Brian Carter is featured essayist in book on Canadian modern architecture selected for 2021 RAIC President's Medal
2021 President’s Medal for Multimedia Representations of Architecture. Photo credit: Canadian Modern Architecture : 1967 to present.
By Isha Bubna
Published August 17, 2021
UB professor of architecture Brian Carter is a featured essayist in the book Canadian Modern Architecture: 1967 to the Present, which has just been presented with the RAIC President's Medal for Multimedia Representations of Architecture.
Brian Carter is a professor of architecture at the University at Buffalo. Author of several books on modern architecture, Carter serves as a peer reviewer for the GSA Design Excellence program and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
An Award of Excellence presented every two years by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC), the President's Medal recognizes a narrative about buildings and cities that promotes the public's understanding of architecture and the role of architects.
Canadian Modern Architecture is the first comprehensive volume on modern and contemporary Canadian architecture to appear in over 25 years. It is co-published by Princeton Architectural Press and Canadian Architect magazine and edited by Elsa Lam and Graham Livesey (2019, Toronto, ON).
The book offers a far-reaching review of major work in this county. Brian Carter (Hon. FRAIC) offers an original essay along with contributing authors George Baird (FRAIC), Ian Chodikoff (FRAIC), Odile Hénault, George Kapelos (FRAIC), Lisa Landrum (FRAIC), Steven Mannell (FRAIC), Sherry McKay, Marco Polo (FRAIC), Colin Ripley (MRAIC), Lola Sheppard, David Theodore (MRAIC), Larry Wayne Richards (FRAIC), Adele Weder (Hon. MRAIC) and Mason White (MRAIC). It is illustrated with 500 photographs and drawings.
The 50-year retrospective begins with the nation’s centennial and Expo 67 in Montreal. It covers the definition of national institutions and movements, how Canadian architects interpreted major international trends, regional and Indigenous architectural tendencies, and the influence of architects in Canada’s three largest cities—Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.
Comments from the Jury
The book “Canadian Modern Architecture: 1967 to Present” is a body of work representing Canadian Architecture from coast to coast diligently and completely compiled into one superb anthology. It is a timely piece that may take decades to replicate and/or replace. In 15 chapters, these authors clearly explain the themes and regional trends that have shaped the country’s built form in this period – a period in which, as the editors suggest, a truly Canadian architecture was born for the first time. This assembly of expertise and regional knowledge allows the book to provide a depth of insight that no one individual could offer. Canadian Modern Architecture: 1967 to Present is a body of work whose diversity and variety are entirely Canadian.
President’s Medal for Multimedia Representations of Architecture Jury
Michael Cox, PP/FRAIC
Michael J. Cox, Architect
Brandon, MB
Wayne De Angelis, PP/FRAIC
De Angelis Architecture
Vancouver, BC
Alex Bozikovic
Architecture Critic, The Globe, and Mail
Toronto, ON
TOPICS: