Why We Should Save Our Central Library
Friends of the Regina Public Library invite you to join Architectural Critic Adele Weder, Architectural Modernist Advocate Cheryl Cooper, and artist Jeannie Mah on a walking tour of Kiyoshi Izumi’s Modernist Central Library, to celebrate its beauty and significance for Regina’s heritage, and to understand its status within the Victoria Park Heritage Conservation District.
Sunday September 29th, 2 pm
Meet at front steps of Central Library: Lorne St + 12th Ave.
walking tour Izumi modernist Central Library – handout3
During the Ordinary Amazing Symposium at the MacKenzie Art Gallery in 2007, Cheryl Cooper and Trevor Boddy co-drafted The Regina Declaration, signed by national and local architects, and Regina citizens.
Regina’s Central Library is a building of national, historical, cultural and architectural merit, and we urge City Council and the Library Board to find a way to keep and maintain and enhance the heritage value of this fine building consistent with the Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places in Canada; as well as explore creative possibilities for a building enlargement that would complement the 1962 building, so it can continue to serve the changing needs of Regina’s people, and enhance its key public spaces.
Adele Weder is a Vancouver-based architectural writer, critic, curator, and contributing editor to Canadian Architect magazine. Adele completed her Master of Advanced Studies in Architecture at the University of British Columbia School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, where she is currently a member of the advisory committee. She is the founding director of the West Coast Modern League design advocacy group, the author and co-author of several books on architecture, and the recipient of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) President’s Award for Architectural Journalism, among other honours. Her most recent book, Ron Thom Architect: The Life of a Creative Modernist, was published by Greystone Books last fall.
Cheryl Cooper is an advocate for the conservation of the modern period, most notably saving Arthur Erickson’s Evergreen Building in Vancouver (City of Vancouver Heritage Award of Honour 2009). She was instrumental in installing the reflecting pond at the Museum of Anthropology (2010), completing the vision of Arthur Erickson and landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. In 2011, she worked with a team to nominate the Museum of Anthropology, Robson Square, and Wiens’ Heating and Cooling Plant for the University of Regina for the RAIC Prix du XXe Siecle. All three won. RAIC recognized Cheryl’s long contribution with the 2011 Architecture Canada Award of Excellence as an Advocate of Architecture. Cheryl grew up in Regina and lives in Vancouver.
Jeannie Mah, a Regina ceramic artist whose work explores self-identity within the intricacies of geography, race, and local history, is included in many books on contemporary ceramics. She is co-editor of Regina’s Secret Spaces: Love and Lore of Local Geography (2006), and Biblio Files: A History of the Regina Public Library (2016).
Friends of the Regina Public Library 