The HTA Blog

Saturday, November 5, 2022

HTA Podcast: Something Old, Something New

A conversation with architect Barry Padolsky about the lantern tower at the Canadian Museum of Nature. As some readers of this blog will know, bad modern additions to historic buildings really bug me. Good ones, though, get... More

Saturday, October 15, 2022

HTA Podcast: What’s so “Classic” about “Classical” Architecture?

A conversation with Professor Pierre du Prey. In the latest edition of the HTA Podcast, I chat with architectural historian Pierre du Prey about what “Classicism” in... More

Monday, May 2, 2022

Postcard from Venice

Dear Mom and Dad, This is such an amazing place: the streets are canals, the buses are boats, and everything – every building, every bridge, every view – is so beautiful. My apartment's just a short walk from the Doge's Palace and... More

Friday, April 2, 2021

HTA Podcast: Medieval Chats, Episode 5

Conversation with Dr. John Goodall: the Castle This is the fifth in my series of ‘medieval’ podcasts – that is, podcasts created as part of my 2nd-year undergraduate course on medieval architecture and art at Carleton... More

Sunday, March 28, 2021

Canadian Gothic: A Public Presentation for Heritage Ottawa

I was delighted to give a public talk for Heritage Ottawa last March on the topic of Canadian Gothic. In it, I tried to answer a question that I'm sure has been nagging at you for years:... More

Monday, March 22, 2021

HTA Podcast: Medieval Chats, Episode 4

The Life, Death and Cult of Thomas Becket: A Conversation with Dr. John Jenkins I vividly recall watching the movie Becket on late-night TV at the age of ten. The story of the medieval archbishop who is gruesomely murdered in his own... More

Thursday, March 4, 2021

HTA Podcast: Medieval Chats, Episode 3

Professor Malcolm Thurlby on the Herefordshire School of Romanesque Sculpture Once upon a time, a young lad named Malcolm was being benignly guided through the A-Level study of chemistry, physics and biology. Then one day, he happened... More

Wednesday, February 17, 2021

HTA Podcast: Medieval Chats, Episode 2

Dr. Hugh McCague on Geometry and Romanesque Design The spaces, volumes, complex curves and lines of medieval design were generated by manipulating simple shapes - circles and squares, mostly - in a process we call Constructive... More

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

HTA Podcast: Medieval Chats, Episode 1

A Conversation with Professor John Osborne I'm teaching a course on medieval architecture and art this term, and I've decided that part of the content will take the form of podcasts. These will be informal chats with experts in... More

Thursday, November 5, 2020

Getting a Leg Up: The Practicum

I often say to students: whatever you do after graduating, whether you're applying to a job or to grad school, everyone you’re competing against will also have a degree. People will want to see what else you’ve done – what other... More

Monday, October 26, 2020

HTA Podcast: When Buildings Say “Boo!”

Why do some places seem "spooky"? We have a look at what's "in the air" in scary spaces, and where it might have come from. Happy Hallowe'en! Read more about my guest Charis Cotter's books... More

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

My Friend Allie

Dr. Allison Sherman was an outstanding scholar of Renaissance art, an inspirational teacher, and the truest, most generous friend a person could ever hope to have. She died of breast cancer on April 26th, 2017, at the age of... More

Saturday, October 10, 2020

Standing Tall

I’ve been preparing asynchronous lectures on Greek and Roman architecture for the last three weeks, which means I’ve been looking at a lot of columns. In fact, not just looking at them, but marveling at them. What beautiful... More

Thursday, August 20, 2020

The HTA Podcast: Episode 1

  https://soundcloud.com/user-272231815/avrc-photo-collection RSS Feed Episode 1 of the HTA Podcast. Produced by the History and Theory of Architecture program at Carleton University. Today we look at a great – but little-known... More

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Reconquista

Last Friday, Muslim services were held under the great dome of the Hagia Sophia for the first time in 86 years. For some, this was a moment of great joy, a return of Islam to one of its great spiritual homes. For others, it was a... More

Friday, July 5, 2019

Barry Padolsky’s Letter to Justin Trudeau

Many of you will have read about Barry Padolsky's open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the Château Laurier. Here is the letter in full, with illustrations, reproduced with Mr. Padolsky's permission. WHY THE... More

Thursday, July 4, 2019

What Could the Château Laurier Addition Look Like?

