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Contents

09/11 Canadian arChiteCt 7

The NaTioNal Review of DesigN aND PRacTice/The JouRNal of RecoRD of aRchiTecTuRe caNaDa | Raic

Cover the Canadian museum of nature in ottawa by padolsky, kuwabara, GaGnon Joint venture arChiteCts (pkG). photo by tom arban.

11 news NewlyrenovatedBiologicalSciences

BuildingattheUniversityofBritishColumbiaopens;SusanFitzgeraldArchi-tecturewinsProfessionalPrixdeRomeinArchitecture.

44 review AccordingtoMichaelMcClelland,the

Architecture in UniformexhibitionattheCanadianCentreforArchitectureunder-scoresthesocialresponsibilityofarchi-tectsduringwartime.

48 Calendar Struggling Cities: From Japanese Urban

Projects in the 1960sattheJapanFoundationinToronto;InteriorDesignShowWestinVancouver.

50 BaCkpage ThemysteriousoriginoftheiconicEast

VanCrossinVancouverisdiscussedbyTanyaSouthcott.

18 red Bull Canada headquarters for the most reCent phase of the enerGetiC headquarters of red bull Canada,

Johnson Chou inCorporates a riCh and textured material palette alonG with inCreasinGly sophistiCated forms. teXt leslie Jen

23 grey highlands residenCe another sublime rural residential retreat by ian maCdonald melds into its pastor-

al landsCape in Grey hiGhlands, ontario. teXt John bentley mays

32 Canadian MuseuM of nature in the works for many years under the leadership of padolsky, kuwabara,

GaGnon Joint venture arChiteCts (pkG), this proJeCt suCCeeds in upGradinG a beloved historiC struCture with restrained eleGanCe. teXt Janine debanné

39 ferrier weBB residenCe this handsome house by the offiCe of riChard daviGnon arChiteCt inspires opti-

mism in the previously banal residential landsCape of CalGary. teXt kate thompson

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We acknoWledge the financial support of the government of canada through the canada periodical

fund (cpf) for our publishing activities.

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AssociAtE­EditorLesLIe Jen, MRAIC

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contributing­EditorsGavIn affLeCk, OAQ, MRAICherbert enns, MAA, MRAICdouGLas MaCLeod, nCARb

rEgionAl­corrEspondEntshalifax ChrIstIne MaCy, OAA regina bernard fLaMan, SAAmontreal davId theodore calgary davId a. down, AAAWinnipeg herbert enns, MAA vancouver adeLe weder

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Ian ChodIkoff ichodikoff@cAnAdiAnArchitEct.coM

8 cAnAdiAn­ArchitEct 09/11

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AbovE a renderInG for the new teLus Gar-den In vanCouver ILLustrates how an enLIGhtened CLIent Can sPonsor arChI-teCturaL InnovatIon.

What defines a client who is effective at “spon-soring” an architect to produce a high-quality design? The answer largely depends upon that client’s clarity of vision and ability to express that vision to the architect she hires. The word “spon-sor” is derived from the Latin word spondere, which means to “promise solemnly.” When a client selects an architect, she implicitly prom-ises to “sponsor” or support that architect’s cap-acity to fulfill a number of stated objectives that will result in good design. Whether the client is a municipality or a publicly traded company, the concept of sponsorship is widely recognized as one that fosters the greatest potential in the architect, provided that communication is open and goals are clearly set. Disaster is likely to re-sult when effective sponsorship is compromised.

Recent examples of healthy sponsorships can be found in the private sector. TELUS, one of Canada’s largest telecommunications companies, hired Vancouver-based Henriquez Partners Architects last spring to begin the design of TELUS Garden, a $750-million project which will include a 44-storey condo tower and a 22-storey office building containing TELUS’s new national headquarters. The project features 10,000 square feet of green roofs that will provide organic pro-duce for local restaurants, two elevated roof for-ests, and media walls where cultural events can be broadcast to the public. For TELUS President and CEO Darren Entwistle, the project will trans-form a “fatigued” block of downtown Vancouver into a high-functioning city block with aspects of environmental stewardship and new approaches to the workplace. For several years, Entwistle has been consciously raising the physical presence of his company across Canada with projects that exemplify sustainable design, urban revitaliza-tion and adaptive reuse. In 2007, Perkins + Will Canada completed an ambitious renovation for

the current TELUS headquarters in Vancouver, using the first double-walled, triple-skinned building solution in the country. In June 2010, the 30-storey TELUS House, designed by Adam-son Associates Architects in collaboration with Sweeny Sterling Finlayson &Co Architects, opened in downtown Toronto to critical acclaim. Then in 2011, Place TELUS opened in Quebec City. Designed by ABCP Architecture in collabor-ation with Claude Guy Architectes, this award-winning project is contributing to the revitaliza-tion of Quebec City’s Old Port district, the result of a transformation of a Modernist building that once served as the city’s mail-sorting plant into a contemporary office environment.

Municipalities are also proving successful at sponsoring architects. The City of Edmonton has been organizing architectural competitions to improve the public realm, largely through the ef-forts of City architect Carol Bélanger. A recent competition for five park pavilions will introduce a new era of innovative public-private ventures. On a larger scale, Edmonton is progressing with the redevelopment of the City Centre Airport Lands where Perkins + Will Canada, in collabora-tion with Civitas Urban Design and Planning, Group2 Architecture, and Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg, was chosen last spring to lead the redevelopment plans for the eventual creation of a 216-hectare sustainable community.

Sometimes it is useful to cite potentially disas-trous situations where effective sponsorship is being undermined. For many years, Waterfront Toronto—an agency established in 2001 by the Government of Canada, the Province of Ontario, and the City of Toronto to oversee the revitaliza-tion of Toronto’s waterfront—has expressed a clear set of goals which have resulted in many successfully completed projects along the Central Waterfront and East Bayfront, with additional projects scheduled for completion in the Don Lands and Port Lands. As of the beginning of September, Waterfront Toronto is being threat-ened by the Mayor of Toronto and his city coun-cillor brother who believe that the government agency is not proceeding fast enough with its de-velopment plans in the Port Lands. Inciting anger, criticism, division and confusion, the Mayor and his brother have been conjuring up a series of undefined objectives that might see a giant shopping mall and the world’s largest Ferris wheel replace the agreed-upon vision currently in place. While it appears unlikely that the Mayor and his brother will succeed in destroying any of the current plans and agreements for Toronto’s waterfront, their actions only emphasize the need for clear and reliable client objectives—essential criteria for sponsoring high-quality architecture.

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10 canadian architect 09/11

news

Projects

newly renovated Biological sciences Building at UBc opens.Acton Ostry Architects has announced the open-ing of the newly renovated Biological Sciences Complex, South and West Wings at the University of British Columbia. The $45-million, 170,000- square-foot project includes the renewal of spaces originally built more than 50 years ago. The complex now houses new state-of-the-art laboratories, aquaria, informal research spaces, classrooms, seminar rooms and gathering spaces for the departments of botany and zoology. Lo-cated at the southeast corner of the intersection of Main Mall and University Boulevard, adjacent to a network of related teaching and research fa-cilities, the complex is comprised of the original Centre Block, designed by Sharp and Thompson in 1948, that was later surrounded by a South Wing, by Thompson Berwick & Pratt in 1957, a West Wing facing Main Mall, and a North Wing facing University Boulevard, both by Duncan McNab and Associates in 1970 and 1974 respect-ively. The projct was funded in partnership with the Government of Canada’s stimulus funding Knowledge Infrastructure Program. Of particular interest, three seismic buttresses have been introduced to accommodate the latest earthquake structural requirements. These concrete but-tresses are clad with laminated glass panels that are illuminated at night, and which are printed with botanical and zoological images, visually referencing the building’s use and animating the pedestrian walkway along the Main Mall of the campus. This image patterning has also been introduced into the interior of the building in the form of large glass panels that mark and identify the various laboratories throughout the complex. The combination of patterned glass,

natural wood panelling, and improved circulation creates a welcoming space that will facilitate cross-disciplinary interaction between students and faculty.

20-storey mixed-use tower in winnipeg will house new aLt hotel and stantec headquarters.CentreVenture Development Corporation has announced the details of a major real estate development project in the heart of the Sports Hospitality Entertainment District in Winnipeg. Located on Portage Avenue, this project will be jointly developed by Longboat Development Corporation and Groupe Germain Hospitality. The building, covering 200,000 square feet and over 20 storeys, will house the province’s first ALT Hotel and the headquarters of Stantec’s Winnipeg office. Stantec will provide full archi-tecture and engineering services to design the mixed-use tower. As an anchor tenant, the firm will bring over 250 employees to the new build-ing when it opens in 2013. The project includes restoration and reuse of the Mitchell-Copp building’s historic façade, which will serve as the main entrance to the office component. The new 20-storey tower is where Groupe Germain Inc. will operate their ALT Hotel brand with 154 rooms on the upper 12 floors. The main floor will contain retail and restaurant space, offices occupy floors two to six, with Stantec occupying over half the available area. The ALT brand is an alternative hotel experience, developed by the Germain family, pioneers of the boutique-hotel concept in Canada. Centre Venture Development Corporation was created in June 1999 as an arms-length agency of the City of Winnipeg. Its mandate is to stimulate downtown revitalization by creating an environment for private-sector businesses and government to work together and

to promote the downtown to investors, business-es and residents.

U of windsor selects cs&P for design of downtown campus projects.The University of Windsor has named CS&P Architects Inc. as the firm chosen to provide all-inclusive design and implementation of renova-tions to the Armouries and proposed renovations to the Windsor Star building. The University plans to move its Music and Visual Arts academic programs downtown to the historic Windsor Ar-mouries building, and is considering converting the landmark Windsor Star building for the use of the School of Social Work’s academic program and the University’s Centre for Executive & Professional Education. The project is funded through a $10-million capital donation from the City of Windsor and its gift of the Armouries building, as well as a provincial government con-tribution of $15 million announced in May. Founded in 1963, the University of Windsor has close to 16,000 full-time and part-time students.

awards

susan Fitzgerald architecture explores urban landscape as winner of the Professional Prix de rome in architecture.As the winner of the $50,000 Canada Council for the Arts Professional Prix de Rome in Architec-ture for 2011, Halifax firm Susan Fitzgerald Architecture will study the environmental, health and social benefits of integrating agriculture and innovative green spaces within towns and cities. The firm will use the prize funds to pursue its re-search project entitled “Productive Urban Land-scape,” which will explore the relationship be-tween ecology, agriculture, architecture and landscape in urban centres. Travelling to Cuba, Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Panama and Chile, they will gather first-hand knowledge and investigate this connection and how it can work more effectively for the benefit of the population in the future. Administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture recognizes excellent achievement in Canadian architectural practice. It is awarded to a young architectural firm that has completed its first buildings and demonstrated exceptional artistic potential. The prize allows the winners to travel to other parts of the world to hone their skills, develop their creative practice, and strengthen their presence on the international scene. The project can involve multiple trips to a number of destinations, spread over a two-year period. Founded in 2006, Susan Fitzgerald Architecture is a design/build/research practice based in Hali-fax. Working closely with her contractor partner,

aBoVe, LeFt to riGht A new mixed-use tower will further trAnsform winnipeg’s downtown when it opens in 2013; Acton ostry Architects’ newly renovAted biologicAl sciences building on the university of british columbiA cAmpus.

