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Nic Lehoux

urban Waterfronts 9 News

High-profile shortlist announced for the Vancouver Art Gallery’s new home; Lukas Peet wins DX Emerging Designer Competition.

27 Review

Two solo exhibitions featuring the work of late, great West Coast architects Dan White and Arthur Erickson are reviewed by Jenni Pace Presnell.

30 Report

Leslie Jen visits CERSAIE, the annual international exhibition of ceramic tile and bathroom furnishings in Bologna, Italy that provides an additional enriched and inspiring program of events.

12 Tarrant County College This university satellite campus in Fort Worth, Texas by Bing Thom Architects and Bennett Benner Pettit masterfully engages its riverfront site in the creation of extraordinary public spaces. TEXT Witold Rybczynski

18 Calgary Bow River Projects Recent devastating events in Calgary emphasize the importance of incorporating effective flood controls into urban infrastructure. TEXT Graham Livesey

24 University of Manitoba Fort Garry Campus

33 Calendar

BUILDEX at the Vancouver Convention Centre West; Hands-On Urbanism—How to Make a Difference symposium at the University of Toronto.

34 Backpage

Suresh Perera describes landscape artist George Trakas’s poetic walkway that embraces the harsh reality of heavily polluted Newtown Creek in New York.

Janet Rosenberg & Studio/ Cibinel/Landmark Planning & Design/ARUP

Winners of a University of Manitoba design competition, Janet Rosenberg & Studio and Cibinel Architects propose a landscape-based vision for the institution’s riverside Fort Garry campus. TEXT Richard Milgrom

COVER Tarrant County College in Fort Worth, Texas by Bing Thom Architects with Bennett Benner Pettit. Photograph by Nic Lehoux.

v.59 n.02 The National Review of Design and Practice/The Journal of Record of Architecture Canada | RAIC

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EDITOR elsa lam, mRaiC ASSOCIATE EDITOR leslie Jen, mRaiC EDITORIAL ADVISOR ian ChodikoFF, oaa, FRaiC CONTRIBUTING EDITORS annmaRie adams, mRaiC douglas maCleod, nCaRb, mRaiC REGIONAL CORRESPONDENTS HALIFAX ChRistine maCY, oaa MONTREAL david theodoRe WINNIPEG heRbeRt enns, maa

A rendering of West 8 and LANDinc’s proposed new park and trail at ontario Place in Toronto.

aBOVE

Recently, West 8 and LANDinc unveiled their design for a new park and trail along the eastern edge of Ontario Place—the first stage of revitalization for the shuttered site. Conceptual renderings include a meandering path, wooded areas, a playful rocky scramble, and soft hills by the water’s edge, with prime views of the lake and city skyline. The new Ontario Place Park’s 270-degree views will also offer a sweeping vista onto Billy Bishop Toronto City Centre Airport—the site of contentious debate over the future of Toronto’s waterfront. Porter Airlines, whose hub is at the Toronto Island airport, recently asked to expand its water-facing runways 200 metres on each end to accommodate the operation of 30 new jets, due for delivery in 2016. The short-range turbo props that Porter currently operates carry 70 passengers; the proposed long-range jets carry 110 passengers. In 2012, 2.3 million passengers moved through the airport; with the extended runway and jets, along with potentially more frequent landings and takeoffs, the airport could conceivably double its capacity to serve from 4.3 to 4.8 million passengers yearly. Concerns about the proposal have centred on pollution and noise impacts for Toronto Island residents, as well as for the Bathurst Quay community on the shoreside. A Toronto Public Health assessment notes that the airport, even in its current form, contributes to air quality and noise-related health concerns. Apartments, parks, and a school and community centre are located as little as 0.5 kilometres from the airport—and more residential uses will potentially occupy the nearby Canada Malting Lands and Ontario Place sites. Moreover, a greater number of travellers would add to an already stressed downtown traffic situation, particularly as more luggage-laden leisure passengers join the laptopand-jacket business passengers that currently form the majority of airport users. Of grave concern in the long term is the potential shift from the central waterfront’s carefully cultivated mix of leisure and residential uses towards a new focus on airport uses and logistics. In the airport’s immediate vicinity,

REGINA beRnaRd Flaman, saa CALGARY david a. doWn, aaa VANCOUVER adele WedeR

PUBLISHER tom aRkell 416-510-6806 ACCOUNT MANAGER FaRia ahmed 416-510-6808 CIRCULATION MANAGER

beata oleChnoWiCZ 416-442-5600 EXT. 3543 H2O Park, the Toronto Music Garden, IreCUSTOMER SERVICE land Park, Coronation Park, and the soon-tomalkit Chana 416-442-5600 EXT. 3539 PRODUCTION be-realized Ontario Place Park form green JessiCa Jubb beads on what is close to becoming a continuGRAPHIC DESIGN sue Williamson ous recreational pathway along the waterfront. VICE PRESIDENT OF CANADIAN PUBLISHING The water-flanking Queen’s Quay roadway, alex PaPanou PRESIDENT OF BUSINESS INFORMATION GROUP which terminates nearby, is currently being rebRuCe CReighton vitalized as a modern boulevard including a HEAD OFFICE two-lane road, a separated streetcar corridor, 80 valleYbRook dRive, toRonto, on m3b 2s9 bicycle lanes, and a pedestrian promenade. Are TELEPHONE 416-510-6845 these carefully designed public amenities to FACSIMILE 416-510-5140 E-MAIL editors@canadianarchitect.com become anterooms en route to the island airWEB SITE www.canadianarchitect.com port, rather than the vibrant cultural parks and Canadian architect is published monthly by big magazines lP, a div. of glacier big holdings Company ltd., a leading Canadian information tourist draws they were intended to be? company with interests in daily and community newspapers and businessto-business information services. To its credit, the Toronto Port Authority has the editors have made every reasonable effort to provide accurate and requested a $100-million loan from federal cofauthoritative information, but they assume no liability for the accuracy or completeness of the text, or its fitness for any particular purpose. fers to support restructuring of groundside areas, Subscription Rates Canada: $54.95 plus applicable taxes for one year; in the event that jets are permitted. That ex$87.95 plus applicable taxes for two years (hst – #809751274Rt0001). Price per single copy: $6.95. students (prepaid with student id, includes pense—like the costs for the current pedestrian taxes): $34.97 for one year. usa: $105.95 us for one year. all other foreign: $125.95 us per year. single copy us and foreign: $10.00 us. tunnel to the airport, due to open next winter— Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: would ultimately be borne by airport passengers. Circulation Dept., Canadian Architect, 80 valleybrook Dr, Toronto, oN Canada M3B 2s9. But no current master plan has yet been tabled. Postmaster: please forward forms 29B and 67B to 80 valleybrook Given the limited open space in the area, it will Dr, Toronto, oN Canada M3B 2s9. Printed in Canada. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced be challenging to accommodate private cars, either in part or in full without the consent of the copyright owner. taxis, and parking for a doubled passenger load. From time to time we make our subscription list available to select companies and organizations whose product or service may interest A study by transportation planners BA Group, you. if you do not wish your contact information to be made available, please contact us via one of the following methods: commissioned by the City of Toronto, concludes Telephone 1-800-668-2374 that the only way to significantly increase road Facsimile 416-442-2191 E-mail privacyofficer@businessinformationgroup.ca capacity and improve vehicular traffic to the airMail Privacy officer, business information group, 80 valleybrook dr, toronto, on Canada m3b 2s9 port would involve extending an adjacent street, MEMBER OF THE CANADIAN BUSINESS PRESS Dan Leckie Way, over Lake Ontario to connect MEMBER OF THE ALLIANCE FOR AUDITED MEDIA PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT #40069240 to the airport’s main access road. This drastic ISSN 1923-3353 (ONLINE) option would significantly disrupt the continuity ISSN 0008-2872 (PRINT) of the waterfront. Toronto has made a major investment into developing its waterfront as a densely populated, Member of vibrant area that provides strong connections to the lakefront. That vision is just now coming to fruition. The network of spectacular waterfront parks that is currently emerging has not only attracted private development projects, but will leave a legacy of public infrastructure that will serve the city for decades to come. City Council We aCknoWledge the FinanCial suPPoRt oF the goveRnment oF Canada thRough the Canada PeRiodiCal would be wise to protect this vision against the Fund (CPF) FoR ouR Publishing aCtivities. incompatible expansion of the island airport. Inc.

