Skip to content

Spacing

Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

Architecture

NO MEAN CITY: Architects’ names carved in stone (or concrete..)

By

Read more articles by

Cross-posted from No Mean City, Alex’s personal blog on architecture


Along with all of the insanity at Toronto City Council’s meetings this month was a small and happy move. The city adopted a new policy that will give some credit to the designers of buildings.

All new buildings of 1,000 square metres (about 11,000 square feet) will now have to have the name of the main design architect, or architect of record “affixed or inscribed on the building at a location near the main entry or prominent façade of the structure.”

The results could look like the carving on the Four Seasons Centre, above.

This is an excellent idea. It’ll raise public awareness of the architects who are making our city better. Though since the best-known designers of condo towers already have their names trumpeted by marketing material, this could have more effect at the other end of the spectrum. The people who put their signatures on poorly detailed, shoddily built architecture really ought to own up to it. And now they’ll have to.

Thanks to Isidoros Kyrlangitses of Urban Toronto for pointing me to this proposal back in June.

Photo by Paul French, courtesy of Diamond Schmitt Architects

Recommended

9 comments

  2. Why not ensure that the BUILDER’S name is inscribed also? While you’re at it, add the CLIENT who commissioned the project’s name. There’s a misconception that the Architect is the sole party responsible in the outcome of a project’s success.

  3. Shawn is correct… it’s at the South-West corner facing Sugar Beach.

  4. Nick d’s got a point.  most of these buildings wouldn’t even stand without the structural consultants…..  but they get no love.

  5. But then it’ll become like movies in the 1970s — before just a few credits, then after everybody down to the caterer got credit. We’d run out of building.

  6. Nick, John, course you’re right. But architects bear a professional responsibility to make buildings attractive and workable for those who use them. Clients make that possible (or impossible) and deserve credit or blame – sometimes a lot. Engineers and other consultants are indispensable. But aesthetically and urbanistically the buck stops somewhere: with the architect.

    Of course sometimes the “lead design architect” depends totally on these other folks. This isn’t a perfect idea. A good one, though, I still think.

  7. Keep in mind that architect’s inscriptions have long been a Parisian habit…

  8. A great idea. While we can squabble that it takes a team of (sometimes) hundreds to bring a building to realization, architects tend not to get much credit. In fact, Architecture Canada (aka RAIC) has a program to raise public awareness of architects’ contributions: Every building has an architect
    http://www.raic.org/raic/advocacy/everybuilding_e.htm

  9. At the end of the day, the quality of the design rests exclusively with the architect. Bitch all you want about clients, by-laws, the weather and the law of gravity-remember, a lousy workman blames his tools.