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Rye launches new architecture gallery

By Amira Zubairi

Ryerson staff, students and alumni were treated to a cross-country tour of Canadian architecture through photography at the grand opening of the Paul H. Cocker Gallery.

The Architecture Building’s new gallery – which features vivid red and whitewashed walls as well as bold black text on its floor – launched with Cover and Spread on Tuesday, Oct. 22. The installation profiles seven iconic Canadian buildings including Toronto City Hall and Pearson International Airport.

“We are moving from east to west in the images, starting off with Charlottetown, P.E.I., all the way to Vancouver,” says co-curator David Campbell, a secondyear masters of architecture student.

“We ended up picking these seven [structures] so people could see the breadth of… architecture in Canada.”

“The quotations on the ground draw you to the pictures and contextualizes what architects and planners were thinking at the time,” he added. “The images are less historic but rather something we can learn from.” The collection was donated by

Canadian Architect magazine in 2009. Ryerson alumnus Paul H. Cocker was the lead donor in creating a space for the installation and began the ceremony with a ribbon cutting.

The new addition to campus impressed many visitors and alumni.

“When I attended the school, they didn’t have this kind of stuff,” says Bob Yeung, a graduate of the aerospace engineering program. “Back then, an art gallery would be a little display out in the hallway.” The curators hope the gallery, which is funded by the Canadian Council of the Arts, will continue to change its displays regularly and allow students and the public to revisit projects.

“The gallery will be something that both connects the public to our building and brings in people from outside the discipline,” says co-curator Prachi Khandekar, the communications and digital archive specialist for the department of architectural science. “But it will also provide a learning ground for students in the department.”

Cover and Spread runs until Nov. 14.

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