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12 canaDian architect 09/11

Brainard Fitzgerald, Susan Fitzgerald considers alternative ways of living, working and engaging with the particularities of site and place. The firm’s residential and commercial projects chal-lenge ideas about density, programmatic diversi-ty, zoning, and micro-architecture, in response to specific sites and landscapes. The work is characterized by an intimacy between design and the craft of construction, which influences not only their working process and the detailing, but the type of projects they pursue. In addition to being the founding partner of Susan Fitzgerald Architecture, she is also a partner with Halifax-based Fowler Bauld & Mitchell Ltd. Susan Fitz-gerald Architecture was selected by a peer assess-ment committee that included James K.M. Cheng (Vancouver), Richard Davignon (Calgary), Janna Levitt (Toronto), Robert Mellin (Montreal), and Gabriel Rousseau (Montreal).www.canadacouncil.ca/news/releases/2011/pu129574588709232018.htm

canadian architects recognized with presti-gious international architecture awards.The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and co- presented by Metropolitan Arts Press Ltd. an-nounced 90 new distinguished building projects, urban plans, and landscape architecture designs selected in this year’s prestigious International Architecture Awards program for 2011. The four projects designed by Canadian firms are as follows: Nebuta House in Aomori, Japan by molo design ltd. (Vancouver) along with associate architects Frank la Rivière Architects Inc. (Tokyo) and d/dt Arch (Japan); Jasper Place Branch Library in Edmonton, Alberta by Dub Architects (Edmonton) along with associate architects Hughes Condon Marler Architects (Vancouver); West Vancouver Community Centre in West Vancouver, British Columbia by Hughes Condon Marler Architects (Vancouver); and the Canadian Museum of Nature Renovation in Ottawa, Ontario by Barry Padolsky Associates Inc. Architects (Ottawa), Kuwa bara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (Toronto), and Gagnon Letellier Cyr Ricard Mathieu Architectes (Quebec).www.europeanarch.eu winners of enroute hotel Design awards announced.Air Canada’s enRoute magazine, in partnership with the Interior Designers of Canada and IIDEX/NeoCon Canada, have announced the winners of the first-ever enRoute Hotel Design Awards. To celebrate the success of Canada’s homegrown talent, enRoute assembled a panel of experts—

Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola, Belgian architect Jean-Michel Gathy and Canadian archi-tects Todd Saunders and Jean Pelland—to choose the winners in each of their 10 competition cat-egories. The winners are as follows: Yabu Pushel-berg for the Waikiki Edition in Honolulu in the Best Overall Interior Design category; Gair Wil-liamson Architects for the Keefer in Vancouver in the Best Overall Architecture category; Yabu Pushelberg for the Smyth Tribeca in New York in the Best Lobby (fewer than 150 rooms) category; Yabu Pushelberg for the Waikiki Edition in Honolulu in the Best Lobby (more than 150 rooms) category; LemayMichaud Architecture Design for the Hôtel le Germain Calgary in the Best Standard Room (fewer than 150 rooms) category; Munge Leung for the W Minneapolis (The Foshay) in the Best Standard Room (more than 150 rooms) category; designWilkes Sdn Bhd for the Royal Suite at the Leela Palace Kempinski Udaipur in India in the Best Suite (fewer than 150 rooms category; James K.M. Cheng Architects Inc. for the Fairmont Pacific Rim in Vancouver in the Best Suite (more than 150 rooms) category; B+H Chil Design for the Shangri-La Hotel in Vancouver in the Best Spa or Pool (fewer than 150 rooms) category; and SSDG Interiors Inc. for the Sparkling Hill Resort in Vernon, BC in the Best Spa or Pool (more than 150 rooms) category. On September 22, 2011, enRoute will honour the winners at an awards presentation at the IIDEX/NeoCon Canada design conference in Toronto.

competitions

La maison de l’architecture du Québec announces the maQ Young architectural critic competition.Conscious of the need to sustain and stimulate a group of high-calibre professionals in the area of critical discourse and architectural writing—particularly that which relates to what is being produced in Quebec today, La Maison de l’Archi-tecture du Québec (MAQ) is inviting students and young writers from all relevant areas of specializ-ation (journalism, communications, art history, architecture and design etc.) to participate in its inaugural MAQ Young Architectural Critic com-petition. This is an opportunity offered by the MAQ to aspiring journalists, researchers and curators who will be participating in this annual competition. A critical text of approximately 700 words is required and should relate to the urban proposals and ideas contained in the Réinventons la ruelle! exhibition by the 23 architecture firms comprising some of the most inspiring architects in Quebec. Two winners—one for a text in English and another for a text in French—will be

selected and will receive $200 along with pub-lication in a prestigious catalogue. Participants are requested to fill out a registration form avail-able at the MAQ for a $10 fee.The competition is open to all students, design professionals, in-terns, and freelancers studying or practicing in related fields. Entrants must be no more than 35 years of age. The 600- to 700-word text must be submitted to the MAQ before October 9, 2011 at 6:00pm (EST). The challenge of this competition is to be an architectural critic, and not merely provide a book review or a critique of the exhi bi-tion. The texts will be given to the jury under a pseudonym to preserve the impartiality of jury members who might recognize one of their stu-dents, interns or freelancers.www.maisondelarchitecture.ca

Letters

Trevor Boddy’s review of the Ghost 13: Ideas in Things symposium, organized by Brian MacKay-Lyons this June in Kingsburg, Nova Scotia, has its own retrospective flair. From the 1980s, that is. It reminded me of the worst moments in my architectural education, when a professor would trash a project while gratuitously insulting stu-dents and colleagues in the process. There is no doubt that Boddy is in full assault mode through-out this review. And as only a moderator for the event, I was thankful not to be mentioned in his diatribe. I can’t begin to imagine how the organ-izers or participants might feel on reading Boddy’s review. His gratuitous slurs are particu-larly offensive: that Kenneth Frampton “sermon-izes” and “holds court” and that Robert McCart-er’s talk was “erudite but empty.” Boddy’s essay brought no fresh insight into the symposium, re-lating instead his opinions but without support-ing argumentation. By the time I finished reading it, I was left only with the impression of a hostile and taunting critic—“challenging” MacKay-Lyons to “mount a reconceived event—or give up the ghost.” A pity that the “generosity of spirit [that Boddy found] everywhere evident” at the event was not to be found in his own review!

For an alternative reading of the event, readers might seek out the forthcoming publication on Ghost 13 from Princeton Architectural Press. For me, Ghost 13 was an opportunity to listen to and talk with many dozens of architects about the issues facing architecture today—from authenti-city of place to global economies, craftsmanship to digital craft, and the fundamental question of how architecture embodies societal values. Christine Macy Dean, Faculty of Architecture and PlanningDalhousie University

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2011Board Members

PresidentStuart Howard, FRAIC

1st Vice-President and President-ElectDavid Craddock, MRAIC

2nd Vice-President and TreasurerPaul E. Frank, FRAIC

Immediate Past PresidentRanjit (Randy) K. Dhar, PP/FRAIC

Regional Directors

Wayne De Angelis, MRAIC (British Columbia/Yukon)

Wayne Guy, FRAIC (Alberta/NWT)

Charles Olfert, MRAIC (Saskatchewan/Manitoba)

Leslie Klein, FRAIC (Ontario Southwest)

Allan Teramura, MRAIC (Ontario North and East/Nunavut)

Jean-Pierre Pelletier, FIRAC (Quebec)

Paul E. Frank, FRAIC (Atlantic)

Chancellor of College of FellowsBarry Johns , FRAIC

Council of Canadian University Schools of Architecture (CCUSA)Kendra Schank Smith, MRAIC

Director Representing Intern ArchitectsW. Steve Boulton, MRAIC

Editorial LiaisonRalph Wiesbrock, FRAIC

Executive DirectorJim McKee

EditorSylvie Powell

Architecture Canada | RAIC330-55 Murray St. Ottawa ON K1N 5M3 Tel.: 613-241-3600 Fax: 613-241-5750 E-mail: info@raic.org

www.raic.orgMASThEAD PhoTo: LANGuAGE TECHNOLOGIES RE-SEARCH CENTRE AT uNIvERSITy OF QuEBEC IN OuTA-OuAIS | MENKèS SHOONER DAGENAIS LETOuRNEux ARCHITECTS / FORTIN CORRIvEAu SALvAIL ARCHITEC-TuRE + DESIGN | PHOTO: MICHEL BRuNELLE

ISSuE 33.2SuMMER 2011

Festival 2012 – a date set in stoneBe sure and mark your calendar for your date on the rock!

Theme: Deep Roots in a New Energy City

Location: Delta St. John’s Hotel and Conference Centre, Newfoundland and Labrador

June 12-16, 2012

Six Architecture Canada | RAIC members have been chosen by the Board to receive scholarships to attend veronafiere this year.

• Donald Davidson, MRAIC (Calgary)• Stacy Dyck, MRAIC (Winnipeg)• Lara McKendrick, MRAIC (Ottawa)• Shawn Moscovitch, MRAIC (Montreal)• Jonathan Rockliff, MRAIC (Edmonton) • Kevin Weiss, MRAIC (Toronto)

The thirteenth edition of “Designing with Natural Stone” will run from September 19-24, 2011 in verona, Italy, in conjunction with MARMOMACC, the world’s leading trade show for stone and design.

Recipients of Veronafiere scholarships announced

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Architecture Canada | RAIC is hosting a web site to highlight projects that meet and exceed the 2030 Challenges.

visit 2030.raic.org and see how the first three projects perform. Check back as the site is updated with new buildings and the information that makes each a contender.

