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F LY N N G R O U P O F C O M PA N I E S
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THE BERGERON CENTRE FOR ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE YORK UNIVERSITY
Toronto, ON
Total Building Envelope Contractor: Flynn Group of Companies. Glazing: Custom Bespoke System, designed in-house by Flynn design engineers Cladding: Flynn Accumet – Feature exterior undulating triangular rain-screen panel system, integrated with undulating custom triangular aluminum welded pod framing, and glazing elements. Roof: Flynn Roofing and Green Roofing The complex geometry and complicated interfaces on this project predominantly demanded thinking outside the box, and the expertise of Flynn’s Design Team. The team met all the necessary requirements; a cladding contractor with technical expertise, experience, and resources to overcome the challenges of this landmark project. The new facility, which is due to open its doors in September 2015, is well on the way from being transformed from vision to reality. For more information, please visit www.flynncompanies.com Images reproduced by the kind permission of ZAS Architects & York University
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BRUCE WRIGHT, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, JULY 1956
LASZLO BUDAY, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, OCTOBER 1966
CANADIAN ARCHITECT: 60 YEARS
15 SIXTY YEARS OF CANADIAN ARCHITECT A look back at the highlights of six decades of architecture in Canada.
30 BOOM-TIME BEGINNINGS
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CANADIAN ARCHITECT
AUGUST 2015
8 NEWS
MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects unveil design of Beaverbrook Art Gallery expansion; DX Emerging Designer Competition open for submissions.
38 REPORT
Douglas MacLeod presents hard data on architects’ salaries over the past 60 years, and offers some explanation as to why we’ve not kept up with other professions.
41 CALENDAR
Material Future: The Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron and the Vancouver Art Gallery continues in Vancouver; International Conference on Civil and Architectural Engineering in Ottawa.
42 LOOKING BACK
The vast contributions of landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander to her profession and her adopted country are detailed by Susan Herrington.
discussion of the national and cultural context of 1955 sheds light on the A beginnings of The Canadian Architect , as it was then known. TEXT Sharon Vattay
34 EXPO 67
PANDA ASSOCIATES, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, MAY 1978
n exploration of why, almost 50 years ago, so few pages of this magazine were A dedicated to Expo 67, arguably the single most prominent event of world architecture at the time. TEXT Inderbir Singh Riar
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V.60 N.08 THE NATIONAL REVIEW OF DESIGN AND PRACTICE/THE JOURNAL OF RECORD OF THE RAIC
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VIEWPOINT REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT YEARBOOK, 1969
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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 REGINA BERNARD FLAMAN, SAA MONTREAL DAVID THEODORE CALGARY GRAHAM LIVESEY, MRAIC WINNIPEG LISA LANDRUM, MAA, AIA, MRAIC VANCOUVER ADELE WEDER
The jury for the 1969 Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence, from left to right: Victor Prus of Montreal, founding editor James Murray, associate editor Patricia Gillespie, managing editor Robert Gretton and Jerome Markson of Toronto.
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PUBLISHER TOM ARKELL 416-510-6806 ACCOUNT MANAGER FARIA AHMED 416-510-6808 CIRCULATION MANAGER BEATA OLECHNOWICZ 416-442-5600 EXT. 3543
CELEBRATING 60 YEARS
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Sixty years ago, The Canadian Architect first appeared on newsstands. The magazine, wrote founding editor James Murray, aimed to contribute in two ways: “first, the provision of a means of communication for Canadian architecture, by reporting and publishing its best executed and proposed achievements; second, the provision of a forum for the play of ideas and beliefs which constitute the philosophy and technique of architecture.” These two roles—the publishing of exemplary works and the discussion of architectural ideas—have formed the bedrock of the magazine ever since. Scanning through the formidable run of back issues, one is struck by the cyclical nature of architectural production. The stripped-down look of Mid-Century Modernist structures, all slim steel lines and clean glass planes, is making a comeback. The avant-garde experimental structures of Expo 67 would not have been out of place in the ensuing decades. The fine concrete work common in Brutalist buildings is much admired by architects today. Architectural practice, it seems, also goes in cycles. The profession has gone up and down with the economy, an ebb and flow that shows in the magazine’s varying thickness. Concerns about the business of architecture date back decades. An early feature counsels young solo practitioners to rely on their wives for help with accounting. The Developer Proposal System, introduced for the construction of university residences in the 1960s, shares similarities with today’s P3 procurement method. Then, as now, architects reacted with outrage at a system seemingly geared towards eliciting the lowest price rather than the highest quality. Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of my stroll through the archives has been the numerous en-
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counters with familiar faces. Jack Diamond, FRAIC, wrote reviews 45 years ago that evidenced his passion for city-making—in one case getting into a heated exchange with Moshe Safdie, FRAIC. Raymond Moriyama FRAIC, Clifford Wiens, John and Patricia Patkau FRAIC, Shim-Sutcliffe, Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg and many others cut their teeth with major commissions spotlighted in The Canadian Architect. The worlds of architectural ideas and architectural practice are inextricably linked. For decades, leading practitioners Macy DuBois, Ron Thom and Peter Hemingway were frequent contributors to the magazine, expounding their design philosophies on one hand, and frankly critiquing the work of colleagues on the other. Throughout the ’70s, a column called “Voice” provided a forum “for readers to freely express views on all matters related to architecture.” The resulting essays, by practitioners such as Ray Affleck, Joseph Baker FIRAC, and Arthur Erickson, provide a fascinating cross-section of views on education, procurement, urban politics, and above all, the importance of good design. What comes through again and again is the Member of passion of architects. Canadian architects care deeply for making places that contribute to people’s lives. They are fervent advocates for strong, vibrant communities. They are fighters, battling for their vision of a more humane environment, one building and one corner detail at a time. They believe that their work, whether a humble cottage or a monumental megastructure, adds beauty and order to the world. It’s been 60 years, and—thank goodness— some things haven’t changed.
Inc.
Elsa Lam
ART DIRECTOR LISA ZAMBRI PRESIDENT OF ANNEX-NEWCOM LP ALEX PAPANOU HEAD OFFICE 80 VALLEYBROOK DRIVE, TORONTO, ON M3B 2S9 TELEPHONE 416-510-6845 FACSIMILE 416-510-5140 E-MAIL elam@canadianarchitect.com WEBSITE www.canadianarchitect.com Canadian Architect is published monthly by Annex-Newcom LP. The editors have made every reasonable effort to provide accurate and authoritative information, but they assume no liability for the accuracy or completeness of the text, or its fitness for any particular purpose. Subscription Rates Canada: $54.95 plus applicable taxes for one year; $87.95 plus applicable taxes for two years (HST – #81538 0985 RT0001). Price per single copy: $6.95. Students (prepaid with student ID, includes taxes): $34.97 for one year. USA: $105.95 US for one year. All other foreign: $125.95 US per year. Single copy US and foreign: $10.00 US. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Circulation Dept., Canadian Architect, 80 Valleybrook Drive, Toronto, ON Canada M3B 2S9. Postmaster: please forward forms 29B and 67B to 80 Valleybrook Drive, Toronto, ON Canada M3B 2S9. Printed in Canada. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced either in part or in full without the consent of the copyright owner. From time to time we make our subscription list available to select companies and organizations whose product or service may interest you. If you do not wish your contact information to be made available, please contact us via one of the following methods: Telephone 1-800-668-2374 Facsimile 416-442-2191 E-mail vmoore@annexnewcom.ca Mail Privacy Officer, 80 Valleybrook Drive, Toronto, ON Canada M3B 2S9 MEMBER OF THE CANADIAN BUSINESS PRESS MEMBER OF THE ALLIANCE FOR AUDITED MEDIA PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT #43005526 ISSN 1923-3353 (ONLINE) ISSN 0008-2872 (PRINT)
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NEWS through a plethora of sustainability initiatives.
www.kpmb.com/index.asp?navid=30&fid1=51&fid2=121&f id3=32&minyearx=&maxyearx=
Queens Quay waterfront boulevard opens after three-year revitalization period.
MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects’ plan for the expansion of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton will house two levels of programming space including up to four new galleries, a multipurpose theatre, an artist-in-residence studio and a café.
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PROJECTS MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects unveil the design of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery expansion.
Halifax-based MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects (MLSA) recently unveiled plans for a major expansion of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The Gallery’s Phase 2 expansion will create a landmark example of contemporary architecture in Atlantic Canada through MLSA’s powerfully elegant addition. With an area of approximately 14,000 square feet, it is designed to engage the public, capture the unparalleled beauty of its environment, and provide stellar exhibition, education and public areas. As a highly visible public symbol of the expansion of the Gallery, the sweeping and transformative new Dorchester stone pavilion will house two levels of programming space including up to four new galleries, an artist-in-residence studio, a multipurpose theatre, and a café. Representing a historic and enduring legacy to the people of New Brunswick and Canada, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery will be treated as a place of civic pride, a site-specific design culturally investing in the city centre. The new Gallery establishes a relationship between itself and the surrounding public spaces by creating integrated outdoor spaces and opening up the interior volumes through the use of extensive glazing. www.beaverbrookartgallery.org/campaign/en/about
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Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre at the University of British Columbia opens.
Designed by KPMB Architects in joint venture with Hughes Condon Marler, the Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre at the University of British Columbia recently opened, the latest addition to the rapidly expanding Vancouver campus. The three-storey glazed pavilion building is designed to contribute to streetlevel vitality while creating a signature building for the University, along with past, present and future alumni. Totalling 41,335 square feet, the Alumni Centre includes a lounge and hospitality space, meeting spaces, a library, an Achievement Lounge for 40, learning facilities, meeting spaces, and an upscale café. The second floor houses a celebration space that accommodates dinners for 300. Open and transparent at grade with views through from University Boulevard to the knoll and University Square beyond, the Centre animates this primary location on UBC’s East Mall. The upper two floors are clad in a seamless white frit glass wrapper that references the white brick Modernist buildings typical of the UBC campus. The sleek pristine exterior contrasts with the warmth of rough-sawn western red cedar that clads the soffit, interior ceilings of public spaces, and the building’s dramatic feature stair that connects all floors. The design achieves goals for signature architecture within a limited construction budget of $12.8 million, and aims to achieve LEED Gold certification
After three years of construction, Toronto’s revitalized waterfront boulevard is open—on schedule and in time for the Pan Am and Parapan Am Games. Once a street that featured poor design, insufficient room for pedestrians, and aging infrastructure, Queens Quay has been transformed into a beautiful boulevard that includes a separated TTC right-ofway, a new section of the Martin Goodman Trail that connects the downtown waterfront, and an enlarged pedestrian promenade that reflects the central waterfront’s importance as the second-most visited area of the city. Under the street, key infrastructure has been replaced or upgraded, including power, gas, water, sewage and telecommunications systems. Designed by Dutch firm West8 and Toronto-based DTAH, the new Queens Quay was developed after an international design competition and an extensive environmental assessment process that were aimed at enhancing the area’s appeal as Toronto’s prime waterfront destination. Years of public consultation have resulted in a design that directly reflects the needs and dreams of those who live, work and play here. The Queens Quay revitalization project budget of $128.9 million was funded by the following: City of Toronto with $65.2 million, Province of Ontario with $14.5 million, Government of Canada with $13.4 million, and Waterfront Toronto with $35.7 million. www.waterfrontoronto.ca
Toronto Public Library’s Scarborough Civic Centre Branch opens.
The Scarborough Civic Centre Branch, the 100th for the Toronto Public Library, demonstrates what a library can be in the 21st century. Technologically adaptable, celebrating design, and welcoming to an ever-growing and diverse population, the branch transcends its primary role as a local community hub and acts as a point of pride for the city at large. The library unfurls at the southern side of the Scarborough Civic Centre, an icon of soaring white shapes designed in 1973 by Moriyama & Teshima. Like the juxtaposition of the sheer cliffs and horizontal shoreline of the nearby Scarborough Bluffs, the new structure contrasts the Civic Centre’s vertical faces with its low, sprawling roof bands. Designed by a team comprised of LGA Architectural Partners,
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Phillip H. Carter Architect and Scott Torrance Landscape Architect, the architecture was conceived to create a green respite within the immediate heavily urban context. The library’s strategic position at the south end of the Civic Centre further animates the surroundings by creating several distinct zones and connections. Four green roofs feature local vegatation, and in warmer months, the courtyard adjacent to the children’s area provides a furtive nook for young minds. To ensure maximum flexibility (as well as barrier-free accessibility), the open-concept 14,500-square-foot branch rests all on one floor. All tables and stacks are on wheels for easy reorganization. The raised podium floor has a grid of moveable electrical and data connections that can be rearranged as needed. Even the two separate rooms adjacent to the central hall—the innovation hub (with 3D printer) and the multipurpose room—are portioned with glass walls to allow for visual continuity. Although the stacks are currently arranged by age, they all ring a central gathering space and are in close proximity to one another. That way, serendipitous meetings can occur between different demographics, and the space can help bring the community closer together. http://lga-ap.com/project/libraries/tplscarborough
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AWARDS Nominations open for the Edmonton Urban Design Awards.
The City of Edmonton and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Edmonton Chapter have teamed up once again to present the Edmonton Urban Design Awards, which recognize outstanding urban design in Edmonton. The eight categories are: implemented urban design plans, urban architecture, civic design projects, urban fragments, communitybased projects, student projects, heritage development, and implemented residential infill. Categories are open to submissions from architects, landscape architects, artists, designers, building owners and developers that have contributed to enhancing the quality of life in Edmonton through high-quality urban design projects. Submissions will be accepted until September 25, 2015.
ents of the Lieutenant Governor’s Design Awards in Architecture. In its official comments and report, the awards jury cited that “transformation” was the theme which pervaded this year’s awarded projects. Of the 13 projects entered for consideration, five projects were honoured this year. An Award of Merit recognized the Halifax Central Library by Fowler Bauld & Mitchell Ltd. in collaboration with Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects. Three Citations in Architectural Design were given to: King Street Live/Work/Grow by Susan Fitzgerald Architect; Keith Hall by GF Duffus and Company Limited; and Bump House #1 by Abbott Brown Architects Incorporated. And lastly, an Honourable Mention distinguished the Hawthorne Renovation by Rayleen Hill Architecture + Design Inc.
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www.nsaa.ns.ca/awards/
Winners of the 2015 CISC Alberta Steel Design Awards revealed.
www.edmonton.ca/urbandesignawards
Recipients of 2014 Nova Scotia Lieutenant Governor Design Awards announced.
The Nova Scotia Association of Architects (NSAA) recently announced the 2014 recipi-
The 2015 Alberta Steel Design Awards of Excellence are held every other year to promote the structural steel industry within Alberta and across Canada, recognizing exceptional skill and ingenuity in steel design and the innovative use of steel in addressing a variety of
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NEWS construction challenges. The 2015 awards drew 28 submissions, from which six winners were chosen. The Mosaic Centre in Edmonton by Manasc Isaac Architects won the 2015 Collaboration Award, which recognizes a project team who demonstrates “value added” to the project through collaborative project-delivery approaches throughout the design and/or construction process. The 2015 Architecture Award, which honours steel structures in which architectural considerations predominantly influence the design—particularly those with exposed steelwork—was won by the Physical Activity and Wellness Centre at the University of Alberta in Edmonton by Group2 Architecture Interior Design Ltd. The Peace Wapiti Academy in Grande Prairie by Group2 Architecture Interior Design Ltd. won the 2015 Building Communities Award, which recognizes steel structures created as part of a community development project with a focus on serving community needs. The winner of the 2015 Engineering Award was DIALOG’s Edmonton International Airport—Combined Office and Control Tower, which was noted as a steel structure in which engineering considerations and the efficient use of steel in unique applications are the predominant factor. The Jeanne & Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre in Edmonton by BR2 Architecture won the 2015 Sustainability Award, recognizing a steel structure in which steel has been used or reused as part of a sustainable development project that aims to improve environmental impact of the structure by using innovative practices, standards and technologies. And finally, the Glacier Skywalk in Jasper by Sturgess Architecture took the 2015 Steel Edge Award, an open category demonstrating excellence in the application of steel design, fabrication, detailing or finishing. www.cisc-icca.ca/awards/albertaawards
Winners of the 2015 OLA Library Building Award announced.
