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Shawn in Montreal

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    Mile End
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    Montreal history, culture, architecture
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    writer

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  1. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-canadian-architects-are-taking-on-the-world/ OPINION: Canadian architects are taking on the world DONALD SCHMITT/CONTRIBUTED TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL Donald Schmitt is Principal of Schmitt Architects. On Monday, Lincoln Center announced that my firm, Diamond Schmitt, would lead the transformation of its David Geffen Hall, the home of the New York Philharmonic symphony orchestra. Canadian architects aren’t just winning more work beyond our borders; we’re designing iconic work for a few of the world’s pre-eminent institutions. KPMB Architects was selected by Boston University for their new Center for Computing and Data Sciences. In October, Hariri Pontarini Architects won the RAIC International Prize for their extraordinary Baha’i Temple of South America in Santiago, Chile. So what gives here? Aren’t Canadians supposed to finish out of the medals? Certainly, the remarkable growth in our urban centres has helped. There are more buildings to explore design ideas on, and more architects are delivering environmental and built form innovation. But the most creative architects from elsewhere also see Canada’s growth as an opportunity for them too. Foster and Partners and WilkinsonEyre from London, 3XN and BIG from Copenhagen and Snohetta from Oslo are all transforming the Canadian landscape. There was a time when Canadian architects feared this competition. But now, we welcome excellence from anywhere because it makes us stronger competitors everywhere. In fact, our profession is stronger, more diverse and confident than at any time in many decades. But I believe we do well globally because our northern home gives us a clear-eyed perspective; our landscape may be vast, but so is our diversity. We’ve learned to use the forces of technological, environmental and social change to create more livable, useful spaces – especially public places and institutions. There’s something else uniquely Canadian that gives us a competitive edge, though. An architect is often viewed in the popular imagination as a lone wolf, single-handedly wresting design from stone and metal, delivering a singular vision against all odds. While this is often indeed true in the United States and Europe, for my colleagues at our offices in Toronto, Vancouver and New York, the best evidence of what beats the competition are ideas built from multiple viewpoints. For us, teams work. We shape the team as an ensemble of gifted players, each skilled in their own right, but more certain to achieve an elegant solution because that idea can be nurtured and perfected far better by the interplay of the virtuosi. Canadian architects shine with institutions that have demanding design programs, complex circumstances and the need for high performance. For example, many firms here have emerged as leaders in environmental performance because foundational work by the National Research Council in Ottawa drives our designs to achieve dramatic energy savings and zero-carbon building performance. Another factor in our architects’ global success is the work we’ve done here at home. The work of MJMA Architects in exemplary community facilities across Canada led to their winning Johns Hopkins University’s Recreation Center. We were on Lincoln Center’s radar because of our innovative concert hall for L’Orchestre Symphonique in Montreal. Lincoln Center is one of the most famous arts complexes in the world. But we unlocked its Rubik’s Cube of uninspired and under-performing public places at Geffen Hall applying the lessons learned in our transformation of Ottawa’s National Arts Centre. Its re-imagined lobbies, animated by the warmth of Canadian wood, activated by community use over the day, connected the artistry of the NAC’s performers to the community inside and out. A decade ago, Valery Gergiev of the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia saw the Four Seasons Centre in downtown Toronto. He understood that a single hall can have a modern design, great sound and sightlines – and be built on budget and on time. The result was an invitation for us to compete for the New Mariinsky. We won that competition, and now “there simply isn’t a better place to stage opera in Russia," according to Kommersant, a leading journal. Our winning Geffen Hall is certainly gratifying. But it shouldn’t be surprising that Canadian architects are consistently winning big commissions abroad. In the bruising world of global design competitions, expertise is table-stakes. What the world is insisting on is a set of values that celebrates collaboration and straight dealing, and an eagerness to use design as a competitive advantage. Yes, the world needs more Canada, now more than ever. (to see the images, you'll need to click on the link above. It may be paywalled, not sure)
  2. Indeed. And important to remember that the park was not in fact completed according to his design: http://www.fredericklawolmsted.com/mount.html
