design The Queen Elizabeth II Planetarium, located in the unique sceptre site plan for Coronation Park, was designed by the office of the City Architect, Robert Falconer Duke with Denis Mulvaney, the in-house architectural designer. In the mid-1960s, the planetarium’s front plaza was rebuilt and inscribed with the 12 symbols of the zodiac, made from stone mosaic tiles designed and installed by artists Edith and Heinrick Eichner. The planetarium is an early example of Canadian Modern Expressionist Style which rejected the rigidity of the International Style with the use of dramatically idiosyncratic shapes rooted in the European Expressionist movement of the early twentieth century. 3 The QEII exhibits common modernist elements that express lightness, including extensive use of glass in aluminum curtain wall, the framing of the exterior building elements, a sophisticated structural expression and the sense that the building is floating, or as many of the public saw it, hovering like a spaceship.
Edmonton Archives
Edmonton Archives
from the top: The 1950s plan for Coronation Park shows the planetarium in the top right corner, the northeast corner of the park. The original plan, section and elevation construction drawings. Queen Elizabeth II Planetarium circa 1965 In 2007, we prepared an exhibition called Capital Modern about the icons of architectural modernism in Edmonton from 1940 to 1969. The Planetarium is included with a photograph by Jim Dow. It is not available anymore as a book but is available on line: http://capitalmodernedmonton. com
3 Modern Expressionist Style in Canada as described in ‘A Guide to Canadian Architectural Styles’ by Maitland, Hucker and Ricketts
Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
on site review 36: our material future
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