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Additions, renovations, restorations and interior redesigns are just a few of the aspects that winners of the 2015 Ontario Library Association (OLA) Library Building Award were judged upon. The OLA has announced the recipients of the distinguished award, which focused on library architectural and design transformation. The four winning projects are as follows: Ottawa Public Library, Beaverbrook Branch by Moriyama & Teshima Architects; Kitchener Public Library, Central Branch by LGA Architectural Partners; Carleton University, MacOdrum Library by Diamond Schmitt Architects; and Toronto Public Library, Mount Dennis Branch by G. Bruce Stratton Architects. The OLA Library Building Award encourages and showcases excellence in the architectural design and planning of libraries in Ontario. The Award is divided into two alternating categories (Library Architectural and Design Transformation, and New Library Buildings) and runs every third year to allow a critical number of projects in all types of libraries to accumulate. Through their partnerships with architectural firms, the award recipients have created wonderful multi-functional library buildings that serve the needs of their communities and organizations. www.accessola.org/web/Documents/OLA/About/2015/OLA-2015-Building-Awards. pdf
Three Canadian projects honoured in the 2015 R+D Awards.
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Nine risk-taking projects, products and technologies were recognized by a distinguished three-person jury in this year’s R+D Awards program, including three Canadian design projects: Bar Raval by Partisans won an Award, and the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum by Teeple Architects and Queen Richmond Centre West by Sweeny
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NEWS
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Fire-Rated Aluminum Window And Door Systems The Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum in Wembley, Alberta by Teeple Architects won a Citation in the 2015 R+D Awards. ABOVE
&Co Architects both won Citations. From 120 submissions, the final nine teams were selected for blazing trails in the built environment, with little more than conviction as their guide. The other six projects recognized include: Pulp Pavilion by Ball-Nogues Studio, Pure Tension Pavilion by Synthesis Design + Architecture, Bands by Eric Owen Moss Architects, Breathe Brick by Both Landscape and Architecture, Co-Robotics and Construction: OSCR 1–4 Prototypes by Rust Belt Robotics Group, and Radical Railbanking by Master of None. The jury was comprised of Marc Fornes; Joyce Hwang, AIA; and Steven Rainville, AIA.
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COMPETITIONS DX Emerging Designer Competition.
The Design Exchange’s Emerging Designer Competition is now accepting submissions from designers 18-35 years old. From digital, interior and graphic design to architecture and fashion design, the national competition seeks to provide an electrifying opportunity for developing Canadian talent to garner recognition and exposure while celebrating diverse disciplines of design in Canada. The 2015 Emerging Designer Competition jury is a power-player roster of nationally renowned design and business minds: Andrea Lenczner and Christie Smythe of Smythe; architecture guru Kim Herforth Nielsen, co-founder of Copenhagen’s 3XN; Facebook’s Jordan Banks, Global Head of Vertical Strategy; digital design mastermind AnneElisabeth Thibault, a producer at Montreal multimedia studio Moment Factory; Allan Guinan, principal at multidisciplinary design firm Figure3; Paul Rowan, founding partner of Umbra; and Frontier founder and creative director Paddy Harrington. The entry deadline is midnight on August 15, 2015. www.dx.org/index.cfm?id=47868
Treehousing International Wood Design Competition.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and DBR | Design Build Research School are now seeking entries for Treehousing, an international wood design competition. Housing for the world’s growing urban population and the threat of deforestation are two of the most significant issues facing humanity today. Treehousing challenges architecture students, professional architects and designers to develop innovative wood housing and urban building
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NEWS solutions through two distinct open competitions: Treehousing Durban | Tall Wood Housing and Treehousing Global | Affordable Wood Housing. The registration deadline is August 15, 2015 and all submissions are due August 31, 2015 at 5:00pm CET. Winners will be selected by an international jury and announced on September 10, 2015 at the XIV World Forestry Congress in Durban, South Africa. A grand prize of $6,000 US will be awarded in each category, in addition to second and student prizes. This ideas competition is sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and coordinated by DBR | Design Build Research School. www.treehousing-competition.com
Ideas competition for a Center for Architecture, Design and Education in Chicago.
The Chicago Architecture Foundation (CAF) recently launched its first ideas competition for a Center for Architecture, Design and Education (CADE). Competitors will propose a facility that includes the new headquarters, visitor center and exhibition spaces of the Chicago Architecture Foundation; a new headquarters for the Council on Tall Buildings and
Urban Habitat (CTBUH); a design and allied arts high school; and flexible learning spaces for out-of-school-time youth programs. As CAF approaches its 50-year anniversary, with a reach of 600,000 visitors annually, the organization is looking to its next opportunity for growth. The jury is comprised of: Stanley Tigerman, Tigerman McCurry Architects; David Adjaye, Adjaye Associates; Monica Ponce De Leon, MPdL Studio; Billie Tsien, Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects; and Ned Cramer, Editor-in-Chief of Architect magazine. A student committee comprised of Chicago Public High School students will review a shortlist of submissions, selected by the jury, and identify a winner for the Student Committee Prize. In conjunction with the competition, CAF will host a major exhibition running from October 1, 2015 to January 3, 2016 featuring a shortlist of submissions during the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial. Selection criteria include: originality of the proposal’s design vision, responsiveness of the proposal to the competition’s objectives, responsiveness of the proposal to the site and context, and quality and clarity of presentation materials. First prize is $10,000; second prize is $5,000; and third prize is $2,500. The jury
may also award an unspecified number of honourable mentions, which do not carry a cash prize. The student committee will award a cash prize of $1,000. Late registration closes on August 19, 2015 and competition submissions are due by September 9, 2015. www.chidesigncompetition.org
Duravit launches third annual North American Designer Dream Bath Competition.
For its third year, Duravit’s annual Designer Dream Bath Competition will include category options for both built and unbuilt projects. The North American competition, which for the last two years has encouraged architects and designers to imagine their dream bath with a selection of new Duravit products, will now allow those who have used Duravit throughout 2014-15 to share their work too. In the dream bath category, participants are asked to use their personal bathrooms as a basis for their design and imagine their ideal bath space using Duravit’s latest collections: Cape Cod, ME by Starck, and L-Cube. Entrants then submit a sketch or rendering illustrating the potential transformation using the selected Duravit products. The winner in this category will be
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awarded the Duravit items used in his or her dream project up to a value of $10,000, and professional photography after the project is complete. For the built project category, participants may submit a project completed in the last year that features Duravit products. The architect or designer of the winning built project will receive their choice of Duravit products up to a value of $5,000 to use in the future. The competition closes for entries on September 25, 2015, and the winner will be announced during Duravit Design Week, which runs from October 5-7, 2015 at Duravit’s New York City showroom. www.duravit.us/competition
WHAT’S NEW
and curated exhibitions, featuring the work of nearly 400 designers and artists. Independently produced events, exhibitions and window installations are integral to the Festival’s structure. All are welcome who want to present, discuss, demonstrate, or exhibit design in any field and/or related disciplines. Exhibitors can include academic and cultural institutions, design businesses, independent designers and students. Exhibitors are responsible for arranging their own venue in the city of Toronto, including spaces such as galleries, studios, workshops, cafés, schools, cinemas and businesses. The early registration deadline is August 31, 2015, followed by the final registration deadline of October 2, 2015. The content deadline is October 16, 2015. http://todesignoffsite.com/2016-festival-registration/
