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Translating Montreal : Episodes in the Life of a Divided City
by Sherry Simon
"Taking the perspective of a walker moving through a fluid landscape of neighbourhoods and eras, Sherry Simon experiences Montreal as a voyage across languages ... "
Despite the fact that there aren't any "hens" poking their "heads" through the roof of the new Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston, the new museum, reviewed today by Nicolai Ouroussoff, bears a striking resemblance to its older sibling, the Peckham Library in London. Looks like Diller + Scofidio (left) paid at least some attention to Will Alsop's formula (right) for a great public building--an inverted "L" that uses its short leg for function, its long arm for spectacle--and they've come up with a comparably unrestrained, if slightly less quirky, approach for embracing publicness.
As a sidenote, I have something to say about cantilevers: The un-friendly version (like the color orange as a cooler replacement for red or pink) is so 2000. It's the embodiment of that bad, turn-of-the-century metaphor, something--oy!--about "reaching" into the new millenium. I prefer the unpretentious, tent-like quality of the newer, widened cantilever. It reaches out, but also across, and serves as a sort of free roof. I like the vision of myself running to a spot beneath it to escape a passing thunderstorm--the fact that the building would enable me to interact with it for the simple and, these days, seemingly primitive, purpose of shelter. It's also entirely possible that I'm just nostalgic for East Coast thunderstorms (and for summer at all, for that matter).
Among the shockers at the Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial--Apple, Boeing, Nike, and Google together on the museum wall-- landscape architect Tom Leader's work jumped out. 
I like Railroad Reservation Park in Birmingham, Alabama:
Many cities have a river as their functional port as well as their connection to nature and the larger world. Birmingham has the railroad. Most downtowns are trying to overcome or eliminate their rail inheritances from the 19th century. Birmingham likes their still-busy rail..just look at the number of weekend train-spotters on existing viaducts. But with the departure of warehousing activities, land has opened up in the center of downtown for people to live and to gather.
So, given my post yesterday about Robert Moses, it is only appropriate that I follow up with a post about Jane Jacobs. Tonight was the Jane Jacobs Award presentation, funded by Toronto philanthropist Alan Broadbent through his "ideas that matter" organization. Each year they give out a prize to an ordinary person has "contributed to the city's vitality."
Well, wasn't it a love-in for the local bourgeoisie: This year's winner was Roberto Dante Martella, proprietor of an uptown restaurant called Grano. From the laudatory speeches by the mayor and others, I understand that Roberto has hosted salons patronized by the mayor and the local philanthropy set and serves up a mean hazelnut gellato. All speechmakers pronounced themselves personal friends of the wonderful Mr. Martello. Afterwards the woman next to me turned and said, "Isn't it great that Roberto won? He has done so much for the city! My husband and I eat there once a week!"
Jane Jacobs did a lot of things for Toronto and urbanism in general, good and bad. One thing I would hope she would not have done was endorse the giving of an award in her name to the uptown set's favourite restaurateur. Pass the gelatto, please.
Few have had such a profound effect on the urban and rural landscape than Robert Moses. Lionized and villainized by many, he not only transformed New York City, but pretty much entrenched the mid-century North American planning ethos that we are still trying to get ourselves out from under. I'm pleased as punch that a full-blown exhibition about his work is on the boil for 2007, curated by the great Kenneth Jackson. Three institutions are hosting related exhibitions: "Robert Moses and the Modern City: Remaking the Metropolis" runs from February 1 through May 28 at the Museum of the City of New York (which should not be missed for other reasons). The Queens Gallery of Art is hosting "Robert Modes and the Modern City: The Road to Recreation" from January 28 to May 12. While you're there, check out the scale model of the five boroughs created for the 1964 World's Fair. The Wallach Gallery at Columbia University will host "Robert Moses and the Modern City: Slum Clearance and the Superblock Solution," time and date not yet announced.
