George Baird in Dialogue – book launch and celebration

Please join us for an evening celebrating the publication of George Baird’s major collection of critical essays: Writings on Architecture and the City (Artifice Books on Architecture, London) at InForm Interiors in Gastown. Entry is free and open to anyone, but please come early, as space is limited. This event is made possible through the generosity of Nancy and Niels Bendtsen at InForm Interiors, and James Cheng at JKMCA Architects, and is co-sponsored by UBC’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.

George Baird is founder of Baird Neuert Sampson Architects, former Dean and Emeritus Professor at the University of Toronto’s Daniel School of Architecture, and the RAIC’s 2010 Gold Medalist for his career-long contributions to Canadian architecture and cities. From his pioneering application of post-structuralist theory to architecture in 1969’s Meaning in Architecture (Charles Jencks co-editor) to the reflections on Hannah Arendt in his 1995 Space of Appearance, Baird’s writing, editing and teaching has probed the essence of creation and city-dwelling. Similarly, his professional practice from the 1975 urban design study On Building Downtown for the City of Toronto, to Governor-General’s award-winning buildings demonstrate a rare ability to transfer abstract ideas to the contingencies of city-building and construction.

Trevor Boddy is an architecture critic and urbanist whose writings on cities and buildings have won the Alberta Book of the Year, Western Magazine, Jack Webster, and CICA-UIA Pierre Vago Prizes. He curated the exhibition “Vancouverism: Architecture Builds the City” for its showings in London, Paris and Vancouver/Woodwards 2008-2010, his “Rethink: Behind San Diego’s Skyline” is currently running there, and he co-curated the 2014 “Critical Juncture” at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. His text for the major monograph City-Builder: The Architecture of James K. M. Cheng will be published in early 2016.

Copies of Baird’s book “Writings on Architecture and Cities” will be available for purchase at the Vancouver launch, and more information is available at http://www.artificebooksonline.com, including this recent review from Domus Magazine: https://www.domusweb.it/en/reviews/2015/05/18/george_baird_s_visionary_realism.html

Date: September 30, 2015
Time: 5:30 p.m. reception; 6 p.m. George Baird & Trevor Boddy dialogue
Location: InForm Interiors, 50 Water Street, Vancouver
Cost: Free but limited seating, arrive early