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INTERNATIONAL ART DECO THE EXOTIC WORLD OF Thursday, February 19, 2009 Location: Vancouver Museum, |
Heritage Vancouver and the Canadian Art Deco Society welcome another international expert on Art Deco to continue our series of talks and events leading up to the Tenth World Art Deco Congress in Montreal in May 2009.
Join us for “The Exotic World of Bombay Art Deco” presented for the first time in Canada by author Navin Ramani, the author of the book Bombay Art Deco Architecture, A Visual Journey 1930-1953.
Bombay contains a treasury of commercial, residential and public Art Deco architecture created during the glamorous and optimistic era of the 1930s and 1940s. This first generation of modern Indian architects, influenced by current fashionable trends, were eager to imbue the city with a new modern image. Developing at the same time as the characteristic architecture of Miami Beach, the two cities exhibit similar scale, geometry, tropical vocabulary and love of romance. This lecture will be an insightful exploration of the beauty and abundance of the previously unrecognized Art Deco heritage of Bombay.
Navin Ramani was raised in Mumbai (then known as Bombay). His background in global business and architectural design combined with his love for cultural heritage and historic preservation have been the foundation for his career, community work and his new book. He has served on the Board of Directors of The Miami Design Preservation League, and was honoured with an award in 2007 for the Best Art Deco Book of the Year. He is a founding member of the Florida Chapter of The Congress for the New Urbanism, serving as prior regional head for Southeast Florida. His extensive research on Florida’s New Urbanist projects provided the foundation for the publication of A Guidebook to New Urbanism in Florida 2005. Navin has also been an honorary guide of Bombay’s Art Deco for the Cinema Theatre Association and The Twentieth Century Society in London, both United Kingdom-based preservation organizations. Now a resident of Vancouver, he is currently acting as a project manager for Kindred Construction.
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INTERNATIONAL ART DECO LECTURE SERIES
THE EXOTIC WORLD OF ART DECO
Location: Saint James’ Church, 303 East Cordova Street (meet on the steps) Join Heritage Vancouver and the Canadian Art Deco Society for a tour of one of Vancouver's outstanding Art Deco gems, Saint James' Anglican Church. This is the second in a series of exciting Art Deco talks and events leading up to the Tenth World Art Deco Congress in Montreal in 2009. Long time parishioner and an expert on the church's history, Allan Duncan, will guide you through exterior and interior features of this astonishing building |
Located at 303 East Cordova Street, the original church was founded in 1881, and its first site was on Alexander Street near the water. Both church and city burned to the ground in 1886 and the second Saint James’ was built at its current location on land donated by the Canadian Pacific Railway. The rebuilding of the church in 1935-36 resulted in its present outstanding Art Deco form.
This was one of the few large-scale construction projects undertaken in Vancouver during the 'Dirty Thirties'. The architect, Sir Adrian Gilbert Scott, was a member of a renowned family of English architects; his father Sir George Gilbert Scott designed the Albert Memorial, and his brother Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was responsible for Liverpool Cathedral, as well as England's familiar red public telephone booths. The Rector of Saint James', Reverend Canon Wilberforce Cooper, was a relative of the Scotts. Adrian Scott had never been to Vancouver, and did not actually visit the site. For this design he chose a free adaptation of Fourteenth century Gothic. The use of monolithic reinforced concrete was not Scott's first choice; originally he would have preferred a brick facing. The provision of a flat ceiling in the crossing was also an economic decision, but one that was highly approved of by the building committee. The raw concrete finish of the church remained unpainted until 1972. Saint James’, which has survived in remarkably intact condition, has been designated as a heritage site by the City of Vancouver.
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INTERNATIONAL ART DECO LECTURE SERIES SHANGHAI AND MIAMI – THE EXOTIC WORLD OF ART DECO: Promotional Consideration by: Location: Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, 578 Carrall Street |
Join Heritage Vancouver, the Canadian Art Deco Society and the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden for an unprecedented event, when we welcome three international experts on Art Deco to kick off a series of talks and events leading up to the Tenth World Art Deco Congress in Montreal in 2009.
- Shanghai Art Deco, presented by Tess Johnston: author of “Art Deco in Shanghai and Miami Beach.”
- Miami Art Deco, presented by Michael Kinerk and Dennis Wilhelm, co-authors of “Rediscovering Art Deco U.S.A.: A Nationwide Tour of Architectural Delights.”
Our international experts will guide us through the surprising parallels and cross-cultural connections between these two major cities during the early and mid-twentieth century.
Tess Johnston is uniquely qualified to present China's old Western architecture. Her academic background includes a M.A. from the University of Virginia; she has lived abroad for over 45 years, including seven in Germany (both east and west), and over 30 in Asia, including 25 in Shanghai and seven in Vietnam (1967-74). With co-author, Shanghai photographer Deke Erh (Erh Dongqiang), she has published fifteen books, including ten volumes on Western architecture and the expatriate experience in old China. Early on, Shanghai became a city of Western emigrants, and Ms. Johnston gives a short anecdotal history of each wave of foreigners who came to Shanghai, explains their contributions to the growth of the city, and what they left behind for posterity. Reviewers say: “She is lively, engaging, often irreverent, and leaves her audience gasping for breath after her lively romp through a century of Shanghai's colorful history.”
This will be the first presentation in Canada by Michael Kinerk and Dennis Wilhelm. They were founding directors of the Miami Design Preservation League in 1977, and are the authors of three books and many articles on Art Deco architecture and movie palace history. Michael has been with The Miami Herald for thirty-two years, and has appeared on many television programs, including NBC’s Today Show. Dennis is archivist for the renowned firm Arquitectonica International, a worldwide architecture and design firm headquartered in Miami, Florida. From 1984-1993 he was Collection Manager and Associate Registrar at the Wolfsonian Foundation. They have jointly lectured in London, Shanghai and all across the USA.
