Canadian Modern Architecture: A Fifty Year Retrospective, from 1967 to the Present

Description

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, and 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.

Elsa Lam is editor of Canadian Architect magazine and is based in Toronto. She holds a doctorate in architectural history from Columbia University. Graham Livesey is a professor in the Master of Architecture Program (Faculty of Environmental Design) at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.

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