6 Comments Add your own

• 1. Arno  |  September 15th, 2008 at 11:43

  Are you so proud of canadian design that you feature an American artists (Sol Lewitt) in an American-designed (Skidmore Owings and Merrill + Moshe Safdie) airport?

  Granted, Moshe Safdie is “Canadian” as much as he is American and Isreali. My point is that in this day and age, at least for such projects where collaboration plays a large part in the design, it is irrelevant to pretend this is Canadian design, or of any other nationality for that matter. This airport could be anywhere else in the world (at least in a similar climate). The fact it is in Toronto, does not make specifically Canadian.

• 2. admin  |  September 15th, 2008 at 12:56

  Obviously I am very proud of Canadian design, I founded the Canadian Design Resource! It was founded on the belief that space and location feed into the creation of design and that in our image stressed world, small places like Canada were not having their materials culture expressed. It is the function of the Resource to spread and encourage, in all its various expressions, Canadian design events.

  I would differ with the above post through one simple detail. The fact that this work is in a Canadian airport, initiated by Canadians, and used by us, makes it a part of the Canadian material and mental experience. In other words, the work is part of a design experience that you could only appreciate by being there, looking up through the work into a Canadian sky, breathing Canadian air and hearing Canadian terminal noise. Take this work out of the airport and it is something else.

  Thank you for your post, I hope more out there have the courage to speak their minds and share dialogue on the work presented here.

  Best and looking forward to more comments.

  Todd Falkowsky

• 3. Arno  |  September 15th, 2008 at 17:00

  I am curious to know what a Canadian airport so different than any other airport (especially given that airport are based on fairly standard programs and requirements) say in the US or Europe? What is a Canadian mental and material experience. What is a Canadian, Canadian air or Canadian terminal noise. Those spatial and sensory qualities know no boundaries and it could be a could hundred miles south, on the other side of the border it wouldn’t really make a difference.

  I got your point about Canadian design and usually appreciate the material presented on this blog, although sometimes it focuses a little too much on the fact that things are Canadian instead of their intrinsic qualities. But I honestly don’t get what tangibly Canadian about this airport, besides the fact that you state it is Canadian.

  Cheers

• 4. Sol Lewitt at Pearson Int&hellip  |  September 15th, 2008 at 22:02

  [...] Toronto is lucky to have this great Sol Lewitt piece at its airport, which was built around the time of some of Lewitt’s most influential work. Photos by Robin Yap. Via The Canadian Design Resource. [...]

• 5. admin  |  September 16th, 2008 at 10:32

  What a great piece, in the flesh it is stunning!

  Found this Andrew Blum article on the work, thought you might find it interesting.

  http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0CE6D91730F93BA15750C0A9629C8B63

• 6. Stephen Hard  |  May 8th, 2010 at 07:47

  I returned from France to the US by way of Toronto yesterday and found this post in my effort to verify that the remarkable mural in the Toronto Airport was, indeed, by Sol LeWitt (I checked on the Richard Serra also). All Canadians should feel great pride at this marvel of engineering, architecture, art, and about the sensitiity and regard for the people who live in and visit your country that this great building exemplifies. Canadian vision and values are manifested in this building. The nationality of the architects or of the artists who contributed to it is immaterial. Is Versaille not French because it was designed and built largely by Italians? Belated congratulations to our northern neighbor for this thoroughly Canadian contribution to international culture.

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