  3. Croyez-vous que Maestria représente un changement par rapport à cette approche?
  4. Avec tout le développement sur Bleury, je m'interroge sur le parking à côté du Black Watch.
  5. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-brookfield-returns-to-its-roots-turns-focus-to-canadian-investments/ No mention of any concrete plans in Montreal but I wonder if this means that Brookfield will try and be more active here in acquiring and developing projects? Brookfield returns to its roots, turns focus to Canadian investments RACHELLE YOUNGLAI PUBLISHED 2 HOURS AGO; UPDATED NOVEMBER 10, 2019 FOR SUBSCRIBERS Brookfield Property Partners LP is putting renewed focus on its roots in Canada after spending years building a huge portfolio of foreign real estate holdings, saying it is now seeking investments in Canadian hotels, apartments, offices and large-scale development projects. The Toronto-based company has appointed Ashley Lawrence to lead that effort, which will see Brookfield join a crowded field of deep-pocketed investors all chasing similar assets in the country’s booming regions of Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa. “My mandate was to grow and to expand, especially in sectors that we are not in," said Mr. Lawrence, a 43-year-old Canadian who returned to Toronto in June, 2018, to fill a new position as regional head of Canada after managing Brookfield’s retail property division in New York for two years. “We have certain things we are looking for. Not every deal has them. In order to find them, you have to evaluate a lot of deals in the market,” he said. Brookfield has about US$194-billion in assets under management around the world. Its Canadian assets total US$9-billion – just 4.6 per cent of its portfolio – consisting mostly of two dozen offices in Ottawa, Calgary and Toronto, including First Canadian Place, a 72-storey tower in Toronto’s financial district and the tallest office building in the country. Mr. Lawrence wants to add to that, and the company is currently constructing a third tower to its Bay-Adelaide office complex in downtown Toronto. In comparison, Brookfield has US$137-billion in assets under management in the United States, US$31-billion in Europe and the Middle East, US$14-billion in the Asia-Pacific region and US$3-billion in Brazil, according to its most recent investor presentation. That includes a significant collection of malls and rental apartments throughout the United States, part of the Canary Wharf business hub in London and a sizable office and residential development in Dubai. “As we have grown globally, we have gone into a lot of sectors that we are not in in Canada,” Mr. Lawrence said. Brookfield had always planned to increase its Canadian footprint, according to the company, but did not find the right openings. Since he has taken the new job, Mr. Lawrence has doubled the size of the Canadian investment team to cover more ground and find exclusive deals. “In order to do that you have to spend a lot of time out in the market, talking to people, making relationships,” he said. “It takes time and effort.” But as Brookfield seeks to move into other property types, especially in rental housing, it will be competing with pension funds, real-estate investment trusts, as well as local and global developers for a piece of the action. A flurry of multi-residential development is taking place in Toronto and Vancouver and their nearby suburbs, due to a housing shortage and soaring home prices. However, Mr. Lawrence believes Brookfield will make a big mark in the country’s urban centres. “It takes a long time to get these developments out. These are not coming in the next 24 months. This is 10-15 year horizons,” he said. “We are relatively patient in terms of finding the right opportunity.” With corporate headquarters moving to downtown Toronto along with the growth of tech companies, the city’s commercial property market has been on fire for nearly a decade. That has driven up land prices and spurred interest in large patches of land such as Bombardier’s airport property, which was sold to a Canadian pension fund in 2018 for just over $800-million. Recently, Brookfield was a contender for East Harbour, 38 acres of mostly vacant land east of Toronto’s financial core, according to a source, who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. But it lost to Cadillac Fairview, which plans to build 10 million square feet of office space. Mr. Lawrence would not comment directly on Brookfield’s interest in East Harbour but said: “Any large parcel of land that comes up, we would be interested. We are a long-term believer in the city of Toronto and its growth.” Mr. Lawrence said there there isn’t a specific amount of capital dedicated to Canadian acquisitions. But given Canada’s smaller commercial property market, he said Brookfield is willing to do deals in the US$30-million to US$40-million range. On the flip side, Mr. Lawrence suggested there are no limits. Brookfield Property can use its own capital, as well as financing from parent company Brookfield Asset Management’s third global real-estate fund, which raised US$15-billion earlier this year. “We like to put out larger amounts of capital,” he said. “That being said, we do like building businesses where the initial amount of capital may not be as sizable. But over time, as you build out that business, as you add assets, they get to that scale that makes sense to us or strategically.”
  6. Plus d’un mois plus tard, peu de progrès, à mon avis.
  7. Il est compréhensible qu’ils veuillent l’ouvrir à toutes les activités - Jeanne-Mance n’est pas la même rue générique que dans les années 70. Mais je conviens que cela semble un peu déroutant. Un autre mish-mash.
  8. Le batiment Winter Club était le NCSM Donnacona. https://www.canada.ca/fr/marine/services/histoire/historiques-navires/donnacona.html
  9. Je me suis posé la même question. Une grande partie des travaux concerne l’ascenseur jusqu’à la réception de l’hôtel (qui reste opérationnelle). Mais peut-être qu'ils veulent déplacer la réception au rez-de-chaussée? Et comme je l’ai mentionné ci-dessus, la plus grande partie de la réception est fermée pour rénovation jusqu’en juin.
  10. I was also thinking that they should really go with conifers there. Less leaves on the ice surface and to give it a distinct feel from the rest of the Q des Spectacles, for example the trees along the Place des festivals which are all deciduous.
  11. C'est notre nouveau chalet au centre-ville! Avec la patinoire et les espaces verts à droite.
  12. https://journalmetro.com/local/saint-leonard/2395725/ligne-bleue-une-touche-leonardoise-dans-le-design-des-stations/ Alors qu’un premier contrat pour la conception architecturale et de design intérieur des nouvelles stations de la ligne bleue vient d’être accordé, certains souhaiteraient que celles-ci intègrent des éléments qui rappellent la culture et l’histoire de Saint-Léonard. « C’est un point que j’avais apporté lors d’une rencontre avec les gens de la STM, confie le conseiller de ville, Dominic Perri. Ce serait l’un de mes souhaits que l’on puisse avoir cette touche d’adaptation locale. » Le projet de prolongement de la ligne bleue compte cinq nouvelles stations. De ce nombre, trois sont prévues sur le territoire de Saint-Léonard, dans l’axe de la rue Jean-Talon, aux intersections de la rue Viau et des boulevards Lacordaire et Langelier. Paul Micheletti, président de la SDC Jean-Talon, aimerait donc que ces nouvelles stations soient représentatives de l’histoire de l’arrondissement. Par exemple, est-ce qu’une station pourrait évoquer la vie rurale de la paroisse Saint-Léonard-de-Port-Maurice, ou la présence historique de la communauté italienne ? M. Perri reconnaît que le processus est à peine entamé, et que bien des étapes seront encore nécessaires avant d’en arriver là. L’hommage ne créerait pas un précédent, alors que les nombreuses œuvres d’art dans les stations existantes peuvent rappeler le contexte dans lequel elles s’inscrivent. Les stations Viau et Pie-IX, notamment, intègrent des œuvres ayant les Olympiques en thématique. Autre exemple, la station De Castelnau veut rappeler la présence du marché Jean-Talon. Sans compter les nombreux hommages à différents moments de l’histoire de la Ville. La dénomination des nouvelles stations est également incertaine, alors que les artères Pie-IX, Viau et Langelier ont déjà des stations homonymes. Le système actuel prévoit que chaque station soit nommée en fonction de la rue où elle se trouve. « Il n’y a pas assez de stations nommées en l’honneur de femmes », croit M. Micheletti, pour qui les travaux pourraient être une occasion de souligner leur contribution. Pour sa part, M. Perri suggérait qu’une station soit nommée « Saint-Léonard », afin de rappeler aux voyageurs qu’ils entrent dans l’arrondissement, une appellation qui s’inscrirait dans une certaine continuité avec le système actuel.
  13. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/art-and-architecture/article-architect-rene-menkes-helped-canadian-cities-reach-for-the-sky/ Architect René Menkès helped Canadian cities reach for the sky ALEX BOZIKOVIC, ARCHITECTURE CRITIC PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 1, 2019 “Keep moving forward” was the personal mantra of architect René Menkès as he migrated from Nazi-occupied Paris to a welcoming Montreal, and through his long career reshaping skylines across Canada. Mr. Menkès, who died on Oct. 7 of complications from pneumonia, made his mark through the design of towers. As a partner with the firm WZMH, he led the design of the National Bank of Paris Building and Cathedral Square, among a half-dozen major buildings in downtown Montreal; he also oversaw the Royal Bank Plaza in downtown Toronto, with its thin coating of gold, which supplanted the bank’s Montreal headquarters. In the eighties, he led the design of the Aquitaine tower at La Défense, outside Paris. René Menkès was born on Feb. 10, 1932, in Paris to Issia and Tussia (née Sobelevitch) Menkès. His father and mother were both Jews who had immigrated to Paris – from Russia and Germany respectively – and by the 1930s, they saw clearly the threat of fascism. In 1939 they made a long visit to Montreal, considering it as a potential home; and when the Nazis occupied Paris in 1940, they had tickets ready for their Atlantic passage. It was a lucky escape – a quarter of French Jews would be murdered during the Holocaust. Young René was not obviously marked by the experience or by his transition to life in Canada. “He found Montreal a very welcoming place,” his daughter Alexandra says. “And as he grew older, he thought of himself as European but also a Canadian first.” Mr. Menkès learned to play hockey, attended the prestigious Lower Canada College and while still in elementary school, discovered his intellectual passion: architecture. He liked to draw and paint pagodas, and soon other types of buildings spotted in magazines. He began architecture school in 1948, at the age of 16. “I was at that time clearly determined to go into architecture. There was no other thought in mind,” he told a McGill University researcher in a 1999 interview. He first attended Dawson College, with a class including war veterans (“We grew up very fast at that point,” he recalled). He then enrolled in McGill’s five-year program. The curriculum was Modernist but also, similar to more traditional schools, emphasized drawing. Arthur Lismer taught a weekly class in freehand sketching, at which Mr. Menkès excelled. His class of 16 students included several who would have rich careers in architecture in the postwar years: Louis Papineau and Guy Lajoie, who would found PGL and design Mirabel Airport; and Dimitri