2016 Toronto Design Offsite Festival registration now open.
Taking place from January 18-24, 2016, the Toronto Design Offsite Festival (TO DO) is an annual city-wide platform for the exhibition and engagement of design in Toronto. Last year, 78 different public events and exhibitions were on offer, from workshops to experimental installations to prototypes to design parties
2015 Top Ten Endangered Places and Worst Losses List released.
The Top Ten Endangered Places List is released annually to bring national attention to sites at risk due to neglect, lack of funding, inappropriate development and weak legislation. From unique 19th-century landmarks to simple vernacular housing, stone railway stations
to Modernist airports, heritage districts to single buildings, the list has become a powerful tool in the fight to make landmarks, not landfill. The National Trust uses three primary criteria to determine the 10 final sites for inclusion on the list: significance of the site; urgency of the threat/potential for a positive and creative solution; and evidence of active community support on the ground for its preservation. The selection included in the 12th annual Top Ten Endangered Places List and Worst Losses List is as follows: Point Grey Secondary School, 5350 East Boulevard, Vancouver, BC; Peace River Valley, Northeastern BC; East Coulee Truss Bridge, Atlas Coal Mine NHS, East Coulee, Alberta; Our Lady of Assumption Church, 350 Huron Church Road, Windsor, Ontario: Barber Paper Mill, 99 River Drive, Halton Hills, Georgetown, Ontario; Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Ontario; Hôpital de la Miséricorde, 840-890 René Levesque Boulevard East, Montreal, Quebec; Quebec Bridge, St. Lawrence River, linking the cities of Quebec and Lévis, Quebec; Sackville United Church, 112 Main Street, Sackville, New Brunswick; and Belcourt Spirituality Centre, Rustico, PEI.
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Fallingwater®, Kaufmann Residence, Mill Run, Pa., c. 1936 Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright Conservator: Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
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Image of Fallingwater is used with express consent of Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. PPG is a proud sponsor of Fallingwater/Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.
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SIXTY YEARS
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IN CELEBRATION OF OUR ANNIVERSARY, WE COMBED THROUGH THE MAGAZINE’S ARCHIVES FOR HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PAST SIX DECADES. HERE’S WHAT WE FOUND.
ARTHUR JAMES, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, DECEMBER 1965
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MICHAEL SNOW, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, JULY 1959
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ROGER KERKHAM, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, APRIL 1957
ROGER KERKHAM, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, APRIL 1957
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3, 4— In Vancouver, Thompson, Berwick & Pratt’s BC Electric Building stunned a city just waking up to Modernism. Its tapered exterior lines—wrapped in a glass, porcelain and aluminum curtain-wall construction—were matched inside with diamond-patterned mosaics by artist B.C. Binning. 5— Like the architects of the era, The Canadian Architect was keen to engage with the allied arts. The magazine regularly interviewed contemporary artists and commissioned cover art from them, including a series of graphics by Michael Snow.
BRUCE WRIGHT, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1956
1— Material exploration motivated architects working on residential projects, such as in Victor Prus’s house in Westmount, Quebec—a simple box made exquisite by a light-as-air roof, bricks laid at 90 degrees, and elegant vertical louvres. 2— In its second issue, The Canadian Architect reported on the permanent theatre being constructed in Stratford, Ontario by Toronto architects Rounthwaite and Fairfield. The structure’s zigzag conical roof, framed in steel and finished in copper, aimed to preserve the event’s carnival character as much as it hoped to embody the spirit of International Style modern architecture.
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JOHN FULKER, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, JANUARY 1966
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JOHN REEVES AND STAFF, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, MAY 1966
REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, DECEMBER 1967
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ROGER JOWETT, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, FEBRUARY 1964
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1— Throughout the 1960s, Canada was a global leader in thinking big with architecture. Case in point: Trent University’s Champlain College, conceived by Ron Thom as a total work of art. The design comprised all scales, from the master plan of pergola-linked buildings to bespoke lounge chairs and chandeliers. The project was completed in partnership with Thompson, Berwick & Pratt. 2— Toronto International Airport’s state-of-the-art Aeroquay One combined parking, ticketing and passenger concourses in a single structure ringed by runways. The building was completed by the stellar partnership of John C. Parkin and John B. Parkin (no relation), whose firm built many of Canada’s modern icons. The Aeroquay ceased operations in 2004 and has since been demolished. 3— Arthur Erickson and Geoffrey Massey’s competition-winning design for Simon Fraser University crowns Burnaby mountain with a series of bold horizontal volumes. A space frame tops the central plaza, protecting students from Vancouver’s rainy weather. 4— For Scarborough College (later University of Toronto, Scarborough Campus), John Andrews with Page & Steele created a monumental building that rises from a natural ridge above the Rouge Valley. Two wings—one for the sciences and one for the humanities—meet in a four-storey-high atrium, a metaphoric town square that remains a focal point for campus life.
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1— The first stations in Montreal’s stunning Metro system were completed for Expo 67, but the subway system’s legacy of architectural innovation continued on. LaSalle station, by Gillon et Larouche, captured a 1976 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence for its “marvellous cross-section” and “blending of architecture, sculpture and painting.” 2— Adjacent to Edmonton’s main civic square, the Citadel Theatre includes a series of lobbies that make strong visual and physical connections to the street, inviting “to and fro traffic” to weave among the theatre spaces. The project was completed by Barton Myers Associates with R.L. Wilkin Architect. 3— Gustavo da Roza and the Number TEN Architectural Group’s monumental Winnipeg Art Gallery opened in 1971. Its striking triangular shape was seen as symbolizing Winnipeg’s dynamism as a progressive locale for culture. 4— Completed by the Zeidler Partnership in collaboration with Bregman + Hamann Architects, the Eaton Centre features a glass-roofed galleria that aimed to revitalize a dilapidated stretch of Yonge Street in downtown Toronto. “Judging from the great numbers of people who visit it weekly,” wrote Eberhard Zeidler, “it has found acceptance in the heart of Torontonians, and will be loved and hated with the same vigour that is attached to all vital buildings.”
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ERNEST MAYER, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, JULY 1972
JOHN FULKER, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, JULY 1977
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ART JAMES, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, NOVEMBER 1979
REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, NOVEMBER 1979
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IAN SAMPSON. REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, JUNE 1987
MALAK, OTTAWA. REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, NOVEMBER 1989
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ART JAMES, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, JUNE 1988
FIONA SPALDING-SMITH. REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, APRIL 1984
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1— Douglas Cardinal completed the sinuous Canadian Museum of Civilization with Tétreault, Parent, Languedoc et Associés. “Architects have often dreaded that the invasion of the computer will lead to uniformity in building form,” wrote historian Martin Bressani. “Cardinal has shown that the opposite can also be true.” 2— A landmark for urban infill and adaptive reuse, Maison Alcan retains several existing buildings along Montreal’s Sherbrooke Street and marries them to a bronzetinted office building. ARCOP’s design also includes a generous atrium with bridges and passageways that link between the structures. 3— The winner of a high-profile design competition, Edward Jones and Michael Kirkland’s Mississauga City Hall embraced the Postmodern ethos of its day. 4— Moshe Safdie’s National Gallery of Canada, completed in collaboration with the Parkin Partnership, is one of the most important cultural buildings of the decade. It features a grand entry up a light-filled ramp, culminating in the multi-domed Great Hall.
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RODERICK CHEN, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, OCTOBER 1992
JAMES DOW, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, JANUARY 1992
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1, 2— Patkau Architects’ school design for the Seabird Island Band offered a bold new vision of contemporary architecture on First Nations reserves. The plan is organized to foster close interaction between the school and community, and the structure draws on traditional Northwest Pacific post-and-beam construction techniques. 3— The graceful Kitchener City Hall resulted from an open competition won by thenemerging firm Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects. Historian Kenneth Frampton praised the project for exhibiting “contextual responsiveness, tectonic depth and civic pride.” 4— The Pointe-à-Callière archaeological museum in Montreal by Dan S. Hanganu and Provencher_Roy artfully layers a 20th-century complex over top of an excavation site. “By virtue of program, location and finesse,” wrote critic Trevor Boddy, “the project will cement the reputation of Dan S. Hanganu as one of Canada’s finest design firms.” 5— Resisting the commercial development that has dominated many of Canada’s waterfront areas, Montreal’s Old Port area was redeveloped to prioritize public space and institutions. The master plan was created by Cardinal Hardy, Peter Rose and JLP et associés, and includes promenades, parks and pavilions.
