The Cca As Museum of Architecture

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RACAR : Revue d'art canadienne Canadian Art Review

The cca as Museum of Architecture Helen Searing

Études sur l’architecture et son environnement Article abstract Studies on Architecture and its Environment Conçu pour répondre à des besoins variés, quoique complémentaires et Volume 16, Number 2, 1989 intimement liés, et destiné aussi bien au grand public qu’aux chercheurs, universitaires, professionnels ainsi qu’aux personnes qui, de par leur rôle URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1073150ar politique ou économique, ont la responsabilité de décisions relatives à DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1073150ar l’architecture et à l’urbanisme, le Centre Canadien d’Architecture est une institution à vocation complexe. Bien que le but du présent texte est d’analyser le en tant que musée, l’existence même de l’établissement à ce titre est See table of contents cca indissociable de ses autres fonctions—bibliothèque, réserve d’archives, centre d’étude et de conférences, lieu propice à l’enseignement et aux discussions. Une attention toute particulière est accordée à l’ensemble architectural qui Publisher(s) abrite le Centre, soit la maison historique Shaughnessy et le nouvel édifice conçu par Peter Rose. Le texte fait également état du rapport entre l’oeuvre de UAAC-AAUC (University Art Association of Canada | Association d'art des Rose et les progrès récents en matière d’architecture muséale, pour mieux universités du Canada) dégager l’influence de certains précurseurs, notamment de Louis I. Kahn. Les deux expositions inaugurales et leur installation y sont également examinées ISSN et discutées. 0315-9906 (print) 1918-4778 (digital)

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Searing, H. (1989). The cca as Museum of Architecture. RACAR : Revue d'art canadienne / Canadian Art Review, 16(2), 181–192. https://doi.org/10.7202/1073150ar

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This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ The CCA as Muséum of Architecture

HELEN SEARING

Alice Pratt Brown Prof essor of Art Smith College

RÉSUMÉ

Conçu pour répondre à des besoins variés, quoique d'étude et de conférences, lieu propice à l’enseignement complémentaires et intimement liés, et destiné aussi et aux discussions. Une attention toute particulière est bien au grand public qu’aux chercheurs, universitaires, accordée à l’ensemble architectural qui abrite le Centre, professionnels ainsi qu’aux personnes qui, de par leur soit la maison historique Shaughnessy et le nouvel édi rôle politique ou économique, ont la responsabilité de fice conçu par Peter Rose. Le texte fait également état décisions relatives à l’architecture et à l’urbanisme, le du rapport entre l’oeuvre de Rose et les progrès récents Centre Canadien d’Architecture est une institution à en matière d’architecture muséale, pour mieux dégager vocation complexe. Bien que le but du présent texte est l’influence de certains précurseurs, notamment de d’analyser le cca en tant que musée, l’existence même Louis I. Kahn. Les deux expositions inaugurales et leur de l’établissement à ce titre est indissociable de ses autres installation y sont également examinées et discutées. fonctions — bibliothèque, réserve d’archives, centre

The Canadian Centre for Architecture is a com- ARCHITECTURE AND THE MUSEUM plex institution (Fig. 220). Conceived to serve The diversity and didacticism of the cca could well many diverse if complementary and interlocking be encompassed by the word “muséum” if that rôles, the cca is directed to various audiences—the word were given its pre-nineteenth-century rnean- the lay public, scholars, practitioners, and those ing. The term mouseion—realm of the Muses — economically and politically empowered to make was applied in ancient Greece to places where decisions about architecture and ciliés. In this philosophers gathered to debate, and in Hellenis- essay it is the cca as a “muséum” that I wish to tic times designated the entire cultural precinct at consider, although its existence and performance Alexandria, which included a library and collec as such are inextricably dépendent on ils other tions of art objects, scientific instruments, and nat functions as archives and library, conférence and ural history spécimens.2 After the introduction of study centre, publisher, stimulator of debate, and printed books, the term sometimes appeared in school.1 the title of published repositories of knowledge,3 while continuing to connote a place containing a 1 The brilliaritly conceived garden that complétés the cca, designed by Mclvin Charney, and unfinished at this writ- collection. ing, lies outside the domain of this essay. Essential reading for ail of these topics is Larry Richards, ed., Canadian Centre 2 Nikolaus Pevsner, A History of Building Types (Princeton, for Architecture: Building and Gardens (Montréal, 1989), 1976), 111, and Alma S. Wittlin, Muséums: In Search of a catalogue to one of the two inaugural exhibitions. Indeed it Usable Future (Cambridge, Mass., 1970), 221. is difficult to add new information or insights to those 3 According to Wittlin, Muséums, 221-23, “a book entitled expressed by the authors contributing to this volume. I Muséum was a compilation that supposedly containcd a hâve read it very cursorily before advancing rny own views, représentative sélection of information on a single subject, but even skimming the volume, I am aware that. the superb if not ail available data”; she cites représentative exam essay, “Critical Classicism and the Restoration of Architec ples. In the context of this essay, it is pertinent to note that tural Consciousness” by Larry Richards, is so thorough and French “revolutionary” architect Claude-Nicholas Ledoux insightful that it leaves subséquent commentators little to (1736-1806) used the term in a prospectus announcing the add about the genesis of the design and its sources in local publication of engravings of his oeuvre, which he described architecture as well as its relation to the work of key as an “Encyclopedia or Architectural muséum” (Anthony twentieth-century architects. Vidler, The Writingofthe Walls: Architectural Theory in the Laie

