Peter Cardew, 1939-2020. Photo courtesy Kim Smith
For good, and sometimes for ill, Vancouver?s Peter Cardew has become Canada?s definitive ?architect?s architect? over the past several decades. For good, he was chosen as the RAIC?s Gold Medal winner for 2012, despite then never having completed a building east of Calgary. Andrew Gruft?s award-linked tribute to him in this magazine was entitled ?An Architect?s Architect.? He earned the broad respect of his peers for such meticulously detailed and spatially engaging buildings as UBC?s Belkin Art Gallery and the Stone Band School in BC?s Chilcotin.
As a project designer for Rhone and Iredale early in his career, Cardew shaped Vancouver?s definitive office tower of the 1970s, Crown Life Plaza?now called 1500 West Georgia. David Miller is founder of Rhone and Iredale?s Seattle spin-off (now called Miller Hull, and named AIA?s 2003 Firm of the Year), and says this of working on 1500 West Georgia under Cardew: ?It is very hard to create buildings that blend humanity with crisp tectonic form. Peter made it an art. He was a big influence on my development as a designer.? Miller is not alone: ever since 1500 West Georgia opened, Vancouver design firms have voted with their square feet?by selecting this building as home for their studios. Crown Life Plaza (now 1500 West Georgia), aerial view, Vancouver, British Columbia. Rhone & Iredale (Peter Cardew), 1978. (Courtesy Peter Cardew Architects)
But the discipline and focus needed to...