The latest edition of Architecture: A magazine for public and institutional administrators highlighting the profession’s success in meeting the 2030 Challenge was mailed to all RAIC members in late spring. Everyone is encouraged to pass them on to clients as examples of the heights Architects can go to in safeguarding the planet for the future.

Restoration Services Centre – Toronto and Region Conservation Authority | Architect: Montgomery Sisam | Photo: Tom Arban

New Case Studies website highlights 2030 Challenge projects

The highest award given in Canada are the Governor General’s Medals in Architecture, which recognize and celebrate outstanding design in recently completed built projects by Canadian architects.

For the first time Submissions will be accepted electronically rather than in binder form. Copies of the Call for Submission are inserted in this edition of Cana dian Architect.

2012 Governor General’s Medals in ArchitectureChoP: Bundle pricing is back

The CHOP (2009 Edition) is the definitive reference for the architectural practice in Canada. A must-have for every office as an indispensable on-the-job resource; essential tool for interns and students preparing for examinations, after 10 years the CHOP underwent a complete revision bringing it into the digital age.

A complete access package – hardcopy with CD and online access – is now available at one low price – $250 shipping included. Don’t miss this limited time offer. order now!

Edmonton, Ottawa and Calgary have issued calls for entries for local urban design awards – the first stage of Architecture Canada’s National urban Design Awards process. Winners from these programs will automatically be submitted to the National Awards, administered by Architecture Canada, the Canadian Institute of Planners and the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects.

Cities issue Call for Entries in Urban Design Awards

Conseil d’administrationde 2011

PrésidentStuart Howard, FRAIC

Premier vice-président et président éluDavid Craddock, MRAIC

Deuxième vice-président et trésorierPaul E. Frank, FRAIC

Président sortant de chargeRanjit (Randy) K. Dhar, PP/FRAIC

Administrateurs régionaux

Wayne De Angelis, MRAIC (Colombie-Britannique/Yukon)

Wayne Guy, FRAIC (Alberta/T.N.-O.)

Charles Olfert, MRAIC (Saskatchewan/Manitoba)

Leslie Klein, FRAIC (Sud et Ouest de l’Ontario)

Allan Teramura, MRAIC (Est et Nord de l’Ontario/Nunavut)

Jean-Pierre Pelletier, FIRAC (Québec)

Paul E. Frank, FRAIC (Atlantique)

Chancelier du Collège des fellowsBarry Johns, FRAIC

Conseil canadien des écoles universitaires d’architecture (CCÉUA)Kendra Schank Smith, MRAIC

Conseiller représentant les stagiairesW. Steve Boulton, MRAIC

Conseiller à la rédactionRalph Wiesbrock, FRAIC

Directeur généralJim McKee

Rédactrice en chefSylvie Powell

Architecture Canada | IRAC55, rue Murray, bureau 330 Ottawa (Ontario) K1N 5M3 Tél. : 613-241-3600 Téléc. : 613-241-5750 Courriel : info@raic.org

www.raic.orgPhoTo EN CARToUChE DE TITRE : CENTRE DE RECHERCHE EN TECHNOLOGIES LANGAGIèRES DE L’uNIvERSITé Du QuéBEC EN OuTAOuAIS | MENKèS SHOONER DAGENAIS LETOuRNEux ARCHITECTES / FORTIN CORRIvEAu SALvAIL ARCHITECTuRE + DESIGN | PHOTO : MICHEL BRuNELLE

NuMéRO 33.2 éTé 2011

Festival 2012 – une date à retenirAssurez-vous de noter cette date à votre agenda et soyez des nôtres dans cette province que l’on surnomme « The Rock ».

Thème : Des assises solides pour la ville des énergies nouvelles

Lieu : Hôtel et centre de congrès Delta St. John’s, Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador

du 12 au 16 juin 2012

Six membres d’Architecture Canada provenant de diver-ses régions du Canada ont été choisis par le conseil d’administration pour se rendre à veronafiere cette année.

• Donald Davidson, MRAIC (Calgary)• Stacy Dyck, MRAIC (Winnipeg)• Lara McKendrick, MRAIC (Ottawa)• Shawn Moscovitch, MRAIC (Montréal)• Jonathan Rockliff, MRAIC (Edmonton)• Kevin Weiss, MRAIC (Toronto)

La treizième édition du cours « Designing with Natural Stone » se tiendra du 19 au 24 septembre à vérone, en Italie, de concert avec MARMOMACC, le plus grand salon professionnel au monde sur la pierre et le marbre.

Les récipiendaires des bourses pour le voyage à Veronafiere sont maintenant connus

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Architecture Canada | IRAC présente sur son site Web des projets qui relè-vent le Défi 2030 ou qui vont au-delà des exigences de ce défi.

visitez le site 2030.raic.org et voyez en quoi les trois premiers bâtiments qu’on y décrit se distinguent sur le plan de la performance. Ce site sera régulièrement enrichi par de nouveaux exemples. Consultez-le souvent.

Par ailleurs, le dernier numéro du magazine Architecture : un magazine à l’intention des donneurs d’ouvrage publics et institutionnels porte également sur le Défi 2030 et présente des projets qui l’ont relevé avec succès. Il a été posté à tous les membres de l’IRAC à la fin du printemps. Tous sont invités à le faire circuler auprès de leurs clients pour leur démontrer jusqu’à quel point les architectes peuvent aller dans leurs efforts pour sauver la planète.

Restoration Services Centre – office de protection de la nature de Toronto et de la région | Architecte : Montgomery Sisam | Photo : Tom Arban

Le nouveau site Web du Défi 2030 présente des études de cas

Les Médailles du Gouverneur général en architecture visent à reconnaître et à célébrer la qualité exceptionnelle d’œuvres récentes réalisées par des architectes cana-diens. Elles sont les prix les plus importants décernés à des architectes canadiens.

Pour la première fois cette année, les candidatures seront présentées par voie électronique plutôt que sous la forme de cahiers à anneaux. Des exemplaires de l’appel de candidatures sont insérés dans le présent numéro de Canadian Architect.

Médailles du Gouverneur général en architecture de 2012MCPA : le forfait est de retour

Le Manuel canadien de pratique de l’architecture (édition 2009) est LA référence pour les bureaux d’architectes au Canada. un document indispensable pour tous les bureaux et une ressource inestimable sur les chantiers; un outil essentiel pour les stagiaires et les étudi ants qui se préparent en vue de l’examen. Dix ans après sa publication originale, le MCPA a fait l’objet d’une révision complète qui l’a amené à l’ère du numérique.

obtenez votre trousse complète – copie papier, CD-Rom et accès en ligne à un seul bas prix – 250 $, frais d’expédition inclus. Ne manquez pas cette offre d’une durée limitée. Commandez le MCPA dès maintenant !

Les villes d’Edmonton, Ottawa et Calgary ont publié leurs appels de candidatures au volet local des Prix de design urbain – la première étape menant à l’attribution des Prix nationaux de design urbain. Les lauréats de ces program-mes municipaux participeront automatiquement au volet national du programme administré conjointement par Architecture Canada, l’Institut canadien des urbanistes et l’Association des architectes paysagistes du Canada.

Certaines villes canadiennes lancent un appel de candidatures aux Prix de design urbain

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18 canadian architect 09/11

that’s Bull!

the most recent phase of red Bull’s cana dian headquarters continues to surprise and delight with youthful spirit and material ingenuity.

09/11 canadian architect 19

project Red Bull Canada HeadquaRteRs, toRonto, ontaRiodesigner JoHnson CHou inC.text leslie Jenphotos tom aRBan

Despite the pervasive in-your-face presence of Red Bull in the media, the company’s Canadian headquarters in Toronto is surprisingly difficult to locate. On a heavily pedestrianized and busy retail stretch of Queen Street West littered with high-street brands like the Gap, H&M and Zara, the two-storey office space can only be accessed through an unmarked, slightly dis-tressed steel door and up a stark and spartan flight of stairs.

After being shot into the reception area through a red tube—cinematically lit by LEDs with the sound of steel clanging underfoot—things start to make a little more sense. Upon first glance, the headquarters for this global ener-gy drink company is predictably dynamic—more nightclub than office. Immediately in view is a long granite bar on one side, and on the other, a helical staircase of perforated steel leading up to the third floor. In contrast, a cozy waiting area/library beckons with elements of kitsch: flocked wall-paper, a chandelier, a bookshelf lined with sports magazines, and a small refrigerator containing—what else—Red Bull. The overall effect is amusing, a bit like viewing a diorama or a stage set.

It’s clear that this is no ordinary corporate office of soothing, muted shades and seamless understatement. Which makes sense, as Red Bull is all about living life full-on. Targeting a demographic of primarily young adult males, the company has aligned itself with all that the infinite spectrum of pop culture offers—art, music, sports, gaming. Aside from its well-known “Red Bull Gives You Wings” campaign, the company’s aggressive marketing strategy includes the sponsorship of a variety of extreme sporting events—from mountain biking to snowboarding to Formula 1 racing, a massive hit with its testosterone-addled target audience. It has even launched its own record label, Red Bull Records, and the generous spatial fluidity of the Toronto headquarters makes it a popular venue for album-release parties.

According to Johnson Chou, the gifted designer behind the Red Bull space, the vision of the client is a critical part of the success of any project. Former Vice President of Red Bull Canada, Jim Bailey, was such a dream client. Corporations and their leaders are becoming increasingly sophisti-cated about the design of their workspaces, recognizing the need for the work environment to reinforce and be identified with the all-important brand. A fan of Chou’s design for nearby advertising firm Grip Limited (see CA, June 2007), Bailey sought much of what Chou brought to that office. He requested an incubator for creativity, but also a physical manifestation of what Red Bull represents.

For Chou, the conceptual driver of the project was the “notion of spaces as vessels for transformation...both as a significant event in the lives of the participants and experientially with engaging, interactive architectural ele-ments.” This is readily apparent in the two-storey space: as in the offices for Grip, there is a sense that the office is comprised of an assemblage of discrete elements, of objects contained within the space.

Captivating with their curvilinear forms and iridescent silver surfaces, three elevated “floating” pods on the third floor were initially constructed as a suite of recording studios at the initial launch of the Red Bull Canada headquarters, to establish the company’s mentorship role as a music pro-ducer. To accommodate the growing needs of the office, the pods were eventually converted into two meeting rooms and a lounge. Lit from below and lined with blonde maple veneer, the end walls of the pods are fully glazed to permit light to flood in while encouraging a sense of visual con-nectivity within the office. The effect is all very space-age funky.

left soft ligHt filteRs tHRougH a seemingly Random Compos-ition of wood slats aRtiCulating tHe new BoaRdRoom. tHe impRessively long taBle is Hewn fRom a CHeRRy tRee felled on tHe millwoRkeR’s own RuRal pRopeRty.