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DENIS FARLEY, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, AUGUST 1994
STEVEN EVANS, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, JULY 1994
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SHAI GIL, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, MARCH 2008
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NIC LEHOUX, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, AUGUST 2002
NIC LEHOUX, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, MARCH 2007
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TOM ARBAN, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, SEPTEMBER 2005
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1— The Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre by Hotson Bakker Boniface Haden Architects is part of a larger economic development strategy for the the Osoyoos Indian Reserve. The centre’s rammed earth walls literally and symbolically embody the unique qualities of the local landscape, with their striated appearance mirroring the sandy layers of the surrounding sun-drenched desert. 2— Designed by Moriyama & Teshima Architects in joint venture with Griffiths Rankin Cook Architects, the Canadian War Museum joins a necklace of national institutions along the Ottawa River’s banks. The design is marked by several spatially rich moments, including a soaring hall displaying Walter Allward’s plaster maquettes for the Vimy Ridge Monument. 3— Built on a modest budget, Teeple Architects’ dramatic Scarborough Baptist Church sets an example for how suburban architecture could be specific and sensitive to its site. The project garnered a Governor General’s Award—one of two awarded to Teeple Architects in 2008. 4— Busby + Associates Architects developed their leadership in eco-tech architecture with projects such as the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology. Its sensitive siting around a courtyard optimizes solar heat gain in winter, while the atrium is configured to allow for passive ventilation during summer months.
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MARC CRAMER, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, SEPTEMBER 2013
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JAMES DOW, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, FEBRUARY 2010
BENT RENÉ SYNNEVÅG, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, JUNE 2012
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1— Fogo Island, Newfoundland, made architectural headlines worldwide with the completion of a series of sculpturally compelling artists’ studios by Saunders Architecture in association with Sheppard Case Architects. The project, commissioned by the Shorefast Foundation, also includes a worldclass inn. The social enterprise aims to reinvigorate the local economy, giving a younger generation a reason to stay on the Island. 2— In one of the most ambitious designs of the decade so far, a simple envelope opens to reveal a complex faceted composition by Saucier + Perrotte Architectes with HCMA. The building houses the University of British Columbia Columbia’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and includes lab spaces for the Centre for Drug Research and Development. 3— Integral House, commissioned by the late mathematician and violinist James Stewart, is a dynamic composition of curvilinear geometric volumes that cascade down a Toronto ravine. The masterful house by ShimSutcliffe Architects doubles as a concert room for intimate performances. 4— The mixed-use redevelopment of the Woodward’s site, by Henriquez Partners Architects, includes market housing, affordable housing, commerical units, and an addition to Simon Fraser University’s downtown campus. The project has been an important catalyst in the ongoing evolution of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
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BOB MATHESON, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, NOVEMBER 2011
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(Pho
2015 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE Canadian Architect invites architects registered in Canada and architectural graduates to enter the magazine’s 2015 Awards of Excellence. Projects must be in the design stage, scheduled for construction or under construction but not substantially complete by September 25, 2015. All projects must be commissioned by a client with the intention to build the submitted proposal. All building types and concisely presented urban design schemes are eligible. Awards are given for architectural design excellence. Jurors will consider the scheme's response to the client's program, site, and geographic and social context. They will evaluate its physical organization, form, structure, materials and environmental features. Winners will be published in a special issue of Canadian Architect in December 2015. 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 25MB. For more information and to submit, please visit www.canadianarchitect.com/awards/submit/
Early-Bird Deadline: September 4, 2015 ($115 entry fee) Regular Deadline: September 25, 2015 ($150 entry fee)
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(Photo credit: Stephane Groleau)
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PANDA ASSOCIATES, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1955
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BOOM-TIME BEGINNINGS ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIAN SHARON VATTAY PAGES THROUGH THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT’S FIRST 12 ISSUES AND FINDS A COUNTRY HEADY WITH PROGRESSIVE INTERNATIONAL CONSTRUCTION TRENDS. TEXT
Sharon Vattay
At the mid-point of the 20th century, prosperity and postwar optimism coupled with a growing population fuelled an unparalleled construction boom in Canada. The tally of contracts awarded in 1955 amounted to the biggest construction year in Canadian history. At the same time, the desire to foster a distinctive Canadian culture was validated by the Royal Commission on the Arts, Letters and Sciences, established by Vincent Massey, the country’s first Canadian-born Governor General. It was in this period of social, economic and cultural transformation that The Canadian Architect was launched. The motivation for introducing a new architectural journal was explained in a short editorial simply titled “Why” in the premier issue. Founding editor and architect James A. Murray noted an anxiety that increased construction could very well be detrimental to the art of architecture. Murray vividly described the cause for concern—in terms only a mid-
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century editor in a male-dominated profession could: “[Construction] booms, with manic haste and rising costs, are notoriously destructive of good building, and an additional contemplative mirror may be particularly relevant when the pregnant conditions of our Mother of the Arts may have prejudiced her figure.” Murray’s “additional contemplative mirror” referred to the RAIC Journal, then in its 30th year of publication. The Canadian Architect was to perform a different function than the RAIC Journal, which was slightly more international in scope. Both, however, would act as sounding boards to critical debate, reviewing recent projects and participating in architecture’s general discourse in order to allow for introspection among professional architects. The magazine’s inaugural November/December 1955 issue, along with the subsequent 11 issues published over the course of 1956, provide
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PANDA ASSOCIATES, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1955
DRAWING BY GEORGE ROBB; PHOTOS BY THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1955
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OPPOSITE The cover of The Canadian Architect ’s first issue, showing the editorial offices of parent company Hugh C. MacLean Publications, designed by Weir & Cripps. ABOVE George Robb’s futuristic Shell Oil Tower for the Canadian National Exhibition grounds in Toronto was featured in the magazine’s inaugural issue.
a snapshot of Canadian architecture at mid-century. The content in that first year was by no means geographically comprehensive, focusing primarily on Ontario, followed far behind by British Columbia, with only a minimal amount of reporting on the built environment in Quebec, Alberta and the North. While the lack of balanced coverage was attributed to the size of the country, it was also due to the location of the magazine’s correspondents and contributing editors—by the end of the first year of publication, The Canadian Architect only had correspondents and editors in the major centres of Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. Geographic obstacles aside, The Canadian Architect’s coverage focused noticeably on presenting the advances in Modernism in this country. For decades, Canada had been in the architectural shadow of other countries, persistently derided for lagging behind contemporary stylistic developments. Architect John C. Parkin himself lamented that until as late as 1952 or 1953, Canada produced few noteworthy examples of contemporary architecture, with architects spending most of their time persuading and moulding the previously conservative public taste. But starting in earnest in the mid-1950s, that lag was no more. Architects had forged the way for cutting-edge Modernist designs. A variety of building types were represented in the magazine’s first year. Not surprisingly given the time period, automotive-age architecture
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dominated: urban services like parking garages and airports, and recreation facilities and buildings supporting leisure activities, such as hotels and motels. The first “comprehensive presentation” (a monthly in-depth presentation of a single building or project) featured the roadside Seaway Hotel in Toronto, designed by Ants Elken, an internationally trained architect who had immigrated to Canada in 1949. The article described how structural and architectural principles that had never before been used in Canada produced an externally expressed concrete frame in an egg-crate pattern. The resultant bold patterning of the balconies was specifically designed to a scale that would register to motorists zipping along Lake Shore Boulevard. The hotel’s boomerang-shaped concrete canopy raised on pilotis was typical of the futuristic sensibilities of Mid-Century Modernist architecture throughout North America. It is telling that a modestly scaled roadside hotel—one that we might now relegate to a lower rung on the ladder of architectural merit—would warrant pride of place in the inaugural issue of The Canadian Architect. Indeed, the Seaway Hotel was demolished in 2013 with little fanfare, but in its day, it was a winner of a Silver Massey Medal for Architecture. Similarly, other seemingly unassuming buildings were among the first reviewed. Architect Max Roth’s Steinberg’s Grocery Store in Sherbrooke, Quebec was included in the first issue with the headline “Architecture With a Punch.” The punch came from the strong visual impact of a
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PANDA ASSOCIATES, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1955
PANDA ASSOCIATES, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1955
REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1955
REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1955
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Two images of Steinberg’s grocery store in Sherbrooke, by architect Max Roth. The chain was noted for its articulate design policy valuing strong visual impact, a mandate to which “the architects have added their own flair.” ABOVE The magazine devoted its first “comprehensive presentation” to the Seaway Hotel, a commercial buidling by Ants Elken with an expressive concrete frame and swooping entrance canopy.
