Preville on Politics

Architecture junkie alert!

Posted on October 16, 2007 by Philip Preville

This week’s edition of The New Yorker—arguably the world’s best magazine, especially for cultural criticism—features an essay by architecture critic Paul Goldberger on Will Alsop’s Tabletop building for OCAD. His praise is effusive. And the accompanying watercolour image, by Jean-Philippe Delhomme, is a delight.

Goldberger, whose provocative writing I have referenced previously on this blog, credits Alsop’s Sharp Centre for single-handedly reinvigorating Toronto’s architectural culture (and with making Alsop himself the heir to a distinguished line of British architectural mavericks). He is correct. I have noted how Sharp Centre has been so quickly and gleefully adopted as a local icon—just have a look at Torontoist’s logo. As distinctive and as remarkable as Libeskind’s ROM crystal may be, it will never inspire the same affection.

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Philip Preville

Veteran freelance writer Philip Preville lived much of his life in Montreal and Edmonton before he was lured, like so many Torontonians before him, by the promise of more work and a better living. A National Magazine Award winner and former Canadian Journalism Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Massey College, Preville writes Toronto Life’s politics column. He lives with his wife and one-year-old son in Riverdale, just close enough to the Don Valley Parkway that he can hear it when he steps outside his house—but just far enough away that it doesn’t keep him awake at night. On his office wall hangs a 1938–39 press pass belonging to his grandfather, Elias Gannon, who wrote for the Montreal Star.


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