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Projects

The design for the University of Toronto’s new Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CEIE) was recently unveiled by Montgomery Sisam Architects of Toronto and UK-based Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios. Adjacent to Convocation Hall, the landmark CEIE is targeted for opening in late 2016 on the St. George Campus, and will move beyond the traditional lecture-hall-and-classroom model with unique collaborative learning and hands-on design spaces, along with the Lee & Margaret Lau Auditorium, a 500-seat interactive space meant to optimize audience engagement. The CEIE plans also integrate heating, cooling, electrical and communications systems into a single network, providing greater energy efficiency. A $1-million commitment from the Engineering Society is earmarked for a unique space on the lower level where student club members can socialize, hold events and collaborate on group projects. U of T Engineering’s Entrepreneurship Hatchery will have a home in the new building, fostering undergraduates’ entrepreneurial ventures with the help of mentors, venture capitalists and other professionals. Also to be housed at the CEIE is the University of Toronto Institute for Sustainable Energy, an inclusive multidisciplinary initiative designed to bring together researchers, students and teachers from across the university, together with partners from industry and government. www.engineering.utoronto.ca/Page3352.aspx

High-profile shortlist announced for the Vancouver Art Gallery’s new home.

The Vancouver Art Gallery has shortlisted five architectural firms as finalists for the design of its new home in downtown Vancouver. Selected from a pool of 75 firms representing 16 countries, the finalists include Diller Scofidio + Renfro (New York), Herzog & de Meuron (Basel), KPMB Architects (Toronto), SANAA (Tokyo), and Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (New York). Architects were invited to submit their credentials through an open RFQ process issued by the Gallery in September 2013, following Vancouver City Council’s unanimous approval to designate the cityowned site at West Georgia and Cambie Streets for the new building. The selection committee evaluated firms based on their ability to address the principal goals and objectives of the building project: to create an architecturally significant visual art museum that places prominence on artists and art and that celebrates the rich cultural context of Vancouver. Each submission was also assessed by a technical review panel—a team of experts in architecture, design and urban planning—who shared their findings with the selection committee. The Gallery will

Montgomery sisam architects

Design of new Engineering building at the University of Toronto unveiled.

ABOVE The new Centre for Engineering Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the University of Toronto by Montgomery Sisam Architects and Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios is scheduled for completion in late 2016.

conduct in-person interviews with each of the finalists in the coming months and expects to be able to announce the final architect in spring 2014. The new museum building will allow the Vancouver Art Gallery to better serve its visitors, more fully realize the international reach and range of its mission and program, and will provide an international platform for local and regional artists. The new building will offer dedicated space for the Gallery’s growing collections, expanded indoor and outdoor exhibition spaces for its dynamic exhibitions, and new educational facilities that will allow the museum to dramatically increase its educational and public programs. http://vanartgallery.bc.ca/future

Snøhetta and DIALOG selected to design new Central Library in Calgary.

The current Central Library in Calgary’s East Village was built in two phases in 1963 and 1974, when the population of the city was less than 400,000. Now, nearly 50 years later, the building is stretched beyond capacity to support the growing operations of the Calgary Public Library. To bring a new vision to life through powerful enduring architecture and placemaking, Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC)’s selection committee has chosen the team of Snøhetta—an international architecture firm with offices in Oslo and New York, and DIALOG—a Canadian firm with locations in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto. Beyond installing Snøhetta and DIALOG as the design brain trust for the project, CMLC has engaged MHPM as project managers and Stuart Olson Dominion Construction to round out the project team that will bring the new library to fruition. In addition to creating a landmark that embodies the new Central Library’s vision, this team will need to creatively address

some sizeable design challenges—including the need to build around the existing LRT line. Planning for this project has been in the works since 2004, when City Council committed $40 million toward the project. In July 2011, the City committed an additional $135 million from the Community Investment Fund and the CMLC recently received Board approval to contribute the balance of funds required to complete the $245-million project—an investment that marks CMLC’s foray into vertical development. Construction of the new Central Library is expected to begin in early 2014 with site preparation work; the facility is anticipated to open by 2018. The location of the new library, adjacent to City Hall, will strengthen the fabric of community life by weaving East Village, the original heart of Calgary, back into the story of Centre City. In response to substantial input from the public as well as from library customers and staff and the City of Calgary, the new Central Library will be designed with spaces that are flexible, specialized and community-oriented in a building that’s 66% larger overall than the existing downtown library. This multifaceted family destination and gathering place will include a physical collection of approximately 600,000 books, special programs and spaces for children and teens, a technology commons and laboratory for innovation, and a centre that supports inclusive community integration and advancement through skills development.

Awards Call for entries to the Design & Health International Academy Awards.

The Design & Health International Academy Awards is the world’s leading advocacy program, recognizing professional excellence in the

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news

Pub Canadia

news research and practice of designing healthy environments. The program’s focus is multidisciplinary, recognizing the interconnectedness of health with architecture and design and its direct impact on supporting health and well-being. The objective is to: establish a global design benchmark for the psychosocially supportive design and the development of healthy environments; establish a global research benchmark for papers into issues relating to the field of design and health; reward and recognize the achievements of design and health professionals, including architects, designers, researchers, health professionals, facility managers and contractors in the successful delivery of leadingedge research and innovative health-centric projects and buildings. The program is open to international organizations in both the private and public sectors participating in either research or practice, including the planning, procurement, design, architecture, construction and management of healthy environments. Recipients of the awards are teams and individuals who through outstanding efforts have contributed to the progress of knowledge and demonstrated vision and leadership in exemplary initiatives within the field. An international roster of judges will review entries and make their selection. The deadline to apply is April 1, 2014, and the awards ceremony will be held at the Royal York Fairmont Hotel in Toronto on

July 12, 2014.

www.designandhealth.com

Competitions Winners of Warming Huts Art + Architecture Competition announced.

Endorsed by the Manitoba Association of Architects, the Warming Huts Art + Architecture Competition invited architects from all over the world to submit proposals for warming huts online. After receiving over 190 entries, the jury chose three submissions that best “push the envelope of design, craft and art.” They are: Nuzzles by RAW Design Inc. of Toronto; Red Blanket by Workshop Architecture Inc. of Toronto; and Windshield by Kate Busby and Bella Totino of Vancouver. In addition to the three winning open submissions, three other huts have been erected: Skybox by the University of Manitoba; Voyageur Hut by renowned architect Étienne Gaboury of Winnipeg; and a sixth hut by students of Kelvin High School’s drafting program, who completed the hut as a class project with Red River Mutual. All the huts were unveiled in late January. Although there was no theme for this year’s competition which produced a diverse set of winning warming huts, every year the architects push the boundaries in terms of inspiration,

design and materials used.

http://theforkswinnipeg.blogspot.ca/2013/11/ warming-huts-v2014-art-architecture.html?m=1

Lukas Peet wins the DX Emerging Designer Competition.