TOP
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BRUCE WRIGHT, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, JULY 1956
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BRUCE WRIGHT, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, JULY 1956
swooping angular roof with a porcelain enamel fascia, and the building was shown to best effect with a dramatically lit evening shot. The trend towards design using lighting and colour was widely popular in 1950s architecture in both Europe and the Americas. The rediscovery of the space-shaping potential of light was considered one of the biggest architectural advances of its era, and Canada was committed to this design philosophy. The Shell Oil Tower (later known as the Bulova Tower) on the Canadian National Exhibition Grounds in Toronto was another example of night architecture presented in the first issue. Opened in the summer of 1955, the observation tower was a striking emblem for the Shell Oil Company, and quickly became a landmark feature on Toronto’s skyline. In its original concept, architect George A. Robb designed a considerably more daring structure with stairs wrapping around the exterior of a glass and steel shaft—unfortunately, the design was muted in order to meet city building codes. Yet both the initial concept and the tower as built conveyed a futuristic vision, made even more dramatic through the reproduction of night images in The Canadian Architect. While no single architectural firm dominated the pages of the 19551956 run, the Modernist designs of Parkin and Associates did appear in several issues, whereas most other architects were featured only once in the first year of publication. The use of fold-out pages to illustrate the long and low white-framed façade of Parkin’s Ortho Pharmaceutical plant and office building in Toronto conveyed a revolutionary outlook to architectural design in the industrial sector. One cannot simply assume that the buildings and urban projects represented in the pages of The Canadian Architect’s first year were “best in show.” Rather, we can look at them as a time capsule of mid-century design and construction technologies in Canada—a time when the profession seemed more focused on catching up with international architectural trends as opposed to developing a nationally identified style. Canada’s march into the second half of the century marked the entrance into a new era of architecture, and The Canadian Architect was there to capture the spirit in words and pictures. The factory and office building for Ortho Pharmaceutical—a Modernist “glass box on stilts”—was one of several designs by John B. Parkin Associates featured in the magazine’s initial year of publication.
TOP AND ABOVE
Architectural historian Sharon Vattay researches, writes about and teaches Canadian architecture and heritage conservation. She is an associate at GBCA Architects.
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LASZLO BUDAY, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, OCTOBER 1966
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CANADIAN ARCHITECT VS. EXPO 67 ALL EYES TURNED TO CANADA IN 1967 FOR THE WORLD’S FAIR. ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIAN INDERBIR SINGH RIAR ASKS: WHAT DID CANADIAN ARCHITECT MAKE OF THE HUBBUB? TEXT
Inderbir Singh Riar
The 1967 Universal and International Exhibition, popularly known as Expo 67, promised to bring global hopes and dreams to host city Montreal. It also shone a spotlight on Canada, a nation in the throes of celebrating its centenary. With the world’s fair came a wealth of architectural talent, homegrown and international: from the heroic inverted pyramid of the Canadian pavilion designed by the Toronto office of Ashworth, Robbie, Vaughan and Williams to Buckminster Fuller’s spectacular geodesic dome enclosing the United States’ display. Expectations of visionary architecture filled The Canadian Architect. An incisive critique of Moshe Safdie’s Habitat 67 was published soon after its first iteration in 1964. Similar “cellular” forms (an aesthetic ideal initially promoted by the Expo 67 authorities) appeared in portfolios on pavilions under construction. The changing master plan for fairgrounds on reclaimed islands in the St. Lawrence River was routinely discussed. Leading architects’ views on the exhibition were considered newsworthy. Yet following
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the opening ceremony—and all the accompanying pomp and circumstance, fraternal sentiment and nationalist bombast, blown budgets and financial sleights of hand, gee-whiz delight and even some avant-gardism—The Canadian Architect refused to devote a single issue to Expo 67. Perusing their magazine of record, architects across the country could only wonder why, after the fact, so few pages were given to arguably the single most prominent event of world architecture at the time. International journals —The Architectural Review, Architectural Design, Progressive Architecture, Japan Architect, and many more—quickly produced special issues on the fair. Architecture Canada, representing the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, similarly spilled much ink. Celebrated architects and critics arrived to formulate their observations and comments. Yet The Canadian Architect would only invite a then little-known Montreal architect, Jerry Miller, to pen its response. “Expo 67: A Search for Order” appeared in May 1967. Left unmentioned was a simple fact:
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REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, OCTOBER 1967
REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, OCTOBER 1967
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OPPOSITE The cover from the magazine’s October 1967 issue, which featured comprehensive coverage of Habitat 67, the iconic housing project designed by Moshe Safdie. ABOVE Two pages from an article published during Expo 67. The article curiously referred to an earlier master plan for the World’s Fair, and also included photos that highlighted the mini-rail and other transportation links between pavilions.
Miller belonged to the group of young architects responsible for the original Expo 67 master plan. His “search” was hardly an appraisal, but actually a rebuttal. Miller was among the handful of freshly minted urban design graduates from Harvard—including Adèle Naudé (later Santos) and Stephen Staples— recruited by Daniel (Sandy) van Ginkel, the first chief planner of Expo 67. Adamantly opposed to the typical model of competing national pavilions, van Ginkel and his staff fashioned a radical alternative. The architects proposed a massive open-ended circulation system where all nations could “plug in” along various thematic zones comprising the totality of “Man and His World” (as the exposition officially became known). Steeped in notions of architectures accommodating growth advanced by Team 10 (the postwar group that van Ginkel had done much to shape), the remarkable scheme remained short-lived. It was quickly forgotten after van Ginkel’s departure from the planning team in December 1963. Still, remnants of the idea were found in the transportation networks and thematic pavilions distributed throughout the overwhelming spectacle of national pavilions occupying the islands. Thus, when it came to describing the world’s fair, Miller curiously retreated to the unrealized 1963 plan, couching it in the rhetoric of the era. He drew on MIT planner Kevin Lynch’s influential theory of urban “imageability”—an experiential ap-
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proach to navigating the sensory overload of postwar life—to suggest that the fair, as built, had fallen short in its ambition to anticipate a future city. Writing exclusively in the past tense, Miller deftly situated his team’s original scheme, redolent of contemporary wishes for “flexible” structures and “open” environments, as the source of Expo 67. In other words, he implied, the untainted 1963 plan was far better than the resulting Expo. Photographs of the fair’s most creative gestures accompanied Miller’s article. Tensile nets, space frames, geodesics and clustered geometries evoked a megastructural world attuned to the optimistic large-scale thinking of the 1960s. Miller undoubtedly admired this kind of architecture—as a McGill undergraduate, he had invited Fuller to Montreal to lead a geodesic workshop in 1956—but he refused to mention it. The images, floating independently alongside his text, seemed like the editors’ last-ditch attempt to show something, anything, of Expo 67 before it disappeared from subsequent issues. There was justification for the photographs. Introducing Miller’s piece, The Canadian Architect noted, “Again, as with the Crystal Palace, the Gallerie [sic] des Machines, the Eiffel Tower, it is [in] the realm of significant structure that the Expo Fair foreshadows things to come.” The turn to these behemoth constructions of the past echoed the interests of Swiss architectural historian Sigfried Giedion. Influencing several generations of
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ART JAMES, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, OCTOBER 1966 REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, MAY 1967
REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, OCTOBER 1967
ART JAMES, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, OCTOBER 1966
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ABOVE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Preview photos of the Ontario pavilion by Fairfield & DuBois and the Quebec pavilion by Papineau, Gérin-Lajoie, LeBlanc and Durand; Frei Otto and Rolf Gutbrod’s German pavilion under construction; Buckminister Fuller’s geodesic dome was completed with Sadao Inc. and Geometrics Inc.; Moshe Safdie’s Habitat 67 was built with David Barott Boulva Associated Architects.
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ART JAMES, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, MAY 1967
ART JAMES, REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, MAY 1967
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Two pavilions by Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold, Sise used tetrahedral space frames to create large geometric interior volumes; the United States and Dutch pavilions under construction, with Montreal’s Place Victoria and Place Ville Marie visible in the background.
ABOVE, LEFT TO RIGHT
architects, Giedion described such iron-and-glass constructions as ushering in entirely new sensations of the “interpenetration” of space-time, thereby foretelling a new emancipatory social reality. In October 1966, The Canadian Architect had similarly illustrated an Expo 67 preview entitled “Anatomy of an Exhibition” with evocative photos exposing the skeletal profiles of still unfinished modular prefabricated complexes. Hope remained for a lightweight dematerialized utopia. Yet in this narrowly prescribed vision of a technologically sophisticated future, a large part of the world stood neglected. Those nations erecting historicist pavilions, or otherwise expressing eclectic tastes, were simply omitted from the panorama in Canada’s national magazine. The apparent triumph of Modernism, carefully fashioned in The Canadian Architect, made it impossible to understand the totality of the Expo 67 experience. Notwithstanding Miller’s unwillingness to address the reality of Expo 67, The Canadian Architect promised another assessment. It was waiting, the editors wrote, to see the exhibition as “a working organism.” Habitat 67 justly received further monographic treatment in October; a contributing writer’s brief “last word” on the fair was printed in December. The expected full appraisal never came. None of the 1967 Massey Medals, announced in June, would honour the world’s fair. Only one Expo work—Habitat 67, again—showed up in The Canadian Architect’s annual
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roundup of “significant architecture.” Perhaps the magazine was already looking ahead to Expo 70 in Osaka, with Arthur Erickson and Geoffrey Massey’s competition-winning pavilion. It published renderings of the project, alongside critical commentary on the five finalists, in August. Perhaps the magazine believed that societal needs lay elsewhere. Other issues that year examined Irving Grossman’s Flemingdon Park housing estate, Arcop’s Place Bonaventure, Mies van der Rohe’s Toronto-Dominion Centre, and Ron Thom’s Trent University—projects that, according to the magazine, went hand in hand with fundamental changes to everyday life. Or perhaps The Canadian Architect was quietly expressing what others may have felt: an Expo fatigue, a weariness with so much pretense to nation-building when, indeed, the very real tasks of constructing the country—new universities, museums, civic infrastructures, housing projects, and, indeed, countless Centennial works—were underway everywhere. In Montreal, the aftermath of Expo 67 was left to the machinations of Mayor Jean Drapeau, who schemed to reopen it as a permanent attraction the following spring. This time, The Canadian Architect sensibly kept its distance. Inderbir Singh Riar is an assistant professor at the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism, Carleton University.
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REPORT
REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, SEPTEMBER 1958
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STATE OF THE PROFESSION TEXT
Douglas MacLeod This collage depicting architects in American, Canadian and British advertisements was assembled to illustrate a 1958 article in The Canadian Architect .
ABOVE
BY THE NUMBERS, A LOOK AT HOW CANADIAN ARCHITECTS HAVE FARED OVER THE PAST 60 YEARS. Both Canadian Architect magazine and I turned 60 this year, and for almost half my life (28 years) I have written for this publication. Over the course of these six decades, the profession of architecture has changed dramatically. Computer technology, for example, has radically transformed our means of production and building information modelling will only accelerate this process. The changes to our status as a profession, however, have been subtler. When I was growing up, an architect was something impressive to be. Arthur Erickson was emerging as the first Canadian architect to garner international recognition. Expo 67 displayed a utopian vision of the future where exotic architecture was front and centre. The best and the brightest wanted to be architects. The booms and busts of the following decades had a way of damp-
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ening enthusiasm for the profession. So much so that, by 2015, we didn’t even crack the top 100 of Canada’s Best Jobs as ranked by Canadian Business magazine. Do registered nurses (#16), parole officers (#30) and underground miners (#32) really have better jobs than we do? Perhaps more disconcerting is the fact that many of the other players in the AEC industry did make the cut: construction managers were #44, civil engineers were #50, mechanical engineers were #57, crane operators were #63 and engineering managers were #5. Even bricklayers squeaked in at #92. Wages are one way of measuring our status as a profession, although it is difficult to compare apples to apples when it comes to money. In 1961 (the closest census date to the founding of this magazine), the average employment income of an architect was $8,880. Using the Canadian Consumer
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REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1955
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ABOVE This magazine’s first issue included an overview of the architectural profession in Canada, based on information from the membership lists of the RAIC and from a recent Department of Labour report.
Price Index, I converted this to 2014 dollars and came up with an average salary of $70,814. This is comparable to the average salary of an architect in the 2011 census, which was $70,528 or $73,646 in 2014 dollars. But this only begins to tell the story. Averages, although a common measure, can be skewed by anomalies like a few architects who earn very large incomes. Median salaries are a more accurate measure of the income of a typical architect. (A median is the value that evenly divides a group into two halves: one-half of the group is lower than the median and the other half is higher.) The median salary of an architect in the 2011 census was only $56,622 or $59,125 in 2014 dollars, considerably less than the average. The median salary for an architect in 1962 was between $6,000 and $9,999, or between $47,847 and $79,737 in 2014 dollars—roughly the same ballpark as the 2011 figure. Either way you look at it, our wages haven’t changed significantly in the last 60 years. Even within average salaries, there are distinctions to be made. After 1971, for example, the census began to distinguish between those who worked “full-time, full-year” and those who had any kind of “employment income” in the profession. 1971 was a banner year for “full-time, full-year” male architects, whose average employment income was $15,933 or a whopping $98,267 in 2014 dollars. The profession has never seen numbers like that again. The reason may be that in 1978, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the mandatory design fee structure for various types of buildings (such as 18% for a hospital) constituted price fixing. Soon after, the same fee structures were dismantled in Canada as well. This may have been the single most detrimental change to the economics of the profession in the last 60 years. The statistics reveal one of the most shameful aspects of our profession— women have been (and still are) grossly underpaid compared to their male counterparts. In 1971, “full-time, full-year” female architects made only 61% of what men did, with an average salary of $9,754 or $60,158 in 2014 dollars. Nor has this problem been rectified. While the gap narrowed to 18% in the 1996 census, it had grown again to 27% by the 2011 census. The numbers confirm that architects’ salaries are tied to the roller coaster of the economy. In 1991, the average salary for full-time architects (male and female) was $56,900 or $81,322 in 2014 dollars. By 1996, this had plummeted to $48,464 or $69,266 in 2014 dollars, due to a recession in the early part of that decade. It took another 10 years before our average salaries clawed their way back to $82,000. The census data sheds light on another aspect of the profession: the self-employed architect. In the 1961 and 1971 censuses, self-employment was a separate subcategory, and these architects did very well for themselves. In 1961, their average income was $12,545—or over $100,000 in 2014 dollars! While this dipped to $87,862 in 2014 dollars by the time of the 1971 census, it was still some $10,000 more than the average for the entire profession. Male self-employed architects com-
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prised 35% of the profession in 1961 and they comprised the same percentage in 2011. To give these numbers some perspective, it is helpful to look at other professions. The average employment income of a male architect in 1961 was $8,800 while the average employment income of a registered nurse was only $2,711 (or $21,619 in 2014 dollars). Yet by the time Canadian Business ranked its jobs in 2014, nurses had attained a median salary of $72,800 while architects had a median salary of only $67,995. The fact that our wages have not kept up with other professionals may be one of the reasons for our slippage on the Best Jobs list. We are also an ageing profession—although to some extent, we have always skewed older. In its inaugural issue in 1955, The Canadian Architect reported that 37% of the architects registered in Canada at the time were over 50 years old. The 2011 Canadian Architectural Practices Benchmark Study found that 47% of the architects it surveyed were 50 or older. On the other hand, our profession has been growing. In 1961 there were 2,636 people in Canada who identified themselves as architects, or 14 for every 10,000 members of the general population. By 2011, there were 15,255 of us, or 44 architects for every 10,000 Canadians. Moreover, in 1961 that figure did not include any female architects. The census just noted that there were “under 250 individuals” and recorded no data about them. By 2011, 25% of full-time architects in Canada were women—a figure that had grown by 8% since the beginning of the new millennium. Understanding the status of architects, however, is more complicated than our wages and ages. A 2012 Angus Reid poll attempted to measure the worth of jobs by asking people, “Generally speaking, do you tend to have a great deal of respect, a fair amount of respect, not much respect or very little respect for each of the following professions?” Eighty-five percent of Canadian respondents answered that they had a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of respect for architects. The corresponding percentages in the United Kingdom and the United States were 72% and 83% respectively. Once again, the nurses beat us hands down with the respect of 96% of Canadians. But at least we were in the top 10 most respected professions— although the engineers took the number 8 spot with the respect of 87% of Canadian respondents. While this degree of respect is encouraging, it does seem that we need to pay careful attention to the relevance of the profession over the next 60 years. Gender equality and an ageing work force are certainly issues that must be addressed. But, as this data also suggests, we may have to redesign our business models if we are to compete with other occupations in the 21st century. Douglas MacLeod, MRAIC, is Chair of the RAIC Centre for Architecture at Athabasca University. Special thanks to Statistics Canada for their help in compiling the information used in this article.