20 canadian architect 09/11

Inexpensive materials like painted drywall and colourful vinyl are employed to maximum effect. But for the recently completed second phase of the pro-ject, there is a sense of increased sophistication along with greater material and textural contrast. A sizeable expansion of office space was created on the second floor to accommodate a consolidated accounting division. The largely open workstations are given some sense of enclosure and privacy from other zones in the office via cage-like separations. Here, Chou speci-fied a chunky expanded metal mesh screen similar to the cladding used for

Conceptually, even a chandelier becomes a vessel. Chou’s clever innova-tion of a deconstructed chandelier takes the form of an array of clear glass tubes, horizontally suspended and filled with loose crystals which are then illuminated from a halogen light source above. Dangling over the black granite picnic table in the lunchroom, the glittery result delights.

It’s important to note that because of the restricted budget, the design team worked with what existing elements they could: floors were not re-placed but merely refinished and stained, and ducting was left exposed.

09/11­­canadian architect­21

Second Floor­

1­entrance­stair 2­transition­tube 3­waiting/library 4­kitchen 5­dining/lunch­area 6­atrium

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oPPoSite toP­the­most­recent­phase­of­the­red­bull­headquarters­is­premised­upon­a­sophisticated­interplay­of­materials­and­tex-tures.­oPPoSite BottoM, leFt to riGht­the­cozy­waiting­area/library­awaits­visitors­immediately­adjacent­to­the­eerily­lit­“transition­tube”­entry­sequence;­on­the­third­floor,­two­central­meet-ing­areas­are­enclosed­in­discrete­silver-painted­“floating”­pods;­metal­screens,­a­felt-clad­server­room,­and­the­wood­lattice­of­the­boardroom­form­a­pleasing­material­contrast.

the New Museum in New York by 2010 Pritzker Prize-winning firm SANAA. It forms a handsome contrast to the presence of heavily grained tamarack wood—sawn by local Mennonites from reclaimed barn beams—that ramps up from the ground plane to form the horizontal surface of the open work-station desks.

Collaborating once again with industrial felt artist Kathryn Walter (see CA, September 2010), Chou has transformed the server room into another vessel, a massive hulking sculpture within the space: horizontal striations and variegated shades of grey felt strips wrap the bulky organic form, re-calling the natural contours of a mountain and also the muscular heft of a bull’s powerful body.

But the most striking addition to the ever-evolving Red Bull headquarters is the new second-floor boardroom, yet another vessel—defined this time by curved tamarack beams that originate vertically from the ground plane, arcing over to form an open ceiling. Tamarack strips of different lengths are positioned horizontally in a seemingly random fashion, forming a textured abstract lattice screen. The impressively long boardroom table is hewn from a single slice of a massive cherry tree felled on millworker D.B. Johnson’s own property in Grey County. It’s a seductively dark, womb-like space that evokes memories of a modern, stripped-down Canadian cabin, enhanced by Walter’s acoustically absorptive grey felt end walls.

Having won a Best of 2010 Award from Interior Design magazine, this workspace clearly appeals not only to the design critics, but to Red Bull’s lucky employees. While there, I witnessed a bit of skateboarding in the atrium, and was told by a female staffer that frisbee is also a rather popu-lar—if not disruptive—way of blowing off steam. No doubt this is an office for the young, and maybe even just the young at heart—with the aid of a turbo-charged energy drink, naturally. ca

client­red­bull­canadadeSiGn teaM­johnson­chou,­silke­stadtmueller,­can­bui,­heather­shute,­anne­ehlers,­dorna­ghorashi,­shant­krechelianStructural­halcrow­yollesMechanical­toews­engineeringelectrical­hcc­engineeringcontractor­renovate­all­(phase­1);­torcon­(phase­2)area­11,000­ft2­BudGet­withheldcoMPletion­july­2010­(phase­1);­june­2011­(phase­2)

13­team­office14­server­room15­boardroom16­washrooms17­exterior­deck

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09/11­­canadian architect­23

GoinG the distance

a low-profile country residence establishes a clear position reGardinG the surroundinG views of its rural landscape.

project­House­in­Grey­HiGHlands,­Grey­County,­ontarioarchitect­ian­MaCdonaldtext­JoHn­Bentley­Maysphotos­toM­arBan

Though busy Torontonians have turned it into a popular getaway destination, Grey County’s Beaver Valley hardly fits the usual definition of Ontario cottage country. It features a rolling expanse of farms, apple orchards, timbered hillsides and sheltered swamps—not the wild, angular scenes of ancient rocks and glittering lakes famously portrayed by Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven.

But like the less civilized parts of Haliburton or Muskoka, the Beaver Valley can tempt residential architects and their clients to take the easy way out of the housing problem, merely drop a city home into the midst of the scenery, and call the job done. The greater design challenge in these rural spots entails entering into a thoughtful dia-logue with southern Ontario landforms, their geology and history, and coming up with solu-tions that fit, rather than fight (or ignore) the complex beauty of what’s there.

As I discovered on a recent visit to Beaver Valley, Toronto architect Ian MacDonald has tackled this artistic and philosophical challenge and carried it through to an impressive conclu-

sion in his project known as Grey Highlands.Designed as a year-round second residence for

a Toronto professional couple with five children, the 2,950-square-foot building stands on the site of a former farm laid out high up the sloping side of the valley wall. The visitor coming there drives up the steep dead-end road that runs between the property and a nearby highway, then parks on a small pad just off the road.

Surveyed from the vantage point of the pad, the flat-roofed house sits low and broad below, partly embedded into the hillside, not perched on the property’s highest point. This sense of insertion into the landscape is reinforced by the green roof, which looks as if it had been cut and lifted

above­tHis­disCreet­low-lyinG­residenCe­in­Grey­HiGHlands­overlooks­tHe­Gentle­Hills­of­­Beaver­valley.

24­canadian architect­09/11

from the surrounding meadowland.The building’s long, low-slung limbs stretch

out in two directions, describing an L shape in plan. The larger wing, containing the more public areas of the house, lies parallel to the ridge above and the river below. The other, enclosing the bedrooms, is set down perpendicular to the first, thrusting out toward the distant, opposite side of the valley. This outbound visual pulse is sharply checked, however, by an old timber-framed barn, roofed in galvanized steel and stained black to match the dark cladding of the house. I will come back to this barn in a moment, but a few more remarks on the house proper and its setting are in order.

The architect has created, for example, an es-pecially effective route of approach. One walks down from the parking pad on a long, switch-back flight of stone steps sunk into the hillside. The quietly dramatic flight—a processional tran-sition between the public road above and the private realm below—is lined with handsome, rugged walls of dry-laid granite boulders and hewn blocks built by Toronto stonemason Gus Butterfield. Butterfield’s skill at handling stone to strong, attractive visual effect is also on show in the walls around the exterior pizza oven, just off the kitchen, and in the low barrier in front of the barn.

Coming into the house by way of the well- defined main entrance, the visitor immediately finds himself not inside the high-ceilinged, open-plan living/dining/kitchen complex—that comes a little later, down a narrow hallway—but on a bridge overlooking the most secluded room in the structure.

No tall windows open this room to the spacious views roundabout. Neither as private as a bed-room, nor as public as a living room, it speaks of retreat and refuge, of measured withdrawal, if only a little bit, from the pressures of living in a family of seven. This space has been put to work, perhaps inevitably, as a playroom for the kids. But its place at the heart of the house suggests that a different program might be appropriate here someday—quiet reading or listening to music, for instance, playing chess or some other adult cultural activity.

Concrete and tough, naturally ruddy jatoba hardwood provides flooring in the living and dining areas, and exposed and unpainted Douglas

left, top to bottoM­tHe­new­residenCe­is­strateGiCally­sited­in­Close­proxiMity­to­tHe­oriGinal­Barn­to­link­tHe­site’s­­His­tory­witH­tHe­identity­of­tHe­new­­arCHiteCture;­tHe­dininG­rooM­links­tHe­kitCHen­and­sittinG­area;­a­voyeuristiC­niGHt­sHot­of­tHe­HoMe’s­interior­illus-trates­BotH­tHe­CoMplex­and­HarMoni-ous­nature­of­tHe­various­arCHiteCtural­eleMents­in­plaCe.­

09/11­­canadian architect­25

fir rafters span the entire length of the main wing. The wooden elements above and below, and the mahogany millwork, lend warmth and a sense of belonging in rural nature to the other-wise resolutely Modernist, white-and-black in-terior of the house’s most prominent communal space. This zone is as open as the secluded room is shut—and so it goes in MacDonald’s rhythmic, flexing design, with openings and closings, and alternations between tight framings and broad spatial releases occurring throughout.

I had my most vivid experience of Grey High-lands’ aesthetic and intellectual liveliness when standing one afternoon in the living/dining area. This large room’s west wall, which faces the op-posite slope of Beaver Valley, is entirely glazed. Looking through the glass at the nearest fore-ground, one sees a small, flat oblong of lawn. This grassy courtyard is bounded on three sides, first by the main volume of the house the viewer is standing in, then by the long bedroom wing, and finally by the barn, which is now used by the children for shooting hoops and jumping on a trampoline.

But instead of fully shutting in the western side of the court, the restored barn steps side-ways to allow the eye of the viewer to pass directly from the lawn and a short patch of meadow beyond to the green valley wall rising in the back-ground. The middle distance, in other words, is eliminated.

By using what he found on the site, inventing the rest, and taking full advantage of the site con-ditions, Ian MacDonald has given his clients a very particular view to enjoy for as long as they live at Grey Highlands. I had never before seen this perspective on landscape—devoid, I mean, of a middle ground—generated by a work of rural Ontario architecture: people living in the country apparently prefer to be situated in space com-fortably composed of near, middle and far distances. But I had glimpsed this strategy before—not in architecture, but in certain Euro-pean paintings.

The middle distance in traditional Western art is the public zone in which people mingle, ex-change goods, play and protest, make friends and enemies, and do the other sociable things people get up to in the course of life together. It’s the muddle that lies between the near-term realm of body, home and family and the far-distant dominion of aspirations, ideals and high spiritual values.

Some landscape painters in the Early Modern

riGht, top to bottoM­an­outdoor­BarBeque­enClosed­By­a­dry-laid­stone­wall­fur-tHer­defines­tHe­arCHiteCture­and­its­relationsHip­to­tHe­landsCape;­tHe­Heavy­Base­of­tHe­stone­wall­anCHors­a­­Generously­Glazed­façade­and­an­expressively­Horizontal­floatinG­roof.

