015

Produced by Perkins+Will, this exhibition at Ryerson University’s Paul H. Cocker Gallery showcases the artifacts of the consultation and design process for the Church Street Development Project.

This popular event returns to the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto, featuring the fine work of hundreds of artisans and designers.

March 12, 2015

Raj Patel lecture

March 26, 2015

Daniel Pearl, principal of L’OEUF Architects, lectures at 6:30pm at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto.

March 17, 2015

Michael Maltzan of Los Angelesbased Michael Maltzan Architecture Inc. lectures at 6:00pm at the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Architecture.

www.operativeagency.com

HOUSE 2020 Student Ideas Competition February 5-April 25, 2015

Toronto-based design centre WORKSHOP Inc. is exhibiting the results of its recent HOUSE 2020 Student Competition. Thaddeus Holownia: Paris After Atget February 14-March 22, 2015

This exhibition of Thaddeus Holownia’s photographs of a rapidly evolving Paris at the Corkin Gallery in Toronto explores themes of architecture, urban space and the environment. www.corkingallery.com

Maggie’s Centres: A Blueprint for Cancer Care

Martin Arfalk lecture March 11, 2015

Martin Arfalk of the urban design and landscape architecture firm Mandaworks in Stockholm lectures at 6:00pm at the University of Calgary’s downtown campus. Shift Rural

www.dalhousieplanningconference.com

March 3-April 12, 2015

This exhibition at the Idea Exchange | Design at Riverside in Cambridge, Ontario features five bright and unorthodox cancer-care facilities in the UK designed by Frank Gehry, Piers Gough, Steven Holl, Rem Koolhaas and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.

Daniel Pearl: Moving Towards Passivhaus

Raj Patel of Arup’s New York office lectures at 6:30pm at Ryerson University’s Department of Architectural Science.

March 24, 2015

Shane Williamson of Williamson Chong Architects lectures at 6:30pm at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto.

www.oneofakindshow.com/toronto

Michael Maltzan lecture

(continued from page 30)

academia that has the robust capability to truly advance the boundaries of architecture. “Architectural education can lead to the subversion of practice,” says Gloster. The extensive breadth of subjects addressed in architectural education is one of its primary appeals. However, the ability to think in terms of greater territories and domains becomes curtailed when it meets the realities of present procurement processes. By detaching architectural education from practice, students can explore architectural ideas beyond the strictures of market demands. Architectural education thus has the capability to re-establish the ideals and cultural role of architecture. Over the course of the evening, it became apparent that architectural education is far more versatile than it is often perceived to be. When our Master of Architecture Class 2016 designed the symposium, we anticipated that the discussion would seek to reorganize architectural education to better align with practice. However, the conversation instead suggested that architectural education is not intended to solely serve the profession. Rather, it plays a significant role in the advancement of the discipline itself.

The value of knowledge and skills learned in academia goes beyond architectural practice. For instance, the practice of architectural critiques in school gives students opportunities to engage in academic conversations as advocates of their own ideas. Both the confidence and rhetoric instilled in students through studio courses are valuable currencies within the professional marketplace. Through design thinking and the rigorous pursuit of the associated skill sets, students become equipped to engage with a wide spectrum of disciplines not limited to the built context. It is the power and versatility of evolving architectural education that will truly enable architects, regardless of their position in the professional world, to advance the knowledge into new territories. Architectural education should truly, then, continue to be “an incendiary experience” set alight by students’ aggressive intellectual curiosity and passion to impact society through design. Alykhan Neky, Anna Pavia, Adryanne Quenneville and Rebecca Tsang are Master of Architecture candidates at Ryerson University.

