Forum Lecture: Ron Thom: Life, Art, and Architecture
Monday, October 3, 2022
6:00 p.m. EDT
2022-2023 Forum Lecture Series
Ron Thom: Life, Art, and Architecture
Date: Monday, October 3, 2022, 6:00 p.m.
Venue: Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre, 355 Cooper Street
Speaker: Adele Weder
Free and open to the public.
The Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism is pleased to acknowledge the Ottawa Regional Society of Architects as a sponsor of this lecture.
LECTURE and BOOK SIGNING + Architecture Week Reception
Ron Thom: Creative Modernist by Adele Weder
Award-winning architectural writer and cultural journalist Adele Weder discusses the work of prominent Canadian architect Ron Thom. After the lecture, there will be a book signing for Ms. Weder’s new biography: Ron Thom: Creative Modernist.
One of the greatest Canadian architects of the 20th century, Ron Thom, never went to architecture school but instead trained in music and then art. An ambitious new biography, informed by coast-to-coast archival research and personal interviews, reveals a remarkable life shaped by his innate artistic brilliance and challenged by changing times and the demons that dogged him.
A reception will follow the lecture to kick off Ottawa Architecture Week. Hosted by the Ottawa Regional Society of Architects, it takes place in Woodside Hall at Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre.
ABOUT ADELE WEDER
Adele Weder
Adele Weder is an award-winning architectural writer and cultural journalist. Her deep dive into the world of Ron Thom began with her University of British Columbia master’s thesis, an analysis of the design approach of Thom’s mentor, artist B.C. Binning. Since then, she has authored and co-authored several books on West Coast architecture past and present. From 2013-2015, she curated and produced the nationally traveling exhibition “Ron Thom and the Allied Arts.” In addition, Weder is the founding director of the non-profit West Coast Modern League society and a member of the advisory board of the UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. She lives in Vancouver and Haida Gwaii, British Columbia.
About Forum Lecture Series: Perspectives
The annual Forum Lecture Series is presented by the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism at Carleton University.
The 2022-2023 lecture series encompasses a variety of perspectives on topics that relate to each of the school’s three specializations:
• Design — Ron Thom: Life, Art, and Architecture (Adele Weder) and Indigenuity (Alfred Waugh)
• Conservation and Sustainability — Art | Architecture | Craft: a museum for the future (Jennifer Luce) and Adapting —Design in a Fully Built Metropolis (Sol Camacho)
• Urbanism — City Building in Context: a Conversation (David Wex, Michael Sørensen, and Joe Lobko)
The series also engages the issue of Indigenous people and housing — Housing (for) Canada’s Indigenous Populations (Jake Chakasim, David Fortin, and Mark Maracle).
We are also pleased that the speakers include two Carleton University alumni (Jennifer Luce and Joe Lobko) and a 2022 Governor General’s Medal in Architecture winner (Alfred Waugh).
We acknowledge the generous support of our founding sponsors: