Thursday – Mostly Sunny – Aerial, and drive views, and the Bar U Ranch. The Bar U is a National Historic Site of Canada located about an hour’s drive southwest of Calgary, near Longview. This is the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. A collection of 26 wooden buildings, many of which are more than a century old, are on display here. It is not that these vernacular farm buildings are un-designed, but rather that the drive of their design is a modest, practical, simplicity – the same things that drive the professional designer of contemporary industrial buildings, though usually at a much bigger scale and with a different focus on craftsmanship.
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Friday – Esker Foundation – Climate Controlled – Inuit Exhibition The Esker Foundation, a contemporary art institution and gallery, is located in Ramsey. It is open to the public and does not charge admission. The gallery has shown some consistency in presenting intriguing current and emerging artists – some of the work may be raw, some emotionally provoking in a good way, and some to be relegated to the dustbin of history – as is their fate. Regardless, it is evident there is care in the curation, and in the manner the art is presented.
The Inuit exhibition shown here is titled Among All These Tundras and ran Spring/Summer 2019. The exhibit program notes the curators for the project were, Heather Igloliorte, Amy Prouty, and Charissa von Harringa. The works/excerpts included here are, Sami Shelters #1 – 5, 2009 – , Hand-knitted woolen sweaters in ten different shades of colour by Jaro Nango; and videos by Marja Helandar, Dolastallat (To have a campfire) 2016, and Eatanvulos Lottit (Birds in the Earth), 2018. Other artists exhibited as part of this show are; asinnajaq, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory, Carola Grahn, Kablusiak, Sonja Kelliher-Combs, Taqralik Partridge, Barry Pottle, Inuuteq Storch, Couzyn van Heuvelen, and Allison Akootchook Warden.
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Saturday – Overcast and Rain – Drive view; and Blackfoot Crossing Historic Park. Blackfoot Crossing, on the Bow River, is the site of the signing of Treaty No. 7 in 1877 between the Siksika (Blackfoot) and the Canadian Government on behalf of the Crown. The park is located on the Siksika 146 Indian reserve. The Historic Site’s brochure notes that it is ‘just a 1.5-hour scenic drive from Calgary’.
While the main public exhibit building on the site offers a brochure on the architectural features of the building, it appears to have missed including a reference to the designers.
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Sunday – Mostly Sunny – Calgary Public Library The architects for this project are Snohetta and Dialog in collaboration. Snohetta, the lead design firm for the project, is a contemporary Norwegian office, recognized for doing strong and exceptional work. They are at the forefront of international contemporary design.
The site is unusual in that an existing light rail transit line exits a tunnel here. With their solution, Snohetta incorporated and conceptually built onto the arc of the rail line. The site’s broad urban characteristics are interesting as well. The location is at the east end of Calgary’s downtown, just behind City Hall. The library site, along with a number of blocks going east, form a large scale urban land redevelopment that is perhaps nearing 50% complete. It includes the library, housing, restaurants, retail, some modest historic buildings, and another recently completed public institution, the National Music Centre. The Library and National Music Centre, as major civic amenities, are expected to have a role as catalysts, and ongoing urban focal points for this ambitious redevelopment project.
Visiting the Library on a sunny Sunday morning, one might be prompted to recall LeCrobusier’s ‘promenade architecturale’ – in this case with great light. The project, while perhaps not winning everyone over, appears to have some significant popularity in the city.
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Monday – Mostly Sunny – An Inglewood Koi Fountain; and Nose Hill Park
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