Posts tagged “Moriyama & Teshima”

Moriyama and Teshima Architects, past, present and future.
10 October, 2023

Starting far left, Ronen Bauer, Carol Phillips, Diarmuid Nash, Urvish Patel, Emmanuelle van Rutten, and Brian Rudy
A productive day recording interviews with staff at Moriyama and Teshima architects while also getting more b-roll footage of the space. It is fun to note and compare changes made to the office since first recording back in 2017. The offices is open concept to encourage collaboration and sharing of ideas where even senior staff do not have private space. Among some questions asked was staff experience with Moriyama and specific projects they collaborated on. Interviews focused on senior staff who did work with Moriyama, though I noticed there is also an emerging, young, diverse number of staff who have not even met Moriyama and will likely take the firm in new, unexpected directions. When one enters the offices of Moriyama and Teshima, one is immediately struck with the history of the place and the Japanese-Canadian design influences. The front has the parallel wood board panels, the fish pool at the entrance, Japanese influenced décor and several unique totems made by Moriyama that blend indigenous Canadian and Japanese cultures.

Above, one of six totems designed and built by Raymond Moriyama

Among most anticipated interviews is with senior partner, Diarmuid Nash, who worked there and collaborated with Moriyama the longest. Nash has the experience and stories that are valued such as when the firm made (and lost) the bid for the Ontario Science Centre renovation during the 1990’s. Nash also worked on several more projects alongside Moriyama due to his tenure.

Moriyama and Teshima have accomplished many interesting projects, but nothing on the vast scale like the Ontario Science Centre (OSC) that launched the firm in the first place, from more modest boutique designs to large scale government contracts. Government investment in education and infrastructure is not what it used to be, so architecture firms are challenged with material and budget constraints. There is obvious excitement, however, with the staff when they discuss projects that facilitate environmental and technological innovation in building and design, such as using repurposed materials or breathing new life in older buildings. The firm are still involved in some of Canada’s most important buildings, but the country is not what it used to be. Moriyama & Teshima is no longer bound by national architecture constraints as they now have a growing and thriving portfolio of international projects.
Save Ontario Place presents 'Rally for the Trees' at West Island, Ontario Place.
23 September, 2023
Attended and filmed the Rally for the Trees by 'Ontario Place for All', hosted by Norm DiPasquale (above, with megaphone) and with several guest speakers. Also spoke with rally attendees who declined to give names, but spoke about why they attended. All speakers focused their talk on the Ontario Place but final speaker, Floyd Ruskin, spoke both about the Ontario Place and the Ontario Science Centre. All in the video below.

Breakdown of list of speakers (for video below):
- Norm Di Pasquale (host)
- Toronto City Councillor, Ausma Malik
- Chris Glover, MPP (06:39)
- Adrian Hough (son of Ontario Place landscape architect, Michael Hough) (11:30)
- Todd Irvine (17:24)
- Floyd Ruskin co-chair of Save the Science Centre (28:18)
'Go Ohn' Centennial Bell rings for the last time.
22 September, 2023

Filmed (and recorded audio of) the Go Ohn Centennial Bell at Ontario Place West Island and attendant shelter before dismantlement to make way for Ford's private mega spa. The Go Ohn Bell and shelter was designed by Raymond Moriyama and installed by the Japanese Canadian Centennial Society in 1977. Digging through the Toronto archives, found historical images and text related to the bell.

Image below from the Future of Ontario Place website

Above, Mitchell Akiyama and his relation to the Centennial Bell

From Akiyama's Vimeo entry:
In 108 Spectres of Release, Mitchell Akiyama animates the historic Buddhist temple bell on the West Island, given to Ontario Place by Japanese-Ontarians in 1977. Akiyama transforms the bell itself into a speaker, which replays recordings of Akiyama’s grandmother, who was in attendance at the bell’s original inauguration ceremony. Born in Canada, Akiyama’s grandmother was interned during the Second World War and later displaced by government-mandated relocation to eastern Canada before she eventually settled in Toronto. Reviving the bell, Akiyama allows his grandmother’s voice to surface tensions between memorialization and lived experience. 108 Spectres of Release serves as a deeply personal articulation of Japanese-Canadian history in a space where the bell’s commemorative function has largely ceased.
Meet Don Cooper and Anson Finlay of Moriyama & Teshima
19 June, 2017

Visited the home of Anson Finlay, retired architect of Moriyama & Teshima , and also visiting was 'architecture concept artist' and 'model builder', Don Cooper, retired. Both sat down to interviews to recall meeting and then going to work for Raymond Moriyama. Cooper met Moriyama at Ryerson Polytechnic (before it became a University) where the former attended drawing lectures by the latter. Moriyama saw potential in Cooper and encouraged him to take life drawing classes to further hone his skill. Moriyama set up his first architectural practice office in then-hipster district of Yorkville, Toronto in 1958 and as jobs came in, hired Cooper on an ad-hoc basis to build models and develop sketches and was therefore first employee.

