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Post Modern (1960 -
2004)
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In 1959, Philip Johnson declared at The American Institute
of Architecture that Modern Architecture was dead. It took 28
years for him to rise like a phoenix out of the ashes and present
the works and designs of seven architects, in the Museum of Modern
Art in New York City. It is hard to recapture the mood of the
60s, 70s, and 80s when the style was taking hold, but quite simply
the Post Modernists were reacting to the minimalism of Modernism.
They maintained that less is just less and is suffocatingly boring.
Many applications of
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Post Modernist architecture are simply dandyish afterthoughts
or mannerist jokes on architecture, and it was difficult for many
to comprehend the point of it, particularly when public money
was being spent, but the fact remains that over the past 30 years
Post Modernism has provided some stunning visual effects. In many
cases the attitude seems to be to set up one sort of geometric
structure and then superimpose another structure on it that is
consciously meant to clash. Sometimes the results are quite spectacular.
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Thunder Bay
The Province of Ontario Building on Water Street
was a joint project done by Arthur Erickson, a very well known
west coast architect and Reginald Nalizetti, a local one.
It is a classic Post Modern building in that it
uses traditional architectural vocabulary in a new and impressive
way. The front colonnade is a good
example. The columns have neither
bases nor capitals, but a decorative
band level with the first floor lintels.
There is an exaggerated cornice atop
the architrave which has three
horizontal bands. There is no ornament,
not even fluting on the columns, and
instead of marble, the columns are metal. Behind the colonnade,
the building is a cutain wall of glass with an open concept
foyer. Winding around the colonnade is a
balustrade leading to other portions of the building and
a landscaped front.
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North Bay Ontario
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Barrie
This is a back portion of the City Hall in Barrie,
completed in 1985. This portion has a rotunda made of smooth
concrete with diminishing bands rusticated stone. The rotunda
has a pediment -like triangular addition on the top that seems
to intersect the cylindrical shape adding a detail that centers
your focus.
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Barrie Ontario
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University Center, McMaster
Ontario Universities are now judged by their facilities
to accomodate and amuse students as much as for their library
collections and course offerings. This building, designed by
Moriyama and Teshima Architects in Burlington Ontario, is a
lovely, open, spacey building that augments the various buildings
of the "Arts Complex" with a large variey of fast
food outlets and an open space for presentations, gatherings,
and many vending stalls.
The upper walkways provide a light, airy passageway
towards the second level administrative offices and classrooms.
The Center is joined to Mills Memorial Library
with a covered awning. Mills has an astonishingly good collection
of books and articles plus one of the best Rare Book collections
in the country.
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Hamilton Ontario
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Ottawa
In an
effort to learn from the past and utilize design features that
have stood the test of time for centuries, architects have been
rethinking the column, the arch,
the window, and virtually every other
element of Classical architecture. This residence, which is
largely gold metal and glass, offers a modern solution
in ancient vocabulary.
The covered portico
is supported by columns with rusticated
bases and orbs that project above the "architrave"
and cornice of the covering. The
front façade makes liberal use
of round-headed arches and floor to
ceiling windows. The effect is stunning.
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Ottawa Ontario
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Ottawa
The International style introduced the use of
windows as a continuous curtain wall. These were generally in
box-shaped buildings with coloured spandrel panels and heavy
mullions.
This building in Ottawa takes the glass curtain
wall a step further, until it is a continuous reflecting surface
that melds into the sky. The shape of the building, like many
Post Modern buildings, particularly in England, creates an optical
illusion. If you look too long at where
the building meets the sky you lose a sense of what is really
happening at the top.
There is no allegorical or symbolic
use of Classical motifs, no rearranging of forms, no clever
twists; this is just an ultramodern building using natural light
and indeed nature itself, to create a visual sensation.
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Ottawa Ontario
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Toronto
In Toronto the number of Post Modern buildings
is staggering. This Late-Modern office building - in front of
but definitely not part of the CN Tower - makes good use of
reflective glass and polished stone. A drum-like central column
seems to be held in place by rectangular towers. On the side
is a purposely unfinished prism on top of another tower.
This building exists in the downtown core and
reflects the image that most people have of Toronto: poured
concrete, metal, polished stone and glass. The modern office
buildings have been placed among the older buildings to the
advantage of both.
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Toronto Ontario
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Newmarket
The City Hall in Newmarket, in contrast to the
buildings above, is a sprawling organic structure in a rural
setting. Four clock towers with
four clocks each pointing in a different
direction flank the front entrance. A colonnade
supporting a plain cornice provides
the heart of the building; all offices and departments radiate
from here. The four storeys of the building have undulating
balconies and curved walls of glass
on platforms of decreasing size. The building seems to have
grown out of the ground it was built on.
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Newmarket Ontario
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Ottawa
One of the best known buildings in Canada, the
National Gallery of Canada, completed in 1988, was designed
by Canadian architect Moshe Safdie.
This image is of the multi-level, crystal, entrance
pavilion. This is the crossing in an L shaped plan. From here
the public galleries radiate in a number of directions.
Unlike the Crystal Palace and other large conservatory-like
buildings, this dome has a flat top and many angular steps to
the top. Its many tiers echo the Neo-Gothic Parliament Buildings
that are across the road.
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Ottawa Ontario
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Mississauga
The Mississauga City Hall, completed in 1987,
was designed by Jones and Kirkland Architects of London Ontario.
The building uses many modern interpretations
of historical motifs such as a rotunda, a central tower with
a clock, an agora - a Greek market place or meeting place -
and arcades. The council chamber is within the drum of the rotunda,
administration takes place in the tower, and everything else
takes place in the rectangular areas of the building. The overall
effect is not similar to that of a Classical building at all.
In the words of Mark Franklin, the set pieces
are "clearly legible: cylinder, prism, cube, pyramid and
shaft, with chaos just around the corner" (Canadian Architect,
June 1987, Vol. 32, #6).
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Mississauga Ontario
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Guelph
Post Modern design is not limited to large, civic
buildings. Restaurants, retail outlets, and residences are also
finding that a mixture of basic geometric shapes works well.
The Kaleidoscope restaurant in Guelph has a multiplicity
of historical motifs updated and applied to a modern setting.
The column has no base and no capital, but does have an attractive
triangulated bracket on a copper finish. Above the column is
a purple band with a white trim. Halogen lights illuminate the
bar area where the surfaces are metal and marble. The upper
railing is ornamented with medallions.
The kitchen is open to the public as in an outdoor
restaurant. Purple bands tie the kitchen area to the rest of
the restaurant. The elements are old, but the application is
brand new.
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Guelph Ontario
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