Canadian Architect June 2023

Functional and Timeless Beauty

The cutting-edge ultracompact stone provides comprehensive, customized, and sustainable façade solutions. Dekton® meets the most complex technical requirements and o ers unmatched beauty, durability, and resistance.

14

HIGHLAND VILLAGE INTERPRETIVE CENTRE

Abbott Brown’s interpretive centre for a Cape Breton museum is grounded in its cultural landscape. TEXT Christine Macy

20 CAPILANO & CALDER LIBRAIRIES

Two recent Edmonton libraries offer different visions of the community institution. TEXT Greg Whistance-Smith

30 ALBERT CAMPBELL LIBRARY

LGA Architectural Partners transforms a 1971 neighbourhood landmark by Fairfield and DuBois. TEXT Emily Macrae

38 HARRISON MCCAIN PAVILION

KPMB’s addition to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery is a contemporary take on Fredericton’s neoclassical architecture. TEXT Peter Sealy

4 VIEWPOINT

Remembering Laura Moffatt, 1974-2023.

6 NEWS

OAQ award winners, RAIC Chancellor elected.

9 AIA CANADA JOURNAL

An interview with accessibility consultant and advocate Darby Lee Young.

44 INSITES

Jake Nicholson experiments with using ChatGPT to write proposals.

47 BOOKS

Alissa North’s new book on Canada’s contemporary landscapes, and Hans Ibelings’ vision for a climate change-centered history of architecture.

50 BACKPAGE

Moriyama Teshima Architects on the importance of preserving the Ontario Science Centre.

Highland Village

COVER

Interpretive Centre, by Abbott Brown Architects.

Photo by Maxime Brouillet

REMEMBERING LAURA MOFFATT

As our team puts together this month’s issue of Canadian Architect, our hearts are heavy with the loss of a beloved colleague. Publishing operations manager Laura Lyn Moffatt (1974-2023) passed away in late April, after a brief and valiant fight with an aggressive form of cancer.

Laura was born and raised east of Toronto. Her first job out of high school was on the factory floor of General Motors. It was a predominantly male environment, and Laura was taken under the wing of several of the men around—fathers themselves, who perhaps saw their own daughters in Laura and felt similarly protective of her. The experience gave Laura a strong work ethic and commitment to collegiality that continued throughout her career.

After completing a degree at Durham College, Laura took on a contract position with Southam’s magazine group. Her role was to train publishers on a new customer relationship management software. Many of her trainees were reluctant technological adopters, and leading them through the software required patient explanation, often over multiple sessions.

Laura’s diligence and abilities to take on an increasing number of roles and responsibilities soon landed her a full-time job at Southam, and she continued in the business-to-business magazine division after it became a separate company, Business Information Group. When that company in turn was dismantled, she was hired by Alex Papanou, who continued on as the owner of Canadian Architect, Canadian Interiors, and Building magazines.

Over the past near-decade that I’ve had the pleasure of working with Laura, she has deftly managed all facets of the busy production of three magazines. From coordination with the printer and overseeing the websites, to deploying newsletters and e-blast campaigns, to processing credit card payments and downloading award entries, Laura was involved in everything. She was the person who the others in the company e-mailed

multiple times a day with questions and requests of all kinds. When a deadline was slipping, she’d be the one to remind us—or, at other times, to perform the behind-the-scenes coordination needed with the printer, advertisers, and web to nudge production back by a day or two.

All of this would be done with the utmost professionalism and an unfailing attention to detail. Although I never saw Laura get angry, she would certainly get frustrated if others didn’t do their part—her personal standards were high for working hard and getting things done, and she had little tolerance for others slacking off. But even then, the team’s success was foremost in her concerns, and she wouldn’t hesitate to drop everything to help a colleague who was in genuine need.

While I wasn’t well acquainted with Laura outside of work, I do know that she was an expert quilter. She organized a surprise office baby shower for me when I was pregnant with my son, and I was presented with a beautifully handmade baby blanket. I remember her telling me afterwards how difficult it was to find gender-neutral baby fabrics—my partner and I had decided not to tell if we were having a boy or a girl. But she persisted, and found a fabric with animals on a lime-green background, which became the centrepiece for a composition in purple, green, and yellow, with orange fleece backing.

Laura’s fatal illness came about swiftly. She wasn’t feeling well in December—maybe COVID, she thought—and missed the company’s holiday luncheon. In January, she was diagnosed with stage two cancer. Following a seemingly successful surgery and rehabilitation, the cancer returned and spread; several rounds of chemotherapy failed to eradicate it before Laura succumbed.

Laura passed far too young, and will be sorely missed by her colleagues and family—for all that she did, but most of all, for the kind, generous, and determined person that she was.

DOUGLAS MACLEOD, NCARB FRAIC

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LEFT Production manager Laura Lyn Moffatt (1974-2023) with editor Elsa Lam’s infant son.

STEVE WILSON

Canada’s architectural profession issues report calling for change

For our communities to thrive, meaningful and necessary changes are needed to the way we create architecture in Canada, confirmed a report resulting from a three-year national consultation process.

The report, issued this spring by Rise for Architecture and the Regulatory Organizations of Architecture in Canada, shares a comprehensive review of the current practice of architecture in Canada, with recommended actions for adoption across the profession. The research includes a national poll by the Angus Reid Institute, a public survey, roundtables with the architectural profession, an architectural student forum, and independent research on the effectiveness of architecture policies in Europe.

The report highlights several key findings, including the need for greater diversity and inclusivity in the architecture profession, the importance of sustainable design practices, and the role of architecture in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. It also offers several recommendations for the future, including the need to strengthen the relationship between architects and the public, the importance of mentorship and professional development for young architects, and the need for greater collaboration between architects and other stakeholders in the built environment. A key finding was the need for and value of an architecture policy for Canada, which would be developed by various government sectors with the support of the design, planning, and construction industries.

“Architecture has a vital role to play in shaping the future of our cities and communities,” says architect Darryl Condon, Chair of the Rise for Architecture Committee. “This report on the future of archi-

tecture in Canada provides a roadmap for how people in the profession can work together to create more sustainable, equitable, and inclusive environments for all Canadians.”

“Students, architects, and Canadians shared valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities facing Canada’s architectural profession. They called for deep change, which we’ve summarized into a set of immediate actions we hope to see adopted,” says Professor Lisa Landrum, a member of the Rise for Architecture committee.

Canadians are facing unprecedented challenges; the report’s findings and recommendations provide a roadmap for more responsive and resilient community design. It defines immediate actions for architects, educators, policymakers, and design professionals to work together in support of our communities and future generations.

www.roac.ca

AWARDS

OAQ Award winners

The Ordre des architectes du Québec (OAQ) has announced the winners of its 2023 Awards of Excellence.

The jury awarded two Grand Prix d’Excellence this year, recognizing Insectarium Metamorphosis in Montreal by Kuehn Malvezzi / Pelletier De Fontenay / Jodoin Lamarre Pratte architectes in consortium and Centre Cultural Desjardins Renovation in Joliette by Atelier TAG. The Public Choice Award went to the new sports and culture centre at Collège Notre-Dame in Montreal, designed by ACDF Architecture.

The following projects were also recognized with Awards of Excellence: Collège Durocher Saint-Lambert (Montérégie) by Atelier Pierre Thibault; Complexe des sciences - Campus Mil (Montreal) by Menkès Shooner Dagenais LeTourneux | Lemay | NFOE Architectes; Esplanade Tranquille - Quartier des spectacles (Montreal) by Les architectes FABG; Institut Quantique (Sherbrooke) by Saucier + Perrotte architectes; Carlier House (Montreal) by yh2 – Yiacouvakis Hamelin Architectes; Jeanne-Mance House (Montreal) by La Shed Architecture; and MB (Montreal) by Studio Jean Verville architectes.

The Médaille du Mérite was posthumously awarded to architect Claude Provencher for his contributions to inclusive and meaningful architecture. The organization’s Social Engagement Prize was presented to Lafond Côté Architectes. NÓS was awarded the Emerging Architects’ award, and the Ambassador for Quality in Architecture Prize went to Marie-Josée Lacroix, Montreal’s first design commissioner.

www.oaq.com

ABOVE The Centre Cultural Desjardins Renovation in Joliette, Quebec, by Atelier TAG won an 2012 OAQ Grand Prix d’Excellence.

OAA SHIFT Challenge

The Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) has announced the five selections in its SHIFT 2023 Challenge, which focused on the theme of Health and Architecture. The biennial OAA aspirational ideas competition recognizes the value of architecture in addressing societal issues.