In a piece in today’s National Post, Larco representative Dennis Jacobs used what I call the “Disneyland Cliché”: What they want to see is a replica Disneyland version of the hotel.... More

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Taking Responsibility

The vote on the Château Laurier that City Council will have tomorrow is profoundly important. Not because of its potential impact on what gets built (I remain pessimistic about that), but because it is City Council’s last chance to... More

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

The Last Word (of 2018)

Heritage Ottawa’s exhibition of student designs for an addition to the Château Laurier was a memorable event. People came, saw, asked questions, gave their views… this is what public consultation looks like. You can read some of... More

Monday, December 3, 2018

Re-Framing the Question

I’ve believed for a long time that the proposed addition to the Château Laurier was based on faulty premises that need to be re-thought. So, just what are the ‘premises’ that inform what a building might look like? First,... More

Tuesday, November 20, 2018

Time to Think Outside the Box

https://vimeo.com/301929976 Remember the first proposal for an addition to the romantic, picturesque Château Laurier? It was two boxes. Remember the second version? It was one long, low box. Remember the third? It was a long, low box... More

Monday, July 30, 2018

Demolition by Neglect

You may have heard the phrase “demolition by neglect”. It’s what happens when a building’s maintenance is neglected so egregiously that it falls down on its own, or becomes a public menace that has to be removed. This is what... More

Friday, June 29, 2018

Watson’s Folly

Anyone who wrote to the mayor recently expressing concerns about the proposed addition to the Château Laurier received exactly the same boilerplate reply, regardless of the specific nature of their concerns. It began with a stern... More

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

What’s in the Crystal Ball for Château Laurier?

The proposed extension of the Château Laurier lurched one more step towards a bad conclusion on June 26, when Planning Committee approved a motion by the Built Heritage Sub-Committee to... More

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Planning Committee

Today (June 26) the City’s Planning Committee met to vote on the Built Heritage Sub-Committee’s motion on the Château Laurier. I had a scheduling conflict and was unable to attend, but below are the remarks I submitted. My thanks... More

Friday, June 22, 2018

Compatibility

Several objections were raised at last Monday’s meeting of the Built Heritage Sub-Committee to the proposed extension of the Château Laurier. The thread that ran through them all was the issue of compatibility. Or more precisely,... More

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

A Step, but in What Direction?

I said in my last blog that Monday’s meeting of the Built Heritage Sub-Committee (BHSC) at City Hall had an unusual outcome. They met to discuss the recommendation by City staff that the current iteration of the proposed expansion... More

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Back at City Hall

I found myself back at City Hall on Monday. The Built Heritage Sub-Committee met to consider City staff’s recommendation that the latest design proposal for the extension of the Château Laurier be accepted. I was one of several... More

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Radical

I think that ideally if most people had their wish it would be, just extend the Château Laurier exactly as it is. It would be easy, but I don’t think it would be the right way to go. (Jan Harder, City Councillor and Chair of the... More

Monday, June 11, 2018

Synthesis

  “Its rather harsh reaction to the latest version of the redevelopment plan leaves one with the feeling that unless Heritage Ottawa gets the developer to construct an exact copy of the century-old hotel, it will never approve... More

Monday, June 4, 2018

Subtraction

We have now seen yet another version of the proposed subtraction from the Château Laurier. I know I’m supposed to call it the “addition to” the Château, but I just can’t live with that lie any more. This is not an addition... More

Friday, June 1, 2018

Château Laurier Addition – the Latest Design!

It’s still in... More

Friday, June 1, 2018

Le Château

 I wrote this fragmentary parable a few weeks back for a CU in the City event called “Built Ottawa: Our Places, Our Stories.” As you will see, it is inspired (and illustrated) by the various proposed additions to the Château... More

Friday, June 1, 2018

The View from Abroad

One of the more surreal moments during February’s open house on the proposed Château Laurier expansion was hearing Michael McClelland mansplain that Sophisticated Europeans love this kind of design, and Ottawans really need to get... More

Thursday, March 1, 2018

What’s Wrong with this Process?

Wednesday night was the City of Ottawa’s Open House on the latest proposal for an addition to the Château Laurier. It was a strange event. I could write about the applicant’s failure to demonstrate that the design is deferential... More

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