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Post Modern (1960 - 2009)

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

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.

 

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.

Post Modern in Thunder Bay

Barrie Ontario

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.

 

Post Modern in Barrie

Barrie Ontario

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.

University center McMaster

Hamilton Ontario

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.

Post Modern House

Ottawa Ontario

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.

 

Sky Scraper

Ottawa Ontario

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.

 

Post Modern Office Tower

Toronto Ontario

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.

Post Modern City Hall

Newmarket Ontario

Toronto

Looking out from Queen's Park in Toronto is this reflective arc of glass. In front of it is the new Leslie Dan Pharmaceutical Building.

 

 

Sky Scraper

Toronto Ontario

Museum of Civilization
Douglas Cardinal

Like many architects who have work in Ontario, Cardinal has done beautiful buildings of a similar nature throughout the world. The most apt phrase to describe his buildings is 'ribbons of stone. The forms intertwine, undulate, and are organic in the real sense of the word.

Museum of Modern Man

Ottawa Ontario (Hull Quebec)

Museum of Civilization
Ottawa - Cardinal

The Museum of Civilization in Hull - Ottawa - its across the river - is one of the vbest examples of his style.

Douglas Cardinal

Ottawa Ontario (Hull Quebec)

Bay Street

 

 

Frank Gehry

Toronto Ontario

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.

 

Post Modern Office Tower

Toronto Ontario

Toronto

Toronto City Hall was designed by

 

Post Modern Office Tower

Toronto Ontario

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.

Post Modern City Hall

Newmarket Ontario

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.

 

 

 

Post Modern Art Gallery

Ottawa Ontario

Safdie

Safdie is perhaps best known for his Habitat done for expo 67.

 

 

 

Post Modern

Montreal Quebec

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).

Post Modern City Hall

Mississauga Ontario

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.

 

Post Modern Restaurant

Guelph Ontario

Hamilton

 

 

Residence

Hamilton Ontario

Post Modern Further Reading

Books

Diamond, J. Schmidt, D.,Peter, Insight and On Site, The Architecture of Diamond and Schmitt, Toronto , Douglas & McIntyre, 2008

 

 

Films

Aboriginal Architecture
Living Architecture NFB

Iron Cresting Modillions or Paired Brackets Bay Quoins Dormer Belvedere Awning Balconette Portico Round-Headed Arch Colonade Clock Tower Cornice Column Rotunda Rotunda Tower Column Railing