searing / The cca as Muséum of Architecture 181 During the late eighteenth century, the public French Révolution, created in the convent of the muséum emerged as an indispensable national Petits-Augustins his Musée des monuments français, institution, and the word acquired its modern réf but the architectural fragments that he placed on érencé to a distinct building type, while retaining view constituted only a small part of the total col the general meaning of a place, a collection, and lection.8 One could argue that the rooms that Sir an activity directed towards the acquisition and John Soane (1753-1837) arranged in his house at dissémination of learning. The term would con Lincoln’s Inn Fields for the display of models, tinue to embrace “a range of concepts, some real, drawings, and architectural fragments, func- some imaginary, from the quasi-acadernic gather- tioned as an architectural muséum,9 and that the ing common in the 1780s, to grand schemes muséums of crafts and the industrial arts founded bringing together ail the sciences and the arts in a in the second half of the nineteenth century, such single Temple of Knowledge.”4 Yet by the 1770s, as the Victoria and Albert Muséum in London and the word “muséum” more specifically denoted a the various Kunstgewerbe muséums in Germany distinct place for the préservation and display of and Austria, performed a similar rôle. Architec artifacts.5 A simultaneous development was that tural drawings and, in some cases, models hâve the contents deposited in the muséum became been displayed in academie settings since the sev- more specialized, while the container became enteenth century, and many art muséums, histori- more codifîed in its design.6 cal societies, and libraries hâve made it a policy to The idea for forming muséums of “architec collect architectural drawings and rare books, and ture” has been in currency at least since the late to mount exhibitions on the architecture of a par- eighteenth century as well,7 but the realization of ticular time or place, or by a particular individual this idea, in any systematic manner, is a relatively or firm. recent phenomenon. As is well known, Alexandre Displays of architecture in the form of draw Lenoir (1762-1839), in the aftermath of the ings, models, and, in some cases, full-scale mockups also appeared at the international expositions that occurred with such frequency after the mid- Enlightenmenl [Princeton, 1987], 166). This ties in with the nineteenth century. Outdoor architectural musé point made by Hélène Lipstadt in her essay, “Architectural Publications, Compétitions, and Exhibitions,” in the ums, such as Skansen, hâve been around for some catalogue to the second of the cca’s inaugural exhibitions, time too.10 But the muséum of architecture as an Architecture and Its Image, ed. Eve Blau and Edward Kauf man (Montréal, 1989), 1 10, that “one can classify publish- 8 Lenoir did attempt to provide an appropriate architectural ing houses, galleries, muséums, and, to a certain extent, setting for the remnants of the different epochs, creating, compétitions as the formai and informai institutions of for example, a fictive Gothic groin-vaulted room. The not architecture.” inconsiderable literature on Lenoir is summarized in Vid 4 Vidler, Writing of the Walls, 165. ler, Writing of the Walls, 223, n. 6. (The Ecole des Beaux- 5 I would contend that the first purpose-built art muséum is Arts subsequently acquired part of the collection, and the the Pio-Clementino, added to the Vatican from 1776 on. architect, Félix Duban [1796-18711 proposed the création James Ackerman, on the other hand, believes “the first of an architectural research institution, incorporating casts muséum building since antiquity” to be an open courtyard, and fragments, library, archives, and premiated Grand surrounded by walls with niches, that formed part of Bra- Prix designs, which in some ways anticipated the cca. For mante’s early sixteenth-century Cortile del Belvedere. In this rather complicated history, see David Van Zanten, this space were displayed ancient sculptures, like the Lao- Designing Paris [Cambridge, 1987], 73-81.) At the turn of coôn and the Apollo Belvedere (James Ackerman, The the eighteenth century, Louis-François Cassas ( 1756-1827) Cortile del Belvedere [Vatican City, 1954], 18 and 32ff.). assembled a large group of models of exemplary buildings 6 Thus muséums were devoted to the display of works of from many nations and epochs in préparation for a art or natural history specimens or décorative arts. For a muséum of architecture. This never came into being, but review of developments of the container, see my essay, the models were exhibited, with an accompanying cata “The Development of a Muséum Typology,” in Suzanne logue, in 1806. See Dominique Poulot, “Architectural Stephens, ed.. Building the New Muséum (Princeton, 1986), Models—The Birth of the Muséum of Architecture in 13-23. France during the Révolution,” Lotus International, xxxv 7 For a prolegomena to the history of muséums of architec (1982), 32-35. ture, see John Harris, “Storehouses of Knowledge: The 9 John Harris (“Storehouses,” 25) does so argue, but John Origins of the Contemporary Architectural Muséum,” in Summerson (“Union of the Arts,” Lotus International, xxxv Richards, ed., Canadian Centre, 15-32. For French attempts [1982], 65) points out that “Sir John Soane did not describe to found muséums of architecture, see Vidler, Writing of the his Muséum as an architectural muséum. He preferred to Walls, 163-87, and Werner Szambien, Le Musée d’Architec think of it as a “union of the arts” in which painting, sculp ture (Paris, 1988). In the éditorial introduction to the issue ture and architecture participated on equal terms and to of Lotus International devoted to “The Muséum of Architec their mutual advantage.” ture” (Lotus International, xxxv [1982], 3), the editors claim 10 For a discussion of some of these, see Kenneth Hudson, that “the earliest architectural muséums consisted of the Muséums of Influence (Cambridge, 1987). An essay by succession of pavilions in 18th century parks: the didactic Edward Kaufman on “The Architectural Muséum from walk amidst scaled-down versions of Chinese, Hindu or World’s Fair to Henry Ford,” which presumably will con- Gothic Temples invited the observer to wander through centrate on expositions and outdoor muséums, has been time and space.” announced as fortheoming in Assemblage, ix.

