2012 Vancouver International Children’s Festival

The annual Vancouver International Children’s Festival takes place May 28 to June 3, 2012. Building on the festival’s “Celebrate Our Stories” message, one of this year’s highlights has an architectural connection: it’s an on-site school group activity led by students from Emily Carr University where children will build structures storey by storey. In support of the event, the festival’s Adopt a Class program invites you to support this unique opportunity for youngsters to be engaged, entertained and educated. A $1000 donation will allow students from inner city schools across the Lower Mainland to attend by covering festival admission, transportation, tickets to featured performances and access to all related activities. Local businesses are even welcomed to support a neighbourhood school. For more information about the festival including the Adopt a Class program, visit the festival web site at http://www.childrensfestival.ca/index.php.

The Architecture Meltdown

By Scott Timberg, Salon

February 4, 2012

When the Great Recession dawned, architecture was the glamour profession of the creative class. Extravagant, signature buildings – Frank Gehry’s titanium-clad Guggenheim Museum in Spain’s Basque Country, Richard Meier’s white-travertine Getty Center in Los Angeles, and multimillion-dollar concert halls in seemingly every city in the U.S. – drew not only press attention but the kind of architectural tourists who once visited Italian duomos. Brash, individualistic “starchitects” – cerebral urbanist Rem Koolhaas, Iraq-born diva Zaha Hadid, gracious, serene Renzo Piano and others hailed in the press as visionaries – became the new rock stars. More …