Talk given by Nancy Dunton and David Covo, hosted by ROAAr, McGill Library.
When: October 14, 2017
Location: Colgate Room, McLennan Library Building, Colgate Seminar Room, Rare Books and Special Collections (4th floor), 3459 rue McTavish, Montreal, QC, H3A 0C9, CA
Description
French description below.
“A campus is, like an acropolis, an urban compression, a fragment of utopia suggesting a pattern for the ideal city.” - Arthur Erickson The University: A New Visual Environment Canadian Architect 1968
Nancy Dunton and David Covo brought McGill’s architectural history to life with this lecture. The McGill campus with its evolving plans and buildings reflects the values and priorities of the university community. Dunton and Covo led the audience through a guided historical tour of McGill’s iconic buildings. Their talk animated the plans, sketch blocks and dreams that have shaped McGill since 1845. They told the story of McGill College, the central path through the downtown campus, as a constant thread traced from 1845 to the present. Architects Percy Nobbs and Sir Andrew Thomas Taylor, among others, shaped the character of the campus in the 19th and 20th centuries. Their graceful and elegant buildings now share the campus with brutalist constructions of the 1960s. The Leacock building, built in 1964 by Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold, and Sise (ARCOP), heralded a boom in student enrollment and a growing need for space. McGill then experienced a construction boom and added many buildings in the concrete style that shaped so much of Montreal at the time.
Dunton and Covo brought their attention to the present with the firm of Provencher Roy et ass.. and the Francesco Bellini Life Sciences Building completed in 2008. The lecture fascinated the public who attended the lecture, and highlighted materials from the John Bland Canadian Architecture Collection at the McGill Library.
« Tout campus ressemble à une acropole, un noyau urbain, un fragment d’utopie qui propose un modèle de cité idéale. » - Arthur Erickson The University: A New Visual Environment Canadian Architect ,1968 (traduction libre)
Nancy Dunton et David Covo ont dynamisé l’histoire architecturale de l’Université McGill à l’occasion de cette conférence. Le campus McGill traduit les valeurs et les priorités de la communauté universitaire par ses plans et ses immeubles. Mme Dunton et M. Covo ont guidé l’auditoire dans une visite historique des immeubles phares de l’Université. Ils ont prêté vie aux plans, aux carnets d’esquisses et aux rêves qui ont donné forme à McGill depuis 1845. Et ils ont relaté l’histoire du Collège McGill et de l’allée centrale qui sillonne le campus du centre-ville, à l’image d’un fil permanent tracé de 1845 à nos jours. Les architectes Percy Nobbs et Sir Andrew Thomas Taylor, entre autres constructeurs, ont façonné le caractère du campus au cours des XIXe et XXe siècles. Leurs immeubles gracieux et élégants partagent maintenant le campus avec les constructions brutalistes des années 1960. L’érection en 1964 du pavillon Leacock, sous la direction du cabinet Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold et Sise (ARCOP), présageait une explosion des inscriptions étudiantes et un besoin croissant d’espace. L’Université, alors en plein boom immobilier, a ajouté de nombreux immeubles appartenant au style brutaliste qui a modelé une large part du Montréal de l’époque.
Mme Dunton et M. Covo sont passés au présent pour traiter du cabinet Provencher_Roy et du pavillon des sciences de la vie Francesco Bellini érigé en 2008. La conférence, qui a fasciné l’auditoire, a permis de faire valoir des documents extraits de la collection architecturale canadienne John Bland de la Bibliothèque de McGill.
Bio
Nancy Dunton has actively worked on architectural projects and organized public programs about architecture since 1981. Formerly Executive Director of Heritage Montreal, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the protection of Montreal’s built heritage, she was Head of University and Professional Programs at the Canadian Centre for Architecture from 1997 to 2005. She has taught courses at the McGill and Université de Montréal Schools of Architecture and at Dawson College.
David Covo is an Associate Professor and past director (1996-2007) of the School of Architecture at McGill University, where he has taught since 1977. He is currently teaching design, drawing and sketching, and professional practice, and he has maintained a private consulting practice since 1976. He is a Member of the Order of Architects of Quebec and a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, and is a past President of the Canadian Architectural Certification Board.