This year’s honorees include: Amygdala , a proposed treed walkway with lightweight steel and timber to establish an elevated network of pathways and gathering spaces through the existing canopies of Toronto’s Woodbine Beach by student associate Emily Lensin; Finding Balance in the Landscape of Muskoka , a plan to create a 200-acre wilderness preserve and establish a public place of contemplation, repose, and reflection on nature and our place within it by a team led by architect Howard Rideout; Healthy Cities: Sustainably Adapting the Dominion Foundry Complex , a proposed mixed-use development that aims to adapt Toronto’s remaining heritage Dominion Foundry buildings and integrate new construction to create a self-sustaining and active community by student associate Erica Gomirato; Hospital Precinct Commons, a proposed transformation of a major downtown-Toronto block’s exterior spaces into a multi-functional parkland that blurs boundaries between institutional care and community-based support and offers a more holistic approach to wellness by architect Gordon Stratford and landscape architect Alison Lumby; and Scaling Down: Shifting to Transit-Oriented Communities at Human Scale and Human Speed , which says goodbye to car-dominated neighbourhoods and puts people first with scaled-down streets, open spaces, and charming, walkable destinations, by a team led by architect Naama Blonder.

www.shiftchallenge.ca

MEMORANDA

RAIC College elects new Chancellor

Gerrie Doyle, an Ottawa-based architect and Fellow of the RAIC , has been elected Chancellor of the RAIC College for a three-year term beginning in June.

www.raic.org

Terri Meyer Boake recognized for lifetime achievement

University of Waterloo School of Architecture professor Terri Meyer Boake has been honoured by the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) with AISC ’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The honour recognizes living individuals who have made a difference in the success of AISC and the structural steel industry.

www.aisc.org

The Lives of Documents—Photography as Project

Curated by Bas Princen and Stefano Graziani, CCA Montreal’s new exhibition is the first in a trilogy focused on the medium of photography as art, research tool, and document investigating the built environment. The exhibition continues until March 3, 2024.

www.cca.qc.ca

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President’s Letter

Conference season is upon us! We have recently enjoyed the return of the in-person conference of the RAIC, an organization to which many of our members also belong, and find ourselves now anticipating coming together at the AIA conference in San Francisco for more learning.

This month, we bring you a Q&A session with Darby Lee Young, founder of Level Playing Field. In conversation with our Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Pauline Thimm, Darby discusses ways that we are moving toward greater equity in the built environment—and where we still need improvement. She touches upon the importance of viewing architecture as both an art and a science, so that code application, instead of being merely prescriptive, actually facilitates more equitable access for all. As a resource to support this work, we also highlight the AIA’s Community on the Environment (COTE®)—a group that has expanded from an exclusively climate-focused Knowledge Community to now include a framework for building performance criteria, which offers metrics for measuring access for all.

In May, we hosted our first in-person event in my hometown of Calgary, and it was wonderful to connect face-to-face with members. We are looking forward to hosting more events across Canada in the coming months: watch your inbox for invitations!

Canada Journal

AIA Knowledge Community Spotlight: COTE®

The Committee on the Environment (COTE®), founded in 1990, is an AIA Knowledge Community working for architects, allied professionals, and the public to achieve climate action and climate justice through design. Founded on the belief that design excellence is the foundation of a healthy, sustainable, and equitable future, its work promotes design strategies that empower all AIA members to realize the best social and environmental outcomes with the clients and the communities they serve.

While this Knowledge Community was first established to focus on the traditional sense of ‘environment’ as it relates to climate change, it has broadened its scope to include social impact. There is now as much synergy with LEED criteria as there is with WELL, Fitwel, and other metrics for occupant health, equity, and wellness. It continues to evolve to close the gaps between the aspirational and the quantitative.

COTE® is perhaps best known for its annual Top Ten awards program for sustainable design excellence. It also offers a dedicated awards program for students, recognizing ten exceptional studio projects that seamlessly integrate innovative, regenerative strategies within broader design concepts.

One of the most impactful tools that COTE® has established for measuring sustainable, resilient, and inclusive design is the

NEWS

Welcoming Brian Wall, Secretary

We would like to welcome our newest member to the Board of Directors, Brian Wall, Architect, AIA, MAA, AIBC, AAA, SAA, OAA, MRAIC, in the role of Secretary. Brian is an architect with 35 years of experience in the industry. Currently, he is the managing partner of gw architecture inc., a firm with offices in Winnipeg, MB, and Kenora, ON. Brian started his career as a selfemployed Certified Architectural Techni-

cian and later earned the title of Architect by studying with the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. Understanding the business of architecture was an easy fit, but the creative nature of architecture came less naturally. To address this hurdle, Brian opened a studio in his office that features the works of local and international artists. Studying the forms of artists fuelled his desire to create more. His practice includes healthcare, commercial, retail, and industrial projects, and he con-

AIA Framework for Design Excellence, formally adopted in 2019 as the successor to the previous COTE® Top Ten Measures. The intention of the Framework is to provide guidelines to help organize our thinking and to facilitate conversations with our clients and the communities we serve. AIA Canada employs these 10 principles for evaluating submissions to its own Design Excellence Awards program.

The ten categories, explained in greater detail on the AIA website and within the COTE® SuperSpreadsheet for evaluating projects are:

1. Design for Integration

2. Design for Equitable Communities

3. Design for Ecosystems

4. Design for Water

5. Design for Economy

6. Design for Energy

7. Design for Well-being

8. Design for Resources

9. Design for Change

10. Design for Discovery

As you will read on the following pages, we recently had the opportunity to speak with Darby Lee Young, founder of Level Playing Field, to explore the Well-being, Integration and Equitable Communities categories and ways to better support people regardless of age, size, or ability to freely use all spaces of a building to the greatest extent possible.

siders each project as an opportunity to impact how others experience the world.

AIA Conference on Architecture

AIA’s annual Conference on Architecture takes place from June 7-10, 2023 in San Francisco, California. The program includes seminars, practicums, tours, and keynotes by speakers including the Right Honourable Jacinda Ardern, former Prime Minister of New Zealand.

Lara Presber Architect, AAA, AIA, CPHD, WELL AP™

Darby Lee Young

Interview by Pauline Thimm

I got to the point where I just said to myself, “Okay, I’m going to teach myself. I’m going to go work for a building code firm, get into architectural design.” I didn’t go the university route to study design, but instead used my unique lived experience to see how I could support making buildings more inclusive for people like me. And that’s exactly what I did.

persons with disabilities come to the store, so there was no need. Well, maybe if they had a ramp, they would! It’s an example of the type of thinking we often still see.

Born with cerebral palsy, Darby established Level Playing Field in 2015. With over 16 years of experience working as an accessibility strategist, she contributes an applied understanding of Universal Design and international accessibility guidelines and standards to all her work. Darby is committed to combining her unique lived experience and history in various political appointments to passionately advocate for lasting inclusive environments that benefit everyone, regardless of age or ability. To date, she has applied her expertise in over 200 projects for clients including the Canada Post Corporation, TAZA Development, The Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and many others.

How did you get involved in consulting for the building industry? What brought you to this work?

When I worked for the Vancouver Olympic Committee, leading up to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, I saw how issues in designing the built environment for our able-bodied Olympic athletes were going to be five times more challenging in order to also support the Paralympic athletes.

Coming out to Vancouver, as a person with a disability I was faced with the reality of not being able to visit places like restaurants. I needed to take 20 to 30 minutes just to research how I could safely get to places in advance to see if they were accessible.

I did that type of work for a couple of years, until I joined the Advisory Committee on Accessibility for the City of Calgary. A couple of city councillors there asked me to step down and start a company so that they could pay me to do the advising. So I started Level Playing Field (LPF) and sure enough, my first contract was for the City Hall Municipal Building in Calgary, Alberta. And here we are now, eight years later: it’s been a ton of fun and we’re working on projects across the country.

Your business obviously became an instant success and proves the huge need for your expertise. Over the eight years you’ve been running your practice, what have you seen in terms of evolution in the understanding and implementation of accessibility in design?

We still have those everyday conversations with firms who insist, “We do it in-house and we design to code.” It’s trying to get people to see past code. The code is 30 years behind how we want to live—so if we keep designing just to code, then we are far behind.

I think there’s been a big shift, though. In the past eight years, people are starting to get it, and now they reach out and carry consultants like us as part of their team automatically, instead of only relying on clients to specifically ask for it.

What should owners consider when enhancing inclusivity and accessibility in terms of the investment required?  How can the business case be made?

If you’re inclusive, then you allow everyone to show up—and that is good business for everyone.

I think back to the story of the shop in Toronto that had a step up at the entrance. Somebody asked if they could add a ramp outside so that people like me could get in. The response was that they had never had

It is not unusual in celebrated architectural design to see features like a prominent, grand staircase at the entrance with the ramp and elevators tucked away. This kind of design doesn’t highlight inclusion. For me, as a person who can’t really do stairs, seeing stairs highlighted as the focal point does not provide a warm and welcoming feeling. That’s an example of privileging an ableist society.

Another situation that often occurs is arriving at an entrance, when everybody wants to use the nearest and most convenient doors. But someone with mobility challenges will have to use the furthest door, because the nearest doors involve travel up stairs and don’t include a ramp.

What changes could make it more welcoming?

If you want to feature that grand staircase— let’s do that staircase, but up the middle have a glass elevator, or feature accessibility in some other prominent way. And attention to adequate wayfinding and signage is important so getting to that ramp or elevator is easy to do for those who need. Make it so that when we’re all going to the same place—let’s have an equal experience in getting there.

We understand that some situations require more careful consideration. We deal often with heritage buildings. LPF’s offices are in the Vintage Towers in Calgary. I chose to locate our offices here in part because I was drawn to the unique history of the building. But it is also important to us that when somebody visits us here, they feel welcome from the point of arrival. At Vintage Towers, there’s a ramp and the stairs at the entrance, and they are located together. You don’t need the extra effort or challenge or get a second-class feeling because it’s an ableist building. Rather, you feel included when you arrive on site.

I love character buildings—our Palliser Hotel, our Calgary Tower, the historic university buildings we find on many campuses. I don’t want to get rid of them because they are not accessible in their original design. I want to make them safe and inclusive.

