< PreviousArchitecture has always been considered fine art. Whether it’s the Acropolis, Chartres Cathedral or a Frank Lloyd Wright design, if it’s aesthetically pleasing and form follows function, it’s art.Written by Margaret Patricia Eaton But this assumption, in turn, begs the question: could a construction site be considered as an artist’s studio? Could the construction process be considered art making? And does a construction site have a place within an art gallery? Leah Garnett, a fine arts professor at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, says the answer is a definite yes. As proof she offers up When One Space Meets Another, an art installation which draws on her experience of growing up in rural Maine around construction sites and in her 20s working with her father, who builds custom homes. The exhibition, curated by Pan Wendt, was supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the New Brunswick Department of Tourism, Heritage & Culture and Mount Allison University and in 2017 exhibited at two prestigious galleries: first at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery, part of the Confederation Centre for the Arts complex in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island and then at Owens Art Gallery on the Mount Allison University Campus. And in case you’re wondering just how pres-tigious those galleries really are, let us introduce them to you…NOVEMBER 201810Confederation Centre for the ArtsIn 1960, seven years prior to Canada’s centennial, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker looked to architects for professional assistance: “In a few short years this nation will be celebrating its Centennial… I ask that you, the members of this profession, should play a most important part, and… present to the Centennial Committee… your views and suggestions for this celebration; something to touch the hearts of Canadians, something to represent the unity of our March 1, 2015)A national competition for the design of a significant cultural facility to cover one city block in downtown Charlottetown, PEI, on a site adjacent to Province House, resulted in 47 submissions, with the winning scheme submitted by Dimitri Dimakopoulos of Afflect, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold, Sise. The result was the Confederation Centre for the Arts in Charlottetown, PEI, which opened in 1964. The complex includes a library, theatre, and art gallery, compris-ing three massive volumes rising from a podium above street level and surrounding on three sides the void of Memorial Hall, located on the lower concourse. In 2003 the Centre was designated as a National Historic Site, with the accompanying text noting it was “a superior example of Brutalist architecture in Canada.” Unlike the unfinished concrete exterior associated with Brutalist architecture, the exterior cladding of the Centre is Wallace sandstone, from the same Nova Scotia quarry that supplied stone for the adjacent Province House (1847) the site of the 1864 Charlottetown Conference that led to Confederation. However, Marco Polo and Colin Ripley, professors in Ryerson University’s Department of Architectural Science, explain in Canadian Architect (March 1, 2015), that “while the material treatment and height of the new complex defer to the historic building and intimate scale of Charlottetown, the complex as a whole suggests a more aloof relationship to its setting.“Brutalism,” the article continues to note, “was subsequently embraced by many of the architects designing Canada’s 1967 Centennial Projects. It’s anti-historical, anti-hierarchical infor-mality came to be understood as an appropriate expression for a Canada that was shedding its colonial past to forge a new identity as a culturally progressive, democratically transparent and independent modern nation.” “I was always intrigued, not only by how we construct space, but how we shape it, occupy it and how we perceive it.” – Leah Garnett“I was always intrigued, not only by how we construct space, but how we shape it, occupy it and how we perceive it.” – Leah GarnettLeah GarnettArtist, and Professor at Mount Allison University11CONSTRUCTION IN FOCUS Owens Art GalleryOwens Art Gallery opened on the Mount Allison University campus in Sackville, New Brunswick in 1895, making it the oldest university art gallery in the country. According to John Leroux, author of A Vision in Wood & Stone: The Architecture of Mount Allison University (photography by Thaddeus Holownia, published by Gaspereau Press, 2016), it was designed by Edmund Burke of the Toronto firm Burke & Horwood and constructed by master builder John Teed of Dorchester, New Brunswick for the purpose of housing a collection of over 400 paintings and 100 plaster casts from the financially troubled Owens Art Institution in Saint John, New Brunswick and for pro-viding art instruction to Mount Allison’s ladies’ college students. Burke, who’d introduced the first curtain wall construction system in Canada in downtown Toronto, won the month-long competition over six other entries “with a rather Hellenistic submission that was an eclectic and robust interpretation of the symmetry and classical detailing of the Beaux-Arts style. Beaux-Arts was the predominant architectural style of most civic and government buildings in North America and Europe between 1890 and 1920,” writes Leroux.“His scheme for Owens Art Gallery,” Leroux continues, “had three main gallery spaces behind an essentially windowless main façade of light olive, locally quarried sandstone, on rusti-cated stone foundations. The smooth façades are decorated at the front with ‘blind’ colonnades holding up lavishly patterned terracotta friezes,” celebrating the names of classical artists — Rembrandt and Turner, Michelangelo and Raphael. When One Space Meets AnotherGarnett’s installation is a thought-provoking and complex exploration of space, which at the same time is delightfully ingenious and playful. In fact, at the opening at Owens I saw a few children actually playing in it, because it’s an installation whose space is meant to be experienced and constructed soundly enough to encourage a game of chase. Garnett, who teaches drawing and sculpture, says her founda-tional experiences in rural Maine working alongside her father’s home construction business “shaped how I think about space, how we construct, mold and contain it. It also influenced how I make things. My 3D vocabulary stems from an early immersion in construction that, while far from masterful, is the language I brought to making art.“When I went to art school (Nova Scotia College of Art & Design University, Halifax, NS) at age 28, I had a lot of the skills that people were learning there, but it was coming from construc-tion and not from fine arts. I had spatial orientation [skills] and I was always intrigued, not only by how we construct space, but how we shape it, occupy it and how we perceive it.” In the summer of 2012 Garnett, missing her roots, went home to Maine and worked in her father’s wood shop. “I don’t remember where the idea came from,” she says, “but I wanted to transpose the dimensions of an actual gallery space out in the woods.” She had the dimensions of the upstairs gallery at Owens (36 feet X 64 feet) in her mind since she’d just coordinated the graduate art show in that space. “So, I found trees that were close to the corners of the gallery space and I started to string up pink flagging tape, which is used in construction to mark out spaces, and I set up a plank walkway through the woods “I love construction sites,” Garnett says. “I love their materiality, their activity, the infrastructure and the nomadic nature.”