The Design Exchange (DX) in partnership with RBC Foundation has announced Canadian furniture designer Lukas Peet as the first-ever winner of the Emerging Designer Competition. Along with a $10,000 monetary prize, Peet will mount a solo exhibition at the DX from February 21 to April 1, 2014. The Canada-wide search commenced in March 2013 and was initially whittled down to 13 finalists. Peet was chosen for his versatility in contemporary furniture design: lauded for his lighting designs, he also produces desks, clocks, mirrors in metal, wood and fibreglass, and much more. The panel sees the potential for his pieces to transcend time—future classics that join form and function and display insight far beyond his years. Peet is a Canmore, Alberta native who received his industrial design training at the prestigious Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands. He divides his time between his studio, lukas/ peet design and his partnership in the new Vancouver lighting company ANDLIGHT. Peet’s work has been widely published and exhibited across Europe and North America.

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The Picture Frame, Not the Picture A new university satellite campus in downtown Fort Worth creates a vibrant public promenade that descends towards Trinity River. Tarrant County College, Fort Worth, Texas Bing Thom Architects, Design Architect and Architect of Record with Bennett Benner Pettit (formerly Gideon Toal), Associate Architect Text Witold Rybczynski Photos Craig Kuhner unless otherwise noted Project

architectS

Bing Thom Architects

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The new Trinity River East Campus occupies a riverfront site in downtown Fort Worth, Texas. Architects often talk about the importance of urban design, but when push comes to shove, it’s usually the architecture that they bring to the fore. That’s not the case here. Bing Thom Architects (BTA) of Vancouver, working with local firm Bennett Benner Pettit (formerly Gideon Toal), has created a project whose chief focus is an unusual public space. Trinity East is one of five campuses belonging to Tarrant County College, a community college system that serves a population of 1.8 million. Trinity East accommodates nursing and allied health programs, and its buildings house a simulation hospital, classrooms, laboratories, offices, bookstore, café, and an auditorium—150,000 square feet in all. In an earlier BTA university project, a suburban campus of Simon Fraser University in Surrey, BC, the unusual solution integrated an educational institution with its surroundings by locating the university on top of a shopping mall. In Fort Worth, the setting is very different: heavily trafficked, noisy, dense and urban. Two pinwheeling glass office towers designed by Paul Rudolph in the 1980s overlook the site. What is needed is a haven, but one that is not disconnected from the city.

Opposite A master plan for the Trinity River Uptown area, prepared by Bing Thom Architects, will create a bypass channel to control flooding and open 800 acres of land for development—including a cross-river extension to the Tarrant County College East River campus. The project is slated for completion in 2023. Above Rushing water masks the sound of traffic and creates an oasis-like spine down the central promenade of the campus.

The campus is located on a bluff 100 feet above the Trinity River that winds through the city. The parti is extremely simple: a linear campus consisting of long buildings that define an outdoor pedestrian spine descending the slope to the river. The spine serves as both an open space for the college and a public promenade for the city. Originally, the college was to have been twice as large, bridging the river and continuing on the north bank, part of a master plan (also prepared by BTA) for 500 acres along the river. The development required extensive flood control measures, and delays in the environmental review process along with post-Katrina changes in federal standards caused the college to cancel the cross-river part of the scheme. Nevertheless, the descending promenade provides a public connection between downtown Fort Worth and recreational walks beside the river. This connection makes the college both apart from—and a part of— its downtown surroundings. The entry to the campus is through a sunken plaza that occupies an entire city block next to the county courthouse, an 1895 granite pile in the excessive but indeterminate style of that period; not great architecture but much beloved locally. There are not many successful sunken squares that I know of, but like Lawrence Halprin’s Keller Fountain Park in Portland,

Oregon, this space is enlivened by moving water. A broad “staircase” of tumbling water cascades down into the plaza, the start of a watercourse that traverses the entire campus. From the sunken entry plaza, the promenade continues unimpeded under a city street. Lowering the pedestrian spine is a masterful stroke that immediately creates a sense of enclosure, separate—visually and aurally—from the bustle of downtown. Farther down, the linear walk is punctuated by small plazas, courtyards and terraces. At one point, an outdoor stair leads to a large parking lot on the east side of the campus—after all, this is Texas, where the chief mode of transportation is the private car. The pathway, which widens as it descends, is largely hardscape, but intermittently planted with trees. Since the rooftops of the buildings are roughly level, their height increases from two storeys to six at the bottom of the hill. One has the sense of descending a deepening manmade ravine. The most prominent design element in the ravine is the watercourse— the work of the SWA Group, the landscape architect. After cascading into the sunken entry plaza, the water turns into a 30-foot-wide channel, carrying a thin sheet of water. Some designers might have introduced boulders or naturalistic elements, but this manmade feature looks manmade, an in-

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dustrial sluice rather than a mountain creek. The floor of the sluice is corrugated with scores of tiny protrusions that create small splashes and eddies. Occasionally, larger chunks of concrete, like giant stepping stones, interrupt the flow. Bridges span the channel to reach the buildings on the far side. The watercourse ends, just before it reaches the river, in a dramatic waterfall that splashes noisily into a catchment basin. Throughout its 600-foot journey, the burbling water not only masks the background noises of the surrounding city, but has a pleasant calming and cooling effect. Trinity East reminds me of an earlier Texas campus, Rice University in Houston, which was planned by Ralph Adams Cram in 1908. The founding president of Rice was a professor from Princeton, where Cram was the university architect, but although he was a committed medievalist, he real-

nic lehoux

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ized that Collegiate Gothic was wrong for Texas. Instead, he invented a fanciful Byzantine-Romanesque style for the buildings, made them skinny in plan to promote cross-ventilation, provided plenty of shaded outdoor arcades, and filled the breezy open spaces with groves of live oaks. BTA’s architecture does not make any historical allusions, but it reacts similarly to the climate. As at Rice, the buildings are skinny, and circulation is either in shaded galleries or outside in the walkway. A profusion of glass provides views in and out of the buildings and a sense of transparency; in many places, the glass is shaded by large screens of aluminum louvres. The architects allow themselves a single grand gesture: when the buildings reach the river, they terminate in dramatic angled cantilevers. Otherwise, the façades are intentionally ungrand; a fragmented collage of greenish tinted glass, silver louvres, and charcoal-grey precast concrete. I don’t want to give the impression that this is shy architecture, but it recalls a saying of William Wurster, the early California Modernist and former Dean of Architecture at Berkeley, where Bing Thom did his graduate work: “Architecture is not a goal...architecture is for life and pleasure and work and for people. The picture frame, not the picture.” Bing Thom, who was awarded the RAIC Gold Medal in 2011, and who recently beat out Norman Foster and Moshe Safdie in a design competition for an opera house in Hong Kong, does not have a signature architectural style. Perhaps this is the lingering influence of his early mentor, Arthur Erickson, whose work also defied easy stylistic categorization. Some BTA projects dramatize their structure, some don’t; some emphasize details, some don’t; some have a memorable form, some don’t. The architect to whom Thom bears comparison is Renzo Piano—both men are builders whose designs emerge from construction as well as from program

nic lehoux Opposite Top The campus culminates at the naturalized edge of the Trinity River. In a future phase, the promenade will bridge over the water, connecting to the north section of the campus. Opposite bottom The campus steps down over 10 metres, passing beneath a city street. Above left A series of trellises shades the outdoor walkways that flank several classroom buildings. Above right At the end of the watercourse, a waterfall splashes into a catchment basin.

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The long shallow buildings are suffused with natural daylight, saving energy and yielding pleasant learning environments; ground-level glazing provides continuity between interior lobbies and the pedestrian promenade; a café boasts double-height ceilings.