canadian architect 03/15

Calendar

Confederation centre for the arts Text

Marco Polo and Colin Ripley

In June 1960, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, addressing the 53rd Annual Assembly of the RAIC, called for some assistance from the architectural profession: In a few short years this nation will be celebrating its Centennial…I ask that you, the members of this profession, should play a most important part, and… present to the Centennial Committee as soon as possible your views and suggestions for this celebration; something to touch the hearts of Canadians, something to represent the unity of our country… By the time of Diefenbaker’s address, a grassroots movement was already in progress looking for ways to celebrate the upcoming 1967 Centennial of Confederation. Frank MacKinnon, principal of Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown, PEI, had been promoting the construction of a memorial of national significance to mark the centenary of the first Confederation Conference, held in Charlottetown’s Province House in 1864. MacKinnon assembled a national board to assist him in this effort, and in May 1961 a national design competition for the project was announced, now envisioned as a significant cultural facility on a key downtown site directly adjacent to Province House. The 47 submissions included an extraordinary monumental scheme by a young Raymond Moriyama, FRAIC, and a fantastic futuristic proposal by John B. Parkin Associates, which received a Mention. The winning scheme, by Dimitri Dimakopoulos of Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold, Sise, was unveiled in Ottawa in January 1962. As the first of Canada’s Centennial projects, the Fathers of Confederation Memorial Buildings set an important precedent for subsequent Centennial buildings, both in terms of their cultural program and their adoption of

photo by art james, reprinted from the Canadian Architect, November 1964

canadian architect 03/15

Looking Back

a Brutalist idiom. The programmatic elements—library, theatre and art gallery—are expressed as discrete volumes rising from a podium elevated above street level and surrounding, on three sides, the dominant void of Memorial Hall on the concourse below, with its fourth side facing Province House. While the material treatment and height of the new complex defer to the historic building and the intimate scale of Charlottetown (the new buildings are clad in Wallace sandstone from the same Nova Scotia quarry that supplied the stone for the original building), the complex as a whole suggests a more aloof relationship to its setting. The massing does not address the surrounding streets, but instead defines a fortress protectively enveloping the activities it encloses. Even though the Fathers of Confederation Memorial Buildings do not adopt the rough, unfinished concrete expression usually associated with Brutalist architecture, their massive volumetric forms and aloofness to context has led to their characterization as representative of this movement. The text accompanying their 2003 designation as a National Historic Site notes that they are “a superior example of Brutalist architecture in Canada.” Brutalism was subsequently embraced by many of the architects designing Canada’s 1967 Centennial Projects. Its anti-historical, anti-hierarchical informality came to be understood as an appropriate expression for a Canada that was shedding its colonial past to forge a new identity as a culturally progressive, democratically transparent and independent modern nation. Marco Polo, FRAIC, and Colin Ripley, MRAIC, are professors in Ryerson University’s Department of Architectural Science and co-curators of Architecture and National Identity:

The Centennial Projects 50 Years On.

Fallingwater®, Kaufmann Residence, Mill Run, Pa., c. 1936 Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright Conservator: Western Pennsylvania Conservancy

RISING ABOVE

Restoring an iconic landmark’s beauty while honoring Wright’s dedication to blending architecture with nature. Imagine the Kaufmann family’s surprise when, instead of boasting a view of the waterfall, Frank Lloyd Wright suggested building their home on top of it! To restore the historic landmark’s beauty, PPG’s color-matching technology rose to the occasion, recreating Wright’s original aesthetic vision. To protect and beautify the outside, conservationists used PERMA-CRETE™ Alkali-resistant Primer coating and MANOR HALL® TIMELESS® paint for the topcoat. Inside, they applied PURE PERFORMANCE® zero-VOC* base paint. They chose DURANAR® coatings for the window frames to deliver unparalleled performance against the elements. And, they replaced 319 windows using STARPHIRE® ultra-clear glass and SUNGATE® low-emissivity glass. Visit ppginnovation.com/risingabove to contact a PPG IDEASCAPES™ specialist for your next project.

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Perma-Crete is a trademark and Manor Hall, Timeless and Pure Performance are registered trademarks of PPG Architectural Finishes, Inc. Bringing innovation to the surface and PPG IdeaScapes are trademarks and Duranar, Starphire, Sungate and the PPG Logo are registered trademarks of PPG Industries Ohio, Inc. Fallingwater is a registered trademark of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. © 2015 PPG Industries, Inc. All rights reserved. *Colorants added to this base paint may increase volatile organic compound (VOC) levels significantly, depending on color choice.

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Image of Fallingwater is used with express consent of Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. PPG is a proud sponsor of Fallingwater/Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.

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