26­canadian architect­09/11

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period sought to idealize and tidy up the middle distance, but numerous European Romantic artists (active c. 1800-1840) were having none of it. In picture after picture, they depicted shadowy, intimate interiors (studies, painting studios, bedrooms) lit by a single plain window that framed only a patch of remote sky. Social space and the social sense, the middle ground between painful solitude (interior gloom) and absolute transcendence (expressed by sky and light), were abolished in these paintings, leaving their often melancholy human inhabitants to look soulfully out the window toward visions they could never attain. This existential atmosphere was illustrated recently by a show entitled Rooms with a View: The Open Window in the 19th Century at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Henri Matisse often recalled the Romantic inclination to cut the middle ground out of compositions meant to symbolize the yearning of the real for the far-away ideal. The French artist is famous for his pensive, solitary women seated or standing at open windows. But the canvases in which he uses this spatial tactic are free of Romantic metaphysical angst, and are

suffused instead with bright, thoroughly modern Mediterranean sunshine and light desire.

In a 1922 painting now at the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal, for in-stance, Matisse puts us (and a stylish young woman) into an upper-storey salon and invites our gaze to travel over her shoulder, out the wide window, toward a sunny seascape. A few white brushstrokes suggest the sails of pleasure craft in the harbour beyond the window. But apart from these little mid-ground gestures, the space of the painting divides into two parts, an interior and the infinite blue sea.

If this spatial division seems less stark and antagonistic than what we find in some Romantic paintings, it’s because Matisse has wrapped both near and far in shadowless southern radiance. There is still longing here, a pull toward the distant horizon, but longing without anxiety or soul-de-stroying vexation—a gentle sense of lack, that is (like wanting a tall, cool drink on a hot day at the beach) appropriate to the holiday seasides where Matisse loved to paint.

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The cloudier northern landscape scene fashioned by Ian MacDonald at Grey Highlands embodies yet another variation on this fertile theme. Here, the erasure of middle distance means that the viewer’s eye rests on either the near-ground ensemble of barn and yard or the valley wall rising oppos-ite the house. The symbolic difference between the two spaces is distinct—one is domestic and enclosed, the other spreads out to reveal old configura-tions of farming and inhabitation—but the difference is not rudely abrupt. Both are inhabited places, both are lit and dimmed by the same skies, both have been sculpted by hard work pursued over several generations by farmers.

The barn close to the house recalls this tradition of labour, and so does

the pattern of cultivated fields on the opposite hillside. The modern world of the middle distance—represented, for instance, by an arterial road on the valley floor—has become invisible, leaving visible only evidence of the re-gion’s agricultural past and present. Grey Highlands, then, is not only sunk

above, left to riGht­exposed­roof­Joists­Help­Maintain­a­sense­of­liGHtness­to­tHe­HoMe;­wood­sHinGles,­rope­CHain­down-spouts­and­stone­walkways­eMpHasize­tHe­HoMe’s­Grounded-ness­in­tHe­landsCape.­bottoM, left to riGht­tHe­Master­BedrooM­looks­out­to­a­Barn­in­tHe­foreGround­and­to­tHe­Grey­HiGH-lands­in­tHe­distanCe;­tHe­enClosed­sittinG­area­Creates­a­sense­of­safety­and­intiMaCy.

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62035.indd 1 08/08/11 3:17 PM

physically deep into this landscape. It also frames a view that reminds us of the human forces that have transformed this district of Ontario from wil-derness into richly productive farmland.

MacDonald’s beautiful Beaver Valley house succeeds as an expert formal play of volumes and voids. But its more enduring importance to the building art consists in the mindful way MacDonald has addressed and incorporated the culture of its interesting site. ca

John Bentley Mays is an architecture critic and writes regularly for The Globe and Mail.

client­witHHeldarchitect teaM­ian­MaCdonald,­MiCHael­attard,­MiCHael­aManteastructural­BlaCkwell­BowiCk­partnersHipMechanical­nottawasaGa­MeCHaniCallandscape­ian­MaCdonald­arCHiteCt­inC.interiors­ian­MaCdonald­arCHiteCt­inC.contractor­d.H.­siMpson­ConstruCtion,­CoiviC­ConstruCtion­(landsCape)area­2,950­ft2­budGet­witHHeldcoMpletion­oCtoBer­2008

above, left to riGht­a­BenCH­and­Closet­at­tHe­entranCe;­a­view­down­tHe­lonG­Corridor­is­Broken­up­By­several­GliMpses­of­tHe­landsCape;­tHe­new­arCHiteCture­in­tHe­foreGround­CoM-pleMents­tHe­aGinG­Barn­BeHind.

28­canadian architect­09/11

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32 canadian architect 09/11

Glass MenaGerie

the tired and fadinG Victoria MeMorial MuseuM BuildinG in ottawa receiVes a lonG-awaited rejuVenation that BrinGs the past into the 21st century with style and sensitiVity.

project Canadian MuseuM of nature, ottawa, ontarioarchitects Padolsky, kuwabara, GaGnon Joint Venture arChiteCts (PkG): barry Padolsky assoCiates inC. arChiteCts, kuwabara Payne MCkenna bluMberG arChiteCts, and GaGnon letellier Cyr riCard Mathieu arChiteCtestext Janine debannÉphotos toM arban, Maris Mezulis

When David Ewart designed the Victoria Mem­orial Museum Building (VMMB) in 1904, he combined the Neo­Gothic language of Ottawa’s original Parliament buildings with Beaux Arts ideas and inspiration from the greatest museums of the day, including London’s Victoria & Albert

Museum. Unfortunately, Ewart’s original build­ing was constructed on unstable ground, and its foundations were inadequate from the outset. A century later, the building’s contents were at risk—irreplaceable plants, animals, fossils and minerals from the original collection of the

Geological Survey of Canada including mineral samples found only in one region of the planet, the bones of an enormous blue whale, and taxi­dermic mounts of extinct birds and endangered mammals. The commission to renovate the VMMB, explains architect Bruce Kuwa bara, began not so much with a vision, but rather a blunt set of architectural problems that needed to be addressed: the building was sinking, the en­vironmental systems were inadequate, and the existing circulation and services did not fulfill the ceremonial requirements of a treasured national museum dedicated to Canada’s natural history. More challenging still, the building that existed was beautiful, and long beloved by the citizens of Ottawa. The question then became: “What was an architect supposed to do?” In the face of these difficult challenges, what eventually

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resulted for the newly renovated Canadian Mu­seum of Nature (CMN) was a great architectural moment for the nation’s capital.

With a complete overhaul of its structure, sys­tems and envelope, two new room­sized eleva­tors that combine freight and passenger move­ment, and a renewal of interior spaces and dis­plays, the CMN may now receive international standard exhibitions and accommodate increased numbers of visitors whether they arrive alone or in classroom­sized crowds, on foot or in wheel­chairs. Beyond the numerous upgrades de­manded by the project brief, the renovation also addresses delicate questions of shared cultural memory, of symbolic meaning, and of new meth­ods for renovating heritage buildings in Canada. The renovation has also produced a compelling urban architectural landmark at the terminal

point of Metcalfe Street on its famously offset axis from Parliament Hill: a new glass tower on the building’s main façade which is also visible from the Queensway. There is also a new east/west­oriented wing along the building’s south fa­çade that is clad in polished Kodiak black granite and bush­hammered St. Marc limestone. This slender addition sits away from the historic building to create moat­like planted courtyards, and also supports a new roof garden landscaped with indigenous plants, thus providing a cleaner urban definition to the site’s southern edge.

As with any historic conservation project, the architecture’s merit can be measured through the intelligence of achieving a balance between old and new. This can be seen in the successful but “sacrilegious” interventions of the new glass tower and butterfly staircase and the new service wing, in addition to substantial seismic up­grading. These new “dynamic buffer zones” (DBZ) were respectfully executed so as not to ob­scure past qualities and the meaning of the ori­ginal building. In several fundamental ways, the project has already proven its success. Over the

opposite, left to riGht an eleGant Central Glass tower now rises aboVe the oriGinal 1912 struCture as a result of Modern enGineerinG teChnoloGy; the liGht transParenCy of the new Central stair Contrasts with the solid Mass of the oriGinal stone buildinG; exPansiVe north-faCinG Views Can be enJoyed by the MuseuM’s Visitors froM the tower known as the “Queen’s lantern.”

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top a CoMPlete oVerhaul of the buildinG’s interiors has yielded a More interaCtiVe aPProaCh to ViewinG natural history. Middle dioraMas and diMly lit installations were larGely rePlaCed by well-lit and airy ViewinG Galleries. aBoVe the new water Gallery Contains an installation of the MuseuM’s beloVed skeleton of an enorMous blue whale.

past decade, we have seen several renovations of historic museums that prefer to agitate its original architecture through the addition of a distinct and distinctly expressive form—the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto is one well­known example. The genius of the CMN and its significant archi­tectural merit lies in the design team’s ability to integrate its future with its past. The outcome of a protracted nine­year effort, the VMMB project is certainly a bold but quiet work of rigorous problem­solving and finely tuned construction that has resulted in a distinctive new architecture that braces and depends upon the original structure for its success.

The discreet structural solution to the problem of the clay soil and local seismic requirements has also yielded improvements to the building’s en­vironmental systems while maintaining a sense of historic continuity. To achieve this, a section of floor up to one metre in width was removed along the entire perimeter of the building, opening a vertical cavity into which a braced steel frame was inserted and anchored to the historic stone shell. The W310 x 143 steel members run from the new foundations to the roof and are tied back to the new floor slabs—which act as structural dia­phragms—with 20mm­diameter stainless steel rods at one metre on centre, thus stabilizing the building from earthquakes and settling. This new inser­tion, which effectively amounts to a secondary building envelope, provides a well­tempered interior that is protected from Ottawa’s extreme weather conditions. At present, the museum’s interior begins at a distance of one metre inward from where it once did, pulled away from the stone walls into an independently ventilated and earthquake­proof environment. Thanks to this DBZ, the museum’s galleries can now support carefully controlled tem­peratures and higher humidity levels while the old walls can continue to exist as they have for almost 100 years.

In the age of the spectacle building, such apportionment of expenditure is admirable. In turn, the material narrative sets a crisp and restrained palette of glass, concrete, and smoothly finished dimensioned stone against the his­toric building’s warmer palette of split­faced and carved limestone, wood and mosaic tile. Inside, wood from original floors was reused in the reno­vated salon, the boardroom and the third­floor west temporary exhibitions gallery. What results is not a competition, but a dialogue of subtle contrast, with shared geometries and clear distinctions between old and new.

