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From: Architexturez-IN <admin-in@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:08:40 +0530
The recent Capital Modern exhibit at the Art Gallery of Alberta,
featuring Edmonton architecture from 1940 to 1969, was a revealing and
even thrilling look at the beauty we don't often notice in our city. Yet
one architectural term -- coined by Mayor Stephen Mandel -- supersedes
all others.
In his first state of the city address, in April 2005, Mandel said, "The
time has passed when square boxes with minimal features and lame
landscaping are acceptable. Our tolerance for crap is now zero."
Crap.
On Tuesday, three years since Mandel spoke those words, the Edmonton
Design Committee (EDC) presented its second annual report to city
council. Of 108 applications last year, including helpful
pre-assessments, the committee supported (or supported with conditions)
37 applications. They denied almost as many. The EDC is a volunteer
coalition of experts, from private industry, from the public sector, and
from the city at large, with no real power to stop a project. But no
projects were approved by the city of Edmonton development office that
were not supported by the EDC. Any square boxes with minimal features
and lame landscaping going up today were initiated before the EDC.
Or they're outside the EDC's mandate.
cont'd....
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/culture/story.html?id=fa002b51-80d8-4e84-a67c-386fb11cf15b&k=70727