Tula House, located on Quadra Island, British Columbia, Canada by Patkau Architects. (Photography: James Dow)
canada
/
St. John’s, Newfounland snowy waterfront
/
/
Southland Residence, Vancouver
Blurring the line between interior and exterior
(via
/
1962 Graham House | Architects: Arthur Erickson & Geoffrey Massey | West Vancouver, B.C., Canada | Photos: Erickson Collection
Wealthy developer, Shiraz Lalji, bought the house and tore it down in 2007 to make way for a bigger home.
/
/
Toronto becomes first city to mandate green roofs
Toronto is the first city in North America with a bylaw that requires roofs to be green. And we’re not talking about paint. A green roof, also known as a living roof, uses various hardy plants to create a barrier between the sun’s rays and the tiles or shingles of the roof. The plants love the sun, and the building (and its inhabitants) enjoy more comfortable indoor temperatures as a result.
Toronto’s new legislation will require all residential, commercial and institutional buildings over 2,000 square meters to have between 20 and 60 percent living roofs. Although it’s been in place since early 2010, the bylaw will apply to new industrial development as of April 30, 2012. While this is the first city-wide mandate involving green roofs, Toronto’s decision follow’s in the footsteps of other cities, like Chicago and New York.
Under the direction of Mayor Richard Daley the city of Chicago put a 38,800 square foot green roof on a 12 story skyscraper in 2000. Twelve years later, that building now saves $5000 annually on utility bills, and Chicago boasts 7 million square feet of green roof space. New York has followed suit, and since planting a green roof on the Con Edison Learning Centre in Queens, the buildings managers have seen a 34 percent reduction of heat loss in winter, and reduced summer heat gain by 84 percent.
But lower utility bills aren’t the only benefit of planting a living roof. In addition to cooling down the city, green roofs create cleaner air, cleaner water, and provide a peaceful oasis for people, birds and insects in an otherwise polluted, concrete and asphalt-covered environment.
Pretty awesome
Sweet! I was reading in this book the other day that if toronto did this (at the time it was an if), they would reduce summer temperatures in the city by 0.5 - 2%. Happy this is finally happening.
/
Université de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada
Historic 1928 PhotoThis photo is just amazing. This complex was built with nothing around it. Compare to this modern-day Google Maps aerial view.
Caption from Art Deco digital collection at McGill:
A photograph of the Université de Montréal campus in an aerial view, ca. 1928.
Architect Ernest Cormier (1885-1980) is well-known for his central complex of buildings at the Université de Montréal, considered to be of Art Deco design. It is a composition of simple forms of planes and surfaces in successive relief, emphasizing vertical lines. The light buff vitrified brick has trimmings of Missisquoi marble.
Cormier’s former house on Pine Avenue in Montreal is one of the finest examples of Art Deco homes in the world.
Student Papers Collection, Rare Books and Special Collections