Neil Zeller

We need to make them so that everybody has that same access instead of that secondary, back entrance feeling.

The goal, as you’ve stated, should be to make everyone feel like they are welcome. Where there’s a will there’s a way, but of course there are always costs associated.

There are ways to make accessibility accommodation, even for heritage buildings, feel intentionally integrated as part of the building. But of course, everything costs money. And in our experience, one of the first things that gets cut from projects are enhanced accessibility measures.

When you come across that in your work, how do you how do you manage that?

Well, we must have discussions early on. When it comes to a value engineering process, it’s all a matter of what is best for the project, and delivering accessibility goals based on who and what the facility is going to be used for. Then it’s having the hard conversations: here are the must-haves versus the nice-to-haves. There’s not really a onesize-fits-all approach; it is really about having careful conversations that also consider priorities of inclusivity.

More recently, we’re hearing a lot of pushback to changes to the national building code with the minimum turning radius increasing from 1500 millimetres to 1700 millimetres. Most of the world is now using power devices, and the prior code requirements were written for the use of a manual chair. I can tell you that I can’t turn around in 1500 millimetres—

I can’t even do a full turnaround in 1700 millimetres. But at least that gives me a little more room to get my scooter in and maneuver a bit—instead of needing to climb from the chair to the toilet seat, for example, because there’s not enough room.

It’s a fight like this every day for so many people, me included.

These stories of everyday indignities are something many of us cannot relate to.

People like me take 20 minutes to look up wherever we are going to see if and how we can enter, and if it is possible to use a scooter to use the washroom. No matter where we go, it’s a fight.

Also, a lot of times when we think about accessibility, we only think of those using a

Darby Lee Young consulted on enhanced accessibility features for an addition to Calgary’s BMO Centre. The project is designed by Stantec, Populous, and S2 Architecture, and will augment the Centre’s capabilities for hosting international conferences, exhibitions and trade shows. It is scheduled to open this summer.

wheelchair. We tend to forget about the hearing or vision impairments. We also forget about everyone who experiences invisible disabilities. What about the ones that we don’t talk about at all: those with autism, Down syndrome, what about the neurodiverse? Even the international symbol of accessibility only uses an icon of a manual wheelchair.

We’ve got to remember people are people, and we’ve got to see people first versus their disability.

How do we go about becoming more aware?

We need to keep having conversations around accessibility so we can truly design spaces for everyone. We need to hear from the people who experience this to understand where they are coming from.

Everybody is unique and nobody’s perfect, and sooner or later, whether you’re just crossing the street and you roll your ankle, or you go skiing and fall down—you may also become temporarily disabled. We need to start thinking about this reality so we can design for everyone.

How do we get people on board?

The Rick Hansen Foundation is doing a good job of opening the door to conversation, awareness and action—to getting people to talk about accessibility and pursue their certification process. The Rick Hansen process is still based on minimum requirements required by code. It’s a more user-friendly way of talking about accessibility as required by the code. The next challenge is building an understanding that there’s way more to it: programs like Rick Hansen are just a starting point. We’re hoping as this gets more traction, there’ll be better access to information about even deeper accessibility issues.

A tool that the AIA has launched and continues to evolve is their Framework for Design Excellence. This Framework sets out to tie aspirations to measurable design strategies, with metrics. Evaluating a design’s impact on Equitable Communities, for instance, looks at things like walk scores, and tracking how many and what kind of community engagement activities are used. What else should we be measuring? How do you know if your building is truly inclusive?

The challenge is that some elements can be contradictory: for example, prioritizing stair-

use as a means of encouraging exercise is also ableist, and goes against the seven principles of Universal Design, so we need to find ways to be inclusive in every way, for literally every type of body.

In order to understand or evaluate if you’ve done it properly, you have to be able to demonstrate it through understanding the experience of being there; it has to be considered from the moment of arrival through to departure, the full experience. That includes considering your route travelled, and your full time spent there, needing to use facilities, or whatever you need to do in that place and at every moment of that journey. At the end of the day, you really just have to go there to understand if it is working. It’s not something you can necessarily evaluate in a spreadsheet.

And we’ve got to remember the range of abilities is experienced differently, all unique in their own way. Everybody’s use of the space is completely different. So, what I require might be different for somebody with vision or hearing loss. If we can strive for a common level playing field for all, we can design so that everybody is included.

You mentioned the Seven Principles of Universal Design. Could you share more detail about these? Where did they come from? And where can practitioners learn more?

They were developed by Ronald Mace, with a working group of architects, product designers, engineers, and environmental design researchers at North Carolina State University. They are available online and they are principles that are considered standard across the board.

In practice, we often see clients skip principle No. 5: tolerance for error when defining goals. The principle requires “design that minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences of accidental or unintended action.” People don’t seem to really understand what it means. It’s about being aware of aspects of the design where there could be potential for somebody to be injured, such as when considering placement of push buttons. That means being thoughtful about position in relation to door swing so that users are not in the door swing path to reach the button. Or, when considering water faucet options. For instance, powered faucets with automatic temperature control are much better than standard faucet controls in terms of preventing instances of people with challenges potentially burning and injuring themselves.

Practitioners coming to this for the first time and feeling really committed to do the right thing might feel overwhelmed. What are some small steps they can take immediately in their work?

Getting familiar with the Seven Principles of Universal Design is a big one. Seeking learning opportunities, having conversations with people who have lived experience to share, stopping and thinking when you go out somewhere: how would somebody with disabilities do this? Imagine yourself in someone else’s shoes. That’s my best advice.

Is there a project you are particularly proud of? Do you have a dream project?

We’ve been working on the BMO Convention Centre at Stampede Park in Calgary. We’re really hoping it’ll be a leader in accessibility because we’ve added enhanced accessibility features that haven’t been value-engineered out. It should be very warm and welcoming without needing added effort from disabled users. We looked at the experiences and considered things like wayfinding from the minute of arrival, to using the washrooms, enjoying the whole park, and then heading back out safely. I’m excited for it to open in 2024 because I’m hoping it will be a leader in creating accessible and inclusive spaces for all.

I would ultimately love to work on a sports stadium that is fully inclusive. I imagine a facility that accommodates sports like sledge hockey, also known as para hockey, and that supports the ability to hire persons with disabilities within all departments across the facility—like team services, which means doing the laundry, looking after the bench, etc. It also means being able to take multiple friends to a game and being able to all sit together, instead of being limited to only two people in the accessible seating zone. It would also have the proper parking accommodations, proper washrooms, and all staff trained to treat us all as just people— regardless of ability.

People are unique in their own ways, and we need to include everybody and not be afraid to ask tough questions because those questions need to be answered and addressed by making the world more accessible and inclusive for everyone. I’d also encourage designers to include advanced levels of accessibility in their budgets. Good design costs money. And good design includes designing for all.

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ANCHORED TO THE HIGHLANDS

A CONTEMPORARY INTERPRETIVE CENTRE IN CAPE BRETON IS FIRMLY TIED TO ITS CULTURAL HISTORY AND LANDSCAPE.

PROJECT Highland Village Interpretive Centre, Iona, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

ARCHITECT Abbott Brown Architects

TEXT Christine Macy

PHOTOS Maxime Brouillet

Steven Holl proposes the concept of “anchoring” to describe how a building’s concept and form can be intertwined with its setting. In this way, he says, “architecture serves to explain its site.” The threads that intertwine to anchor a building to its site have to do with the meaning of this place, the physical expression of the architecture, and one’s poetic experience of being there.

A new maritime building by Abbott Brown Architects is anchored to a special place in Nova Scotia. Cape Breton island is a spectacular landscape of karst hills surrounding the Bras d’Or lakes, a pocket of the Atlantic Ocean connected by narrow straits to the sea. The Mi’kmaq

BELOW The interpretive centre is conceived as a village-like grouping of forms, each a contemporary interpretation of a historic dwelling. Together, the volumes frame a natural amphitheatre that hosts performances during the site’s annual music festival.

call this island Unama’ki, and it is woven into their origin story, their myths, and legends. In the nineteenth century, thousands of Scottish farmers who had been dispossessed of their ancestral lands by the Highland Clearances settled here. They were allotted 200-acre parcels of land to farm, and they cleared forests, planted wheat and barley, and layered their own history and stories onto this territory.

Created over the past 70 years, the Highland Village in Iona commemorates the Gaelic experience in Nova Scotia. This living museum was inspired by a similar display at the 1938 Empire Exhibition in Glasgow, where cottages from the Highlands and Scottish Islands were assembled into a small village, complete with Gaelic-speaking Highlanders carrying out their daily tasks. The Nova Scotia Association of Scottish Societies wanted to recreate this experience in Canada. To launch the project, they started an annual music festival that attracted thousands to the site. Over several decades, historic buildings were transported to Iona from around the province, and scattered across a bluff overlooking the expanse of the Bras d’Or lakes.

The latest addition to the campus is a strikingly contemporary building by Halifax-based Abbott Brown Architects. The Highland Village Interpretive Centre brackets the beginning and end of the living museum. It uses the language of architecture to represent Gaelic identity in the present era, re-interpreting the story of Gaelic settlement and generating new opportunities for learning about this heritage, as well as spaces for sharing stories, food, music, and dance.

