An architect’s summer home: Downtown looks in a cottage context

January 30, 2014
By John Bentley Mays, Special to The Globe and Mail

For Torontonians enduring the city’s early January weather, next summer must seem impossibly far off. The worst of the winter is, more than likely, yet to come; and many weeks will pass before we can confidently stow away snow boots and mitts once and for all.

But the very bleakness of this time of year makes it a good moment to think forward to what’s waiting for us in a future that is not, after all, so very distant – things such as swims in lakes, barbeques on the deck and other pleasures of the warm months. And, of course, many Toronto people enjoy love cottage life.

Toronto architect Charles Gane is looking forward to April, when he will open up his 2,000-square-foot Georgian Bay cottage for its first complete season. More…

Destruction Looms for Arthur Erickson-designed Bank of Canada Atrium Garden

January 7, 2014
By Maria Cook and Michelangelo Sabatino, Ph.D. Published, The Cultural Landscape Foundation

The Bank of Canada’s garden and atrium in Ottawa, situated in a building between Canada’s first retail pedestrian mall and the federal institutional landscape, provide a welcoming public space in Canada’s capital city and exemplify architect Arthur Erickson’s skill as a maker of interior and exterior landscapes. The 12,749 square-foot atrium is now at risk of privatization and the garden threatened with destruction. More…

Hahn Oberlander Book Launch

Inform Interiors will be the site of a book launch for Cornelia Hahn Oberlander: Making the Modern Landscape.  This book celebrates her designs.  Cornelia Hahn Oberlander’s work is integral to the fabric of Vancouver and forms the living heart of the Robson Square Law Courts and the Museum of Anthropology. The launch takes place on Thursday, February 6th, from 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. Inform Interiors is located at 50 Water Street, Vancouver, BC.

RSVP to info@informinteriors.com

Image: www.corneliaoberlander.com

ZGF Cotter Architects

US-based ZGF Architects and local firm Cotter Architects come together to form ZGF Cotter Architects, the award-winning US firm’s first office outside of the United States.

The new firm will build on Cotter Architects’ established presence in the local market and allow ZGF Architects to provide the exceptional level of design service for which the award-winning US firm is widely recognized.

The new firm will go forward under the leadership of Principal Patrick Cotter, Architect AIBC, with ZGF Partners Jan Willemse, AIA and Allyn Stellmacher, AIA, and Operations Director Bonnie Cotter.  The Canadian office expands ZGF’s network of five existing offices in Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and New York.