The three­firm architectural joint venture known as PKG was comprised of Ottawa­based Barry Padolsky Associates, Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (KPMB) from Toronto, and Gagnon Letellier Cyr Ricard Mathieu Architectes (GLCRM) from Quebec City. The consortium describe the project as a collaboration that relied heavily on the talents of many experts, such as renowned Leda clay expert Gordon McRostie and structural engineer Dan Carson. Architect Barry Padolsky’s meticulous re­search and long­term involvement with the building backs KPMB’s design initiatives. Padolsky had been in charge of an earlier series of renovations, so his firm was able to handle the project’s extensive heritage components. GLCRM was responsible for detail development of the building envelope throughout the new additions and in the old building, in particular for de­vising the DBZ. The consortium hired Ottawa architect Paul Dolan to super­vise construction and to preserve the overall project vision on behalf of the joint venture. Countless other architects like KPMB project architect Brent Wagler dedicated extended periods of time in Ottawa from inception to completion. The fact that many architects and engineers had to appear be­fore the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office and the National Capital Commission several times a year for the better part of a decade to explain and argue each proposed alteration to Canada’s first museum building lends depth and substance to this work. For Kuwabara, the project became as introspective as a thesis. The other authority the architects were obliged to yield to was the even less forgiving Leda clay basin extending over 30 metres beneath the stone structure. In this renovation project, the additional weight of new construction resulted in removing unnecessary material in exchange.

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clocKwise froM top riGht restorinG and rePaintinG the MuseuM’s Many dioraMas was an iMPortant Part of the renoVation ProCess; the butterfly stair within the Queen’s lantern Can be seen throuGh the intriCately detailed oriGinal neo-GothiC windows; the ethereal butterfly stair is housed within the soarinG lantern and ConneCts to the MuseuM’s Central atriuM below; workers PrePare to MoVe soMe of the oriGinal Murals Created by Manitoba artist ClarenCe tillenius.

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4 eleVator 5 water Gallery 6 MaMMal Gallery

9 south addition terraCe10 Greenhouse11 Green roof

9 kitChen10 MuseuM serViCes11 offiCes

At odds with contemporary museological requirements, the architects’ desire for natural light to filter into the body of the museum finds expres­sion through a series of glazed cuts into the new envelope, explains Wagler. These openings are centred on the exterior wall’s windows where discreet clues of the seismic bracing—a blurred silhouette of a ladder or a steel member—can be seen. However, as opaque shades screen most of the exter­ior windows for curatorial reasons, the telegraphing of the fenestration to the new interior is rarely fulfilled. The bird gallery and several ceremonial rooms are exceptions. Making the enormous effort and artifice of “display” possible, the service sleeve embodies the museum’s very raison d’être—it has become the backbone to the gallery experience in which the public can ad­mire at close range specimens that have been extracted from their original settings. The new configuration also inverts the building’s original mode of displaying glass vitrines containing the collections of the Geological Survey of Canada centrally positioned in the VMMB’s wings.

As to questions of historical continuity and cultural meaning, the archi­tects chose to give importance to the museum’s stone tower that was never fully realized. The clay soil caused the original crenellated central stone tower to severely lean away from the building’s façade, so to Ewart’s great frustration, he hurriedly dismantled the weighty tower before the building’s opening in 1912. Ever since then, the Neo­Gothic structure had lacked a vertical resolution and symbolic connection to the Parliament Buildings. The new seismic upgrades allowed a new tower to be supported, but this one would be much lighter. The “Queen’s Lantern,” as it is known, is made al­most entirely of glass and is commandingly positioned and contained by a recessed central bay. Inside the lantern, a processional “butterfly” stair connects to the upper floors and organizes a belvedere to the city with a viewing platform. The triple­glazed structural glass panel­and­fin assembly hangs from roof trusses that rest on four pairs of cylindrical columns, each 100 feet in length, that rise through the lantern. The trusses tie southward into the new internal elevator cores on either side of the atrium. The col­umns also support the stairs, which in turn, provide lateral triangulation. The entire system rests on a new raft foundation poured after excavating a full storey of clay soil. The details and materiality of Ewart’s original stone building are kept intimately near, and made noticeable through the new architecture’s frame.

Kuwabara emphasizes the goal of revealing the old building for new appreciation, and of making historical connections at many scales—from the urban realm all the way down to the tilework on the atrium floor. In a remarkable interstitial area between the brick bearing wall at the front

Below a struCtural diaGraM illustratinG the one-Metre-wide sleeVe of steel braCinG that was inserted between the new Galleries and the oriGinal exterior stone walls. opposite BottoM, left to riGht a View of the exPosed steel seisMiC braCinG; a View of the lan-tern and the MuseuM’s north façade froM MCleod street.

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entrance and the “apse,” the visitor can study the steel system propping up the old building. Inside the turrets, which now contain new egress stairs, the stone is unfinished and crudely exposed. The dialogue of old and new structure is most obvious on the lower level where there are teaching areas, an animalium, a cinema, and washrooms. A floating wall clad with some of the cream-coloured glazed bricks that had once lined the entire museum shell (they were removed to compensate for the added weight of the steel frame) becomes a backdrop to two architectural models, and lends privacy to the washroom entrance. Inside, natural light breaks through the win-dows, and stainless steel partitions sidestep the massive cylindrical columns. The atrium, with its Pompeiiesque mosaic floor, gains a new presence due to the taut lines and soft glow of the Queen’s Lantern that now flanks it. Glazing was removed from the central arch to intensify the dialogue between the two spaces, and new tilework in the atrium artfully reinterprets the old pattern. And a paint colour researched by Padolsky—a buttery cream—gives fullness to the museum’s central space. “I would have preferred red,” states Kuwabara, “but Barry insisted on the historical col-our, and he was right. It’s not red, but it has a body.”

Almost anyone who remembers visiting the museum during any of the four decades prior to the renovations recalls with fondness the unpreten-tious museum with its dinosaur room that could be rented for sleepover birthday parties, and its magical dioramas from the 1960s. These mimetic mises-en-scène of Canada’s mammals in their habitats brought together the

fruits of taxidermy, model-making and painted landscape scenes (many made by Manitoba artist Clarence Tillenius), all inside rounded fibreglass shell containers. The signage was simple pre-digital signage. In one ex-ample, the birds of Canada were gathered together in a cylindrical diorama inside an almost pitch-black room, complete with a sound reel of bird cries—and it was like being there with them in Canada’s imagined wild. Fortunately, many of the dioramas were preserved and rehoused in the new museum. Unfortunately, some of the original experience of wonder is lost, amidst the interactive screens and mediating devices of contem-porary museology. The aims of the architects and of the museum curators did not always harmonize entirely, and this is to be expected. But the new architecture, borne of an intense process of analysis and understanding, has given the VMMB a much stronger presence than it had before. On many registers and at many scales, the VMMB renovation does what great archi-tecture is called to do: orient us more deeply in culture, history and place. Canada’s oldest museum and the Canadian public have been extremely well-served. ca

Janine Debanné is an Associate Professor at the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism at Carleton University.

client­canadian­museum­of­naturearchitect team­kuwabara­payne­mckenna­blumberg­archi-tects:­bruce­kuwabara,­brent­wagler,­luigi­larocca,­chris­couse,­John­allen,­bill­colaco,­yekta­pakdaman-hamedani,­shab-bar­sagarwala,­andrew­gunn,­brian­lee,­Jose­emila,­Jill­greaves,­bruno­weber,­walter­gaudet,­thom­seto,­tomislav­knezic,­vir-ginia­dos­reis,­carolyn­lee,­lauren­abrahams,­lang­cheng,­brad-ley­hindson,­norm­li,­lilly­liaukus,­tyler­sharp,­esther­cheung,­meagan­gauthier,­francesco­valente-gorJup,­anna­baraness,­taewook­eum.­barry­padolsky­associates­inc.:­barry­padolsky,­louise­mcgugan,­mike­kelly,­eric­fruhauf,­elizabeth­saikali,­ursula­clarkson,­danica­lau,­mike­labine,­Jason­lowe,­grant­stewart,­tony­hamilton,­peter­elliott,­crystal­eryuzlu,­Janice­hamacher,­rene­mariaca.­gagnon­letellier­cyr­ricard­mathieu­architectes:­marc­letellier,­michel­gagnon,­simon­brochu,­pierre­michaud,­suzanne­castonguay,­vincent­lavoie,­rÉal­st-pierre,­Jean-sÉbas-tien­laberge.­paul­dolan—pkg­resident­site­architect.Structural­halsall­associates­ltd.mechanical/electrical­genivar­consulting­grouplandScape­corush­sunderland­wrightinteriorS­padolsky,­kuwabara,­gagnon­Joint­venture­archi-tects­(pkg)contractor­pcl­constructors­canada­inc.area­250,000­ft2­(220,000­ft2­existing,­30,000­ft2­new­construc-tion)Budget­$150­mcompletion­may­2010

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DIRECT ENERGY CENTRE, TORONTO

Exposition September 22 – 23, 2011 ConfErEnCE

September 22 – 24, 2011

ITS ALL ABOUT DESIGN AT IIDEX 2011THREE BLOCKBUSTER KEYNOTES

DEsign KEynotE

INSIDE OUT Dominique Jakob and Brendan Macfarlane Jakob+Macfarlane, paris

Keynote theatre, free

September 22, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

Hospitality KEynotE

SLEEPER HITS: THE EVOLUTION OF HOTEL DESIGNisadore sharp, four seasons Hotels and resorts Howard pharr, Hirsch Bedner associates in Conversation with ilana Weitzman, Editor-in-chief, enRoute magazine

Keynote theatre, free

September 22, 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM

arCHitECtural KEynotE

THE PRACTICE OF SUSTAINABILITY Matthias sauerbruch sauerbruch Hutton, Berlin

Keynote theatre, free

September 23, 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

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Matthias sauerbruch is co-presented by the goethe-institut toronto.

Calgary continues to change, but it’s difficult to witness the city’s evolution from your WestJet window when all you can see for miles around the airport as your plane descends is sprawl, stucco and vinyl siding. However, if you are able to view the neighbourhoods that encircle the inner city, you will notice a subtle trend apparent in residential projects adopting a contemporary approach to their designs.

Clients are becoming more critical of the architecture they commission, while municipal projects are increasingly trending towards dramatic insertions into the Calgary landscape.