182 RACAR/XVI, 2/ 1989 autonomous entity endowed with its own special- lions” of that work are displayed — models, draw ized collection and installed in its own physical ings, and photographs, perhaps supplemented by domain is a twentieth-century phenomenon.11 fragments of the building, actual or in the form of Perhaps a major reason for the belated appear- casts or mockups. ance of muséums of architecture comparable to This means that there is a broad area susceptible muséums of art or arts and crafts is the unique to manipulation on the part of the curator—or for dimension that attends the présentation of archi misunderstanding on the part of the spectator— tecture in a muséum setting—if by the word because in the muséum space, the aura of the “architecture” we mean the materialized end pro- buildings that are the subject of exhibition cannot duct of a conceptual process, “architecture” con- be immediately confirmed by expérience, and forming to the triadic Vitruvian définition, “archi because the corporéal appearance of the work of tecture” as the création of habitable space. architecture must be reconstructed in the mind, Although objects displayed in the art muséum or via other media. Only those skilled in the art of gallery are usually shown out of their original con- reading plans and sections can mentally construct text,12 at least they are customarily seen in their from the two-dimensional information available wholeness, and there is a one-to-one relationship the three-dimensional reality of the building, or between the object on view and the work of art.13 parse from the renderings the texture and struc In an architectural muséum the built work itself tural force of the materials. A model gives the can rarely be shown;14 but typically “représenta layperson a three-dimensional image, but at miniature scale and, usually, in ersatz materials. it Thus 1979 saw the first International Conférence of Archi Mockups and casts of construction details provide tecture Muséums, which led to the founding of icam, the International Confédération of Architectural Muséums. the most immédiate sense of actual size and tex See Harris, “Storehouses,” 15-16. ture but offer only a fragmentary glimpse of the 12 The “period rooms” that became popular at the end of the building. The sensation of the interior spaces, and nineteenth century were an attempt to correct this situa the appréhension of the work’s larger milieu, are tion. At the same time, one conséquence of the growing importance of the muséum as a patron of the arts is the particularly difficult to convey. création of works specifically designed to be displayed in a Technological advances in reproduction hâve muséum setting. This has been true at least since the mid- added new weapons to the arsenal of techniques nineteenth century; one thinks of The Atelier of the Pointer, employed to overcome the difficulties of curating 1855, by Gustav Courbet (1819-77). The exhibition, The Architecture of Frank Gehry, mounted in 1986 by the Walker an exhibition about executed works of architec Art Centre, Minneapolis, and shown at the Whitney ture. Greatly enlarged photographs approaching Muséum of American Art in New York City in 1988, con- architectural scale and huge colour transparencies tained spécial installations by Gehry designed specifically hâve become a customary complément to the for muséum display. These stunning constructions, half- sculptural, half-architectural, contributed tremendously to graphie displays. Architectural exhibitions are the viewer’s understanding of Gehry’s approach to archi often accompanied by slide shows, films, or videos. tecture. Since architecture is experienced temporally, it 13 The viewer’s understanding of the work may be enhanced by the présentation of supplementary material designed to would seem that film is the most appropriate sub- demonstrate its genesis, or cultural context, or its relation stitute for an actual visit to the site, but most recent ship to other works of the same subject or from the same architectural movies or videos hâve proved disap- epoch. A single work may be shown with the preparatory pointing. Computer programmes generating stages that preceded the final execution; or maps, time charts, and photos of buildings and places may accompany graphie displays are the most recent means for the display of works of art. presenting insight into works of architecture; but, 14 There are exceptions to this, of course. During the 1950s like everything else cited, they remain surrogates full-scale houses were erected in the garden of the Muséum for built form. of Modern Art in New York City, and today the Temple of Dendur reposes in one of the glass-enclosed spaces of the When the activities denoted by the word “archi Metropolitan Muséum of Art in the same city. The tecture” are, however, displaced from the material Muséum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles will mount to the conceptual realm, when “architecture” in the fall of 1989 an exhibition on “Case Study Houses” becomes a part of the larger cultural discourse, that will include full-scale reproductions of two of those houses. At the vast international expositions that were ini- then it finds its natural home in the muséum, as tiated in the mid-nineteenth century, temporary structures Hélène Lipstadt has shown in her essay in Architec were erected on or near the site to demonstrate some archi ture andItsImage, the volume accompanyingone of tectural or social intent. The first such buildings were cca model housing units, but gradually the category would the opening exhibitions at the . The rôle of the corne to encompass examples of historical structures. With muséum of architecture approaches that of the the housing expositions that became popular in Europe in conventional muséum when the objects of its dis the period between the two world wars, such as the play are idéal projects, unrealized or deliberately Weissenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart in 1927, the exhibited work became a permanent addition to the housing stock at unrealizable schemes, and “figurations.”15 Argua the exhibition’s end. is Lipstadt (“Architectural Publications,” 109-12) points out searing / The cca as Muséum of Architecture 183 bly, the observer must bring to the viewing of such One component of the cca building—the projects or designs a greater degree of intellectual Shaughnessy House (Fig. 222)—is such a struc and imaginative involvement than when faced ture. Restored and converted to new uses,18 it is with a picture, a liturgical object, or an ethno the spiritual centrepiece of the cca and, as such, is graphie artifact. Nevertheless, the growing pro affectionately framed by the new building. This duction and signifïcance of “paper architecture” late-nineteenth-century double house was of ratifies the raison d’être of the architectural prime importance in defining and generating key muséum. éléments of the design of the new quarters. For The establishment of muséums of architecture example, the main suite of exhibition galleries is will be further stimulated by the giant leaps that situated directly behind the house, and its width hâve recently been made in the technology of con almost exactly duplicates the house’s latéral servation. It has become possible to create an un- dimensions (Fig. 223). precedentedly secure environment for the works As I will show, the composition of the new quar on paper—drawings, prints, books, photographs, ters (Figs. 224 to 227) was inspired as well by the and written records — that make up most of the typology of the traditional art muséum. At the contents of the muséum of architecture. At the same time, architect Peter Rose has also made a same time, new techniques of lighting hâve statement in his design about the singular nature evolved that allow more sustained exhibition of of the muséum of “architecture.” While the ex fragile works on paper. The cca has been the hibition spaces and the grand staircase leading to beneficiary of these developments, and its them (Fig. 228) remain the heartof the structure, facilities represent the very state of the art—or of they occupy less space than they would in a con- the technology — at this moment. ventional art muséum. The public areas, which in The distinguishing characteristics of the addition to the galleries include the auditorium muséum of architecture hâve been very carefullv (Fig. 229), bookstore, library reading room (Fig. taken into account by those involved in the estab 230) with its mezzanine, the upper level of the lishment and the design of the cca: of the institu study centre (Fig. 231), and the circulation spaces tion, of the building (Fig. 220) and of the inau (Fig. 232), account for less than 25 per cent of the gural exhibitions (Fig. 221). Since the cca as insti total area. Space allotted to galleries was propor- tution has already been thoroughly discussed in tionately small, because of the nature of the works this issue of racar,16 it is the other two aspects that on paper. Since drawings cannot be exhibited for will be addressed in the remainder of this essay. more than three months at a time, there is no permanent exhibition. The nature of the cca’s THE BUILDING holdings — archives, library, prints and drawings, photographs — requires extensive storage space. Where does one begin when designing a building Over half of the space at the cca is devoted to for an institution that has definite antécédents but storage.19 is nevertheless unique? Where can one turn for models? Those modern institutions that define themselves as architectural muséums are housed Washington, D.C., carved out of a portion of the vast and architecturally fascinating Pension Building of 1882-85, for the most part in historical structures that hâve designed by Montgomery C. Meigs (1816-92). been converted to accommodate the new pro 18 The Shaughnessy House, designed by William T. Thomas, pose.17 was built as the Duncan Mclntyre and Robert Brown houses in 1874. Lovingly restored by Bilodeau St-Louis Architects, it shelters administrative offices and rooms, that “a recent addition to the concepts used by historians in such as a tearoom and a restaurant, that will be open to the discussions of représentation is that of ‘figuration,’ accord- public on spécial occasions. Access to the Shaughnessy ing to which the psycho-social conditions governing the House is gained via the new building, which has its entrance production of the object are used to differentiate représen facing the gardon on the rue Baile. tations by architects from other représentations of architec 19 Each of the four floors—the two levels of vaults, the ture. This spécial category called ‘figuration’ is spécifie to curatorial level and the public level—covers an area of the architect, since the figurator brings to the représenta 2,880 square métrés, and the public realm receives an addition a pre-disposition to interpose himself or herself as a tional 612 square métrés via the mezzanine of the library; scaling device between the real (or imagined) building and this totals 12,132 square métrés. The Shaughnessy House the image. Figuration is a psycho-social activity that pro comprises 1,800 square métrés (information from duces the maker and the object, and thus encapsulâtes the Richards, ed., Canadian Centre, 156). It is true that a grow process and its product.” ing trencl in art muséums, especially in new additions to 16 See the essay by Adolf Placzek in this issue and Phyllis existing muséums, is to reduce the amount of exhibition Lambert. “Design Impératives,” in Richards, ed., Canadian space in proportion to subsidiary public spaces like audito Centre. riums, restaurants, and shops, as well as storage space, the 17 John Harris (“Storehouses," 15-17) lists them. To his sum- need for which continues to accelerate as muséums amass mation may be added the National Building Muséum in more and more works. Of the 37,000 square feet of the

