Mary E. Black Gallery Shows Top Canadian Architecture

TOURISM/CULTURE--Mary E. Black Gallery Shows Top Canadian Architecture

The Nova Scotia Centre for Craft and Design presents Sea to Sea, an exhibit of top Canadian architecture put on by the Nova Scotia Association of Architects.

The exhibit runs until June 16 in the Mary E. Black Gallery, 1683 Barrington St., Halifax.

Sea to Sea features this year’s winners of top architectural prizes on two coasts -- the Nova Scotia Lieutenant Governor’s Design Awards in Architecture; and the Architectural Institute of British Columbia Architectural Awards 2001, entitled Success by Design.

The Nova Scotia awards are given each year to recognize excellence in architecture in the province.

Also on display will be 25 architectural watercolour paintings by Jack (A.J.) Diamond, this year’s recipient of this country’s highest architectural award -- the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) Gold Medal. The watercolours are on loan from the Canadian Architectural Archives at the University of Calgary, curated by Halifax native Linda Fraser.

The RAIC Gold Medal is being awarded to Mr. Diamond for his outstanding contribution to Canadian architecture as both educator and practitioner.

“Jack’s uncompromising pursuit of excellence and unique sensitivity to urban context and heritage have come to characterize the very best of Canadian architecture,” said RAIC president David Simpson. “His extensive and unique body of work has raised the standard of architectural discourse in Canada over the last three decades, and has heightened the reputation of Canadian architecture throughout the world.”

Internationally renowned as one of the world’s pre-eminent architects, Mr. Diamond is best-known for his extraordinarily successful design of Jerusalem’s city hall and city square.

He is currently working on several projects with his practice, A.J. Diamond, Donald Schmitt and Co. They include: the Canadian Opera House in Toronto, the Jewish Community Centre in New York City, the Foreign Ministry for the State of Israel in Jerusalem, the Canadian Chancery in Prague, the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care in Toronto and the Bahen Centre for Information Technology at the University of Toronto.

A project soon to be completed by his company is the new Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences building at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

The Mary E Black Gallery is open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free, with donations welcome. The gallery is a program of the Nova Scotia Centre for Craft and Design, which works to promote and develop craft and design related industries in Nova Scotia.