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AUGUST 2012 / VOLUME 26 / NUMBER 4 PERSPECTIVE EDITOR ART DIRECTOR CONTRIBUTING WRITERS by Samuel Oboh, MRAIC RAIC Regional Director for Alberta / Northwest Territories Architecture: Beyond Instincts, Intentions and Intuitions W hat's in a story? A few years ago while conducting research for the University of Alberta on the expressive communication attributes of the architecture of the Alberta Legislature Building, a number of stories emanating from the research caught my attention. I must confess I had expected the thrust of the research to revolve around the architecture of the legislature building but was rather astounded by the stories that emerged. Title: Macdonald Hotel Bridges – Low Level Bridge Dates of Creation: 1939 Photographer / Creator: H.A. Hollingworth Image Number: EA-160-949. City of Edmonton Archives My expectation was to hear stories about the magnificence, splendor and creative classical detailing of the Legislature Building and how it compares with other similar Beaux Arts-styled buildings found in North America, or about the creativity of the architect, Allan Merrick Jeffers, in bringing the presence of such a modest five-storey neoclassical landmark to prominence when it was completed in 1912. What a letdown! I was inundated with the intrigues that occurred in the building, one of them about William Aberhart. In 1935, William Aberhart (a school principal, Baptist preacher and radio evangelist), stomped into power as Alberta's premier. His exceptional ability to swagger and invoke the tenets of morally justifiable divine retribution earned him the nickname Bible Bill. His desire to improve the lives of Albertans was never in doubt but it would 6/ p.06-07RAIC.indd 6 be his innovative take on an obscure economic theory of paying a 'basic dividend' of $25 per month to every adult Albertan that would earn him his place in history. In the late 1930s, Bible Bill, with the help of his fellow politicians, passed laws that would have put the banking and credit industries under provincial control and essentially restricted freedom of the press. These laws were later declared ultra vires (i.e. unconstitutional). It was on record that when Alberta's lieutenant governor William Walsh refused to grant royal assent to the laws, Bible Bill responded by shutting off all utilities to the lieutenant governor's residence during the winter. Consequently, the astute royal representative was forced to move to the Hotel Macdonald in downtown Edmonton. Imagine how brutally cold Edmonton's winter could feel in a building without electricity and heat. At hearing the plight of the lieutenant governor, I thought, "Thank goodness for the Hotel Macdonald's architects!" I had to make the connection that architecture really mattered in this story and my link is the strikingly regal chateau-styled Hotel Macdonald – named after Canada's first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, and designed by the renowned firm Ross and Macdonald – plush enough to keep the lieutenant governor safe from being afflicted with frostbite. In effect, the architect saved the day! For decades, architects have nurtured, cultured and cultivated insular instinctive processes that make it difficult for the public to understand what we do, why we do it and how we do it. Consequently, our intention to create pleasing, useful and coherent built environments always falls short in the face of the insularity of the way we engage the public as a profession. Hence the types or lack of stories that emerged in my research. This conundrum needs to be overcome. We must go through a shift in our instinctive processes to enable our expectations, intentions and intuitions to align. We must transform the profession from insular-instinctive and process-driven to knowledge- and evidence-based supported by sharp intuitive perception, where research and development is held up to high esteem. Simply put, we should at all times be able to empirically and scientifically demonstrate and prove how the schools that we design help make students learn better or how the hospitals we plan help promote healing or how the office space we propose enhances productivity. Sharpening our innate ability as architects to perceive intuitively with knowledge that can be replicated and empirically proven will make architecture matter more. Such transformation will help us tell our story better and demonstrate that Architecture matters. ■ Shannon Miller Laurel MacLean Angela Altass Bill Armstrong John Atkinson Luigi Benetton Robin Brunet Godfrey Budd Stacey Carefoot Heidi Castle Jerry Eberts Lawrence Herzog Laurie Jones Jessica Kirby Lauren Kramer Stacey McLachlan Dan O'Reilly Christine Peets Irwin Rapoport Leslie C. 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