This website was produced to complement the publication and exhibition CAPITAL MODERN: Edmonton Architecture and Urban Design 1940-1969 curated by Shafraaz Kaba, David Murray and Troy Smith and produced by the Art Gallery of Alberta (June 8 – August 26, 2007).
CONTRIBUTERS
JAMES DOW
James Dow was born in Canton, China in 1941. While attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1960s, he became interested in photography. After studying with notable American photographers, Minor White and Ansel Adams, his lifelong career was established and has focused primarily on architectural photography. Over the last 30 years Dow’s photographs have been published world-wide. He is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, an honorary member of the Alberta Association of Architects, and received the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Allied Arts Medal in 2005.
TREVOR BODDY
Vancouver-based critic and curator Trevor Boddy has written on architecture and cities for The Vancouver Sun, Toronto Globe and Mail, Ottawa Citizen, Seattle Times, Georgia Straight, Canadian Architect, Architectural Review, Architectural Record and global design magazines published in German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and Arabic. His art criticism has appeared in Canadian Art and Vanguard magazines plus numerous exhibition catalogues. He holds a Master’s degree in architecture, and has taught studio, history and urbanism at universities across North America, and lectures globally on contemporary design and city-building.
Trevor Boddy’s independent critical monograph The Architecture of Douglas Cardinal was named “Alberta Book of the Year” and short-listed for the International Union of Architects prize for best book of architectural criticism published worldwide, and his essay “Underground and Overhead: Building the Analogous City” was included in the collectionVariations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space, named “One of the most important books of 1992” by the Voice Literary Supplement. A contributing editor to Seattle’s Arcade and Toronto’s Canadian Architect magazines, his architectural criticism has earned the 2001 Western Magazine Award for arts writing , and Boddy was named co-winner of the 2003 Jack Webster Journalism Award for civic reporting. After opening at Saskatoon’s Mendel Gallery, his career retrospective major exhibition” Telling Details: The Architecture of Clifford Wiens” toured nationally , and for UBC’s Museum of Anthrolology, he curated the exhibition-as-event “A Dialogue of Cities”, a global gathering of architecture critics.
SHAFRAAZ KABA
Shafraaz is a partner at Manasc Isaac Architects Ltd. He is also a founding member ofMedia, Art and Design Exposed (M.A.D.E.) in Edmonton Society which creates programs that bring design, art and architecture to the public. In 2006, he was selected as Vice-Chair of the Edmonton Design Committee, which is an urban design review panel. In the wee hours, he finds time to write a weekly design column for the Edmonton Journal and regularly contributes to Avenue Magazine. He is a proud father of a four-year old budding paleontologist.
TROY SMITH
Troy Smith is an architect who is currently an Associate with Group2 Architecture Engineering (formerly Barry Johns Architecture) in Edmonton . He is a registered architect in the province of Alberta and a member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. Along with Capital Modern, Troy previously co-curated the 2005 exhibition, Eye for Architecture, on renowned Edmonton architectural photographer James Dow.
DAVID MURRAY
David Murray is an architect practicing in Edmonton. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1969 and established his office in 1984. Murray’s specialty is architectural preservation and his experience includes the restoration of many historic projects in Alberta. He has just completed an inventory of Modern Architecture, 1930 to 1960, for the City of Edmonton. Murray is a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.
MARIANNE FEDORI
Marianne Fedori is an Alberta historian who resides in Edmonton. She works as a consulting historian for provincial and municipal government museums, the media and publishers. Fedori has a BA in Canadian History (University of Calgary, 1980) and has completed graduate history and architectural history course work focusing on Alberta architecture, residential patterns, ethno cultural historic resources and the history of urban planning in Alberta.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The Art Gallery of Alberta gratefully acknowledges The Canada Council for the Arts (Assistance for the Promotion of Architecture), the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the City of Edmonton and the following organizations for their support of these projects.
Alberta Foundation for the Arts
Arndt Tkalcic Architects (now Arndt Tkalcic Bengert)
Edmonton Design Committee
Epcor
Canada Council for the Arts
City of Edmonton
Cohos Evamy Architects
HIP Architects
Johns Group2 (now Group2)
M.A.D.E. in Edmonton
Manasc Isaac Architects
Reid Jones Cristoffersen
Stantec
University of Alberta
APPRECIATION
The City of Edmonton Planning Department is to be commended for its long-term commitment to preparing an inventory of significant modern buildings that will be added to the Historic Register. This on-going project forms the basis of an important initiative that will allow buildings from the post-war period that are now 50 years and older to qualify for protection as Municipal Historic Resources.