One recent residential project leading the push for high-quality contemporary work has emerged from the Office of Richard Davignon, Architect (ordA). Given the technical nature of the firm’s work, it is no surprise that

ExpansivE privacya rEsidEntial projEct in calgary carvEs out its placE within an Evolving markEt dEmand for contEmporary homEs.

projEct Ferrier Webb residence, calgary, albertaarchitEct OFFice OF richard davignOn, architecttExt Kate thOmpsOnphotos ric KOKOtOvich

aBovE cOmprised OF a rich material pal-ette, this Well-appOinted sitting rOOm prOvides a quiet place FOr reading and relaxatiOn.

40 canadian architEct 09/11

will be relaunching ordA as Davignon Martin Architecture.

When visiting ordA, it is apparent that the firm has developed a critical eye for detailing, and this strength in precision design is evidenced by the thick stacks of drawings and process-oriented massing models seen throughout the office. Shop drawings are layered and reviewed elec-tronically, stripped-down framing packages are produced, and intricate three-dimensional models provide the basis for communication with consultants and fabricators. The latest result of

this ongoing process, the Ferrier Webb Resi-dence is a culmination of four years of work and clearly shows ordA’s commitment to detailed de-sign explorations.

The main attributes of the project are its large size and close proximity to the downtown. Creating an ideal landscape in which to site the residence was the firm’s most critical gesture. Located in the 1950s community of Britannia in Calgary’s south-west quadrant, the house is sited between busy Elbow Drive and a small nondescript laneway. A driveway was carved from the back laneway into a large internal courtyard for the house, providing the architects with a reference point for the entire project and a focus for movement throughout this 5,800-square-foot residence.

Three simple geometric massing elements re-volve around this multi-layered courtyard. The guest wing and garage are one element and together they bracket the house from Elbow Drive. The second element is a heavily windowed main-floor living area that supports a third element—the black metal-clad box containing the bedrooms above. The simple geometries in the project belie the complexity of circulation throughout the project. A sun-drenched corridor on the south side of the courtyard provides access between the guest wing and the main living spaces, and is adorned with large-scale paintings and a totem pole commissioned for the owners.

The three primary volumes, each being defined on the exterior by its own materiality, are individ-ually mechanically supported while a generously scaled horizontal plenum has been introduced between the two storeys to allow for future chan-ges while simplifying the ducting of the current mechanical system.

Despite the restrained material palette for the project, there exist many intricacies in its appli-

top, lEft to right A view through the courtyArd to the mAin living AreA beyond; A custom-mAde totem pole in the mAin entrAnce is one exAmple of the couple’s extensive Art collection; nAturAl dAylight And consciously ArrAnged mAteriAl elements define An ordered precision to the home’s internAl circulAtion. Bottom the stAir leAding up to the bedrooms is suspended by stAinless steel rods.

Richard Davignon cites Jean Nouvel, Saucier + Perrotte and Santiago Calatrava as architects that have influenced his design process. Davignon, the lead architect on the Ferrier Webb Residence, was trained as a structural engineer prior to gradu ating from the architecture program at the University of Calgary in 1997 before eventually establishing his firm in 2001. This young eight-person office is nearing completion of their second generation of projects and the results are encouraging. At the end of September 2011, Davignon and business partner Doris Martin

09/11 canadian architEct 41

top the contrAsting mAteriAl pAlette comprising blAck metAl clAdding, site-cAst concrete And wood Accents together creAtes A rich And vAriegAted internAl courtyArd. aBovE the interior courtyArd heightens the introspective Aspects of the Architecture.

cation. Eschewing the heavy stucco massing found on many recent contemporary homes in Calgary, ordA used site-cast concrete, custom steel panelling, elongated black brick and ipe wood that migrates from the exterior to the inter-ior spaces to further the firm’s desire “to see spaces that expand and contract with the seasons.” Using simple wood-frame construc-tion, Davignon made the exterior walls thicker to increase the contrast between the wall in relation to the window openings.

Essential to the success of this project were the clients. With a collectively critical eye, they believed that the process of achieving a final architectural design was akin to that of an artist painting a canvas. It would be a stretch to de-scribe this single-family home as environment-ally friendly but the clients did choose to include geothermal heating, three cisterns to collect rainwater, and ample fenestration to maximize natural daylight, all of which reduce the home’s environmental footprint.

The Ferrier Webb project is a timely insertion into the Calgary residential architecture com-munity. This house adds to the work of other young Calgary firms operating at a high level of design. More than just a structure with a band of windows on the bottom and a black plinth float-

ing above, the house operates on many levels. Through critical detailing and considerable de-sign control, it has achieved a degree of refine-ment that will hopefully motivate others in the city to do the same. Though frustrated with Calgary in the past, Davignon has noticed a shift in the design community over the past three

42 canadian architEct 09/11

aBovE, lEft to right the front entry signAls the very privAte nAture of the residence while hinting At the interior’s ApproAch to mAteriAlity; the wArmth of finely crAfted wood ceilings is A successful contrAst to the cooler Aspects of the stone floors used throughout; the deliberAte thickness of the wAlls Accen tuAtes every window opening.

cliEnt mArk ferrier And kAthleen webbarchitEct tEam richArd dAvignon, yAn pAquin, nAtAliA coto, doris mArtin, JAn gillstructural mwc consulting structurAl engineersmEchanical usselmAn cAll cAnAdiAnElEctrical hohnke intelligent home systemsintEriors ce de celandscapE scAtlif + miller + murrAy inc.projEct managEmEnt hAnnon richArds collectionsarEa 5,432 ft2 BudgEt withheldcomplEtion JAnuAry 2010

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years. Both clients and the general population seem more open to modern solutions while planners are increasingly promoting and understanding the needs of evolving neighbourhoods. As the School of Architecture at the University of Calgary celebrates its 40th year in the city, perhaps we are finally enjoying the influence of a critical mass of graduate architects, in-terns and new practitioners that are helping to redefine Calgary architec-ture—one project at a time. ca

Kate Thompson is an architect and sessional instructor in the Faculty of Environ-mental Design at the University of Calgary. She is also a regional coordinator for the Migrating Landscapes competition that is part of Canada’s official entry to the 2012 Venice Biennale in Architecture.

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review

Blueprints for war

Architecture in uniform: Designing AnD BuilDing for the seconD WorlD WAr exam-ines the staggering impact of the war effort on the history and development of modernism.

text michael mcclelland

The recent CCA exhibition and its accompanying book, Architecture in Uniform, examine the role of the architect in wartime. Jean-Louis Cohen, cur-ator of the exhibit and author of the book, has collected material that is almost overwhelming in its impact, painting a picture of the Second World War as a major turning point in modern architec-tural theory and practice. This is an unusual per-spective, as the war is more frequently portrayed as a time when architects put down their drafting tools and went to serve their countries in other ways. Cohen very persuasively demonstrates that the war and the profession of architecture were inseparable.

The exhibition starts with images of devasta-tion, aerial images of Hiroshima and Guernica, and the extraordinary photographs by August Sander showing the ruins of Cologne after the bombing. These images are followed by a succes-sion of galleries, each one exploring a specific theme or set of ideas about architecture—some appearing tangential at first, but ultimately re-vealing the complex processes by which architec-ture was inexorably transformed by the war.

Throughout this incredibly researched exhib-ition, familiar faces appear in unfamiliar con-texts. For example, Cohen has included drawings prepared by Dan Kiley for the courtroom in Nur-emberg, where the famous post-war trials were to take place. Kiley would later become a key fig-ure in 20th-century American landscape archi-tecture. And Eric Mendelsohn’s relatively un-known wartime work is also documented in this exhibition. Mendelsohn had been one of the most prolific of modern architects practicing in

Europe, but in 1943 he was in the Utah desert helping to design test sites for American in-cendiary bombs by building full-scale replicas of traditional German houses, with their pitched roofs and over-furnished living rooms.

Albert Kahn’s designs are used to show the complexity of the architect’s role and the im-mensity of the war effort. Kahn’s factories, like the Ford Motor Bomber Plant and the Chrysler Tank Arsenal, were mammoth in scale, much lar-ger than the plants he had constructed earlier in his career in the Soviet Union during the 1920s. One image shows the Dodge Chrysler Plant of 1943 superimposed over an aerial photograph of Lower Manhattan. The plant encompasses this portion of Manhattan and extends out into the

aBove a view of the drafting room at the albert Kahn-designed ford motor bomber factory in willow run, mich-igan in 1942.

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harbour. In Architecture in Uniform, Cohen de-scribes one of Kahn’s plants as “the most enor-mous room in the history of man,” and he cites the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh who had stated that the acres upon acres of space in the plant were “a sort of Grand Canyon of a mechan-ized world.” The war introduced the idea of un-precedented scale in architecture with a coordin-ated mobilization of forces and tremendous mo-mentum towards rapid mass production. In the exhibition, the organizational chart for Kahn’s office covers an entire wall, and it aptly demon-strates that the restructuring of architecture was not only in the finished product but also in the process by which architecture would now be cre-ated. Architects like Kahn played a major role in marshalling the forces for an accelerated war production. This indicates a larger, more central role for architects in the war effort than is usually recognized.

Cohen carefully balances his research and shows that the same transformation of the pro-fession was happening on both sides of the battlefield. Kahn is counterbalanced by German architects like Herbert Rimpl, who was engaged in the production of manufacturing plants for the war effort, just like Kahn. Rimpl had as many as 700 draftsmen working in capitals throughout occupied Europe to produce plants for the Ger-man military. He only closed his Paris office

hours before the arrival of the Allied tanks in Au-gust of 1944. This new scale of the architectural project is further illustrated by single projects like the construction of the Pentagon (1941-43). It was six million square feet in total, and the Architectural Forum at the time stated, “perhaps the greatest lesson of the Pentagon is here: as building approaches the scale of the technically feasible, the distinction between architecture and city planning vanishes.” Efficiency being its hall-mark, the Pentagon could boast 26 kilometres of corridors, but because of the plan configuration, no trip from one office to another would take more than seven minutes.

In a chilling parallel, a different type of effi-ciency was built into the economic development plan for Auschwitz, laid out by architect Hans Stosberg. Cohen compares the scale of the Penta-gon to the scale of Auschwitz. Auschwitz was planned as meticulously and thoroughly as any new town and by the end of the war it had become one of the largest industrial enclaves in Europe. Stosberg restored the original town hall of the existing Silesian community and used the theor-etical principles of Stadtlandschaft to propose a much larger community that would have urban and country zones, carefully landscaped and eco-logically managed. Cohen documents many of the architects who worked on the plans, including Fritz Ertl, who had been educated at the Dessau Bauhaus and who drew up several plans for the Birkenau camp. Among the architects held in the camps, Szymon Syrkus, a pioneer of Modernism in Poland, designed the greenhouse at the Rajsko camp while he was a detainee there. After the war, Stosberg became the head of town planning in Hamburg, Ertl was found not guilty after a trial

in Vienna in 1972, and Syrkus was one of the au-thors of the reconstruction of Warsaw.

This is not an anti-war exhibition. Cohen is clear to state his opinion in the preface to his book—that some war is necessary and that the Allies had little choice but to engage in the con-flict. His concern has been that the war years were “a blank space in historical accounts.” He describes his frustration that histories of 20th-century architecture, “without exception, all omit the war years, or consider them only in the light of the reconstruction of destroyed cities.” Why was this period so overlooked? Cohen’s sober as-sessment of this neglected period suggests that the answer is neither simple nor over-reaching. His interest is in detailing, as has never been done before, the profound impact of war on the production of architecture. New approaches to materials, production, urban planning, rep-resentation and modelling, and even memorial-ization, all flowed from the war. This exhibition tells us that the complete legacy of 20th-century Modernism is still being written. But Architecture in Uniform also reveals issues of complicity, re-sponsibility and wartime production. In visiting the exhibition and in reading Cohen’s book, the question of what architects did do during the war becomes all the more visible and open to exam-ination. Some architects were exceedingly brave, others were opportunists. For contemporary practitioners, this exhibition underscores that the issue of social responsibility for architects in a time of war should remain a crucial and open question for all of us. ca

Michael McClelland is a principal of ERA Architects in Toronto.

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Below, left to riGht the chrysler tanK arsen-al in warren township, michigan was designed by albert Kahn and completed in 1941; a team of camouflage artists in fort belvoir, virginia worK on their art of concealment.

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46 canadian architect 09/11

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Calendar

Struggling Cities: From Japan­ese Urban Projects in the 1960sAugust 19-December 9, 2011 Through architectural scale models, photo-graphs, animation and other audio-visual presentations, this exhi bi tion at the Japan Foundation in Toronto examines various circumstances of cities in Japan and elsewhere up to the present day, and identifies the distinctive aspects of those circum-stances as they are manifested in present-day Tokyo. www.jftor.org/whatson/cities1960.php

The Hylozoic Ground CollaborationAugust 21-October 2, 2011 This exhi-bition at Cambridge Galleries De-sign at Riverside charts the 15-year multi-continent journey of Philip Beesley’s “Hylozoic Series” that cul-minated in the Canadian entry to the 12th Venice Biennale of Archi-tecture in 2010, and is a celebration and tribute to this exceptional body of work which weaves together structural engineering, artificial life science, hybrid architecture and art. www.cambridgegalleries.ca

Palladio and His Legacy: A Transatlantic Journey September 3-December 31, 2011 This exhibition at the Heinz Architectur-al Center at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh presents 31 rare, original drawings by Italian Renais-sance master Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) from the RIBA Trust’s collection, alongside models and equally rare books. Palladio’s de-signs evolved from his study of antiquity, thus uniting classical Roman design elements with Ren-aissance advances in architecture.www.cmoa.org

Om Improvement: The Quiet RoomSeptember 8-October 1, 2011 This in-stallation at MADE in Toronto re-flects on our consumer culture and how, while yearning to better our-selves, we are unwittingly distracted by a false sense of accomplishment through the process of “gearing up” for the activity. The first in a series of collaborations by artist Marie

De Sousa and designer Heidi Earn-shaw, this exploration features portable and wearable components like a posture meditation harness. www.madedesign.ca

Post No BillsSeptember 8-October 8, 2011 This performance piece by the No Idea collective (Grant Reimer, Dell Brown, Thom Sevalrud) at MADE in Toronto draws its inspiration from hoardings and other surfaces around Toronto where zealous urban “posterers” cover the city’s surfaces with their promotional posters and cultural notices, creat-ing a patinated collage of urban ex-perience; the layered surfaces evoke memory and represent the passage of time. The weather and chance will continue to act on the piece and affect its outcome over the duration of the exhibit.www.madedesign.ca

Bertrand Goldberg: Architecture of InventionSeptember 17, 2011-January 15, 2012 This exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago is the first comprehensive retrospective of architect Bertrand Goldberg’s work, featuring more than 100 original drawings, models and photographs as well as signifi-cant examples of his rarely shown graphic and furniture design. Long recognized for his seminal contribu-tions to the built environment of Chicago, this exhibition showcases his progressive vision, dramatic architectural forms, and inventive engineering with a wide range of built and experimental projects. www.artic.edu/aic/exhibitions/ exhibition/bertrandgoldberg

IIdeX/neoCon Canada 2011September 22-24 2011 Taking place once again at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto, this year’s show features the latest in the fields of interior design, architecture and hospitality. Keynote presen-tations from a selection of inter-national experts include Jakob + McFarlane (Paris), Matthias Sauer-bruch (Berlin), and Isadore Sharp (Toronto). Other features include

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For­more­inFormation­about­these,­and­additional­list-ings­oF­Canadian­and­inter-national­events,­please­visitwww.canadianarchitect.com

THINK: Material, a Best Buildings round table luncheon, and a Chair Hockey Tournament.www.iidexneocon.com

Catalyst: Provoking Calgary’s next ChapterSeptember 29-October 1, 2011 Hosted by makeCalgary 2011, this event will examine places in Calgary that have experienced real change and its as-sociated catalysts—the conditions in the social, environmental, cultural and economic realms that provoked the shift to a new chapter. Walks, a panel discussion, and an inter-disciplinary design charrette will structure the exploration and lead to an exhibition. Panel participants include: Rob Adams, Director of City Design, Melbourne; Ingrid Fetell, New York; Andreu Arriola of Arriola + Fiol Arquitectes, Barcelona; Naheed Nenshi, Mayor of Calgary; and Nancy Pollock-Ellwand, Dean of EVDS, University of Calgary.http://makecalgary.com

IdSwestSeptember 29-October 2, 2011 Taking place at the Vancouver Convention Centre, the Interior Design Show West examines the most cutting-edge in art, architecture, lighting and design. Keynote speaker and international award-winning in-dustrial designer Ross Lovegrove highlights the show, and is com-plemented with appearances by lighting designer Jeremy Cole and multifaceted designer Omer Arbel, creative director of Bocci.www.idswest.com

Francine houben lectureOctober 5, 2011 As part of the Forum Lecture Series hosted by Carleton University’s Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism, Francine Houben of mecanoo architecten in Delft, The Netherlands lectures at 6:00pm at the National Gallery in Ottawa.www1.carleton.ca/architecture/ forum-lecture-series-2

Jane rendell lectureOctober 13, 2011 As part of the lecture series hosted by the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Environmental Design (EVDS), Jane Rendell of the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London delivers the Gillmor Visiting Lectureship at 7:00pm at the University of Calgary downtown campus, located at 906 8th Avenue SW. Admission is free for University of Calgary students, and $5 for everyone else.www.ucalgary.ca/evds

doors Open Calgary October 15-16, 2011 Doors Open Cal-gary is a two-day event that opens up spaces throughout Calgary, free of charge, for local residents and visitors alike. It allows everyone access to spaces and places usually closed to the public. It’s a weekend designed to discover more about the city: explore, hear stories and ask questions about Calgary’s meaningful places. Doors Open

Calgary is an opportunity to visit sites and spaces that inspire, spark interest and awareness with a dash of intrigue. www.doorsopencalgary.com Pecha Kucha night Vancouver Volume 18October 20, 2011 Volume 18 of Vancouver’s popular Pecha Kucha series takes place at the Vogue Theatre, where participants will deliver 20-second presentations to accompany 20 images. Doors open at 6:30pm, and talks begin at 7:30pm. Tickets are on sale at www.voguetheatre.com.www.pechakuchanightvancouver.com

50 canadian architect 09/11

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east Van rules

The origins of The design for a neon sign commissioned by The ciTy of VancouVer is in dispuTe, raising The issue of when icons become parT of The public realm.

text + photos Tanya souThcoTT

It hovers over the corner of Clark Drive and East 6th Avenue, visible especially at dusk—a neon white cross floating four storeys above the street and the industrial lands to the west.

Known locally as the East Van Cross, or by its official title Monument for East Vancouver, this 18-metre piece of public art by Vancouver-based artist Ken Lum has confronted the downtown Vancouver skyline for just over a year and a half since its installation in preparation for the XXI Vancouver Olympic Winter Games.

Visible from several kilometres away, it delin-eates East Vancouver, traditionally a lower- income working-class neighbourhood that is in-creasingly considered as the cultural heart of the city. As public art, it meets with mixed reviews and is labelled both “a sacrilegious eyesore” and

aBoVe Ken lum’s MonuMent for east Van-couVer—by nighT and by oVercasT day.

an “institution for Vancouver to be proud of.”Lately, however, the monument has been the

centre of a battle over ownership rights for what many now consider to be a public icon. As a graphic, the emblem boasts a rich history. Ac-cording to the monument’s creator, the symbol recalls the geography of his early childhood, growing up in the parks and back alleyways of Strathcona and other parts of East Vancouver. Others recall seeing it as early as the late 1950s and early 1960s, and again in the mid-1990s during its renaissance as the mark of local gangs. Its roots are elusive. No one really knows where it came from and this is part of its appeal.

Yet it has always been recognized as a marker of East Van. Lum has essentially formalized the graffiti, elevating it both physically above the street plane, and culturally as an icon, bringing it into the realm of public consciousness in a way never achieved before.

Commissioned by the City of Vancouver as part of the Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Pro-gram, the art piece is now registered as an official trademark with the City and no one has the right to deny its use by others. From Lum’s perspec-

tive, “It’s part of the history of the city. So I don’t think anyone should be able to own that sign, not even myself.”1

What has become obvious throughout the evolving controversy is the potency of a symbol that allies with both the official and underground histories of a place. For architects in the business of making icons that enter into the public domain (anonymously for the most part), the epic of the cross is a compelling story. It questions ideas of creative licence and ownership, but also of authenticity, the origins of icons, and their lon gevity within the public realm. ca

1Cole, Yolande. “East Van cross symbol has been around for decades.” Georgia Straight. 12 July 2011. www.straight.com/print/403386

Tanya Southcott is a Vancouver architect who lives and works within a 3-kilometre radius of the East Van sign.

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