While I’m unaware of any such poll, gut instinct tells me that a random sampling of Americans asked to name significant U.S. Modernist architects would produce names such as Richard Neutra, Philip Johnson, I.M. Pei, or Eero Saarinen. And a similar poll in Canada would be a less successful, tooth pulling exercise that might, perhaps, come up with Moshe Safdie or Raymond Moriyama, if any at all.
Oh, and one other thing: we know that the Parkin office produced very few private houses. One for himself at 75 The Bridle Path , one for his bachelor friend J. Douglas Crashley on Old George Place, one for the son of Canadian Tire co-founder A. J. Billes, and a few others. So, when the Alfred W.
“Material use was entirely John C.,” says Mr. Valentine, who served as project head and even enjoyed a few toots on the water on the Billes’s family yacht. “He was a devotee of I.M. Pei; he was fascinated by the modern use of concrete, and the treatment of concrete as a finish material.” Mr. Valentine adds that this was around the same time the office was working on the competition entry for the National Gallery in Ottawa and he’d been sent to both I.M.
Soulless and institutional.
Maybe its time to stop glorifying the ultra rich.