by new Old Main
As mentioned before, we were visiting Kamloops last month. Besides art exhibition visits, our daughter took us for a tour of part of the lovely campus of Thompson Rivers University, sited on a mountain top overlooking the city. Knowing our interest in innovative, sustainable and energy saving architectural design, she was eager to show us the recently completed renovation and expansion of the Old Main building. Yes, we do love the modern design, the undulating roof, the numerous windows bringing in the light and the views, especially north over the city and the mountains.
This building now houses the new Faculty of Law, the first new one in Canada in thirty years. I became even more intrigued by the story behind the inspiration for the architectural design:
The design firms looked to the splendor of Mt. Peter and Paul to create an expansive design that undulates and curves, and were inspired by Mount Paul, by A. Y. Jackson. The result is a spectacular undulating roofline that mirrors the Kamloops horizon.
You can see Mounts Peter and Paul in the bottom photo. It took much searching to find Jackson’s painting – it is in the collection of the Kamloops Art Gallery, to be found on this page (scroll down and down, it is the fourth from the bottom). For copyright reasons, I hesitate placing it here. A.Y. Jackson was a Canadian artist, part of our noted Group of Seven. He took many painting expeditions all over Canada, including BC and the North.
April 8, 2014 in Canada and BC, Other artists, Travel by Marja-Leena
That is wonderful. And as the world fills up with ugly architecture, it is so refreshing to see such a beautiful building.
Hattie, yes indeed. We were also very impressed that they used the old building instead of tearing it down. It is a pet peeve for us in the Vancouver area as more and more are destroyed with all the resultant waste, for huge highrises or monster homes.
It’s a very elegant building. Although there are bits left most of the old architecture of downtown Halifax was destroyed in the 60s. The university campuses are still mostly intact.
Susan, I think it’s sad that such a comparatively old city as Halifax could not save more of its history.
Interesting–we have some undulant roofs from local architects, but they’re pretty careful to make sure that the roofs are good at dumping snow! It’s hard to tear down local architecture here, but a few years ago, less hard–and we have a few ugly buildings to show for it. Any of them could have restored an old house and made it into an attractive business.
Marly, I ‘m sure this roof has been designed for snow as it does snow there in winter. I’m sorry to hear the tear-down mentality has hit your town as well, as in most places in North America, it seems.
It is very difficult now, but there are a few bad decisions from earlier decades. Inside the village limits it’s all very strict, and one must get approval for fence heights and distance form sidewalks, any sort of renovation, etc.
Marly, it is a good thing that historic old buildings are saved, isn’t it? Yet I sympathize with owners who can face huge costs trying to renovate and restore an old place and still keep the old styles and so forth. My husband’s aunt had that issue with the old family home in Germany. It’s the reckless razing of whole rows of older homes in neighbourhoods to replace them wiht McMansions or high rise condos that Is disturbing, and making it more costly for young families to live in the city.
Beautiful building. Amazing how being inspired by nature can bring the best out of us.