Dimakopoulos, of the Montreal firm that would design Place des Arts. Mr. Menkès had his first experience of designing skyscrapers in New York. He moved there in 1955 and took a job at Harrison & Abramovitz. The firm had some of the most important commissions in New York City and the state; the young Mr. Menkès, according to his daughter, worked on the Time & Life Building and the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center. “He loved big projects, and it must have been very exciting for him to work in that environment in Manhattan,” Alexandra Menkès said. He also met the love of his life. On a blind date with friends, he encountered Ann Sullivan, a fashion model; the two were married within a year, in 1959. They would go on to have three children in the next decade. The newlyweds returned to Montreal in 1960, and Mr. Menkès took a job with the young British-Canadian architect Peter Dickinson. Mr. Dickinson’s office, based in Toronto, was a hotbed of Modernist design in Canada, and the architects soon had projects across Ontario, in the North and in Montreal. Mr. Menkès, who ran the Montreal office, would regularly jet into Toronto for meetings – which a recent book about Mr. Dickinson recalls as heavily male and filled with clouds of cigarette smoke – but always returned to Montreal. In that first year the office was designing the Tour CIBC, next to Dorchester Square, which would open in 1962 as one of the city’s tallest buildings. There would be more towers, but without Mr. Dickinson. He died of cancer in late 1961 at the age of 35. A group of even younger associates, including Mr. Menkès, established themselves as Webb Zerafa Menkès Housden, or WZMH. WZMH became a force in Canadian architecture in the 1960s and 1970s, designing or contributing to office towers and institutional buildings across the country, including Calgary’s Municipal Building and the CN Tower. Mr. Menkès’s Montreal office specialized in high-rises. “There was a strong Modernist aesthetic in the office, and he was a strong proponent of that,” says Carl Blanchaer, an architect who began working with Mr. Menkès at WZMH in 1981 and is now a principal of that firm. “He was trying to find a timeless language for architecture.” That language was in keeping with the dominant ideas of the Late Modernist period: Mr. Menkès’s buildings were sometimes in concrete but increasingly with skins of reflective glass. These were intended to break up their large masses and evoked an orderly and technologically advanced future. WZMH grew quickly, and by the 1980s had hundreds of employees and a handful of foreign offices. Mr. Menkès was interested in both the financial and human aspects of such a large operation, his daughter recalls. “Architecture is very much about working with a team of people, and he really prized those collaborations. It’s also a business and he understood that clearly.” But unlike many executives in fast-growing businesses – and many architects – Mr. Menkès by all accounts was a warm and thoughtful colleague. “He had a real generosity of spirit,” Mr. Blanchaer remembers. “He was a very gracious person; he was able to draw on the talents of the people around him and didn’t feel the need to claim credit.” He did, however, enjoy a new challenge. Moving forward, in 1994, he parted amicably with WZMH to launch a second firm, which would become Menkès Shooner Dagenais LeTourneux (MSDL). He recruited two younger architects from WZMH, Yves Dagenais and Anik Shooner, as his partners, and the young firm continued to specialize in offices and high-rises. “He was deeply interested in pleasing the client and ensuring that the building really functioned the way it should,” Mr. Dagenais says. The firm continued his specialization in large commercial buildings and carried on Mr. Menkès’s tradition of creating a humane workplace. “He really understood that to have a great building, you need happy people,” Mr. Dagenais adds. “We learned a lot from that about how to run a practice and run an office.” Mr. Menkès retired from practice in 2009, but continued to drop into the office frequently, Ms. Shooner recalls. “He was a very warm person and always ready to offer advice. We always valued that.” Mr. Menkès, who was 87, leaves his wife, Ann; three children, Katrina, John and Alexandra; and two grandchildren. His professional highlights with MSDL included designing the headquarters of the Canadian Space Agency in St. Hubert, Que., whose aerodynamic forms and sleek metal cladding “really captured the aspirations of the agency to lead the way with space travel,” Mr. Dagenais says. That building also prefigured a change in architecture. The glass skins that had been so fashionable in the 1970s and 1980s disappeared. And while all-glass towers have had a renaissance in the past decade, Mr. Blanchaer suggests that the next generation of commercial buildings will be less carbon-intensive and more energy efficient. This is already evident in MSDL’s recent work. Ms. Shooner suggests that Mr. Menkès would have been more than ready to make this change. “He was always ready to embrace the future, and he wanted to build something that would survive him. I think he was proud that our office will do that.”
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