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and site. The difference is that while Piano’s relentless search for precision can sometimes give his buildings an air of intimidating perfection, BTA’s architecture seems less driven and more relaxed, and more, well, Canadian. Thom’s buildings are Modernist though not minimalist, light, frequently glassy, often playful, sometimes theatrical, occasionally experimental. The Canada Pavilion at Expo ’92 in Seville, Spain, an early example of using water for its cooling effect, was clad entirely in zinc. Thom is mindful of the past in a general cultural way—the Hong Kong opera house will resemble a Chinese lantern—but he is definitely not a Postmodern historicist. Still, as Philip Johnson famously observed, “You cannot not know history.” Recent BTA projects, such as Arena Stage in Washington, DC and a public library in Surrey, BC incorporate curvaceous elements that remind me of the work of the early German Expressionist, Erich Mendelsohn. Trinity East does not have any curvy bits, but its canted walls and quirky angled geometry bring to mind the great Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto, who always gave his functional Modernism a humanist touch. Humanist is a good word to characterize the architecture of Trinity East. It was Saturday when I visited, and although there were a few promenading couples, there was none of the hustle and bustle of a weekday,

with students hurrying back and forth between classes, sprawled under the trees with their laptops, eating lunch beside the fountain. Some buildings are there to be enjoyed as beautiful objects; self-sufficient, they look complete all on their own—they don’t need occupants. Not here. It seemed to me that Trinity East was impatiently waiting for its students to return. Witold Rybczynski is Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania. His latest book, How Architecture Works, was longlisted for the RBC Taylor Prize, and was named one of the best architecture books of 2013 by Amazon.

Client Tarrant County College | architect team Bing Thom Architects—Bing Thom, Michael Heeney, Venelin Kokalov, Ling Meng, Francis Yan, Shinobu Homma, John Camfield, Amirali Javidan, Matthew Woodruff, Bibianka Fehr, Nicole Hu, Lisa Potopsingh, Berit Wooge, Ergi Bozyigit. Bennett Benner Pettit—Michael Bennett, Mark Dabney, Gannon Gries. | structural ARUP with Jaster-Quintanilla | mechanical/electrical Arup with Summit Consultants, Inc. | landscape Swa Group with Studio Outside | interiors Bing Thom Architects with Bennett Benner Petit | contractor AustinConReal | Geotechnical Kleinfelder | Building Code LMDG with Schirmer Engineering | Traffic Kimley-Horn | Cladding Heintges | Fountain CMS Collaborative | Area 150,000 FT 2 | Budget $139 M (Includes costs for future-phase buildings and infrastructure) | Completion September 2011

Aziza Chao

“ The Holcim Awards did bring attention to the river project and in turn triggered new rehabilitation initiatives including an additional international design competition.” Aziza Chaouni, Architect, Aziza Chaouni Projects and Assistant Professor, University of Toronto, Winner of the Holcim Awards Global Gold prize in 2009.

4th International Holcim Awards for sustainable construction projects. Prize money totals USD 2 million.

Renowned technical universities lead the independent juries in five regions of the world. They evaluate projects at an advanced stage of design against the “target issues” for sustainable construction and allocate additional prizes for visionary ideas of young professionals and students. Find out more about the competitions at www.holcimawards.org The Holcim Awards is an initiative of the Swiss based Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction. It is supported by Holcim and its Group companies and affiliates in around 70 countries, including Holcim Canada. Holcim Ltd is one of the world’s leading suppliers of cement and aggregates.

Aziza Chaouni - 9X11.25.indd 1

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SUNNYSIDE

CRESCENT HEIGHTS

PRINCE’S ISLAND

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DOWNTOWN EAST VILLAGE CITY HALL

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PLAZA

FUTURE RIVERWALK

LOOKOUT

Stantec

500M

Defensive measures while New projects along Calgary’s Bow River suggest how flood controls can be integrated into urban infrastructure, the city has much to do in achieving true resilience from flood events. Graham Livesey

Stantec

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Stantec

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missioned and concerted efforts made to lure developers. The establishment of the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC) in 2007 spurred a $180-million investment in infrastructure upgrades, and new development is beginning to occur. Created under former mayor Dave Bronconnier, the CMLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of the City of Calgary with the mandate to implement revitalization plans encompassing East Village, Fort Calgary, Victoria Park and the Calgary Stampede Grounds. The CMLC is a nimble agency that works somewhat like a developer, taking projects through typical approval processes. When developed according to a master plan by UK firm Broadway Malyan, the East Village will be a thriving inner-city community, home to the National Music Centre of Canada (designed by Allied Works in partnership with Kasian) and the new central branch of the Calgary Public Library (Snøhetta in partnership with Dialog). The area’s infrastructure upgrades include the RiverWalk park plan, designed by Stantec Consulting Ltd. with conceptual input from Toronto’s Moriyama & Teshima Planners. The scheme—a braided river pathway that combines pedestrian and bike paths with landscape— addresses four kilometres of river edge along the south side of the Bow River from Centre Street to Fort Calgary. A future phase extends along the Elbow River to the Talisman Centre. One of the historic stumbling blocks to the development of East Village is its floodplain location. The RiverWalk plan provides suitable flood control along the river by raising dykes above the 100-year flood level. Overall, the design is pleasant, seamlessly incorporating these flood controls while balancing the needs of various user groups. The landscape system is interspersed with lookout elements and public nodes, including a major public plaza adjacent to the historic Simmons building. Dramatic lighting upgrades have been provided to the Langevin vehicular bridge. The landscape design evolves as it moves around the Fort Calgary site, which has retained a more natural riparian edge. Here, bright red elements recall the military history of the area. RiverWalk generally employs well-selected furnishings, including benches and lighting elements intended to be durable for diverse inner-city populations. The scheme won a 2010 Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA) Design Award, received a 2011 Mayor’s Urban Design Award, and was a finalist for a 2012 Urban Open Space Award from the Urban Land Institute. CMLC is also overseeing ambitious upgrades to the adjacent St.

The Bow River, while not large by most standards, is a volatile river that runs through hard and soft landscapes, beginning in the Rockies and ending as it merges into the South Saskatchewan River. It bisects the city of Calgary, and is joined by the smaller Elbow River at a confluence that was the location of Fort Calgary, an important North-West Mounted Police post. Looking back at historical records, it is evident that the Bow and Elbow flood regularly, with major events recorded in 1879, 1897, 1902, 1915, 1929 and 1932. Flooding is in fact vital to the ecosystems the rivers support. Calgary—along with other communities on the Bow River—felt the power of the rivers last June when the city experienced the worst flood in several decades, resulting in the most expensive natural disaster in Canada’s history. Large areas of downtown Calgary suffered significant damage, as did many other communities in southern Alberta, due to high volumes of water in both the Bow and Elbow Rivers. Was the city prepared for such a catastrophic event? In some ways it had grown complacent—reports written in 2002 and 2006 recommending flood controls were largely ignored. However, in other ways, the city proved itself well-served by its green spaces. During the last several decades Calgary has developed an enviable park system, much of which runs along the rivers and creeks that structure the city. These parks tend to preserve indigenous foothills and prairie landscapes, which provide some protection against flooding. When subject to catastrophic events, natural systems are often more resilient, or elastic, than engineered infrastructure systems, which tend to break and need costly repair. Damaged natural systems usually recover or find a new equilibrium. Can cities such as Calgary build more resilient infrastructure to defend themselves from the floods predicted to occur with greater frequency as climate change takes hold, and what would this look like? Two recent large-scale projects along the Bow River confront the often turbulent relationship between water and urbanization. The first project addresses river edge conditions in the East Village area, and the second provides upgrades to Memorial Drive. Rivers District and St. Patrick’s Island Since the development boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s, the older downtown Calgary district of East Village has been neglected and relatively dormant. In recent years, various master plans have been com-

Stantec

mark eleven photography, courtesy of cmlc

Opposite top Urban upgrades in progress along downtown Calgary’s riverfront. Opposite Bottom, left to right The completed portion of RiverWalk includes three waterfront observation decks as well as terraced steps down to the Bow River; the promenade integrates designated paths for pedestrians and cyclists alongside native plantings; red seats approaching Fort Calgary allude to the cultural and military history of the site; a generous public plaza adjoins the historic Simmons mattress warehouse, expected to reopen as a hub for local culinary entrepreneurs in 2015.