This starts with rhetorical references to the buildings of the Highland Village, and to the material culture of agricultural, industrial, and domestic Cape Breton. In concept, the Visitors’ Centre is itself a miniature hamlet, comprised of a cluster of three buildings. Two long gable-roofed volumes one containing a reception area and offices, the other a gathering space and archives are set parallel to each other. The forms evoke the nineteenth-century houses on the site, although the contemporary interpretations are much larger and longer, and have steeper roofs. This exaggeration transforms the house forms into icons of domestic settlement a strategy further heightened by the lower point from which the roofs spring, making the volumes appear to be almost entirely roof. The shape of the eaves, which are carefully profiled in exposed metal roofing, suggests a sharp cut through thick thatch. The exteriors are clad with Eastern Cedar siding that will weather grey, its subdued palette fitting in with the relocated historic farm dwellings.

A third volume linking the two gable-roofed forms is the heart of the centre the exhibition space from which visitors exit to explore the living museum, and to which they return. The architects conceived this element to refer to the “blackhouse,” the characteristic stone and thatch dwelling of tenant farmers in Scotland, but turned inside out, so that its wooden interior framing is expressed on the outside using local spruce boards, and its thatch or sod exterior is expressed on the inside, with fibrous wood panels on the ceilings that double as an acoustic treatment.

OPPOSITE Corten steel is used to mark the entrance of the interpretive centre, which sits on a slight rise above the parking area. ABOVE, LEFT The exhibition area uses Corten dividers between display areas. ABOVE, RIGHT The facility’s central volume is conceived as a stone-and-thatch dwelling turned inside out, with the wooden interior framing expressed on the outside using local spruce boards.

Framed by the three volumes, an outdoor stage faces a hilly natural amphitheatre for the annual music festival.

Visitors arriving to the site step up a slight slope to the museum, and are invited through an entry portal made of Corten steel, a durable material that evokes Cape Breton’s industrial heritage of coal mining, iron, and steel fabrication, the latter still visible in nearby railroad trestle bridges. Similarly, Corten dormers project through the aluminum-hued roof, bringing light to the inner spaces of the complex. Inside, the visitor’s journey through displays explaining why the Highland Scots had to emigrate is punctuated by a series of thresholds, expressed with ramps and also marked with weathered Corten.

After exiting the centre, visitors begin their tour of the heritage buildings on the hill: including a crofter’s “blackhouse,” a log cabin and wood farmhouse that adapted Scottish building traditions to use local materials, and a village-like formation of a church, a school, a dry goods store, and more houses. In each of these buildings, costumed animators recreate and interpret traditional homestead life of nineteenth-century Cape Breton.

After completing the outdoor loop of heritage buildings, the visitor is welcomed back to the centre, which appears from the village side as a series of house-like forms clustered around its wood-decked outdoor courtyard, and nestled against the backdrop of the Bras d’Or lakes. Museum director Rodney Chaisson stresses that Highland Village is not only about Gaelic culture being transplanted to Nova Scotia, but about it setting roots here and transforming in the process. “The early stories and songs recounted tales from Scotland, but within two generations, they started to reflect what people were experiencing here,” says

Chaisson. He sees Highland Village as an anchor for Nova Scotia’s Gaelic culture, situated in a landscape populated with the descendants of these Gaelic immigrants.

Highland Village is different from Nova Scotia’s other heritage sites like Grand Pré, Birchtown, and Louisbourg, all of which retain the aura of being the place where historical events occurred. Instead, the museum in Iona presents a heritage story, told through a collection of buildings gathered from different places, enlivened by interpreters, and experienced in the annual music festival.

In that spirit, the Visitor’s Centre is also part of a living tradition. In the best sense of architectural placemaking, it is firmly of its site and history, but also of the present moment. In this way, the new building becomes rooted in a place like the Gaels rooted themselves in Nova Scotia and, over time, it will change that place and people’s experien-

of it.

ces

Christine Macy is a professor and former dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Planning at Dalhousie University.

ABOVE The interpretive centre acts as a gateway to the Living Village, which includes a variety of buildings linked to the Gaelic experience in Nova Scotia, and transported to the site from locations around the province.

CLIENT NOVA SCOTIA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS ARCHITECT TEAM JANE ABBOTT, ALEC BROWN, KATELYN

THE COMMUNITY LIBRARY, IN PLAN AND SECTION

TWO EDMONTON BRANCH LIBRARIES HAVE MANY THINGS IN COMMON, WHILE OFFERING DISTINCT ARCHITECTURAL APPROACHES.

PROJECT Calder Branch Library

ARCHITECTS Atelier TAG and the marc boutin architectural collaborative

PHOTOS Adrien Williams

PROJECT Capilano Library

ARCHITECTS Patkau Architects + Group2

PHOTOS James Dow

TEXT Greg Whistance-Smith

The public library is a uniquely democratic space. Regardless of socioeconomic status, visitors are invited to partake in the incredible abundance of modern media: books, films, music, video games, magazines, manga, and more. While “institutional architecture” often carries the negative association of faceless bureaucracies, the space of public libraries suggests a different and far more egalitarian world, with a luxurious public realm.

The Edmonton Public Library (EPL)’s progressive spirit is reflected in the range of exceptional libraries constructed in the city in recent years, many of which have already graced these pages. A sprawling city like Edmonton requires a decentralized architectural response, and the EPL has woven itself into the life of the city by deeply investing in its branch libraries.

Edmonton’s collection of new libraries invites a comparative view: how can the architecture of the branch library best embody the contemporary vision of a community gathering place that gives access to diverse media and forms of expression? Two libraries that opened just before the pandemic, Calder and Capilano, have many things in common total areas of around 1,000 square metres, budgets of about $11 million, similar programs, sites in postwar suburban neighbourhoods, and even expressive metal-clad forms while offering distinct architectural approaches to this question.

Two wings of Calder Library embrace a generous entry courtyard. Above the main doors, glowing pink panels sit behind metal mesh, a nod to Alberta’s provincial flower, the wild rose.

A Floating World of Media

Designed by Atelier TAG and the Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative, Calder Library is located in Edmonton’s northwest, sharing a large suburban park with a school, community hall, and playground. Despite its relatively compact size, “we wanted the library to feel like an expansive place,” says Atelier TAG principal and co-founder Manon Asselin.

This initial impulse pushed the designers to explore a building that branches out on its site, resulting in an iteration on the hub-and-spoke floor plans often found in libraries—“our little flower in the landscape,” says Asselin. The asterisk-like plan simultaneously defines outdoor areas around the building, allows for acoustically cloistered zones that are visually connected, and generates an interior experience where the space of the library feels like a superimposition of layers.

While developing the project, the architects also uncovered resonances between their design and the area’s history. The branching plan recalls the network of the Grand Trunk Railway that spurred the creation of Calder in 1910, and the intimate interior nods back to a converted tram car that once served as a bookmobile to the neighbourhood.

Approaching the building, one is struck by its sense of elegant rest, floating between earth and sky. Calder’s façade is a refined grid of metallic panels, often with glazing below; its peaceful simplicity serves as a counterpoint to the dynamic plan and interior. The panels

OPPOSITE The asterisk-shaped plan brings ample daylight throughout the building and creates a variety of intimate areas for reading, study, and socializing. ABOVE A freestanding fireplace forms a cozy hearth at the centre of the library. BELOW Linear ceiling lights and pops of colour add to the dynamism of the space.

are further animated by a back-lit metal mesh that creates a sense of visual diffusion, particularly during Edmonton’s long winter nights.

Visitors arrive at the library through an eastern plaza defined by two wings. The entrance is highlighted with soft pink panels behind the grey mesh—a colour that recalls the winter sky at dawn and dusk, and Alberta’s provincial flower, the wild rose. Cherry trees dot the plaza, amplifying this pink with their blossoms each spring.

Once inside, visitors find themselves at heart of the library, with program areas fanning out in all directions. A circular information desk is located at this convergence, but its central position is intentionally diffused by the space-age fireplace suspended from the ceiling nearby. “The plan has a weaker centre than a library with a central control point,” says Asselin. Surrounded by lounge chairs, the fireplace suggests that the library is to be enjoyed as a community living room.

Calder’s clean interior has a limited palette of white, grey, and metallicframed glass: the walls, faceted ceiling, and much of the furniture are all bright white. This was intended to allow the changing tones of Edmonton’s natural light to define the space. However, the bold patches of colour provided by EPL’s wall graphics, some seating, and the library’s collection result in a layered, graphic quality. Scanning the room feels akin to flipping through a magazine or scrolling a website, and Calder’s architecture invites visitors to wander this floating world of information and expression.

A Folded Profile Among the Trees

Heading east of Edmonton’s downtown, Capilano is sited in a mature suburb along an orphaned ravine that once connected to the North

ABOVE Capilano Library’s bold, folded roof creates a variety of interior and exterior spaces. OPPOSITE A large entrance canopy welcomes library patrons and provides shelter from wind, rain and snow during inclement weather.

Saskatchewan River Valley. Designed by Patkau Architects and Group2, it embraces the found potential of this site by pairing a bold sectional profile with a linear plan that gets as close to the ravine and road as the city would permit.

While Calder branches out in plan, Capilano is boldly sectional: its folded profile is extruded 77 metres along the ravine with articulation only present at the ends, resulting in a monolithic form grounded in its landscape. This sense of repose is strengthened by the slanted wall facing the neighbourhood, whose street-level windows have been cleverly screened with perforated metal panels that emphasize the mass and modulate views.