184 RACAR/XVI, 2/ 1989 Thus, the scholarship accomplished in the the nineteenth century as well.21 While it has been library and study centre, the research and con- mentioned frequently that the E-shaped plan of noisseurship carried ont in the curator’s offices, the cca refers to the typical composition of and the préservation and conservation achieved in Montréal’s institutional buildings,22 the plan is the vaults (thanks to the high-level technical ex common as well to muséums organized in the pertise and the extraordinarily advanced environ- Beaux-Arts manner with the corps de logis framed mental and security Systems) literally and fig- by projecting wings.23 Recently this compositional uratively support the museological function of ex type has been revived, in such muséums as the hibition. The galleries, located in the top storey Kimbell Art Gallery by Louis Kahn in Fort Worth, (Fig. 226) over the curatorial offices and storage Texas (1966-72, Figs. 234 to 236), and the Neue vaults, are encompassed by the library wing and Staatsgalerie by James Stirling and Michael Wil- study centre to the east. The wing housing the ford in Stuttgart (1977-82, Figs. 237 to 239). In auditorium, mechanical services, bookstore, and most of these examples, the wings corne forward subsidiary galleries is at the west. Identified on the to embrace the main entrance, while at the cca exterior by the unbroken walls and the sériés of they stand sentinel to the Shaughnessy House and skylights, the galleries, although the climax of the the public entrance to the muséum is placed asym- hierarchical organization, never overpower their metrically at the rear.24 sibling sustainers. Additional features of the design also reflect the The same considérations doubtless prompted architect’s careful researches into muséum typol- the asymmetrical placement of the public entrance ogy. While acknowledging that such typology has (Fig. 225). In an earlier scheme (Fig. 233, top), the been sadly eroded in the twentieth century, I new building was placed behind the Shaughnessy would contend that it is once again eminently rea- House in one single rectangular volume, and the sonable to look back to the design strategies found centrallv placed entrance divided the library and in the traditional art muséum, for these were gallery wings into two equal parts. Such a parti, patiently forged and improved upon for over a with its circular centrepiece, replicates that of sev- century, before being redefined with new vigour eral exemplary early nineteenth-century musé in the late 1960s. ums, most notably the Altes Muséum, Berlin The cca’s serene sequence of top-lighted gal (1823-30), by Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781- leries of square and rectangular format (Fig. 226) 1841 ),20 but does not express clearly the program- recalls those that were the rule in the nineteenth matic givens of the cca. and early twentieth centuries. Initially located on The alternative parti (Fig. 233, bottom) that the first and only storey,25 such galleries in the gave rise to the definitive scheme has its origins in increasingly larger muséum structures of the mid-nineteenth century were subsequently placed Hood Muséum at Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New on the second storey. The skylights covering these Hampshire, by Charles Moore and Centerbrook Associâtes galleries were an identifying featu/e of many (1981-85), 1 1,700 is devoted to gallery space. In the com- pletely new High Muséum of Art in Atlanta by Richard 21 Richards points ont that earlier studies by a Los Angeles- Meier (1980-83), 52,000 square feet of the 130,000 total based firm, Ridgway, of which Lambert was a principal, comprise exhibition spaces, and in anothcr new muséum, “indirectly influenced [Rose’s] later work through Lam- the Dallas Muséum of Fine Arts in Texas by Edward Lara- bert’s rôle as consulting architect” (“Critical Classicism,” 126). bee Barnes (1977-83), 77,000 of 193,000 is given over to 22 Lambert, “Design Impératives,” in Richards, ed., Canadian display. The largest proportion of gallery to overall space Centre, 61: “The relationship of the building’s footprint to in recent muséum construction seems to be the West Wing the corpus of institutional buildings in the city, the figurai F. of the Virginia Muséum of Fine Arts in Richmond by composed of pavilions and wings, was embedded in ail Hardy, Holzman and Pfeifer (1980-84): fully 50 percentof designs for the building on this site, in the composition the 90,000 square feet is used for exhibition and corre- lormed by the new and existing buildings." sponding circulation space. For figures, see Helen Searing, 23 Some examples arc the Alte Pinakothek in Munich New American Art Muséums (Berkeley, 1982), 78-127. ( 1826-36) by Léo von Klenze ( 1784-1864), the Staatsgalerie Nevertheless, in ail cases the exhibition spaces comprise in Stuttgart (1838-40; Fig. 238, left) by Gottlob George more of the total area than in the cca. Barth (1777-1848), the Muséum of Fine Arts in Boston 20 For the Altes Muséum, see Volker Plagemann, Dos (1906-31) by Guy Lowell (1870-1927), and the National deutsche Kunstmuseum: 1790-1870 (Munich, 1967); Her Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (completed 1941), mann Pundt, Schinkel*s Berlin: A Study in Environmental designed by John Russell Pope (1874-1937). Planning (Cambridge, Mass, 1972); and David Watkin and 24 Fortuitously, no doubt, the arrangement is similar to that Tilman Mellinghoff, German Architecture and the Classical Sir John Soane used for the Dulwich Picture Gallery out- Idéal (Cambridge, 1987). The sketch of the garden façade side London (181 1-14), where the top-lighted galleries are also shows the influence of such contemporary architects as located in a range behind the projecting pavilions, which Michael Graves and Aldo Rossi, who were exploring not f rame the almshouses and the mausoleum that are a part of only the architecture of Romantic Classicism, as reprc- the programme. sented by figures such as Schinkel, but also that of early- 25 For example, the Glyptothek, Munich (1814-30), by Léo von twentieth-century “Nordic Classicism,” particularly the Klenze, based on a design fora muséum by J.