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rfr/halsall

A new pedestrian bridge, currently under construction, will connect the revitalized St. Patrick’s Island to East Village and Bridgeland. Constructed as a helical steel frame, Santiago Calatrava’s single-span Peace Bridge conveys pedestrians and cyclists between downtown Calgary and Sunnyside. Below The new master plan for St. Patrick’s Island, which is expected to reopen to the public in 2015. Above

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St. Patrick’s Island 1 the tip 2 THE JUNCTION 3 Seasonal breach 4 young-growth forest 5 the rise 6 playmound 7 gallery forest 8 PIERCE’S WALK 9 picnic grove 10 PICTURE DECK 11 cove 12 FIRST NATIONS PLAZA

100M

joshua dool

Patrick’s Island, one of Calgary’s oldest, and most neglected, public parks. The Bow River’s large islands—including St. Patrick’s Island, Prince’s Island and St. George’s Island (on which a large portion of the Calgary Zoo is built)—all suffered flood damage in June. The St. Patrick’s Island master plan, originally developed by Stantec, led to the final design by W Architecture of New York and Civitas of Denver. Currently under construction, the re-landscaped island includes gathering spaces, sports zones, enhanced bird habitats, and various public facilities. Neil MacKimmie, Senior Development Manager with CMLC, notes that very few adjustments were made to the scheme after last June’s flood, as the design team took into account the 100-year flood levels. Bridges play an important role in the fabric of a river city. In Calgary they tend to be effectively placed, but are largely unmemorable in architectural character. In 2008, the city decided to add two signature pedestrian bridges across the Bow River. The first was the controversial— and now iconic—Peace Bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava. The second is the St. Patrick’s Island Bridge, which will connect the island to East Village to the south, and to the Bridgeland community to the north. The design consultants for this bridge, RFR of Paris and Halsall Associates, were selected through an international competition; they describe the resulting design as a “skipping stone” scheme. In the recent flood, several older pedestrian bridges on the Elbow River were washed out, and the formwork and deck of the St. Patrick’s Island Bridge were compromised, delaying completion by a year. The Peace Bridge suffered no lasting damage. Finally, a smaller pedestrian bridge is being added across the Elbow River, connecting to the historic community of Inglewood. Memorial Drive and the Landscape of Memory The second major scheme is a project entitled Memorial Drive: A Landscape of Memory. Like RiverWalk, the lead consultant on this project is also Stantec. The project restores a 9.5-kilometre commemorative parkway tracing the north side of the Bow River.

Memorial Drive was established in 1922, and by 1928 citizens had planted 3,278 trees along the drive to remember local combatants lost in battle. Calgary Parks, the visionary client for the current project, has completed a host of forward-looking projects in recent years. Memorial Drive passes through several older communities, including Parkdale, Kensington, Sunnyside and Bridgeland. The master plan calls for landscape upgrades and the establishment of various nodes and gateways. To date, the Sunnyside section between the Louise and Centre Street Bridges has been completed. The initial phase—which included replacing trees that have reached maturity, and upgrading the street median with plantings and banners—was poorly executed. As an aside, it remains unclear as to why banners continue to be a favoured device, as they are rarely well designed and typically provide little real vitality. Subsequent phases have involved the Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative (MBAC) as sub-consultant to Stantec, with improved results, collecting a number of Mayor’s Urban Design Awards in the process. MBAC has so far designed two major nodes: the Calgary Soldiers’ Memorial (in partnership with the Calgary Regiments) and Poppy Plaza. A further project awarded to MBAC, completed in 2012, involved upgrading the river pathway system joining the Peace Bridge to Poppy Plaza. The Calgary Soldiers’ Memorial is a striking piece of design that records the names of all members of Calgary regiments lost in combat. These are inscribed into six large white marble tablets that are integrated into a platform that hovers above the ground, shaped in weathering steel and balau wood decking. The memorial is carefully sited close to the river, yet visible to motorists on Memorial Drive. Visitors atop the platform enjoy a distant view to Mewata Armoury, from whence all Calgary-based soldiers departed for battle. Of all the recent river-edge projects, Poppy Plaza is the boldest and most satisfying. MBAC was given the opportunity to develop an ambitious scheme at the foot of the historic Louise Bridge. As its name suggests, the project continues the commemorative theme of the area,

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Mbac

Mbac Mbac

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plan

1 connection to river walkway 2 cantilevered belvedere 3 canopy entrance for existing building 4 heritage tree 5 illuminated bosque 6 three-dimensional weathering steel letters 7 gateway sculptural elements 8 existing parking lot and bicycle parking 9 existing monument 10 louise riley/10th street bridge

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Poppy Plaza’s wood deck is sprinkled with rows of benches and aspen trees; at the plaza’s southern edge, a weathering steel wall navigates the steep riverbank; sculptural letters announce the plaza to passing cars on Memorial Drive. above The Calgary Soldiers’ Memorial features inscribed marble slabs, set on a platform that hovers above the ground.

opposite, Clockwise from top

furthermore creating a gateway to downtown and establishing a new public space. As Marc Boutin states, it “sutures” together a diverse set of factors. All of this is handled in a sophisticated scheme that deftly employs weathering steel to evoke the machinery of war. Into the surfaces of the steel are cut an array of quotations that express the effects of combat. The steelwork provides, along with gabion baskets, a bulwark against flooding and winter ice buildup: the just-completed project was hardly damaged during the 2013 flood beyond some loss of electrical fixtures. The plaza itself is created out of balau wood decking that creates a topography carefully harmonized with the steel. Specially designed furniture and wellplaced plantings complement the design. Finally, the Louise Bridge is given new signature elements, including two sentinels that stand across the river, providing a vital linkage to downtown. The addition of the Calgary Soldiers’ Memorial and Poppy Plaza have been well received by veterans and citizens alike; they strengthen the commemorative aspects of Memorial Drive in profound and provocative ways. Towards a New Resilience In the wake of the 2013 flood, the City of Calgary will have to rethink its flood control strategies along the Bow and Elbow Rivers. There has been much discussion of installing major controls and mitigation strategies for the Elbow River. Addressing these issues will require close cooperation between all levels of government. MacKimmie at the CMLC notes that the RiverWalk project has suc-

cessfully responded to infrastructure requirements and has opened up edges of the two rivers previously difficult to access. The constructed portion of RiverWalk suffered little flood damage. Ironically, down river of the downtown core there was significant damage to natural park systems. There are projects underway to remediate flood damage to existing riverside green areas, including Bowness and Bowmont parks. Is the notion of resilience largely euphemistic? Probably, as most of the planned new infrastructure for flood control will still be heavily engineered. However, it will undoubtedly be smarter in preventing damage over previous iterations. Resilience suggests multi-functional and integrated systems, and implies that infrastructure should be a well-designed aspect of urban environments. RiverWalk and the Memorial Drive upgrades begin to suggest ways in which infrastructure, such as flood controls, can be softened and better integrated into other systems. Nevertheless, while they helped reduce damage, these controls along the two rivers are not yet adequate to prevent major damage to the downtown core from flooding. To achieve truly resilient landscape-based infrastructure is going to take time, political will, and the application of these strategies to ever-broader urban and regional scales. Graham Livesey is a professor in the Master of Architecture program at the University of Calgary.