OPPOSITE The library’s cross-section is developed with three differently sized peaks: an intimately scaled one overlooking the ravine, a lofty central peak with spaces for stacks, staff, and community below, and a western peak that houses a quiet edge of support spaces facing the street. ABOVE Varied seating is arrayed alongside a continuous strip of windows on the north side of the building, offering sweeping views of the adjacent ravine landscape.

Aiming to both protect the ravine and extend its ecosystem towards the street, Capilano’s monolithic form will fade into the trees as the landscaping grows in. The strategy was influenced by John and Patricia Patkau’s years living in Edmonton early in their careers. “Edmonton has a limited landscape palette, and it takes a long time to establish a mature landscape there,” says John Patkau. “We [principal Greg Boothroyd and I] had a strong reaction during the initial site visit that the building should serve as a buffer to help preserve the ravine.” This becomes particularly clear in winter storms: the western façade gains a thin layer of snow in blowing wet conditions, transforming the library into a landform.

Arriving from the road or parking lot, visitors encounter Capilano’s evocative profile, here carved out to form a generous entry canopy that gives a taste of the warmth to be found inside. The inner surface of the folded roof is lined in a beautifully rhythmic pattern of Douglas fir, using the woven wood vocabulary developed in Patkau Architects’ material research and also explored in their Whistler and Thunder Bay art galleries. The wood effectively recontextualizes the metal envelope in these projects, resulting in an aesthetic pairing of organic and industrial that speaks to life in the Canadian Northwest.

Capilano’s section brilliantly organizes its plan while washing the interior in warm light. Responding to the flexibility desired by modern libraries, its peaks create three zones that carry through the building: an intimate strip facing the ravine, an airy hall down the middle, and a residential-scaled area facing the suburb. The program areas naturally gravitate to their appropriate zones, and the consistent section belies the lovely spatial diversity to be found inside. Perhaps most surprisingly, Capilano’s design can be read as a nave with aisles, and it brings the pleasant modulation of scale that this ancient form offers.

In a move recalling the light monitors of Aalto’s libraries, strips of west-facing windows are located along two roof peaks to capture the low winter sun. The wooden screen filter creates a spectacular display of light and shadow in the interior that evokes the qualities of Edmonton’s forests in the warm hues of autumn. Circular columns echo the dimensions of nearby trees, and a radiant red carpet grounds the interior like the dogwood underbrush of the ravine, reinforcing the library’s warm embrace.

Two Visions

While Calder imagines the library as a diffuse space of abundant media, Capilano settles into its ravine-side location, offering a sheltered oasis to read, study, and enjoy views of nature. Both respond to the need for contemporary branch libraries to be robust community spaces with diverse media, rather than simply repositories of books, and both offer visitors a strong sense of place. As young Edmonton-

ians grow up with these exceptional buildings, one hopes they will develop a passion for the library as prior generations have, guiding its evolution through this century and beyond.

Greg Whistance-Smith is an Intern Architect in Edmonton, and author of the recent book Expressive Space: Embodying Meaning in Video Game Environments (De Gruyter, 2022).

OPPOSITE Ceiling lights and services are carefully integrated into the wood slat ceiling. ABOVE Wood-screen clerestories on the western side of the building contribute to the daylit interior, including bringing natural light into a children’s playspace.

CALDER BRANCH LIBRARY CLIENT CITY OF EDMONTON | ARCHITECT TEAM ATELIER TAG—MANON ASSELIN (FRAIC), KATSUHIRO YAMAZAKI, JASON TREHERNE, ANGE SAUVAGE. MBAC—MARC BOUTIN (FRAIC), NATHANIEL WAGENAAR STRUCTURAL FAST + EPP | MECHANICAL/ELECTRICAL WILLIAMS ENGINEERING | LANDSCAPE PFS STUDIO INTERIORS ATELIER TAG AND MBAC CONTRACTOR ELLISDON LEED MORRISON HERSHFIELD | AREA 935 M2 BUDGET $6.1 M | COMPLETION SEPTEMBER 2019

CAPILANO LIBRARY | CLIENT CITY OF EDMONTON | ARCHITECT TEAM PATKAU—GREG BOOTHROYD (FRAIC), SHANE O’NEILL, JOHN PATKAU (FRAIC), PATRICIA PATKAU (FRAIC), THOMAS SCHROEDER. GROUP2—ANNELIESE FRIS, ERIC HUI, GARETH LEACH, JENNIFER NEDERPEL | STRUCTURAL FAST + EPP | MECHANICAL WILLIAMS ENGINEERING ELECTRICAL WSP | LANDSCAPE DESIGN NORTH INTERIORS PATKAU ARCHITECTS | CONTRACTOR PCL CONSTRUCTORS TRAFFIC ACUMEN, BUNT & ASSOCIATES | CIVIL ISL ACOUSTICS RWDI | AREA 1,130 M2 | BUDGET $11.8 M | COMPLETION NOVEMBER 2018

ENERGY USE INTENSITY (PROJECTED) 107 KWH/M2/YEAR

A NEW CHAPTER

LGA ARCHITECTURAL PARTNERS’ RENOVATION OF A SCARBOROUGH LIBRARY IS A SENSITIVE REMAKE OF FAIRFIELD AND DUBOIS’ 1971 ORIGINAL.

PROJECT Toronto Public Library Albert Campbell Branch, Scarborough, Ontario

ARCHITECT LGA Architectural Partners

TEXT Emily Macrae

PHOTOS Doublespace Photography

There are two benches at the entrance of the Toronto Public Library’s recently renovated Albert Campbell branch. One is nestled inside the door, another sits just outside. These subtle seating options offer library patrons the choice of sheltering from the weather while waiting for a ride, or perching outside, where they can also catch wi-fi after hours. It’s a sensitive response to the many roles that this library plays in a car-oriented neighbourhood. Taken together, the benches signal the attention to detail and commitment to flexible use that define LGA Architectural Partners’ renovation of the 50-year-old building.

ABOVE The renovated library reimagines the existing building’s bold volumes in a contemporary palette of materials and colours. LGA moved the main entrance from the second floor to the previously underutilized ground level. Library patrons now enter through an Indigenous Garden with native medicinal plants.

The original library a strident, brutalist composition in grey concrete block and fire-truck-red metal curves was designed by Fairfield and DuBois Architects and opened in 1971. After a three-year renovation, the library now boasts a much enlarged area for public use, a new abundance of natural light, and improved accessibility and safety.

Library staff found it difficult to imagine how the modernist building, with its narrow stairwells and sparse windows, could be transformed, and the library originally believed that an expansion or replacement would be necessary. But careful study by LGA identified that 25 percent of the back-of-house spaces could be repurposed for public use, and imagined how existing motifs could be developed to enhance wayfinding within the building. It’s a bold renovation with beautiful results. LGA restores dignity to a public building that serves a diverse community.

Choosing renovation over replacement was an opportunity to realize environmental benefits and make a broader point about the potential of reuse. Renovation cut the embodied carbon of the project, while the concrete shell was an obvious candidate for improved insulation. Says LGA partner Brock James, “You just cannot ignore the carbon capital that existing buildings represent.”

To recover the use of the previously buried ground floor, the renovation lowered the topography of the site. Instead of entering on the second floor into a more compressed building, visitors now descend through a ramped garden to enter through an area that was formerly a mechanical room.

From the new entrance, library users can see straight through to the back of the building, where LGA added a window overlooking a schoolyard. Approaching the rear, interior glazing exposes a previously limited-access double-height community room. Moving from the front doors towards the back window, it felt somewhat jarring to see the floor fall away to reveal a basement below. But for James, the high-ceilinged room is one of the “gems” that guided LGA’s approach to repurposing the library.

The formerly subterranean room has now been turned into a spacious, light-flooded atrium for teen programming and special events.

OPPOSITE A strategic opening in the second-level floorplate, windows at the rear of the library, and lowered book stacks open up the interior, inviting exploration and increasing safety for patrons and staff.

The creation of this space hinted at the potential of the building and confirmed the need to introduce light and create connections across the interior. To do the latter, an undulating ceiling bridges the ground floor and the basement, then ripples upward to the second and third floors. The original building also featured a curved ceiling red accents throughout the renovated library nod to the previous metal slats but the new ceiling is defined by wood. Thin strips in blond tones bring warmth to the concrete building, and create a unifying motif across all four floors.

In the renovated children’s area, just past the main entrance, the ceiling’s wave geometry takes risks and reaps rewards. Peaks and valleys are designed to accommodate mechanical elements. At points,

ABOVE The architects left the original walls and floors unfinished as a reminder of the library’s past history. OPPOSITE The wave-like red metal slat ceilings of Fairfield and Dubois’ building have been reworked in clear-finished fir strips. The reconfigured ceilings create spaces with a variety of moods, and mask new mechanical and electrical systems.

the ceiling dips to just 2.4 metres high, but the waves of wood create a sense of space on a human scale that offsets the legacy of brutalist monumentalism.

Relocating the children’s area and teen programming responded to public feedback to create zones for library users of different ages. Continuing up the stairs from the main floor, older generations are welcomed by ample seating next to magazine racks, public computer stations, counters for laptops, and glassed-in study rooms. The area is bright throughout the day, thanks to large windows added to the east and west façades. Teens have additional space to sprawl on the west side of the second floor, and the third floor offers quieter seating.

