The Seagram Museum, by Barton Myers Associates, features an atrium ringed with barrel racks from the distillery?s adjacent historic warehouse. Photo by Timothy Horsley, courtesy Barton Myers
There is constant foot traffic at the corner of Erb Street West and Caroline Street North, an intersection at the edge of downtown Waterloo, Ontario, close to both the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University. That?s how I originally came to know this area, meeting it on-foot as a self-important undergrad taking the scenic route home from the WLU library in the mid-aughts. In overt ways, the place contributed to my education, and it has followed me around ever since.
Of the buildings on this corner, four have been recognized with Governor General?s Awards for Architecture. The first of these was given in 1986 for a renovation and expansion of what was then the Seagram Museum; the most recent was given in 2014, for a new building: the home of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). The other two award-winners are the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery (awarded in 1997) and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (awarded in 2006). Over the 38 years from ?86 to the present day, the surrounding neighbourhood has densified significantly, defining an area now referred to as ?Uptown Waterloo.? Within this context, the intersection of Erb and Caroline acts as a transition for pedestrians between a well-used public park and the nearby commercial thoroughfa...