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Competing Visions A design competition advances bold ideas for the future expansion of the University of Manitoba’s riverside Fort Garry campus. Text

Richard Milgrom Janet Rosenberg & Studio and Cibinel Architects with Landmark Planning & Design and ARUP Canada unless otherwise noted

Images

In 2011, the University of Manitoba purchased the Southwood Golf Course to accommodate future development. The green space both defines the northern boundary of the University’s Fort Garry campus and symbolizes its isolation from neighbouring communities: the commuter campus has little presence from Pembina Highway to the west, and while situated on a point along the Red River south of the downtown core, makes little effort to take advantage of this natural setting.

In its most recent Development Plan, the City of Winnipeg—which is experiencing growth for the first time in decades—identified the Fort Garry campus as a node of potential growth. With the acquisition of the Southwood Lands, the University identified an opportunity to lead by example: by building sustainable living environments for diverse communities, it could transform the campus into a living lab for urban growth. New rapid-transit bus lines could improve connections to downtown. And an international competition to identify the campus planning team would encourage public debate about development while raising the profile of urban design issues. An open design competition called Visionary (re)Generation launched in December 2012 and drew more than 300 registrations. Forty-five teams from 17 countries submitted entries; six advanced to Phase Two. A jury announced the winner last September—a team led by Toronto landscape architects Janet Rosenberg & Studio and Cibinel Architects of Winnipeg. The winning scheme suggests a bold landscape-based vision for the Southwood Lands as “a place of living in the prairie.” A rhythm of open and densely treed green spaces, reminiscent of golf course fairways, flows from Pembina Highway to the Red River. Within these stripes, residential uses for the proposed new neighbourhood are interspersed with educational buildings, recreational areas, and wildlife corridors. To the south and east, the core campus is densified and preserved as the

Richard Milgrom is Associate Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and head of the Department of City Planning at the University of Manitoba.

christian foyd architect; courtesy Perkins+will/ixi architecture/pfs

heart of the University. The jury was attracted by the clarity of the scheme, with its integrated approach to landscape and urbanism. In particular, they commended its treatment of the riverfront as an amenity for the University and the broader community. The plan includes boardwalks and pavilions along the water’s edge and maximizes river views from its apartment buildings. At the western campus edge, it clearly marks the Pembina Highway entrance with new gateway buildings that double as an aboriginal research centre. Jury deliberations sparked controversy about what constitutes a visionary strategy for this development. The competition brief had been detailed and complex, asking entrants to address many dimensions of sustainability, requirements of everyday life and active living, and the ethical responsibilities of developing land taken from aboriginal peoples. For some jurors, questions arose about how effectively Rosenberg’s proposal addressed several of these intents. The jury report includes concerns about the homogeneity of building types in the Southwood Lands and weak connections to adjacent communities. Given the focus on sustainability, the report tellingly notes that the design does not take full advantage of opportunities for transit-oriented development—it states that the Southwood precinct “appears to be designed as a car-oriented commuter campus.” In contrast, the second- and third-prize entries, awarded respectively to teams led by Perkins+Will and DTAH, more rigorously address the specific requirements of the competition. Viewed by the majority of jurors as more conservative, both are closely related to conventional ideas of urban space and neighbourhood design. Unlike the winning scheme, both Perkins+Will and DTAH focus their efforts on creating dense urban neighbourhoods and associated amenities within walking distance of the core campus amenities. They also attempt to address the scale of an existing football stadium by surrounding it with density, rather than placing it in a park as Rosenberg’s team proposes. Interestingly, the jury report notes that, though conventional, the Perkins+Will and DTAH schemes are out of character with the surroundings and raised questions about the appropriateness of creating an “urban island” in this location. However, if the University wants to lead by example, the proposed neighbourhood may have to define a new context rather than fitting comfortably into the existing. Ideally this will provide exemplars of urbanism that will inspire the densification of the surrounding city fabric and provide models for other new neighbourhoods. As the University continues to work with Janet Rosenberg Studio and Cibinel Architects, one hopes that the strong landscape ideas that were received so positively will evolve to encompass more walkable and connected urban spaces—setting precedents that will have long-term benefits for both the University of Manitoba and the city of Winnipeg.

The Visionary (re)Generation finalist entries can be viewed at

Two views of the winning entry, which envisages long flowing strips of development on the Southwood Lands that recall French agricultural divisions. Right, top to bottom The campus gateway building from the winning project; ecological corridors throughout the scheme combine research facilities, recreational trails and wildlife habitats; the second-place entry by Perkins+Will with IXI Architecture and PFS includes a central mews flanked by three-storey townhouse units; a view of a residential green street from the third-place entry by DTAH with Cohlmeyer Architecture, Integral Group and BA Group.

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Dtah/cohlmeyer/integral group/ba group

www.visionaryregeneration.com.

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Daniel Evan white studio

Casting Lines, Building Grids TEXT

Jenni Pace Presnell

Exhibitions on West Coast modern architects Arthur Erickson and Daniel Evan White shed new light on two significant practices. Two current architectural exhibitions, one in Calgary and the other in Vancouver, challenge the blueprint-and-blurb conventions of exhibiting architecture. Rather than simply displaying and describing works by the well-known Arthur Erickson and the lesser-known but prolific Vancouver architect Daniel Evan White, they test innovative display strategies to evoke both the design process and the resulting spaces. Layered Landscapes: Constructing Form and Meaning from the Sketches of Arthur Erickson at the Canadian Architectural Archives (CAA) prompts a consideration of line, both drawn on paper and imagined in the landscape. The display centres on hand-drawn sketches from eight projects, selected from the CAA’s rare stash of some 14,000 drawings produced by Erickson. The compact exhibition was organized by CAA curators Linda Fraser

and Geoffrey Simmins with Erickson scholar Michelangelo Sabatino, and its design was developed by the Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative. Each of eight projects is represented by two to four sketches, mostly on translucent tracing paper. The sketches are suspended in internally lit vitrines affixed atop specially built shipping crates, which will allow the exhibition to easily travel. Five of the displays include newly commissioned time-lapse video of buildings in their current state: some inhabited by people, some empty of all but rustling plants. Layered Landscapes is especially notable for what it does not include: the exhibition has no text aside from the most minimal labels. No narrative is present to explain the sequences of sketches, which vary from one project to the next. Scale is also fluid, with micro- and macro-scale A large-scale model of Daniel Evan White’s Mâté Residence dominates the current retrospective at the Museum of Vancouver. Left At the Canadian Architectural Archives in Calgary, minimalist wood boxes contain pairings of original sketches with contemporary videos documenting some of Arthur Erickson’s key projects.

Marc Boutin Architectural collaborative

Top

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caa, arthur erickson fonds

A blackline print of the Simon Fraser University site plan; a rough sketch of the aerial view. Bottom, left to right Miniature models of White’s house projects; a vitrine of sketches for Erickson’s Filberg House in Comox. Opposite, clockwise from top left Daniel Evan White’s 1979 Mâté Residence in West Vancouver; the 1974 Reynolds II Residence predates Erickson’s Museum of Anthropology; the 1983 Taylor Residence in Vancouver echoes the form of Lethbridge University; the 1990 McIlveen Floating Home on British Columbia’s Lower Mainland includes a spherical bathroom suspended above the kitchen.