Yet even the calmest corners of the third floor never feel isolated from the rest of the library: the renovation created clear sightlines across the building and between the floors. The Toronto Public Library has shifted towards lower bookshelves, which make it easier to reach books and provide for greater visibility, and this branch is no exception.

Reinforcing the importance of sightlines, LGA cut away the second floor to create a clear view of most of the library from the ground floor entrance. Anyone entering the building is greeted by library

staff at the main service desk, and the second floor service desk is also visible from the ground floor. This approach makes the library easier for community members to navigate, while also increasing safety for library staff.

Another safety improvement is the redesign of the washrooms. The former stall washrooms, perceived unsafe in public feedback, have been replaced with nine individual-use washrooms throughout the building, including one on each level that provides barrier-free access. Throughout, the renovation pays tribute to the library’s past. Marks on the concrete floor show the location of the original entrance. Tonal differences on the walls reveal the previous ceiling geometry. Most importantly, the spirit of the library’s original design radiates throughout the reinvented spaces. This deference to change allows the library to continue to evolve. Staff are still refining plans for the rooftop terrace and an Indigenous smudging room, but community members

have already made the library their own: a teen sneaks snacks by the computers, a display case shares traditions associated with Bengali New Year, and a kid clambers over a reading nook.

From the front door to the back corners, this branch embodies how far libraries have come from being repositories for books. The flexibility and elegance of the design also shows how much is possible when library staff, neighbours of all ages and architects collaborate to renew a neighbourhood institution.

Emily Macrae is a writer and organizer working to build accessible digital and urban environments.

ABOVE The lower ceilings on the ground floor are the ideal height for a dedicated children’s area, while floor-to-ceiling windows invite views out to the front garden.

Arrowhead Ranch Reclamation Facility

The project to improve operations at the Arrowhead Ranch Water Reclamation Facility began in 2014 with a facility assessment and construction began in 2017. Completion required nearly four years, and the facility remained operational throughout. About 6 percent of Glendale’s water comes from reclaimed water, which is cleaned and used for non-drinking purposes.

Nearly every working part of the reclamation facility needed to be replaced. Updates included the headworks screening facility, where three new fine screens were installed; a new splitter box, which separates influent flow into multiple streams and routs water to clarifiers; odor control facilities; a new water pump for non-potable water; electrical improvements and new grit removal equipment.

Project Snapshot

• A $30 million project to improve the Arrowhead Ranch Water Reclamation Facility in Glendale, Ariz., will help ensure the region’s water needs.

• Water reclamation captures water from a variety of sources and treats it for beneficial purposes, such as agriculture, groundwater replenishment and environmental restoration.

Access & Safety Equipment

• The project included roof access hatches, aluminum floor access doors, Bil-Guard ® 2.0 safety railing systems and LadderUP ® safety posts from BILCO.

• The roof hatches and floor doors allow access for workers to remove and repair equipment.

“The BILCO products were selected due to their durability, and they were able to provide the safety handrails.”

– Keith McClure, Project Manager for MGC Contractors

Experience. Innovation.

ABOVE Located directly across from the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, the art gallery’s colonnade recalls the area’s neoclassical institutions and homes. The gentle curve takes its cue from Queen Street, on which the Pavilion fronts.

PUBLIC COLONNADE

A LOGGIA-LIKE ADDITION TO FREDERICTON’S BEAVERBROOK ART GALLERY AUGMENTS THE CITY’S PUBLIC REALM.

PROJECT Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Phase 3 Expansion (Harrison McCain Pavilion), Fredericton, New Brunswick

ARCHITECTS KPMB Architects

TEXT Peter Sealy

PHOTOS Doublespace Photography

The recently opened Harrison McCain Pavilion at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick, offers a powerful thesis on what makes good public space. The answer contained within the elegant volume of this 836-square-metre pavilion is not centred on ownership or function, although these factors are certainly relevant. Instead, it is a matter of generosity of architecture’s ability to enclose a broadly accessible public realm. Designed by KPMB Architects, the McCain Pavilion gives equally to the gallery’s visitors and to the citizens of Fredericton while asking little in return. In so doing, its elegant loggia and light-filled enclosure celebrate the renaissance of an institution now moving beyond a tempestuous period of legal drama over its world-class collection in the early 2000s.

Inserted between the original Beaverbrook building (a mid-century modernist design by Neil Stewart which dates from 1959) and Queen Street, Fredericton’s main thoroughfare, the pavilion raises the public

SAINT JOHN RIVER

realm both physically and symbolically. In plan, it uses a well-integrated series of ramps and steps to mediate between the low-lying street, which floods every spring, and the Beaverbrook’s existing galleries. What was once an awkward exterior entrance has been elevated into an enticing procession through delightful spaces. The presence of a fireplace contributes to this sense of civic ritual while also adding a touch of domestic warmth.

The design of the exterior colonnade is an exercise in parallax, causing an oscillating effect of solids and voids as the viewer’s position shifts be it inside or outside. As a result, the pavilion hovers between classical monumentality and lustrous transparency. Distinct from many neoclassical buildings, the colonnade does not limit visitors to an axial approach. Instead, an exterior ramp placed laterally behind the colonnade draws visitors tangentially and almost unconsciously into the pavilion. Meanwhile, the façade’s gentle curve echoes the bends in the Saint John River and Queen Street at the Beaverbrook’s riverfront site. In so doing, it offers a subtle moment of deference to the Second Empirestyle provincial Legislative Building across the street. The columns

themselves were the result of a propitious collaboration with a precast concrete fabricator in Saint John, New Brunswick. Each one has the same cross-section but is rotated differently, while the intercolumniations are varied.

A newly commissioned mural by the Mi’kmaq artist Jordan Bennett fills both walls which frame the wide ramp linking the McCain Pavilion and the original gallery. The bold colours and symbolic forms of It pulls you in: it pushes you out provide a visual focus to this moment of transition. The presence of Bennett’s mural is an assertion of Indigenous presence within the institutional confines of the gallery and of this latter’s desire to welcome new publics within its walls. Together with the McCain Pavilion’s mute palette, the ensemble of art and architecture ennoble the public realm.

The notion of indoor public (as opposed to private) space saw a welcome revival around the turn of this century, with museums leading the way. While the commodification of the museum experience is unmistakable one may think of the title of Banksy’s documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop at their best, spaces such as the Tate

OPPOSITE A sweeping staircase and ramp along the front façade act as the gallery’s front porch, creating a space for visitors to gather.

The multi-functional lobby includes spaces for displaying art, along with ticketing, visitors’ services, and a gift shop. ABOVE RIGHT At the east end of the lobby, a café invites community members to meet and linger.

Modern’s Turbine Hall or the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Galleria Italia offer grand public rooms, perfect settings for solitary reflection or chance encounters.

While conceived on a far smaller scale, the McCain Pavilion successfully shares a similar ambition. As KPMB partner Shirley Blumberg and senior associate Matthew Wilson state, “This is a pavilion for looking at Fredericton, a social and community hub in which public life emerges.” The McCain pavilion is frequently used for events, with its ramps and steps creating an impromptu forum for public gatherings. Yet it is the pavilion’s uncontested ability to celebrate quotidian experience such as drinking a coffee on a winter morning while gazing at the legislature

that is its greatest attribute.

Balancing between restraint and dynamism, KPMB ’s superbly detailed design provides New Brunswick’s capital with an outstanding and generous work of public architecture, whose qualities one hopes will be emulated elsewhere.

CLIENT BEAVERBROOK ART GALLERY ARCHITECT TEAM SHIRLEY BLUMBERG, MATTHEW WILSON, FRANCESCO VALENTE-GORJUP, JINSU PARK, JONATHAN SANTAGUIDA, LUKAS BERGMARK, RAMIN YAMIN, GERALD DESROCHERS| STRUCTURAL EASTERN DESIGNERS AND COMPANY LTD.| MECHAN -

TOP The pavilion’s subtly rotated piers act as a brise-soleil, deflecting sunlight to reduce heat gain to the interior. ABOVE Beaverbrook Gallery is set between the St. John River and the Legislative Assembly grounds.

Architectural historian Peter Sealy is an Assistant Professor at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto.

Deadline: September 7th, 2023

CANADIAN

ARCHITECT INVITES ARCHITECTS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS TO ENTER THE 2023 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE

Architecture project entry fee: $195 *

OPEN FOR ENTRIES AUGUST 1

Since 1967, our annual national awards program recognizes the architectural excellence of projects in the design and construction phases.

Submissions will be accepted in PDF format, up to 12 pages with dimensions no greater than 11” x 17” . Total file size is not to exceed 25 MB . There is also the option to submit a video up to two minutes in length.

This year, we are also presenting the sixth edition of the Canadian Architect Photo Awards of Excellence, open to professional and amateur architectural photographers.

Winners of the architectural project and architectural photo competitions will be published in a special issue of Canadian Architect in December 2023.

For more details and to submit your entry, visit: www.canadianarchitect.com/awards

Architectural photo entry fee: $75 *

WRITE ME A PROPOSAL

TEXT Jake Nicholson

CHATGPT ISN’T READY TO REPLACE HUMAN PROPOSAL-WRITERS YET—BUT EACH SUCCESSIVE VERSION IS A MORE AND MORE POWERFUL TOOL.

