Archinect - News

Maya Lin to design Glenbow Museum's new rooftop garden in Calgary

2023-10-30T16:57:00-04:00

Maya Lin Studio has been attached to a new rooftop garden terrace project at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta.

The 13,000-square-foot design will complement the new $120 million renovation and expansion scheme from DIALOG that was announced in September of 2021. It will include an all-season pavilion structure, event spaces, and sculpture gardens surrounding a central oculus skylight that doubles as a lightwell for the new JR Shaw Centre for Art & Culture. Lin says the space will “afford a welcoming place that will invite visitors to connect to art, landscape, and the city of Calgary.” The project will be her first-ever work in Canada.

Rendering courtesy of Maya Lin Studio

“This idea that we are recycling a building in the center of downtown Calgary and making something new out of it while utilizing as much of the old building was a huge draw for me. If we can use an existing building in a better way, it is a lot more energy-efficient, it is a lot more material-efficient, and ...

Lumber prices expected to hike as Canadian wildfires rage on

2023-07-18T13:06:00-04:00

Canadian wildfire smoke continues to blow over much of the U.S., raising air pollution to harmful levels for construction workers. Now, the impact of the fires is likely to raise U.S. lumber prices, too.

As reported by Construction Dive, Canada’s devastating wildfire season, which has been felt across North America through declined air quality, has impacted the largest amount of land ever recorded in a single year. As a result, lumber prices are expected to rise as Canada supplies approximately 80% of U.S. softwood lumber imports. However, it is too early to know how much of the affected areas include harvestable timber, as well as how much will be damaged in the coming months.

The Canadian provinces of Alberta and Quebec have been hit the hardest by the fires so far, with around 3.8 million and 3.5 million acres burnt, respectively. Together, they account for 44% of Canada’s annual softwood lumber shipments and 45% of total production. Canada’s weather conditions are expected to fuel more wildfires throughout the summer, which paints a grim outlook for lumber prices.

A new grant will support Indigenous students and curriculum development at the University of Calgary's design school

2023-03-31T15:55:00-04:00

A new grant meant to encourage Indigenous students’ participation in the architectural field has been announced by the University of Calgary.

The $120,000 CAD ($88,600 USD) grant is being funded by the Alberta Real Estate Foundation (AREF) and will help the university’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape (SAPL) further develop its existing Indigenous Pathways Program while integrating Indigenous knowledge and subject matter into the brand-new Bachelor of Design in City Innovation (BDCI) degree.

The school shares that the BDCI is also its first-ever undergraduate degree offering. Sessional instructors and staff from the Indigenous community will also be recruited as a result of the funding, which helps to underscore the central mission and principles of the institution. Currently, the SAPL is the province’s only accredited architectural degree program.

“This project elevates real estate leadership in our province through inclusion, representation, and professional standa...

DIALOG's $120 million Glenbow Museum renovation project is now officially underway

2021-09-30T15:29:00-04:00

As part of an institutional pivot that will take the combination art and history museum in a new direction, Calgary’s Glenbow Museum has officially closed its doors ahead of a three-year-long renovation project meant to reinterpret the 55-year-old museum’s image and impact on the local community.

DIALOG is behind the $120 million plan to make the museum significantly more inclusive, responsive, and accessible, transforming the existing “bunker-like” structure from 1976 into a catalyst for an entirely reimagined public program that aligns more succinctly with Glenbow’s stated goals.

"This museum's mission sits squarely in between the important cultural issues of art and history, and the timing could not be better to help create a facility far more conducive to the important current conversations around cultural inclusion happening in Canada and across the globe,” lead designer Robert Claiborne said in a statement.

Interior view. Image courtesy DIALOG

The existing eight-story build...

DIALOG unveils plans for its new NaAC facility in Calgary

2021-08-04T19:39:00-04:00

Designs for a new arts center servicing the disabled community in Western Canada have been unveiled this week as part of a dynamic rebrand that will give the former Indefinite Arts Center in Calgary a much-needed new home.

Image courtesy NaAC

Featuring an art gallery, cafe, performance venues, and outdoor gathering spaces, the National accessArts Centre (NaAC) will repurpose an old Scouts Canada building thanks to a $12 million redevelopment plan designed by DIALOG.

Image courtesy NaAC

According to NaAC’s CEO Jung-Suk Ryu: “Every city has a performing arts centre, a museum, or an art gallery — but Calgary will be the only city with infrastructure dedicated to the needs and talents of artists living with disabilities. Now, Calgary will truly become the national capital of this important, much-celebrated element of our arts and culture sector.”

Image courtesy NaAC

DIALOG is working with the group to develop an addition to the existing structure, which will be renovated by the local firm...

The grain elevators of the Canadian prairie are disappearing

2020-01-20T15:09:00-05:00

Grain elevators were once an icon of Canada’s west: often painted a bright boxcar red, they stood in towns across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. [...] In the 1930s there were nearly 6,000 towers; now fewer than a thousand remain. The destruction, in many ways, mirrors the broader decline of rural communities in western Canada.

For The Guardian, journalist Leyland Cecco on the struggle of small agricultural communities in Canada's prairie provinces to preserve their aging, wooden grain elevators as cultural heritage monuments.

