The Ordinary Amazing Symposium: The Cultural Value of Modernist Architecture

May 25 to May 27, 2007 in Regina, Saskatchewan

Spurred on by a growing awareness that an astounding chapter in the history of architecture is at risk—with modernist buildings routinely being demolished and abandoned—architectural heritage groups are realizing that there is something amazing in these seemingly ordinary buildings. The Ordinary Amazing Symposium intends to address this situation both as a question of cultural values and as a very real issue for the local and national community.

Clifford Wiens’ intelligent and elegant buildings present a compelling case for the continuing importance of modernist buildings, while the buildings presented in 41° to 66°: Regional Responses to Sustainable Architecture in Canada demonstrates the viability of modernism in relation to questions of regionalism and sustainability. The understanding of modernist architecture’s distinctiveness within place experience will be further explored in Foreign and Familiar: A Selection of Place Experience from the Permanent Collection at the Dunlop Art Gallery in the spring 2007. The Dunlop has already set the stage for this discussion with its 2005 fall lecture series Visual Culture, Community and Citizenship, which examined the role of built spaces in Regina’s downtown area and which attempted to define an understanding of the Regina Public Library’s modernist building – its social cohesion, openness and adaptability as a multifunctional and democratic meeting place. Lastly, the series will coincide with the official opening of the latest contribution to Regina’s architectural mosaic, the R.C.M.P Heritage Centre, representing another giant of modernist architecture, Arthur Erickson.

The Ordinary Amazing Symposium will bring together these threads by examining two key questions. The first revolves around the general cultural value of modernist built spaces. What standards and values should we use in evaluating a style of architecture which has often been associated with an alienating disregard for context, and, on the other hand, what values do modernist spaces contain that have been lost in more recent architectural enterprises? The second question revolves around re-use and sustainability; through case studies with practicing architects we will examine recent attempts to re-use modernist architecture from the standpoint of practicality, ethics and aesthetics. Finally, recent debates over the future of the Regina Public Library building will be informed by keynote speaker Patricia Patkau in relation to her recent library projects. It is our hope that this symposium will bring local and national attention to the architectural value of our existing built environment in Regina, and will encourage a discussion of the importance of public space and public libraries.

Symposium Schedule

Friday May 25, 2007

Lecture
11:00 a.m., RPL Film Theatre
Dr. Serena Keshavjee (Professor of Art History, University of Winnipeg) will give a talk titled Pompidou on the Red: The University of Winnipeg's Centennial Hall.

Tour of R.C.M.P Heritage Centre
2:00 p.m.Exhibition Tour

Opening Reception
7:00 p.m. MacKenzie Art Gallery Tour of 41º to 66º: Regional Responses to Sustainable Architecture in Canada led by Marco Polo (Assistant Professor, Department of Architectural Science, Ryerson University and co-curator of 41º to 66º).

8:00 p.m., MacKenzie Art Gallery
Reception for the exhibition TELLING DETAILS: The Architecture of Clifford Wiens, featuring a performance by Robin Poitras, Artictic Director of New Dance Horizons and daughter of Clifford Wiens. Members of the Canada Council for the Arts will also be on hand to bring greetings as we dedicate this reception to celebrating the CCA's 50th anniversary.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Panel Discussion
Re-Use: A Second Life for Modernist Buildings
9:00 a.m. to 11 a.m., MacKenzie Art Gallery

Panelists include:

• Jeannie Mah (Artist and Friends of the Dunlop Art Gallery Liasion, Regina)
• James J. Youck (Architect, P3 Architecture, Regina)
• Bob Ellard (Architect, Stantec Architecture and Interior Design, Regina)
• David W. Edwards (Architect, de Lint + Edwards Architects, Regina)
• Cheryl Cooper (Founding Director + Chair, Arthur Erickson Conservancy, Vancouver)

Moderated by Marco Polo (Assistant Professor, Department of Architectural Science, Ryerson University)

Keynote Address
11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., MacKenzie Art Gallery
Patricia Patkau (Partner in Patkau Achitects, Vancouver, and professor in the School of Architecture, University of British Columbia)

Lunch
12:45 p.m. to 1:45 p.m., Regina Public Library Boardroom

Panel Discussion
(Un) Common Spaces: The Cultural Value of Modernist Public Architecture
2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., RPL Film Theatre

Panelists include:

• Bernard Flaman (SAA, MRAIC, Heritage Architect, Culture, Youth and Recreation, Province of Saskatchewan)
• Lisa Rochon (Architecture critic, The Globe and Mail, Toronto)
• Steven Mannell (NSAA, MRAIC, Professor, School of Architecture & Planning, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia)
• Trevor Boddy (Vancouver-based Art/Architecture critic and historian, exhibition curator of TELLING DETAILS: The Architecture of Clifford Weins)

Moderated by Elizabeth Matheson (Independent Curator, Regina/Saskatoon)

Walking Tour
3:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Walking tour of modernist and heritage architecture in the Victoria Park Conservation District led by Bernard Flaman.