-N.-L. Durand, early works of the Swede Eric Gunnar Asplund (1885-1940). and the Dulwich Gallery by Soane (see footnote 24). searing / The cca as Muséum of Architecture 185 muséum structures (and in the cca their visible tional drawings of the cca building (Figs. 226 and presence continues to proclaim its museological 227) show examples of the types of superstructure function). But as the potentially harmful effects of that must be erected in connection with the entry natural light became increasingly recognized in points of natural light; those of the cca, the fruit the twentieth century, skylights, although wel- of painstaking expérimentation, are highly come to the spectator, were banished from art sophisticated. muséums. The réintroduction of natural light has Similarly inspired by the traditional art muséum required adjustments to the nineteenth-century is the spatial organization of the cca. Centrally policy of direct zénithal illumination. planned rooms, like the square or octagonal Louis I. Kahn (1901-74) was arguably the first cabinet and the domed rotunda (Fig. 232), com architect to point the way to a solution. Kahn had bined with the longitudinal gallery, hâve been long recognized the necessity of natural light to familiar features since the érection of the first the expérience of architecture, observing that “No purpose-built muséums. However, the arrange space, architecturally, is a space unless it has natu ment of a sequence of distinct, museum-scaled ral light.”26 When he received the commission for rooms fell into disfavour in the 1930s, to be the Kimbell Art Muséum, he had to turn these replaced by schemes providing an eternally flex insights towards the task of illuminating Works of ible “universal space.” art. With the then-director for the Kimbell, The apparent freedom to configure the univer Richard Brown, he devised a strategy whereby the sal space as required for any particular situation daylight so essential to the visitor’s perception and beguiled curators. Not only did this plan seem to mood would provide ambient light and the works offer the maximum degre of flexibility but it also of art would be revealed, for the most part, by gave the curator the privilège—and the responsi- artificial light, which can be more strictly con- bility—of assuming the architect’s rôle in design- trolled.27 ing areas for both temporary exhibition and more The success of the Kimbell’s top-lighted gal- permanent display. The notion that universal leries (Figs. 235 and 236), with the rays of the space is désirable has prevailed until recently, as Texas sun tamed by reflectors, initiated a véritable shown by such buildings as the Whitney Muséum wave of muséums characterized by zénithal light- of American Art in New York (1963-66) by Marcel ing.28 Conservation requirements dictate that such Breuer, the Centre Pompidou in Paris (1971-77) lighting be admitted only after extraordinary by Richard Rogers and Rienzo Piano, and, most measures, such as the employment of reflectors, definitively, the National Gallery of Art in Berlin filters, monitors, and computer-operated shades, (1965-68), by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.29 hâve been taken to control its entrance. The sec- By the early 1980s, however, an impatience, indeed disillusionment, with the universal space for exhibition purposes had arisen among many 26 Nell Johnson, ed., Light Is the Theme: Louis I. Kahn and the Kimbell Art Muséum (Fort Worth, 1975), 15. Trained at the muséum personnel, who found the literal University of Pennsylvania in the Beaux-Arts tradition, “muséum without walls” concept “utterly alien to Kahn in his first mature works shows the influence of Mies the conditions in which pre-1960s art was con- van der Rohe; he then fell under the spell of Le Corbusier. ceived and intended to be seen.”30 In 1985, for Vincent Scully in a “Commentary” on the Yale Center for British Art, Architectural Record, clxi (June 1977), 95-104, example, the Italian designer Gae Aulenti was points out that in his last and posthumously executed work commissioned to redesign the fourth floor of the Kahn seems to hâve returned to his Miesian roots. Pompidou Centre into a “sériés of small, intimate, 27 The building history of the Kimbell has been exhaustively room-like galleries.” Many of the most recent docurnented in Patricia Loud, In Pursuit of Quality: The Kimbell Art Muséum (Fort Worth, 1987). Loud gives a great muséum designs reflect the realization that works deal of factual information about the development of of art—at least most works of art représentative of architectural and technical features so that the appropriate amount and quality of light would be admitted. Kahn’s goal seems very similar to that accomplished in the cca: “Artifi 29 Phyllis Lambert was not immune to the discrète charms of cial light is a static light.. . where natural light is a light of the universal space; see her essay “Design Impératives,” in mood. The muséum has as many moods as there are Richards, ed., Canadian Centre, esp. 57. moments in time, and never as long as the muséum remains 30 Charlotte Ellis, “Redesign of Galleries, Centre Georges a building will there be a single day like the other” (Kahn, in Pompidou,” Architectural Review, clxxviii (November Johnson, ed., Light, 16-17). 1985), 86-90. These are the comments of the director of the 28 For example, the Neue Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart and the Pompidou Centre, Dominique Bozo. At the Pompidou the Sakler Art Muséum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by problem stemmed from that fact that “because of shortages James Stirling and Michael Wilford; the addition to the of funds, the spatial arrangement of screens was not Speed Art Muséum in Louisville, Kentucky, by Robert changed [after the opening], until nothing was left but ‘an Geddes; the Charles Payson Wing of the Portland (Maine) indeterminate structure of low partitions, lacking order Muséum of Fine Art by Harry Cobbof I. M. Pei & Partners; and hierarchy, which stripped individual works of their and the Muséum of Art and History in Anchorage, Alaska. impact.’ ”