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Material Future: The Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron and the Vancouver Art Gallery
of sportswear and the role technology has played in that growth. www.dx.org
March 27-October 4, 2015
This continuing exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery features the Pritzker Prize-winning firm’s key buildings of the past 15 years, with a special focus on their design process for the new Vancouver Art Gallery building. www.vanartgallery.bc.ca
Architecture Parallax: Through the Looking Glass
Landscapes of the Hyperreal: Ábalos & Herreros selected by SO – IL July 23-September 13, 2015
This exhibition at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal results from guest curators Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu’s focused immersion in the Ábalos & Herreros fonds at the CCA. www.cca.qc.ca
July 2-August 30, 2015
The Koffler Gallery in Toronto features the work of Alexander Pilis, who investigates visual perception and the sensory ways of understanding architecture. www.kofflerarts.org
Smarter. Faster. Tougher July 8-October 12, 2015
The Design Exchange’s offsite exhibition at 39 Parliament Street in the heart of Toronto’s PanAm Village explores the vast evolution
16th International Conference NOCMAT conference August 10-13, 2015
Taking place at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, this leading forum allows scholars and practitioners to exchange innovations in low-energy cement technologies, new materials and systems, and groundbreaking material/structural technologies. http://umanitoba.ca/conferences/nocmat2015/
collection of Modernist architecture designed by some of Winnipeg’s most notable firms.
Modernist Precinct Tour August 12, 2015
The Winnipeg Architecture Foundation leads this walking tour at 7:00pm around City Hall, Centennial Centre and the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre.
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CANADIAN ARCHITECT 08/15
CALENDAR
www.winnipegarchitecture.ca/events/
International Conference on Civil and Architectural Engineering
www.winnipegarchitecture.ca/events/
August 30, 2015
This event at the Courtyard by Marriott in Ottawa allows scientists, scholars and engineers from around the world to collaborate, exchange ideas, and establish business and research relations.
Chinatown: From Yesterday to Today August 16, 2015
This AIBC walking tour begins at 10:00am, focusing on the history and distinctive architecture of a vibrant neighbourhood and its integral role in the development and transformation of the dynamic port city of Vancouver.
http://theires.org/Conference/Canada/ ICCAE/
www.aibc.ca
Impact and Legacy: Toronto’s 1958 Competition for a New City Hall
Broadway Modern Tour
September 3, 2015
August 19, 2015
At 7:00pm at Toronto City Hall, architect, planner and professor George Kapelos delivers this presentation on the City Hall international competition that drew over 500 entries in 1958.
At 7:00pm, the Winnipeg Architecture Foundation leads this walking tour that focuses on the post-1945 development of the Broadway area, a premier business district that boasts a significant
www.torontopubliclibrary.ca
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LOOKING BACK
PHOTO BY GRAHAM WARRINGTON. REPRINTED FROM THE CANADIAN ARCHITECT, JUNE 1956
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CORNELIA HAHN OBERLANDER TEXT
Susan Herrington
Writing in The Canadian Architect during its inaugural year of publication, Vancouver-based landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, Hon. MRAIC, asked, “In Canada, during the last year, more than 10,000 single-family dwellings have been built. How many of them were planned in an architect’s offices or had the advantage of advice from a landscape architect?” Oberlander’s query hints at one of her most prevailing beliefs in design– the necessity for collaboration between architects and landscape architects. This attitude was shaped by her early career in Philadelphia. There, as an associate to landscape architect Dan Kiley, Oberlander worked in the offices of architectural legends Oskar Stonorov and Louis Kahn, where she practiced as part of interdisciplinary design teams. Collaboration and its importance were also instilled in Oberlander as a landscape architecture student at Harvard University. Faculty members such as Walter Gropius, Christopher Tunnard and Marcel Breuer encouraged teamwork between landscape architecture and architecture students. Oberlander’s oeuvre provides a noteworthy record of her sustained collaboration with architects. Upon her arrival in Vancouver in the 1950s, Oberlander immediately identified with the new breed of local architects eager to explore a modern design vocabulary as they transformed their relatively small city. She was convinced that modern design should play a leading role in the creation of new housing, civic buildings, transportation systems and open spaces. For Oberlander, to be modern was not a style, but a way of life that she had experienced firsthand as a young child living in Weimar, Germany. The residence of Dr. and Mrs. Friedman was one of Oberlander’s first collaborations in Vancouver. She completed the project with Fred
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Lasserre, the head of the Architecture Department at the University of British Columbia. Together, they designed a house and garden on a steeply sloped triangular lot. In her article for The Canadian Architect, Oberlander emphasized the organizational role that plants served, the importance of Richard Neutra’s “mystery and realities of the site,” and the role of grading to meet the different levels of the house so as to facilitate indoor-outdoor living. Oberlander later worked on a variety of private residences and in the 1960s was landscape architect for some of Vancouver’s first low-rent high-rise housing projects. In 1974, Oberlander received her big break—an environmental urban design project with Arthur Erickson. The three-block complex, often called Robson Square, led to over three decades of projects with Erickson. The experience also introduced her to another wave of young architects and future collaborators, including Bing Thom FRAIC, Nick Milkovich FRAIC, Gino Pin FRAIC and Eva Matsuzaki FRAIC. Today, Oberlander continues to work closely with architects, bringing a strong environmental sustainability agenda to projects. Recent collaborations include work with KPMB Architects on the Canadian Embassy in Berlin (2005), Renzo Piano on the New York Times Building in New York (2007), and Moshe Safdie, FRAIC, on Library Square in Vancouver (ongoing). As Oberlander has often said, “I dream of green cities with green buildings...this can only be done if all our design-related professions collaborate.” Susan Herrington is a Professor of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of British Columbia. She is the author of Cornelia Hahn Oberlander: Making
the Modern Landscape, which received a 2015 John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prize.
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