Since that trip in 1980, travel and study have brought a lot of influences to my architectural practice, which gradually evolved into the field of conservation. This is not a common architectural specialty, in part because in western Canada there has not been a lot historical work to sustain a specialised practice. But I have managed. An architect often falls into a career path dependent upon their early architectural exposure combined with the vagaries of the economy. The boom and bust economy of Alberta pushed my path in the direction of conservation because the Government of Alberta prepared consequential historic resource legislation in 1973, as I was just starting my career. When the Alberta private sector was subject to a deep recession starting in 1983, I was forced to open my own office, and found that the Alberta Department of Culture had a budget to start implementing their historic resource protection legislation. The influence of Sir Bannister Fletcher, the travel I experienced to these Palladian gems and subsequent travel to experience many more architectural destinations over the following years, has allowed me to fall into and embrace a fulfilling career in studying, documenting, restoring and writing about Alberta’s architectural legacy. £
David Murray, Monument at Evergreen Memorial Gardens , Edmonton, 1976. When the Edmonton Post Office tower was demolished in 1972, the clock and the tower were saved for some future reconstruction. Evergreen Gardens contacted the demolition company, acquired the stone for a monument in keeping with a drift away from religious iconography in cemeteries. David Leiberman and I, working in association with Rick Wilkin Architects, spent the summer of 1976 on how we might reassemble all the tyndalstone pieces, not as a replication, but in a totally new way. The only new piece is the precast concrete oculus dome. A V Carlson Construction pieced all the stonework with traditional skills they rarely used. At the time, as reported in the Edmonton Journal , we said ‘As students, you’re schooled in antiquities. This was an opportunity to build a stone structure, on a small scale, in the traditional way.’ ‘The monument was designed as an incomplete structure, feeling it would have been somehow disrespecful to recreate the tower itself.’
1968
This is where the study of Sir Bannister Fletcher took us, long before I’d actually been to Italy.
David Murray
DAVID MURRAY graduated in architecture from the University of Toronto in 1969 and practices in Edmonton Alberta. Travelling over the years with his wife, artist Cristl Bergstrom, their focus has been the pursuit of art, architecture and good food, often found in the same place. London’s Tate Modern for example. www.davidmurrayarchitect.ca
21 on site review 46 :: travel
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