186 RACAR / XVI, 2 / 1989 the Western tradition—are best viewed in a the three-storey library court, that hâve been strictly contained volume, and that sufficient flexi- inserted within the sandwich of one-storey exhibi bility can be attained by the provision of a variety tion and administrative spaces. This arrangement of room shapes and sizes. is echoed in the cca (Fig. 226), where the two- Once more the Kimbell Muséum must be cited and-one-half-storey volume of the grand stairhall as marking a turning point in this regard. While to the west (Fig. 228) is echoed by the one-and- Kahn did not totally abandon the fluidity prom- one-half-storey library court to the east of the gal ised by the universal space, he did react against its leries. amorphousness and lack of sequential order. The These two designs of Kahn’s last years hâve structural System—a sériés of sixteen 23-foot- been the starting point for a number of muséums wide barrel vaults of cycloid section split at the designed in the 1980s, in which aspects of the centre for skylights—allowed for a universal vaulted galleries of the Kimbell hâve been com- space in plan, because the vaults’ breathtaking bined with the square cabinets of the Yale Center length of 100 feet from point support to point for British Art, and top-lighting has been em support meant that no bearing walls were needed ployed. Besides the cca, one can cite the Charles on the main floor of the galleries (Figs. 234 and Shipmay Payson building of the Muséum of Fine 235).31 However, in three dimensions the longi Arts in Portland, Maine (1978-83, Fig. 243) by tudinal vaults give a sense of direction to move- Henry N. Cobb of I. M. Pei & Partners; the addi ment within the muséum. Movable wall partitions tion to the Speed Art Gallery (1981-83) in Louis- (Fig. 236) allow the curators to define individual ville, Kentucky, by the firm of Geddes Brecher galleries as needed for spécifie exhibitions; but, at Qualls Cunningham, and the Anchorage Histori- the same time, they allow transverse circulation cal and Fine Arts Muséum (1981-84) in Alaska by across the axes suggested by the longitudinal Mitchell/Giurgola. vaults.32 Each of these muséums has its own spécial char- In the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven acter, determined by the nature of the institution, (1969-77), completed after Kahn’s death by Mar the historical and architectural context, and the shall Meyers and Anthony Pellechia (Figs. 240 to designer’s own priorities. If the cca on the one 242), Kahn continued to use a module determined hand manifests some general, and most welcome, by the structure to establish tectonic order; but in trends in muséum design, it is no less an original this case the module is a 20-foot square and the work that in many regards surpasses its models. structure a concrète frame. At the fourth and top As the création of a strong and increasingly level, the building is covered by a grid of sky- mature new voice in contemporary architecture, lighted coffers outfitted with baffles, filters, and one that may offer a way out of the Postmodernist diffusers to modulate the natural light without confrontation between tradition and innovation, masking daily and seasonal changes—a strategy the building should now be reviewed on its own employed with telling effect at the cca as well. terms. The grid of columns establishes a sense of struc- A clarity of purpose and a consistency of vision tured order within the spaces of the Yale Center and execution in the cca make it quite extraordi- while continuing to offer the possibility of an open nary at a time when shoddy construction, ill- and fluid plan. At the same time, room-like conceived capriciousness, exaltation of the in- cabinets sympathetic to collections of eighteenth- determinate, and spurious contextualism reign. and nineteenth-century British art can be created The building is both timeless and contemporary, through the use of movable panels which also born from its Montréal milieu and wedded to a allow for temporary configuration in accord with larger Western architectural tradition. The archi the taxonomy of individual exhibitions. In three tectonie solution to the programme seems pecul- dimensions, the structural grid can be perma- iarly appropriate but, at the same time, generically nently pierced vertically for spatial drama, as wit- viable. Equally important, yet unfortunately rare ness the four-storey entrance court (Fig. 241) and in this era of paper architecture, is the circum- stance that Peter Rose has known how to realize his 31 Loud, In Pursuit of Quality, 65-66. vision; with incredible patience and care, he has 32 The director, Richard Brown, believed the Kimbell to be “what every muséum has been looking for ever since wrought a small masterpiece that is unabashedly muséums came into existence: a floor uninterrupted by beautiful while remaining intellectually rigorous. piers, columns or Windows, and perfect lighting, giving As client and consulting architect, Phyllis Lam total freedom and flexibility to use the space and to install bert deserves crédit for giving the architect the art exactly the way you want.” Brown had the movable partitions covered in a variety of materials, such as nubby time to work through the difficult and complex fabric and light and dark woods. Quotation and informa task posed by the nature of the commission. It tion from Loud, In Pursuit of Quality, 77. seems clear, as well, that no expense was spared to searing / The cca as Muséum of Architecture 187 secure the most appropriate materials and the masonry wall and to the point supports of the new most current technical expertise.33 concrète frame. Peter Rose has demonstrated that the positive Thus the Shaughnessy House, endowed with a values that the modernist révolution wrought in companion sympathetic in design and materials, architecture need not be jettisoned. At the same has given the architect dues for action without time he has challenged some of the questionable inhibiting his own course. The new portion of the legacies that accompanied that révolution, such as cca makes its own statement, one that is intégral to the hypocritical appeals to functionalism to justify the entire enterprise of the institution. That state impoverished design and the anticontextualism ment acknowledges the daims of place and tradi that has been so damaging to the urban fabric. He tion on the one hand, and of particular temporal has shown that architecture in the last decade of and cultural conditions on the other, and forges the twentieth century can and inust go forward, these into a new synthesis. but forward with continuity, not rupture. Beyond the general typological référencés that The way Rose has dealt. with the presence of the hâve been traced above, the more spécifie allu Shaughnessy House offers an immédiate clue to sions that hâve been most frequently noted are to his intentions. He has attempted to replicate the nineteenth-century architecture of franco neither its mansarded silhouette nor its details, phone Canada and to the fine modernist work of forged in a time when hand craftsmanship had not Mies van der Rohe, both of which are infused with entirely been replaced by tnechanization. Rather it a classical sense of composition. Certainly the is the footprint and materials of the house, and the scrupulous and luxurious detailing (Fig. 246) organization of its élévation, that hâve been must hâve been especially appreciated by a client echoed, though not imitated, in the new building. taught by Mies, who revered exquisite materials Thus the extra semicircular bay of the conserva- and believed that “God is in the detail.” Phyllis tory on the southwest corner of the house is Lambert herself has pointed out that the way Rose reflected in the study centre to the east, a pavilion- has used stone at the cca relates, on the one hand, like wing balanced to the west by the auditorium to the tradition of greystone building in Montréal with its blunter projecting form (Fig. 225). The and, on the other, to the manner in which Mies, cladding over the new, concrète framed structure whose father had been a mason, put materials is the same grey Trenton limestone found in the together.34 At the cca the materials — maple Shaughnessy House — and in most of Montréal’s veneer, aluminum fittings, as well as the Trenton remaining nineteenth-century buildings—but the stone — are not only fine in quality, but emphat- texture is smooth rather than picturesquely rustic. ically Canadian in origin. The elaborate, cast-iron ornamentation on the Those who are doser students than this author Shaughnessy House has been transmutée!, as by of Montréal’s buildings and Mies van der Rohe’s some alchemical alteration, into crisp anodized oeuvre may pursue these references in greater aluminum detailing on the new cca building (Fig. detail. I prefer to explore the relationship to early 244). modem architecture in Vienna, in particular that The élévation of the Shaughnessy House (Fig. of Otto Wagner (1841-1918) and his school. It 222) is organized into a basement, piano nobile, might be specuiated that, during our own trou- slightly lower second floor, and attic with dormer bled and confused/m de siècle, it is prudent to turn Windows. As well, Peter Rose’s design for the élé for inspiration to a period that confronted some of vation of the new cca building (Figs. 223 and 245) the same problems, and in so doing represented a has low Windows at the curatorial level, with the watershed in the history of modem architecture. tall piano nobile of the public level crowned by attic During the final decade of the last century, windows that signal the mezzanine of the library to manv architects were trying to find a way out of the northeast while behind the double row of Win the impasse of eclectic historicism to discover a dows on the southwest rises the one-and-one- path towards an architecture that, without being half-storey volume of the bookstore, leading to the wholly devoid of ail traditions, responded to new octagonal gallery. The new building rnakes refer- socio-economic and cultural conditions. At the ence as well to the curious bearing wall that divides conclusion of the First World War this search led the Shaughnessy House down the centre. On the to the functionalist and history-free architecture exterior, the expansion joint in the north wall (Fig. that, clespite a heroic period of great promise, 220) marks its presence, while within a row of would hâve a cataclysmic impact following its rusticated piers alludes simultaneously to the old widespread international acceptance after the Sec-

