A Weekend in the Capital...

The Malcomites descended upon the capital this weekend for the Universities Art Association of Canada Annual Conference. Friday presented a Malcolmite reunion at the National Gallery; Peter, Barry, Jess, myself, and the chief himself, Malcolm, met for drinks, laughs, and a bit of shop talk!

Saturday brought an early start to the day; Jess and I co-chaired two sessions on Canadian Architecture. The first session was such a succes that the second session was completely full, standing room only! The paper topics ranged from Gothic Revival churches and rectories, to architectural theory, to environmental design; the variety was amazing and both Jess and I are grateful to the presenters in our session for making it a success.

After a long day of conferencing, Jess and I ran around Ottawa taking in the sites and arrived at the Parliament Buildings just in time for "magic light"!

As the lights went down, we noticed a crowd of people was gathering across the street; it was a ghost tour...obviously we bought tickets and joined the crowd! We didn't see any ghosts, but we did see the post-mortem plaster cast of D'Arcy Mcgee's hand and a chandelier made of human hair!

Sunday we all dispersed...Barry went back to BC, Malcolm, Jess and I went back Toronto, and Peter stayed at home in Ottawa. The next stop for the Malcolmites...Winnipeg in March...that's right...March...it's going to be a bloody cold meeting for the M-mites, but it should be fun!

A strong endorsement

While photographing a lovely little church in Jordan, Ontario, we came across this chip truck with one hell of an endorsement (pun completely intended).

Unfortunately it was closed when we were there, but here's the church in case you were wondering: a nice little Gothic Revival number to make up for the lack of heavenly fries.

The 2012 Martin-Eli-Weil Prize has been announced!!!

Ok students, you should submit a paper for this; it's a great competition, and if you win you'll get $$$ and a publication!

The Martin-Eli-Weil Prize is awarded annually by the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada (SSAC) to a student who submits an essay on the role played by the built environment in Canadian society.

http://ssacnews.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/mewprize2012.pdf

UAAC

Hey folks,

Just a heads up that the Universities Art Association of Canada Annual Conference is coming up and that Candace and I are hosting a two-part session about Canadian architecture. We have a great line up of speakers, so if you are in the Ottawa area and looking for something to do on October 29, come and check it out!

Here is the conference schedule: http://www.uaac-aauc.com/files/UAAC%202011%20%2011%20OCT%20conference%20programme.pdf

A Canadian in Chicago

This past weekend I was in Chicago, the birthplace of the skyscraper. I managed to visit a good number of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century skyscrapers which made me think that it might be good to post a Canadian building that was influenced by the style. Toward the end of the century, iron and steel were used increasingly for the structure of buildings. The materials were strong and lightweight, allowing buildings to be built higher with larger windows. Elevators, recently-invented, made it possible to access the upper floors with ease and allowed buildings to maximize their available floorspace in upwardly expanding cities. One Canadian building that used many of these new techniques from the Chicago school is the Robert Simpson Co. Store in Toronto of 1895 by Toronto architect Edmund Burke.

Robert Simpson Co. Building, Toronto, 1895 (photo from here)

While it is only six stories high, it is important to remember that skyscrapers in the nineteenth century were not nearly as tall as what we might consider a skyscraper today. You can see that the building is of substantial size and that there is little wall space that is not occupied by windows as it makes use of the new metal-framing technology.