Above, left to right

dwelling is apparent in these sketches, while the decorative screens referencing Andalusian Islamic traditions recede into the bold formal geometry. The economical use of line suggests an ideal continuity of landscape elements, minimally enclosed by man-made forms. Stouck also sheds light on the Simon Fraser University (SFU) competition of 1962. He recounts that project manager Gordon Shrum insisted submissions be limited to three sheets of drawings—a site plan, aerial view and building profiles—along with a single page of text. These purposefully modest requirements opened the competition to young independent architects without the support of a large staff. Erickson’s and project partner Geoffrey Massey’s original aerial drawing for the central mall dominates one vitrine in the CAA exhibition, overlaid with a rough sketch for the plaza. Though still inexact, the descending series of platforms and pedestals is evident in the early sketch, although their relation to the whole can only be guessed at. In contrast to this emphasis on two-dimensional documents, Play House: The Architecture of Daniel Evan White at the Museum of Vancouver (MOV) seizes on another architect’s mastery of volumetric shapes to

Marc Boutin Architectural collaborative

drawings superimposed in the same vitrines. The curators argue that the sketches are by nature highly accessible, because they invite contemplation of design impressions, adaptations and potential without imposing a textual reading on the viewer. Erickson himself contended that line “tells everything,” suggesting countless possibilities that are lost in dimensional representations. For visitors eager to fill in the blanks, the exhibition might be best examined in conjunction with a close reading of David Stouck’s recent biography, Arthur Erickson: An Architect’s Life, (Douglas & McIntyre, 2013). As Stouck recounts, Erickson considered the site of the Filberg House in Comox on Vancouver Island, overlooking the Georgia Strait, to be the “most dramatic” site for which he designed and realized a structure. “The aesthetic problem was how to cast lines into the vast space, draw it into the complex of a building and release it without decreasing but enhancing its energy,” wrote Erickson (CA, December 1960). Layered Landscapes affords an opportunity to contemplate the architect working out these very concepts: three perspectival elevations are grouped with the house’s planting plan. The liberal use of glass to enclose the pavilion-like

martin lewis

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Review

christina craiu

daniel evan white studio

roger brooks

design for improbable coastal sites. White was hired by Erickson and Massey during the development of SFU; he later worked with Ian Davidson. Afterwards, he launched a robust solo practice, creating numerous single-family homes and several condominium buildings along the West Coast. Despite a substantial portfolio, the work of the late Dan White is not widely known in Vancouver, even among the city’s architecture community. Guest curators and White collaborators Martin Lewis and Greg Johnson, working in conjunction with MOV curator Viviane Gosselin, set out to launch White’s designs into the public realm. In order to make his work as widely accessible as possible, they invited audiences to follow in White’s design process and engage in a creative play with form. The exhibition is anchored by a series of 1:96 scale models of selected houses, displayed in a cabinet of curiosities along one wall. On the opposite wall, a chronology is illustrated with tangram-puzzle diagrams of White’s work. The gallery space is dominated by a 1:4 scale model of the Mâté Residence in West Vancouver, which recreates the tiny but ambitious house’s four planes cascading down a steep slope from the road above. The strong geometry of the floor plan recalls Erickson’s designs for the Museum of Anthropology, which itself echoes White’s earlier Reynolds II Residence of 1974—evidence of the strong ongoing dialogue that continued between the practitioners. Many of White’s ideas were playfully unconventional: the bridge-like Taylor Residence spans a deep gorge, while a floating bathroom in the McIlveen Floating Home features a 10-foot-diameter sphere containing bath and steam

rooms, suspended over the kitchen. Beyond surveying White’s work and bringing it together as a coherent whole, the exhibition makes a concerted effort to engage the architectural community and general audiences alike. University of British Columbia architecture students were hired to assist with research, model-building, and catalogue design, while public programs accompanying the exhibition included a Lego build day and family-friendly design lab. In the exhibition space, stories from clients and contractors, 3D computer models, and building blocks encourage hands-on engagement. Together, these two exhibitions provide instructive examples of how architectural displays might go beyond the norm. Viewing them in comparison also provokes the question: how does work become known? And, how do certain projects get absorbed into the canon of architectural touchstones? In some ways, the concurrent appearance of these two exhibitions may help to level the playing field—bringing attention to how even Erickson’s most acclaimed work arose from tentative sketches, and to White’s masterful but until now overlooked geometrical experiments. Jenni Pace is a doctoral candidate in the history of modern art and architecture at the University of British Columbia. Layered Landscapes: Constructing Form and Meaning

from the Sketches of Arthur Erickson debuted in the Nickle Galleries at the University of Calgary and will travel across the country, concluding with a major symposium in Vancouver. Play House: The Architecture of Daniel Evan White is on display at the Museum of Vancouver until March 23, 2014.

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Review

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REPORT

THE BELLY OF AN ARCHITECT TEXT

Leslie Jen

New offerings in ceramic tile and bathroom furnishings arouse the appetites of those attending CERSAIE, a popular annual event held in Bologna, Italy.

Fictional American architect Stourley Kracklite—the protagonist of Peter Greenwaway’s 1987 film The Belly of an Architect—travels to Italy, a country that captivates and inspires so many with its colourful history, stunning architecture, and sophisticated design culture. Similarly, thousands of architects and designers from around the world flocked to Bologna this past fall to attend CERSAIE, an annual international exhibition of ceramic tiles and bathroom furnishings that is a veritable feast for the senses. Tiles in every imaginable colour, shape, size, texture and pattern enticed, alongside a broadening range of attractive bathroom fixtures in an industry increasingly defined by designer collaborations. Nearly 900 exhibitors were spread over 166,000 square metres of space in multiple cavernous halls that comprise the Bologna Exhibition Centre. And although Kracklite’s unfortunate story results in tragedy, CERSAIE 2013 has a happy beginning, middle and ending, offering up an endless buffet to fill the belly (and soul) of any architect. In addition to the enormous variety of product on display, CERSAIE offers an always stimulating program of events. In the past, architectural superstars such as Renzo Piano and Kazuo Sejima have delivered lectures that gave audiences much to ponder. This year was no exception with the presence of Pritzker Prize-winning Spanish architect Rafael Moneo, who in his keynote address presented a variety of projects from his impressive portfolio, including the Museum of the Roman Theatre in Cartagena, Columbia University’s Northwest Science Building in New York, and the Iesu Church in Riberas de Loiola, San Sebastián. Titling his lecture “Buildings are not Objects,” Moneo emphasized the importance of designing contextually responsive buildings that must engage with their sites, communities and cities. Anton García-Abril, another Spanish architect and cofounder of Studio Ensamble, a firm with offices in Madrid and Mexico City, rounded out a

Cisa Ceramiche’s Jurassic line mimics natural stone with colour-striated graphics in a blended neutral palette; ImolaCeramica’s Opificio delle Pietre Vicentina is a full-body porcelain tile with a pleasing mottled stone-like finish that is offered in an unusual isosceles trapezoid shape; inspired by wooden wine barrel staves, ABK’s subtly hued Soleras tiles are used to create a French herringbone pattern. BELOW, LEFT TO RIGHT A rustic effect is achieved with the Old Wood series by Ceramiche Fioranese; Lea Ceramiche’s Origini Slimtech 3Plus tiles convey luxe elegance with the practical benefit of an antibacterial barrier; Philippe Starck’s updated line for Duravit includes a rectangular acrylic bathtub with an integrated seamless neckrest. TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT

list of presenters. Abril leads a truly global existence, maintaining offices in Madrid and Mexico City while fulfilling teaching duties in his professorial role at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Having lectured in various cities in North America over the past year, Abril treated CERSAIE attendees with a sampling of his truly inventive and materially innovative structures and buildings such as the Cervantes Theatre in Mexico City, the Truffle in Costa da Morte and the General de Autores y Editores in Santiago de Compostela, both in northwestern Spain. Another delectable treat to be sampled was Bologna Water Design, a CERSAIE-sponsored initiative that launched in 2012. Taking place at the Ex Ospedale dei Bastardini, the event comprised numerous evocative installations and exhibitions by architects and designers that focused on water, public spaces and outdoor design, culminating in a dramatically lit and cocktail-fuelled gala celebration that attracted hundreds of invited guests who congregated in the historic structureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s courtyard on a starry night. The broad range and scope of the installations highlighted issues of water use, sustainability and conservation in the vast spaces and against the denuded walls of the former maternity hospitalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s remarkable architecture. But the main event still managed to impress the most with its limitless array of offerings. These two pages represent just a mere sampling of the latest trends and products on display at CERSAIE 2013.