33 The spécifie information about these issues is given in 34 In lier essay "Design Impératives,” Phyllis Lambert insists Richards, ed., Canadian Centre. on these two aspects.

188 RACAR / XVI, 2 / 1989 ond World War. Unlike the “modem architec their own times. The entrance pavilion (Fig. 245), ture” conceived by Otto Wagner,35 that of the Neue which evokes the sensuous métal architecture of Sachlichkeit was eut loose from ail its historical Otto Wagner, simultaneously recalls the “primi moorings, with the resuit that those aspects of the tive hut” that for Abbé Laugier was the irreducible architectural language that give buildings sym- starting point for a new architecture. bolic meaning were tremendously attentuated. No As a conclusion to this considération of Peter less than his successors did, Wagner recognized Rose’s building for the cca, it may be instructive to functional impératives. He preached that the pro compare it with another recently constructed gramme or purpose—Zweck—of the building was muséum that has occasioned equally favourable a key déterminant of form; but for him that did critical comment: the Neue Staatsgalerie in Stutt not require the oblitération of monumentality, the gart (Figs. 237 to 239). Although the German classical tradition, or ornamental detail. More- muséum is much larger, there are a great number over, Wagner was keenly aware of the symbiotic of similarities. In each case a C- or U-shaped plan relationship between architecture and the city; his has been disposed about a central core: at Stutt urbanistic proposais presented axially orientée!, gart, this core consists of a newly constructed solidly grounded, and massive structures as the hypaethral rotunda; in Montréal, it is an existing building blocks of the modem quarter. It could be résidence. Both architects, responding to the argued that Wagner pointed a way to a modem more contextual architectural climate of the architecture of continuity, but his death at the end 1980s, hâve tried to forge a sympathetic bond of the First World War, and the revolutionary between old and new by following the parti of the changes that occurred thereafter, halted the existing building, which in Stuttgart is a nine- development he had set in motion. teenth-century art muséum that maintains its orig There hâve been many other référencés to the inal fonction.38 Viennese moderne during the last décade, and this Both buildings are located beside a recently con architectural practice has stimulated—or been structed motorway that divides the city from itself; stimulated by — a deluge of scholarly publications and one of the charges to each architect was to and exhibitions about this fascinatingly fecund but mitigate, if not totally redress, the problem of this brief period. Peter Rose has grasped the lessons of breach in the urban fabric. The exigencies of the Vienna in its “Sacred Spring”36 with rare under- particular site hâve shaped the solutions in each standing of their potential; at the same time, he case. The shilling rhythms of Stirling’s façade fac- has adapted his Viennese réminiscences to local ing eastward towards the motorway, where the traditions and to the dictâtes of the programme muséum entrance is located, respond to the hostile with unusual skill and conviction. The Wagnerian character of the surroundings in front of the presence in his work goes beyond quotations such muséum. Behind the entrance wing, the firm U of as the lavish, anodized aluminum details — the galleries anchor the building to the denser and including the “cornice” that projects below the more structured environment at the rear, accessi roof line — and the slabs of Trenton limestone vis- ble via a ramp leading through the rotunda. The ibly bolted to the concrète frame (Fig. 244),37 to the less hazardous Boulevard René-Lévesque is visu- classical composition and the tempering of ration- ally bridged by Melvin Charney’s garden; but the alism with élégant embellishment. entrance to the cca has been located off the It is possible that by turning to early modem smaller and more engaging Rue Baile, which runs Vienna, Peter Rose has taken a leaf from the books parallel to the boulevard on the north, and is of previous reformers— Abbé Marc-Antoine reached on font by a modest path on the eastern Laugier (1713-69), Gottfried Semper (1803-79), edge of the new building. A. W. N. Pugin (1812-52), E. E. Viollet-le-Duc The entrance pavilion in each case is located at (1814-79), H. P. Berlage (1856-1934) —who the edge of the street and constructed of métal and sought to locate a period in the past when architec glass. Generously applied métal detailing is a ture had not yet strayed from the correct path, and dramatic feature of the two muséums, and both then proceeded to guide it in directions relevant to Rose and Stirling hâve concealed the concrète frame of the respective structures by stone revet- 35 The title of the first édition of Wagner’s first book (Otto ment. In the Neue Staatsgalerie, as in the cca, the Wagner, Moderne Architektur [Vienna, 1895], 4th ed., Die main galleries are on the upper level, with ambient Baukunst unserer Zeit [Vienna, 1914]). light admitted through skylights that hâve been 36 Ver Sacrum was the name of the periodical associatcd with fitted out with elaborate, if hidden, apparatus to the Viennese Sécession that brought about so many reforms in art, architecture, and décoration at this time. screen out harmful and excessive rays. 37 Otto Wagner’s Postal Savings Bank (1904-1906 and 1910-12) is of particular importance for the cca’s design. 38 See footnote 23. searing / The cca as Muséum of Architecture 189 Finally, in addition to restoring the traditional seems to suggest, if not a pessimistic, at least an art muséum typology and recalling that its créa ambivalent attitude towards the muséum enter- tion coincided with the rise of Romande Classi- prise on Stirling’s part, in contrast to Rose’s glow- cism, both Rose and Stirling hâve seasoned their ing affirmation. référencés to late-eighteenth- and nineteenth- It has been observed that both architects hâve century architecture with more modem allusions. used vocabularies from the past and the présent to Stirling has paid homage to both Le Corbusier and compose a résonant and multivalent architectural Alvar Aalto—in one of the administrative por language that can serve and express contempo- tions at the rear of Neue Staatsgalerie there is an rary needs. But Stirling’s syntax emphasizes the obvious bow to Le Corbusier’s Double House at oppositions between traditional and modem the nearby Weissenhofsiedlung, erected by the means of architectural utterance; these are juxta- German Werkbund in 1927 and one of the first posed, not synthesized, to create a tension that mature blossoms of the International Style. The may be liberating for some muséum visitors but is ramps also dérivé from Le Corbusier, whereas the bound to be stressful and distracting for others. biomorphic curve of the entrance is indebted to Peter Rose has assimilated his formai sources to Aalto’s practice. There is even a sly comment on make a statement that emphasizes the rôle of the the Centre Pompidou in two funnel-like air in- institution — in ail its dimensions—as a place for takes at the rear. the serene contemplation of the intellectual, aes- Peter Rose’s heroes are from both an earlier and thetic, and emotional résonances of architecture. a later stage of twentieth-century practice — Otto Wagner, not Le Corbusier, Aldo Rossi, not THE INAUGURAL EXHIBITIONS Alvar Aalto. Other différences are equally telling. Because the Neue Staatsgalerie is adjacent to its It was a splendid notion that the major exhibition predecessor, linked via a corridor at the side, the to inaugurate the cca as muséum in its new build literally tangential connection between the two is ing (Fig. 221) should touch precisely on the unique rather tenuous in contrast to the firm embrace of nature of the cca and the limitations and opportu- the Shaughnessy House by the new addition to the nities associated with its museological rôle. Under cca. Nor has Stirling, almost 20 years older than the comprehensive theme of Architecture and Its Rose and therefore doser to the original roots of Image, three sub-topics in the exhibition allow fur- modernism, tried to follow the fenestration pat ther définition and expansion of the main rubric: terns of the original building, or scale his detailing “Architecture in Three Dimensions,” “Architec to its more diminutive proportions. ture in Place and Time,” and “Architecture in Stirling’s attitude towards the stone skin seems Process.” equally a product of his génération. The mottled In their choice of theme, the curators, Eve Blau brownish local stone has little more substance than and Edward N. Kaufman, hâve emphasized one the skin of a curtain wall; the planar revetment of the major sources of the cca’s uniqueness. This could just as convincingly hâve been made of tile is the founder’s intention to form a collection that or porcelain.39 In Montréal, the stone has mass would illuminate the nature and meaning of archi and weight, suggesting the effect of traditional tecture in as many ways as possible—architecture masonry construction. This effect is enhanced by as création of the mind and spirit, as product of the deep setbacks of the Windows and the carefully changing technical processes, as component of the profiled mouldings that boldly recall classical city, as embodiment of humanistic values. A prac- precedent (Fig. 246). While the silvery aluminum tising architect herself, Phyllis Lambert, in form- details in Montréal elegantly complément the ing the collection, wished also to inform the pro golden grey tonality of the Trenton stone and fession about its own possibilities and respon- reflect and refract the northern light, Stirling’s sibilities, and about the problems of conceiving steel tubing and sashbars, painted in néon colours and making architecture. Therefore, unlike a con- of hot pink and acid green, strike a discordant ventional muséum, the cca does not confine its note in relation to the historical référencés and the holdings to unique objects like rare drawings and surfacing materials. Finally, the hollow, ruinous models or precious incunabula and printed books. rotunda at the heart of the Stuttgart muséum Rather, the holdings include documents like office files, blueprints, guidebooks, postcards, souve nirs—in short, anything that helps illuminate the 39 Perhaps Stirling was thinking of the treatment of facing genesis and reality of a building and locate it in stone in the Palais Stoclet in Brussels (1905-11) by that time and place. Most singular of ail, no doubt, is other much-heralded Viennese architect Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956), a génération younger than Wagner and the remarkably extensive collection of photo therefore doser to modernist idcas. graphs, a collection directed almost exclusively to

