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Architecture Contemporary (1945-)

Canadian Modern Architecture

A Fifty Year Retrospective, from 1967 to the Present

edited by Elsa Lam & Graham Livesey

foreword by Kenneth Frampton

Publisher
Chronicle Books
Initial publish date
Oct 2019
Category
Contemporary (1945-), General, Regional
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781616896454
    Publish Date
    Oct 2019
    List Price
    $80

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) President's Medal Award (multi-media representation of architecture).
Canada's most distinguished architectural critics and scholars offer fresh insights into the country's unique modern and contemporary architecture. Beginning with the nation's centennial and Expo 67 in Montreal, this fifty-year retrospective covers the defining of national institutions and movements:

• How Canadian architects interpreted major external trends
• Regional and indigenous architectural tendencies
• The influence of architects in Canada's three largest cities: Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver

Co-published with Canadian Architect, this comprehensive reference book is extensively illustrated and includes fifteen specially commissioned essays.

About the authors

Elsa Lam's profile page

Graham Livesey is associate professor in the Faculty of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary. He was a principal in Down + Livesey Architects of Calgary from 1995 to 2004.

Graham Livesey's profile page

Kenneth Frampton's profile page

Editorial Reviews

"Lam and Livesey have brought together many of the most distinguished critics and academics in the field, and the result is a long and coherent conversation about the importance of modern Canadian architecture. The book is highly readable and heavily illustrated, an asset to professionals and to average citizens."
- The Globe and Mail

"[1967] would be an interesting moment to look at Toronto, a place that would seem somewhat old and lowrise to our eyes today, a city of surface parking lots. Toronto would transform radically over the coming decades, as would the rest of Canada. It's one reason why a new book, Canadian Modern Architecture - 1967 to the Present, is so compelling: it looks at how much remarkable building has taken place since then and tells the story of Canada's modern, determined invention."
- Toronto Star

"Canadian Modern Architecture, 1967 to the Present is an astonishing achievement by editors Elsa Lam, Graham Livesey and their fifteen essayists. The book is essential for anyone who cares about architecture, or who cares about Canada, and we'll be talking about it for decades."
- Canadian Architect

"This is a vital and well-researched work, representing the first comprehensive review of Canadian architecture in many years."
- Azure (Canada)

"Canada's most distinguished architectural critics and scholars offer fresh insights into the country's unique modern and contemporary architecture. Beginning with the country's centennial and Expo67 in Montreal, this retrospective covers the defining of national institutions and movements, how contemporary architects interpreted major external trends, regional and indigenous architectural tendencies, and the influence of architects in Canada's three largest cities - Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver."
- Contract Magazine

"The book cleverly does not pursue a single narrative thread but assigns specific topics and regions to different specialists, in order to paint a polyphonic picture....[B]rowsing through the volume's 500 pages, you get a sense of the richness of an architecture that is often at the service of citizens' needs, perhaps less spectacular than others, but certainly more necessary and not coincidentally still at the centre, every day, of many peoples' lives."
- Abitare