In the spirit of being a little vulnerable, one of the first things that I did in approaching this piece was typing my full detailed assignment into Chat GPT to see what sort of article it came back with. “Let’s really give it the best chance at doing this,” I thought as I refined my prompts, staring my own professional demise in the face. “Maybe I could be a massage therapist or something.” The several articles that I generated with AI are not what you’re reading now; and I’m not going to pull that trick of suddenly revealing that the past five paragraphs were written by Chat GPT. What you’re getting here is all me. We’ll talk about why in just a minute.

If you haven’t already heard (and you’ve probably heard by now), Chat GPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by OpenAI. It’s in the process of upending the world, kicking off an AI development arms race, and redefining everything from how middleschoolers complete their homework to how BuzzFeed authors its articles. Based on prompts entered by the user, Chat GPT can generate text in an instant. It can also answer complicated questions with relative directness and proficiency (though it still tends to occasionally get some facts wrong). To my unbridled joy, Chat GPT-3 can immediately write you a serviceable rap diss track about the time that “hedonistic sustainability” architect Bjarke Ingels met with former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro (though this type of thing seems against the more-maturebut-less-cool judgement of the more-recently released Chat GPT-4). These products are, without hyperbole, world-changing technologies.

Immersing myself in all this, one of my first instincts was wondering just how effectively Chat GPT could be used for architectural proposals, with their relatively formulaic writing and by-the-numbers content asked for by clients over and over. These documents are (as I have written before)

painful to create. Beyond being entirely overhead, potential clients that you cannot control dictate your production schedule. It makes for a difficult job. Why wouldn’t you use robots to make your life easier?

Throughout early March of 2023, I spent time with Chat GPT-3 (model text-davinci-003), learning what it could do, and reading about different ways you could improve the prompts given to the AI. I listened to some instructional podcasts. I watched a bunch of “How To” YouTube videos and poured over OpenAI’s corporate content. I tried generating different types of content, coming at it from different angles, refining prompts to make outcomes into something more and more workable from the outset. I then revisited my experiments wholesale with the release of Chat GPT-4, the much improved “Mar 14 Version” that came out during the time this article was being written.

After some playing around with each version, I made an earnest attempt to start generating written proposal content. I imagined myself working for an amalgamation of my former employers, a fictional firm whose information and history I knew well within my own mind. I fired through the cookie-cutter elements in an architect’s written portfolio that are asked for all the time in RFPs: firm profiles, professional bios, cost control measures, sustainable design philosophies, project profiles. Making up some parameters for a fictional project that I could imagine fully (at least in the level of detail given within an early-days RFP), I also generated some attempts at writing for an approach and methodology.

Some of what the AI generated was fine. Without question, ChatGPT-4 is the better tool. With the right prompts, it is possible to have a reasonably well-done professional bio done in basically no time. I gave prompts for a fictional technologist whose resume I made up. With minimal effort (a few written prompts to clarify details), both ChatGPT-3

and ChatGPT-4 created writing that I’d have been comfortable using in a proposal or online. I think this would be a genuine time-saver for a busy proposal writer tasked with writing up a bunch of new staff profiles. You’re giving the AI the details it needs, and it sums them up in writing. Great start. Staff bios done.

The content that ChatGPT created for a “Sustainable Design Philosophy” was passible, but a little generic and lacking specificity. Same thing for cost control measures and for general descriptive profiles of an architecture firm. This content was also a stark reminder of how hollow the language of proposals and architectural marketing can sometimes be. Something that I noticed throughout this whole process is that ChatGPT ’s answers tend to lean hard on things that have become cliché within architectural writing. Don’t we all love spaces that are “functional as well as beautiful”? Isn’t that the point of all this? I had a long think about how useful this content was. Would it set you apart as a firm? No, especially not if everybody in the world is also using ChatGPT. Do I think it would score well with evaluators? Not necessarily on its own, but with the right prompts, editing, and information to back it up, it could create something that could win. Have I personally submitted these kinds of clichéd answers when I didn’t have a better answer to give? Yes, but not happily. Sometimes the clichéd answer is also the true answer.

If nothing else, I think the content that ChatGPT generated shows the importance of firms developing real working procedures and policies in a way that distinguishes them from their competitors. It also shows that this type of refinement is a rarity, and not something that ChatGPT can magically make true for you, even if the AI knows what a pretty good answer is supposed to sound like. An example of this: on the first try with minimal prompting, both versions of ChatGPT wrote comprehensive responses when asked for a firm’s philosophy for meeting Canada’s goals for Truth and Reconciliation (something often asked for in RFPs for government-funded projects). The AI-generated answers were great, but the initiatives they described in the responses wouldn’t have been true of any firm that I had ever worked with. So, while the answers weren’t usable as a short-cut for submissions, they could easily be used as a template if you wanted to improve a firm’s actual policies. Project profiles were slightly more difficult to get ChatGPT to do well. Even with well-thought-out prompts, the AI cannot see a photo of a finished building or walk through the space, so the writing always struck me as a little disconnected from the actual project (ChatGPT-4 was much better at this test, and the AI will eventually be updated to comprehend images something not publicly available at the time of this article’s deadline, but it may be out by the time you read it.) The same difficulty is true for generating an approach and methodology, a common proposal requirement where specificity towards the project at-hand is usually your best friend. I can see how ChatGPT may be used as a starting point, but there’s a lot of work still to be done, no matter which version you’re using. ChatGPT can’t think about the potential client and what may win them over. ChatGPT may also volunteer services, design ideas, or meetings that may not be true for you and while the AI can certainly be used to speed the pace of generating new content, it does not relieve you of the responsibility to edit and fact-check. If anything, it makes these steps much more critical. As it stands right now, the AI has disclaimers about generating incorrect or misleading content. It also clearly states that the AI is “not intended to give advice.” None of the criticisms levelled above detract from the fact ChatGPT is an important tool, and there are times when it will prove invaluable. One of my biggest takeaways from my experimentation process is that the “rephrase” prompt is something uniquely powerful. It allows you to enter text and have it reworded in an instant. This is great if you’re

not a fan of the first version of something that the AI created for you, if you need to shorten something, or if you want to just quickly experiment with the wording of something that you’ve already created. It’s also suddenly very easy to apply a different tone to writing that already exists. The unethical among us will probably use this feature to rip-off text wholesale from other designers, and make it instantly their own. Maybe I’m being judgemental on that point. If what the thief puts forward is uniquely generated and true of what they are proposing to do, then what difference does it make? Is it the same thing as being inspired by somebody? I honestly don’t know. Probably everybody reading this will have to reckon with that question in one way or another.

It’s also worth noting that proposals are far from the only application for Chat GPT in architectural practice. I spoke with Drew Adams, an architect and associate with LGA A rchitectural Partners in Toronto. He told me that he was experimenting with deploying ChatGPT to speed materials research, initially using the AI to try and quickly find suppliers in North America who may be able to make a specific masstimber application, then also to find local material suppliers and rank them by price. Not all the results given back by ChatGPT were a home run for him, but using the AI had sped things along, turning the research into a process that was more like fact-checking.

I asked Adams if he had used ChatGPT to generate any actual written content for the firm: he said the answer was “no,” but that he had jokingly experimented with using it to generate a three-part specification for vapour barrier when talking with a colleague. “In thirty seconds, it spat out a three-part specification for vapour barrier. It seemed like it was probably as close to a rough starting block as you might download off a supplier’s website as a template.”

Adams’ descriptor of a “rough starting block” rung true for me in characterizing a lot of the content that I had generated, too. A question I kept asking myself throughout the process is: how much time and work would this actually save on a proposal? In my experience, a lot of proposals are generated off the strength of a firm’s existing marketing content, meaning you start with a lot of the writing you need, and it’s already tailored directly to your own business. The time spent on a proposal is mostly trying to edit and format things you have into something that speaks specifically and accurately to the project you’re chasing. I’m not convinced ChatGPT would have saved me all that much time in an actual proposal pursuit, assuming I was already equipped with pages and pages of firm-specific marketing material, though I’d have been happy to have it as an arrow in my quiver.

As for the many AI versions of this article that I generated in my nihilistic attempt to replace myself, they all suffered from many of the same issues I outlined above. Some inaccuracies. Some surface-levelness. They all delivered basic information but shied from depth, specificity, or explorations of how something felt (AI doesn’t know the feeling in the pit of your stomach when you’re working with less than an hour to submit something that could potentially be worth millions of dollars.) Having said that, I cannot deny that the article created by ChatGPT-4 was much better than the version I had created using ChatGPT-3, and that is probably my biggest takeaway from all of this. This is a technology that is improving rapidly, in an incredibly competitive environment, where some of the most powerful companies on earth have existential skin in the game. It will inform architecture firms as much as it will every other business and it would be foolhardy to ignore how this may apply to your work.

Jake Nicholson is a writer based in London, Ontario, with extensive experience working on proposals for architectural and engineering firms.

Modern Architecture: A Planetary Warming History

By Hans Ibelings (The Architecture Observer, 2023)

REVIEW Graham Livesey

Hans Ibelings’s latest publication, Modern Architecture: A Planetary Warming History, is presented as a “rough sketch of a proposed history of modern architecture.” It is a timely concept, given the role that modern buildings, cities, and infrastructure have played in causing the current environmental crisis. There is also no doubt that there is a need for new interpretations of modern architectural history: ones that would augment and challenge the well-worn narratives found in standard texts by writers like Kenneth Frampton and William J.R . Curtis. By drawing from recent literature and trawling through historical case studies, Ibelings attempts to chart a new reading of history that focuses on architecture and planetary warming since the late 18th century.