190 RACAR / XVI, 2 / 1989 views of buildings, ciliés, and natural and man- The first room after the vestibule is the most made landscapes, which includes, besides the visually jarring. Illustrating the first of the sub- more common documentary images, many that topics, “Architecture in Three Dimensions,” and are highly créative and reveal a personal vision. within that rubric the more spécifie theme of “The The theme of the exhibition allows maximum Orthographie Set,” it offers a wall on which a exposure of the extraordinary range and variety drawing of a chapel by Carlo Marchionni of media in the cca’s holdings. (1702-86), a Grand Prix compétition project for a Moreover, the collection contains many repré Palais dejustice of A. L. T. Vaudoyer (1757-1846), sentations of idéal projects and designs for tempo- and a brightly coloured présentation of an under rary buildings. A fair amount of space in the ex ground dwelling by Mark Mack (b. 1949) are hung hibition has been devoted to the display of these in glaring discontinuity. On the wall facing the images, a strategy that mitigates the dilemma of entrance appear an élévation and cutaway view of illustrating built work in a muséum setting. View- the Panthéon by an anonymous sixteenth-century ing these images, visitors are not taunted by the engraver, a pencil rendering of a project of 1927 inaccessibility to their immédiate sensuous appré for suspended dwellings by Bodo Rasch, and a hension of the object of the représentation. coloured counter-construction of 1923 by Théo The ephemeral designs are for théâtre sets and van Doesburg and Cornelis van Eesteren. This festivals, triumphantor funereal. These fall under juxtaposition is comparable to the jarring discon- the rubric of “Architecture in Place and Time,” tinuities that attend a walk through Montréal which is further divided among the thèmes of itself, where cloquent masonry buildings stand in “Festival Time and Processional Space” and “The the shadows of carelessly conceived and hastily Théâtre.” The conceptual projects appear for the constructed glass and concrète towers. most part under the rubric of “Architecture in The other rooms provide a more harmonious Process,” which includes the categories of “Mul grouping of objects, but to this visitor the entire tiple Proposais,” “Compétition,” and “Exhibition,” installation seems at odds with the architect’s ex each of which encompasses unbuilt projects and pectation for the galleries (Fig. 221). Huge glass “figurations.”40 Some were not chosen for execu panels, which provide additional surfaces for tion; others were technically unrealizable at the hanging the framed drawings, obstruct the flow of time in which they were made but demonstrated circulation from room to room, and the métal intriguing possibilities or contentious proposi fixtures of nautical inspiration that attach these tions. The category of compétitions includes ren- panels to the gallery walls obscure the flow of derings that were never intended for execution, in natural light on the surfaces of the vaults. John addition to unpremiated designs that therefore Vinci, the designer of the installation, seems not to were not built — which is not to say that the losing hâve taken full advantage of the opportunities competitors did notoccasionally find other ways to created by the architect for tranquil méditation realize these designs or features of them.41 and orderly procession. The exhibition is dense and requires time and Much more sympathetic to the display spaces in close attention for its messages to be appreciated. the cca’s new building is the small exhibition In some ways the expérience offered is more akin Canadian Centre for Architecture: Building and Gar- to a visit to a library than one to a muséum; to dens in the octagonal gallery, which takes that grasp the taxonomy of the deliberately ahistorical building as its subject (Fig. 247). The organization display, the visitor must spend a large amount of and scale of the installation are meant to enhance time reading the frequently too lengthy labels. the shape, size, and illumination of the host gal Further, while individual objects offer visual lery. The exhibition illustrâtes the history of the delights, aesthetic enjoyment seems to hâve a low site from 1674 until the présent, then the genesis priority in this relentlessly didactic exhibition.42 of the building—in the director’s intentions and

40 See footnote 15. 18-35; Eve Blau, “Patterns of Fact: Photography and the 41 For example, Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-78) presented Transformation of the Early Industrial City,” 36-57; a Neo-Gothic design for the Foreign Office in the compéti Edward Kaufman, “Architecture and Travel in the Age of tion for that commission held in 1856. When this proposai British Eclecticism,” 57-85; William Alexander McGlung, was rejected by the classically inclined prime minister, Lord “A Place for a Time: The Architecture of Festivals and Palmerston, Scott re-used many features of that design in Théâtres,” 87-108; Hélène Lipstadt, “Architectural Publi the compétition of 1865 for St. Paneras Hôtel and Station; cations, Compétitions, and Exhibitions,” 109-37; and this time his winning project was executed. Robert Bruegmann, “The Pencil and the Electronic Sketch- 42 1 he weighty catalogue definitely will repay careful read board: Architectural Représentation and the Computer,” ing. Although at this writing I hâve not seen the entries 139-55. It is clear that these are replete with fresh insights recording the objects, I bave a copy in galley form of the and will constitute a major contribution to the literature on essays it contains: Robin Evans, “Architectural Projection,” the création, représentation, and meaning of architecture. searing / The cca as Muséum of Architecture 191 the architects’ unfolding designs — and fînally its planned for the cca will help increase architec realization. The display includes samples of the tural literacy and extend the public’s understand- actual materials and details used, and relies to a ing of architecture as a humanistic discipline. greater degree than the other inaugural exhibi Ultimately, however, perhaps more than any sin tion on images rather than words to convey its gle exhibition, it is the constructed complex meaning. It is unusually sucœssful in conveying a itself—the Shaughnessy House and new cca sense of the building’s larger milieu.'13 building—that will offer the most convincing démonstration of the potential of architecture to CONCLUSION generate meaning and triumph over the material It is doubtful that future exhibitions will be as constrictions of its making. ambitious as Architecture and Its Image, but one can It seems ironie that this auspicious institu confidently anticipate that the active schedule tion— remarkable in its contents, its container, its goals—should arise in Montréal, a city that as 43 Besides the already mentioned essays by Larry Richards much as any other on the North American conti and John Harris in the catalogue, see Phyllis Lambert. nent has been robbed of its architectural héritage “Design Impératives,” 55-68; George Baird and Chantal and ravaged by médiocre new development. But Pontbriand, “An Interview with Peter Rose,” 69-77; Melvin Charnev, “A Garden for the Canadian Centre for Architec perhaps it is precisely this rapidly growing mé ture,” 87-102; Robert Lemire, “The cca Site: An Illus- tro polis that is most in need of the cca’s capacity to trated Chronology, 1694-1988,” 139-51; and Helen Mal- bring about a genuine renewal of the significance kin, “Buildings and Gardens: Participants, Chronology, and Spécifications," 153-60. of architecture in contemporary urban life.

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332 SEARING / Fig. 244

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