Tag: photography

Posts tagged “photography”

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. OAC Centennial Arboretum at present

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.

Guelph OAC arboretum, another angle by Vik Pahwa

Stills above by Vik Pahwa

Presenters of the ACO 150 Plus symposium at the Ontario Science Centre

21 April, 2017

A day of immersion in Canadian architecture history featuring an impressive array of panelists including scholars and legendary architect, Eb Zeidler , who designed the Ontario Place, Eaton Centre and oversaw the renovation of 'Building A' of the Ontario Science Centre during the 1990's. Eb Zeidler's recollections and notes on the ideation of the Ontario Place is one of the great highlights of the day.

Additional highlights include Michael McClelland, editor of Concrete Toronto: a guidebook to concrete architecture from the fifties to the seventies. McClelland defined brutalist architecture as “sublime, expressing immense power and strength” and presented Toronto's more notable modernist-brutalist buildings, such as the Robart’s library at U of T. McClelland highlights how some buildings are hated, others demolished, and then later revered down the road.

Ryerson University school of architecture, Professor Marco Polo gave a comprehensive presentation on the architecture of Canadian Centennial Projects . Polo shows the doctrine that led to the Centennial celebration of 1967 and attendant infrastructure projects. Brutalism in architecture was the style of the time and effort and Prof Polo explains it. Starting with the Fathers of Confederation Memorial building in Prince Edward Island, other provinces wanted buildings just like it. Thus was born the Centennial project which extended to other infrastructure like parks, schools and bridges.

Also met architecture photographer, Vik Pahwa, who gave pointers on how to capture structures as vast and unwieldy as the Ontario Science Centre. He also runs an excellent website blog where he documents images captured. Pahwa's focus is mainly on architecture and infrastructure with an emphasis on mid century buildings.

Images of the Ontario Science Centre, below, by Vik Pahwa

Images of the Ontario Science Centre, above, by Vik Pahwa

Vik Pahwa at the OSC