As an assistant professor at the University of Toronto and the author of many books, Ibelings is well-positioned for undertaking this daunting task. The book in its current version is a novel-sized paperback, with 400 heavily illustrated pages set in large print. It presents several chapters that trace topics such as global warming, climate, cities, and ecology back to the Industrial Revolution. Beyond short introductory statements, the book is composed largely as a cinematic barrage of projects and conceptual proposals, some well-known, some more obscure. In PDF form, the graphic design presents a continuous reel of material. In print, however, dozens of images are disconcertingly sliced horizontally in two.

In the opening chapter, Ibelings presents various projects, books, and drawings, beginning with Étienne-Louis Boullée’s Cenotaph for Newton (1784), that trace an evolving understanding of the planet as an ecosystem. This is followed by an overview of environmental alternatives

to the energy-consuming environments produced by modern architecture the background to contemporary green architecture. In two chapters on the city, the author examines climatic effects on urban environments, and presents urban schemes that integrate urban settlement and greenspace, often at a regional level. Ibelings stresses that the “Great Acceleration” and “De-colonization” after the Second World War have resulted in the Anthropocene the current age where human activities have altered about 97% of the world’s land mass, excluding Antarctica.

Elsewhere in the book, Ibelings tackles large and impactful infrastructure projects, key texts that foreshadow our current situation, and concepts of nature and anthropocentrism. He concludes with a section on projects that are driven by ecology, and points out that, ultimately, all buildings are ecological and can be understood as such.

The book is a massive compendium of ideas, ranging from negatively impactful works of infrastructure to visionary “green” publications and projects. And while Ibelings challenges the legacy of modernity, it seems that at some level, he still admires its many accomplishments. The current framework for the book could benefit from both clarification and expansion, and in particular, a deepened overall discussion that is more closely tied to examples. Can the sketch presented in Modern Architecture: A Planetary Warming History be developed into a more resolved argument? We can certainly hope so.

Graham Livesey (FRAIC) is a Professor in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape at the University of Calgary.

CENTRE Diagrams from Victor Olgyay’s Design with Climate: Bioclimatic Approach to Architectural Regionalism (Princeton University Press, 1963); RIGHT Rick Guidice’s Toroidal Colony and Cylinder Interior were proposed as part of a NASA study for a settlement in space.

NASA / AMES RESEARCH CENTER

NASA / AMES RESEARCH CENTER

Innate Terrain

By Alissa North (University of Toronto Press, 2022)

REVIEW Jason Brijraj

Landscape architect and scholar Alissa North is no stranger to giving her field a platform to shine. Her symposium at the University of Toronto, Innate Terrain , first set out to assess the state of contemporary landscape across Canada in 2010. It began to put a spotlight on the voices of both established and emerging talent.

More than a decade later, a book has emerged that builds from the foundation of that symposium, and it’s essential reading for designers with an interest in landscape. While many existing resources have typically taken on either regional or cultural approaches to covering the field, North touches on both through a carefully selected compilation of essays written by 22 authors. Together, these texts demonstrate how Canada’s landscape architects are collectively practicing an approach that is focused on the innate qualities of the terrains that their practices are tied to.

Following a foreword by Ron Williams (whose own Canadian Landscape Architecture (2010) is a milestone in the discipline), the first chapters of Innate Terrain are concerned with land use, claims and management. Several essays delve into the crucial role that Indigenous knowledge has played alongside the work of landscape architects in changing policies, acquiring stolen lands from unjust treaties, and implementing successful resource management strategies. Particularly inspiring are projects that show how the combination of scientific knowledge and traditional knowledge can lead to successful outcomes, including saving threatened ecosystems along rivers and documenting ancient histories of the land.

A second group of chapters examines the field’s impact on shaping ideas of regionalism. After an essay by North that theorizes the contemporary meaning of ‘nature’, sections on projects from the Maritimes, Quebec, and the Prairies allow for an appreciation of the distinct character of work in each of these regions. On the East Coast, maritime deindustrialization has served as a basis for a burgeoning approach

to landscape architecture that displays resiliency through playfulness. Quebec, on the other hand, draws on French Canada’s tumultuous history to develop thriving public spaces that speak directly to the marriage of social sustainability and nature. And Prairie projects show how the region is shedding outdated notions of being a vast, monotonous landscape, through approaches centred on the lived experience of the land.

The last part of the book highlights how landscape architects are transforming Canadian cities. New and emerging technologies used in Canadian institutions are lauded for their success in introducing the dynamic factor of ‘time’ into the design process. Further texts examine how Toronto’s landscape architects draw on silviculture to create healthy, long-lasting urban forests, and highlight the transformed waterfronts of both Toronto and Vancouver. A concluding chapter analyzes how landscape architects are learning from the failures of established urban parks to influence the sustainable development of contemporary parks.

The book comes at a critical time, when reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and the impacts of climate change will have important roles in shaping the future of Canadian landscapes and Canadian identity. Addressing these issues is the responsibility of everyone who partakes in the design of our built environment, making Innate Terrain an important text for all of the country’s wide array of designers, not just landscape architects.

The book’s content is, in fact, so far reaching that it acts as a crash course for understanding the past, present and future of the field’s most pertinent issues. Innate Terrain is a welcome addition to the growing canon of texts on Canadian landscape architecture, and is a welcome reading for a range of audiences as diverse as the authors and subject matter that span its pages.

Jason Brijraj is an intern architect working in Toronto with Diamond Schmitt Architects.

NUNAVUT PARKS AND SPECIAL PLACES DIVISION, DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, GOVERNMENT OF NUNAVUT

OPPOSITE A frame-like structure recalls the former whaling station in Kekerten Island Territorial Park, Nunavut. The structure was part of a set of interventions in the park led by Ehrler Limousin and Associates. TOP LEFT Vancouver’s VanDusen Botanical Garden Visitor Centre marries architecture by Perkins & Will with a landscape design by Sharp & Diamond with Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. TOP RIGHT As part of their Culture of Outports project, ERA and the Centre for Urban Growth and Renewal built a bright red viewing deck to revitalize a forgotten lighthouse trail in Brigus, Newfoundland. BOTTOM CCxA’s Esplanade du Palais des Congrès de Montréal revitalizes a bare concrete deck with 30 landscaped mounds. The plantings, including flowering crabapples, reference the adjacent Chinatown district.

ERA ARCHITECTS

JEAN-FRANÇOIS VÉZINA

FIGHTING FOR THE ONTARIO SCIENCE CENTRE

IN APRIL, THE ONTARIO GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCED THAT THE ONTARIO SCIENCE CENTRE WOULD BE MOVED ATOP AN UNDERGROUND PARKING GARAGE AT THE REDEVELOPED ONTARIO PLACE, AND THE 1969 BUILDING, BY ARCHITECT RAYMOND MORIYAMA, DEMOLISHED. HERE’S WHAT MORIYAMA TESHIMA ARCHITECTS HAS TO SAY ABOUT THE PROPOSAL.

“Design an institution of international significance.” That was the brief given to Raymond Moriyama by the Minister of Public Works in 1964. The brief would become the Ontario Science Centre (OSC), and when it opened its doors in 1969, it instantly achieved its simple, maybe even naïve, but indisputably ambitious goal. Every Torontonian remembers the hair-raising feeling of an electric current running through their finger while on a school trip.

Science is the study of structure and behaviour in nature. The Ontario Science Centre is a landmark building, purposefully nestled into the natural ravine of the Don Valley, where it has succeeded in bringing that joyful study to the masses for over fifty years. The purpose of the Science Centre is inseparable from the site it currently inhabits. At Moriyama Teshima Architects, we believe the science is unequivocally telling us that we need to be preserving and regenerating our buildings. The carbon embodied in these structures is too valuable to discard.

We all grew up with the Science Centre, and in turn, the city grew up around it. Toronto is not the same city it was in 1969, and Ontario is not the same province. There are millions more people who call this province home, and many thousands who now live in the Flemingdon Park neighbourhood. Our collective memories and the future memories of those yet to discover the OSC are too precious to discard.

This is precisely the moment when we need to be investing in more public institutions. If there is a need for the Science Centre to modernize and evolve, the goal should be to regenerate it in a way that builds on its heritage, celebrates its unique architecture, and restores its commitment as an amenity to its neighbourhood. When Raymond Moriyama was designing the OSC he told the administration the programming should change every eight years “If it didn’t change, it would die.” A regenerated Science Centre should continue its legacy of education, and can accommodate other uses such

as community space, or even housing, if deemed appropriate.

Likewise, if there is a need for a new public institution along the shores of Lake Ontario, let’s expand the mission and the footprint of the Science Centre, and explore a new facility that celebrates and explores that site’s unique surroundings.

Science North in Sudbury is Canada’s second largest science centre. It was inspired by the success we cultivated in Toronto. Five years ago, Science North began a full review of its outreach efforts in Northwestern Ontario, to evaluate future opportunities for growth in the region and better reach underserviced and underprivileged communities. The results demonstrated a strong business case for expansion and efforts have been ongoing ever since. The roadmap for an expanded, re-imagined and regenerated Ontario Science Centre already exists in this province. Ontario designed an institution of international significance once before. Let’s save the one we have and do it again.

TEXT Moriyama Teshima Architects

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