Architecture Canada 1997: The Governor General's Awards for Architecture

James A. Love is an associate professor of environmental design at the
University of

Calgary.

The Governor General’s Awards for Architecture are decided biannually
by a jury of distinguished architectural practitioners, critics, and
educators, most of whom are based in Canada. This year’s jury included
Douglas Cardinal, Montreal architect Dan Hanganu, and Phyllis Lambert,
director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture. The 20 projects
selected for recognition are documented through drawings, photographs,
and brief descriptions. The information for each project is generally
complete (i.e., it includes plans, sections, and elevations or
photographs), an improvement over the 1995 edition. As in the earlier
edition, the reasoning for the selection of the prize winners, and for
differentiating medal winners from award winners, is omitted; this is a
missed opportunity to communicate the basis of architectural judgment to
the broader community. The projects at least give the reader a visual
sense of the work that is considered to be the best of the previous two
years.