Above The AREA50 series by Ceramiche Coem features a textured option that reproduces at large scale an off-the-grid hexagonal pattern reminiscent of the weave used in cane-back chairs.

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REPORT

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professional directory

Tom Arkell 416-510-6806 Faria Ahmed 416-510-6808 1/4 PAGE

Canadian Architect 80 Valleybrook Dr Toronto, ON M3B 2S9 www.canadianarchitect.com

photographing the arab City in the 19th Century January 30-May 25, 2014

This exhibition at the Canadian Centre for Architecture features photographs that illustrate the dichotomy present at all levels of Islamic culture and thus of the city’s organization, configuring limits, routes and buildings. architecture for place: The Work of glenn murcutt February 6-April 13, 2014

This exhibition at the UQAM Centre de Design in Montreal examines the process and work of Australian architect Glenn Murcutt, winner of the 2002 Pritzker Architecture Prize. dorte mandrup lecture February 17, 2014

Dorte Mandrup of Copenhagen’s Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter lectures at 6:00pm at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. To re-enchant the City February 17, 2014

Manuelle Gautrand, Principal of Manuelle Gautrand Architecture

in Paris delivers the Sheila Baillie Lecture at 6:00pm in Room G10 of the Macdonald-Harrington Building at McGill University.

featuring a day of professional development sessions.

a Chat with omer arbel

February 25, 2014

www.buildexvancouver.com

old World/new frontiers

February 19, 2014

Founder of Omer Arbel Design and creative director at Bocci, Vancouver’s Omer Arbel chats about his creative process with Toronto curator and art collector Kenneth Montague at 6:30pm at Toronto’s Design Exchange. http://guestlistapp.com/events/226731

Joshua vermillion lecture February 19, 2014

Joshua Vermillion of the University of Nevada’s School of Architecture lectures at 6:00pm at the University of Calgary’s downtown campus.

This film pairing of People of the Feather and Trouble in the Peace at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto is an initiative of the Toronto Society of Architects, offering insights into the role of design in the built environment.

Western Canada’s largest annual trade show on designing, building and managing real estate returns to the Vancouver Convention Centre West. AIBC Architecture Day comprises part of the show,

February 28-March 1, 2014

This symposium at the Urbanspace Gallery and the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto brings together activists, architects, artists and landscape planners to discuss pressing questions about the responsibility of architects and planners. www.cityecology.net

plant, Cut, repeat

brigitte shim lecture

February 27, 2014

March 3, 2014

Architect Michael Green of MGA | Michael Green Architecture speaks at 2:00pm at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Jackman Hall, detailing new approaches and systems for wood construction. http://ams.cwc.ca/live/aMs/eventregistrations/eventDetails/4218

buiLdeX vancouver February 19-20, 2014

hands-on urbanism: how to make a difference

Brigitte Shim of Toronto’s ShimSutcliffe Architects, Professor at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto, and Eero Saarinen Professor at Yale University, lectures at 7:00pm in Auditorium HA19 at Dalhousie University.

Jan Jongert lecture

Chris phillips lecture

February 27, 2014

March 5, 2014

Jan Jongert, cofounder of Superuse Studios in Rotterdam lectures at 6:30pm at Ryerson University’s Department of Architectural Science.

Chris Phillips of Vancouver-based landscape architecture firm Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg lectures at 6:00pm at the University of Calgary’s downtown campus.

80 Valleybrook Dr, Toronto, ON M3B 2S9

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DOWN BY THE WATER TEXT AND PHOTO

Suresh Perera

A MEANDERING WALKWAY BY QUEBEC-BRED ARTIST GEORGE TRAKAS DARES US TO DIP OUR TOES INTO NEW YORK CITY’S POLLUTED NEWTOWN CREEK.

Stacks of crushed cars, large anonymous industrial buildings, and warnings of untreated sewage being possibly released into the water blight Newtown Creek, one of New York City’s most polluted waterways. It is in such locations, often obscure and hidden from public view, that a significant reorientation of our post-industrial relationship to nature is taking place. The battle to regain a partnership with our environment may well begin in the architectural and artistic treatment of such desolate urban sites, and with landscape artists like George Trakas, originally from Quebec and who now maintains a studio in New York. Trakas explores our bodily relationship with natural surroundings and most often with bodies of water, such as in a walking path and habitable sculpture that descends towards the sea at the Louisiana Museum in Humlebaek, Denmark and at a fishing platform perched along the edge of the Hudson River in Beacon Point, New York. The $4.5-billion 25-year-long renovation of the Newtown Creek Water Treatment Plant by Ennead Architects included a hefty percent-for-art program that allowed for an involved collaboration with Trakas. Rather than create a singular formal gesture or piece

of sculpture, Trakas opted to craft a walkway. The quarter-mile ambulation begins at the end of an anonymous industrial street, marked by a large boulder and a series of stone benches that line the sidewalk. An understated bridge spans a small planted scent garden into a large concrete hollow, the curves recalling the hull of a boat, then onto a raised concrete walkway which snakes across a series of industrial areas. The assault of loud noise on one side is mitigated by high concrete walls, and the other side opens to offer glimpses of the mechanized landscape beyond. This sheltered enclosed path spills open as it descends to meet the constricted concrete banks of Newtown Creek and then meanders alongside the water, amongst rocks and plants, ending with views of the elegant aluminum-clad onion domes of the wastewater treatment plant on the opposite bank. Going beyond a standard waterside walk, Trakas delves deeper into our collective memory, making reference to historic periods, events and people that passed through this site, and to the once native flora and fauna. Plaques identifying indigenous plants, etched native place names and maps enhance the experience for those moving through industrially and nautically inspired shapes

ABOVE The Newtown Creek Water Treatment Plant in New York by Ennead Architects sits opposite a sculptural walkway by landscape artist George Trakas.

and spaces. Taken at face value, these gestures may appear simple in their desire to educate us—but their real significance lies in pointing us to our present moment, in all its messy complexities. The coup de grâce of the piece occurs in a series of concrete steps that descend into the polluted waters, daring us to come face to face with our waste. We do not just walk along the water, we are invited to physically enter into it, to understand that our path is inextricably connected to its own. We cannot help but feel melancholic staring into nature deflowered. With the soft and subtle gestures of Trakas’s installation, one of the oldest reasons for the existence of art emerges: the contemplation of nature and our place within it. In the hazy distance, across this seemingly forgotten industrial backbone of our existence, the jumbled collection of architectural ambitions that comprise the Manhattan skyline can be seen. Perhaps there is something profound to be learned from Trakas’s disarmingly simple poetic gesture of taking us down by the water. Suresh Perera is an architect with a studio in Montreal focusing on small buildings, installations and exhibitions.

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