Image Credit: Mississauga City Hall.
Architectural Credit: Jones & Kirkland Architects, 1987.
Photo Credit: Robert Burley, courtesy Robert Burley and Canadian Architect magazine fonds, Ryerson University Library and Archives
This month, World Architecture Day is celebrated around the globe. In Canada, October also marks the debut of the first comprehensive review of Canadian architecture in decades. Co-published by
Canadian Architect magazine and Princeton Architectural Press, the book
Canadian Modern Architecture, 1967 to the Present, will be released on Monday, October 28. It launches with a series of events in cities across Canada, including several events in Ontario that have been supported by the OAA.
To celebrate the book, the blOAAg will include eight excerpts—chosen by co-editor Elsa Lam—over the month. Today’s selection is about Mississauga City Hall, taken from Larry Wayne Richards’ chapter, “Postmodernism: Reconnecting with History, Memory, and Place.”
From the 246 competition submissions, the international jury—comprising George Baird, Russell Edmunds, Douglas Kilner, Phyllis Lambert, Jerome Markson, and James Stirling—unanimously selected the Toronto firm of Jones & Kirkland as the winner, stating in their report that the submission was “superior by a significant margin to any other entry.”
Rooted in European neoclassicism while avoiding overt historicism, the Mississauga Civic Centre simultaneously embraces Frampton’s critical regionalism with its references to Ontario’s municipal and vernacular buildings. Jones and Kirkland fused various 1980s tendencies into a strong, original polemic, creating an enduring architecture.