Anson Finlay is from Saskatchewan where he studied architecture and the moved to British Columbia to continue education and get experience on projects. joined the firm later, in 1966, following the career and ground breaking (for the time) works of Raymond Moriyama such as the golf course shelter, dubbed the 'half way house', and witnessed construction of the original Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (JCCC) at 123 Wynford Drive. Finlay realized that Moriyama was 'the future', and who he wanted to work with and wrote a letter to express this. Moriyama wrote back to come East and join the firm as they were going on a hiring expansion to take on a major new project. Finlay moved to Toronto with his family where he had two major projects
John Snell, Ontario Science Centre project manager.
25 May, 2017

John Snell, project architect, left

Visited the home of John Snell, architect and firm principal of Moriyama & Teshima , now retired. Recorded an interview in Snell's home library / study where he told of early years working with Raymond Moriyama. John Snell began tenure with Moriyama & Teshima in 1966 as one of the most experienced staff members at the time. Snell studied architecture at University of Toronto for three years and worked the Trans Canada Pipeline to pay school tuition. Snell then moved to United Kingdom and continued his architecture studies at Regent Street Polytechnic while working on several construction projects. Snell followed the career of Moriyama & Teshima and it was when he visited Toronto in 1964 and saw the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (JCCC) project that clinched his decision to work for M&T. When Moriyama got the Ontario Science Centre (OSC) bid and went on hiring expansion, Snell wrote in to apply and his combination of education and experience made him a prime candidate as project manager, in 1966. At the time, Moriyama & Teshima offices were being relocated to accommodate growing staff from 711 Church Street location to the new offices at 32 Davenport Road, which was still under construction. Snell was situated at the OSC construction site and saw it to successful completion. He made M&T firm principal in 1969.
Moriyama-designed OAC Centennial Arboretum Centre, University of Guelph.
18 August, 2023

Above, interview excerpt with University of Guelph Arboretum Director, Justine Richardson

Took a trip out to Guelph, Ontario with favoured Toronto-based architecture photographer, Vik Pahwa , to capture the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC)'s Centennial Arboretum Centre designed by Raymond Moriyama. Justine Richardson , Director of the University of Guelph Arboretum, was a superb host who prepared archival images, literature and articles on said building. The building is magnificent, the abundance of windows leads to an immersion in nature hard to find elsewhere except in Moriyama's other works. Would love to see this structure in winter, apparently the building is just as stunning. Construction of the Arboretum Centre was completed in 1974 and as the image denotes below, the land was mostly open and flat. From one perspective of the building, it can almost pass as a glorified garden shed, it seems small. But like Dr. Who's TARDIS, the interior appears far larger than the exterior. That is because a portion of the building is built into the landscape, much like the Earth Homes or Earth Shelter in style during the 1960's. A pop culture variant would be the "Hobbit Homes" from the J. R. R. Tolkein series.

Image above from U of Guelph Arboretum Centre website.

This contrasts with the current image of the building with attendant foliage, more in keeping with an Earth Shelter.

Vik Pahwa is ideal to have around on an architectural documentation trip, he maintains a surpassing weblog of architectural photography and his work is featured in at least two architecture books, Toronto Architecture: A City Guide, 3rd Edition and Remnants of Mid-Century Toronto.
Images of the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC)'s Centennial Arboretum Centre by Pahwa, below.

Stills above by Vik Pahwa
Raymond Moriyama, Ontario Science Centre architect featured for 'ACO 150 Plus'.
5 April, 2017

Raymond Moriyama, celebrated architect of the Ontario Science Centre (OSC) agreed to be interviewed by the Architecture Conservancy of Ontario (ACO) for the 50th anniversary aka the ACO 150 Plus symposium. While Moriyama will not attend the symposium, by way of compromise, he agreed to a video interview. The ACO just needed ten minutes of footage, but Moriyama was effusive and spoke for about three hours. Among topics covered were Moriyama's childhood internment in Slocan, BC, education, starting a fledgling architecture practice during his 30's, being summoned to develop the OSC, ideation, iteration, the opening, subsequent projects and the future of architecture and Canada. Here is a brief distillation, but not the whole enchilada.

Posts tagged “Moriyama & Teshima”

Moriyama and Teshima Architects, past, present and future.

Save Ontario Place presents 'Rally for the Trees' at West Island, Ontario Place.

'Go Ohn' Centennial Bell rings for the last time.

Meet Don Cooper and Anson Finlay of Moriyama & Teshima

John Snell, Ontario Science Centre project manager.

Moriyama-designed OAC Centennial Arboretum Centre, University of Guelph.

Raymond Moriyama, Ontario Science Centre architect featured for 'ACO 150 Plus'.