Keynote Address
7:30 p.m., MacKenzie Art Gallery
Clifford Wiens (Architect, Vancouver)

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Pre-Bus Tour Coffee
9:30 a.m., CBC Regina

Bus Tour
10:30 a.m., Leaving from CBC Regina
Two buses will depart from the CBC Building - one led by Clifford Wiens and one by Trevor Boddy. Both buses will visit a number of Wiens buildings, including the John Nugent Studio (Lumsden), Silton Chapel (Silton) and the University of Regina Heating and Cooling Plant (Regina).

Registration

Registration for the Ordinary Amazing Symposium is handled on a first-come, first-serve basis and spaces are limited.

Please note that because of space limitations, The Ordinary Amazing Symposium may fill up quickly. Register now to secure your spot. People will be registered on a first come, first serve basis. Your registration will be confirmed once we have processed your payment.

Registration options are as follows:

• Symposium: Friday, May 25 and Saturday, May 26, 2007
  (includes lunch on Saturday, May 26, 2007)
  Cost: $60 per person

• Bus Tour: Sunday, May 27, 2007
  (includes bag lunch)
  Cost $40 per person

To encourage student participation and attendance, a very limited number of bursaries are available for students to attend the Symposium (not including the Sunday, May 27th bus tour) free of charge. If you would like to be considered, please contact the MacKenzie Art Gallery for more information.

The Saskatchewan Association of Architects will provide professional core credits to their members who attend The Ordinary Amazing Symposium. To inquire about how to apply for credits, contact the SAA directly at (306) 242-0733.


To receive a registration form or for more information contact:

Marie Olinik
MacKenzie Art Gallery
3475 Albert Street
Regina, SK S4S 6X6
Phone: (306) 584-4281
Fax: (306) 569-8191
Email: mackenzie.admincur@uregina.ca

Keynote Biographies - Clifford Wiens

Clifford Wiens is the most acclaimed architect ever to call Saskatchewan home, with three of his buildings receiving Canada's highest award for design over the 40-year course of his Regina-based practice, founded in 1957. Wiens was born on his Glen Kerr-area family farm west of Regina in 1926. After short periods studying art and agriculture at the University of Saskatchewan, Wiens was accepted into Rhode Island School of Design on full scholarship in 1949, intending a career in industrial design, but later electing to major in architecture. Wiens is unusual for his generation of Canadian Architects for the extremely wide range of clients and building types he engaged during his practice, much of it design from the innovative steel office building of his own devising on Albert Street. Wiens' designs such as the original Regina office building for IPSCO, the Nugent Studio (St. Mark's Shop) in Lumsden, a Trans-Canada Highway campground near Maple Creek, and the CBC Saskatchewan studios in Regina generated a national reputation amongst architects for their conceptual rigour, innovative detailing and expressive link to prairie landscapes. In the 1990s Wiens consulted and taught architecture in Arizona, before settling in Vancouver, where he continues to design houses.

Keynote Biographies - Patricia Patkau

Patricia Patkau graduated from the University of Manitoba with a Bachelor of Interior Design degree in 1974 and from Yale University with a Master’s in Architecture in 1978. In 1978 she founded Patkau Architects with John Patkau. Patkau Architects has received significant national and international design awards for a wide variety of building types including the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec and the Winnipeg Centennial Library. Patricia Patkau is a Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of British Columbia where she has taught since the 1980s. She is a Fellow of the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada, an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and the Royal Institute of British Architects, a member of the Royal Academy of Art, and a Member of the Order of Canada. In addition to practice, she has taught, lectured and been a guest critic at numerous universities in Canada, the United States, and Europe. In 1995, John and Patricia Patkau were jointly Eliot Noyes Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University.

Credits

The Ordinary Amazing Symposium is co-organized by the MacKenzie Art Gallery and the Dunlop Art Gallery. It is made possible through the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Saskatchewan Arts Board and the City of Regina Arts Commission.

The Symposium is being held in conjunction with the exhibition TELLING DETAILS: The Architecture of Clifford Wines, organized and circulated by the Mendel Art Gallery with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the City of Saskatoon and through a contribution from the Museums Assistance Program, Department of Canadian Heritage. At the MacKenzie, TELLING DETAILS is made possible through the generous support of the Donald and Claire Kramer Foundation. CBC Regina is the media sponsor for the Symposium and exhibition.