Restored Alberta Wheat Pool elevators at the Canadian Grain Elevator Discovery Centre in Nanton, Alberta. Photo: Tony Hisgett

Once the pride of every community and dubbed "prairie castles" for their often imposing heights in the flat landscape, thousands of them were left to rot and eventually faced demolition. Only a handful of lucky structures managed to win protection status, such as at the Canadian Grain Elevator Discovery Centre in Nanton, Alberta or the Prairie Elevator Museum in Acadia, AB.

Get Lectured: University of Calgary, 2017-18

2017-09-19T13:11:00-04:00

Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Fall 2017

Ready or not, it's the start of a new school year. Back for Fall 2017 is Archinect's Get Lectured, an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check back regularly to keep track of any upcoming lectures you don't want to miss.

Want to share your school's lecture series? Send us your school's lecture series poster and details to connect@archinect.com.

Check out the Fall '17 + Winter '18 Design Matters Lecture Series, happening now at the University of Calgary Faculty of Environmental Design (EVDS) in Alberta, Canada.

FALL '17

Sept 6
Calgary: Changing City Urban Panel

Oct 11
Clare Lyster / CLUAA Urbanism and Architecture

Nov 1
Juliane Wolf / Studio Gang

Nov 29
Martha Schwartz / Martha Schwartz Partners

WINTER '18

Jan 3
Somerville Visiting Lectureship

Feb 21
Dana Cupkova / Carnegie Mellon University & Epiphyte Lab

Mar 7
Susan Fainstein / Senior Research Fellow, Harvard G...

A Canadian developer is building an enclave of world-class architecture in the Alberta foothills

2017-02-22T12:26:00-05:00

Ian MacGregor, the president and chief executive of North West Upgrading Inc. and a self-described “guy who works in the oil business”, is reportedly planning to fund and develop a cluster of architectural icons in the idyllic foothills of Alberta. Dubbed the Carraig Ridge, the community will be located between Cochrane and Canmore. Already, the 650-acre site hosts “the Rock House” designed by Seattle-based architect James Cutler of Cutler Anderson Architects.

MacGregor, compelled by the beauty of the region, says he bought the $20-million site to avoid its division into a series of smaller parcels. Despite his profession, the developer is committed to preserving the area’s environment. He brought some notable conservation planners, including Randall Arendt and Christopher Alexander, to scope out the site.

Now, the development will host 44 lots between two and five acres. Each parcel is priced at $1.05 million—unless you’re willing to put up an extra million to get a sleek home de...

University of Calgary pays $16K to recover data held hostage by ransomware attackers

2016-06-08T13:05:00-04:00

Canada's University of Calgary paid almost $16,000 ($20,000 Canadian, ~£10,800) to recover crucial data that has been held hostage for more than a week by crypto ransomware attackers. The ransom was disclosed on Wednesday morning in a statement issued by University of Calgary officials. It said university IT personnel had made progress in isolating the unnamed ransomware infection and restoring affected parts of the university network.

"It went on to warn that there's no guarantee paying the controversial ransom will lead to the lost data being recovered."

Attacks with ransomware have become increasingly frequent. As the name suggests, ransomware allows hackers to take computers hostage until the user pays up. The increasing prevalence of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has facilitated the rise in such attacks.

As the University of Calgary's Vice President stated, ""We are conducting world class research daily and we don’t know what we don’t know in terms of who’s been impacted and the last thing we want to do is lose someone’s life’s work."

For more on that state of privacy in our digital era, check out these links:

What's left from the Alberta wildfire

2016-05-10T19:31:00-04:00

After a week of wildfires raging through the town of Fort McMurray and the surrounding area, more than 500,000 acres of forest and 2,400 buildings have been destroyed in Alberta, Canada. Rachel Notley, Alberta's premier, said that 90% of Fort McMurray remains intact, though several neighborhoods were complete losses...While the last fires in town are put out, and infrastructure repaired, more than 80,000 residents will have to wait at least another two weeks before they can return.

Calgary New Central Library Competition Shortlists Four Teams

2013-08-05T21:04:00-04:00

Who said that libraries were irrelevant in this digital age? Not the submitters in this competition. Since May, the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC) in Alberta, Canada has been on the search for the architectural team to create a compelling design for the new Central Public Library in East Village. CMLC, the City of Calgary, and the Calgary Public Library held an open Request for Qualification as Stage One of a two-stage process to ultimately select the Prime Design Consultant.

On August 1, CMLC announced the following four shortlisted firms—some who already have high-profile status—that will advance to Stage Two, Request for Proposal:

3XN and AECOM (Denmark and Calgary)
KPMB and BKDI (Toronto and Calgary)
REX and Group2 (New York and Calgary)
Snøhetta and Dialog (Oslo/New York and Calgary)

Calatrava's Peace Bridge to open tomorrow in Calgary

2012-03-23T19:37:00-04:00

“It has been extraordinarily controversial and I made no bones of the fact that it’s not a project I would have supported if I had been on council at the time,” said the mayor. “But the thing is, it’s there. It’s an indelible and a permanent part of the landscape of our city. “It would all do us good to grow to love it.” The span, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, is officially pegged at $24.5 million, but is expected to cost more.