>>PREVIEW
THE ARCHITECTURE OF L. FREDERICK VALENTINE: CAREER WORKS, 1963-2005
Runs until October 28
Triangle Gallery
Architecture is a curious mix of high finance, creative vision, determination and love of space. The current exhibition at Triangle Gallery – The Architecture of L. Frederick Valentine – puts a fine point on this.
"During a span of his 40-year career as a productive and successful architect, Valentine has rigorously created his own sensibilities and infused his own architectural esthetic with those qualities of immediacy, spontaneity and conceptual gusto that we customarily encounter only in works of art," writes Jacek Malec in his introduction to the exhibition.
Part of ArtCity’s programming, this overview of Valentine’s career is a collection of architectural models, photographs and drawings outlining the work of this noted local architect who has gone on to gain national recognition. As Katherine Ylitalo, the curator of the exhibition points out, Valentine is also one of the key players in shaping the look and feel of Calgary.
Responsible for designing such buildings as the Nova (now Nexen) corporate headquarters and the head office of TransAlta, Valentine is more than a casual figure of the cityscape. He has put his creative stamp on many of this region’s most recognizable structures, including Canada Olympic Park and the renovations recently completed of Alberta’s two Jubilee Auditoriums in Calgary and Edmonton.
Now a principal of Stantec Architecture Ltd., Valentine first pursued his interest in architecture at the University of Toronto in the 1960s before moving on to Harvard. A proverbial big fish in the little pond when he returned to Calgary, Valentine was soon the architect of choice for many of Calgary’s largest projects.
Thankfully, Valentine did not attempt to turn Calgary into Toronto or Boston, but instead often took his cues from the mountains, prairie and forests that punctuate the landscape of Alberta.
Somewhere beyond the boundaries of his architectural training and the rough-hewn characteristics of a region with an economy founded on the backbone of oil and agriculture, Valentine emerged to deliver such elegant designs as the Rosza Centre and Studio E, a composer’s studio located at the Leighton Artist’s Colony at The Banff Centre.
It is in these projects we see the personal side of Valentine’s most sensitive designs. Places where artists gather to perform, write and create seem to be the spaces Valentine understands the best.
Valentine has garnered awards and lavish praise for the corporate towers he has envisioned, but it is his most intimate work that resonates with authenticity and passion.
Go to a concert at the Rozsa Centre or visit the Walter Phillips Gallery, located inside the Valentine-designed Jeanne and Peter Lougheed Building, to truly experience what this Calgary architect has given the country. |
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