“I love construction sites,” Garnett says. “I love their materiality, their activity, the infrastructure and the nomadic nature.”NOVEMBER 201812and I marked the location of other trees on a grid. While I was doing that, I was also doing material investigations, playing with cedar shingle scraps that were tapered and making arches, which are an architectural form, and creating little sculptures from cutoffs and styrofoam insulation and just sort of playing with scrap materials.”In the years that followed, Garnett continued her explorations at Mount Allison, in art residencies in Ireland in Dublin and Cobh, near Cork City, and back in Maine, all the while wonder-ing what would be the result if she were to transpose those studio spaces into her outdoor construction site in Maine? And what if she transposed all of that back inside into Owens? What would that be like? The result is a multi-layered site, in which the gallery walls are taped off with the original pink flagging, the plank walk is mapped out on the floor and trees in their original positions are re-created. Lumber tarps, used to cover skids, hang from ceiling to floor; ‘tree’ columns grow from circles cut and glued from scrap lumber, interspersed with painted dowels, and “large columns are created from bits of hemlock my father had milled. They’re hollow and constructed the way barrels are with coopering techniques,” she says. And then there was the reconstruction of her studios with cedar decks, platforms, drawings, modular cabinets and partially completed walls, “because I’ve always loved the early stages of construction when it’s possible to move through the stud walls, when the architectural space is still forest or part of the outside.” Aligned with that concept are soundscapes from the original spaces. There’s birdsong and cricket-chirping from the Maine woods, hammering from the studio next to hers in Dublin which was under construction, boat horns in the harbour at Cobh and sounds from the installation process at the Confederation Centre for the Arts where it was first exhibited.“Ultimately, I love construction sites,” Garnett says. “I love their materiality, their activity, the infrastructure and the nomadic nature. I conceive of them as a hybrid of landscape and architec-ture, because they literally exist as transitional zones,” she shares. “I feel quite lucky to have grown up in that environment and to have learned as much as I did from my father. I really enjoyed working in construction and there’s a part of me that regrets not taking up my father’s encouragement to convince me to take over his business,” she continues. “But as much as I miss construction, I don’t want to romanticize it. It’s a difficult way to make a living and like any industry it has its problems. I’m concerned with the environmental impacts as it’s an industry that’s alarmingly wasteful and I’m also con-cerned that environmentally well-designed houses tend to be expensive and beyond the means of the average wage earner. The more I look at climate change models, the more I’m struck by how much we really need to build affordable, well-designed, energy-efficient homes for a lot of people and not just for the people who can afford them.” NOVEMBER 201814In 1983, a group of employees from Revelstoke Construction formed Vic Van Isle Construction and became active in the construction industry. Two years later, when Braniff Construction went out of business due to a tragedy, two key employees formed the ownership group of Vic Van Isle as well as a large group of Braniff employees which doubled the company’s size. In 2009, the company restructured to become The Vic Van Isle Group, with multiple divisions to serve specific needs in the construction industry.Written by Jen HockenVVI Construction Ltd. is a proven general contractor and design builder with an enviable reputation for com-petence, quality and client satisfaction. Evolving from its roots as Revelstoke Construction and Braniff Construction in the 1980s, the company has grown and diversified into a multi-faceted builder with a dominant position in the interior of British Columbia and Alberta and has now branched out to projects in Ontario.Throughout the years, VVI Construction has built its reputation for quality through a proven track record of successful schools, hospitals, luxury resort properties, condominiums, recreational complexes, and remote lodges in communities throughout BC. Working in this environment has refined VVI Construction’s skills, as it contributes as part of a team effort between consultants, 15CONSTRUCTION IN FOCUS suppliers and trades in cooperation with the client for efficient execution of the project objectives.Increasing emphasis on private-sector projects has allowed the company to apply its core construction service to a wide range of project types and contracting methods. The company has become a leader in resort development with projects ranging from Tofino on Vancouver Island to all of the province’s ski areas.As the market fluctuated, VVI Construction sought a balance of private and institutional projects, including run of river hydro projects, bridges, private sports facilities, reservoirs and other works for government.VVI Construction provides total commitment to each project it undertakes regardless of complexity, size, or location. The Principals of the company take an active role in production responsibilities, ensuring that the work is expedited with effi-ciency, integrity and satisfaction for clients’ needs. It is this focus that has earned the company loyalty and respect from its peers, customers and suppliers.With the company’s head office in Revelstoke, BC and a branch office in Kelowna, VVI Construction is centrally located, providing project management, estimating, purchasing, accounting, and clerical support for all projects. The compa-ny’s capabilities in development coordination, design build/turnkey projects, civil construction and logistics management round out the company’s services to a diverse range of con-struction clients.The Principals of VVI Construction are active in day-to-day operations, and all major projects have a ‘Principal-in-Charge’ with the authority to commit company resources as required to execute any project.Qualified staff with professional designations in Gold Seal Certification, LEED Certification, engineering, quantity survey-ing and project management ensure a capable team for every project. Field forces are mobile and experienced, willing to under-take challenging projects regardless of location, schedule or budget, relying on support from the head office or branch office.VVI Construction draws on its available resources and provides personnel from various locations for all aspects of the client’s project. Serving a broad geographical area, company personnel are mobile, accessible and committed to be “on-site” as required.Also included within the Vic Van Isle Group are: One of the largest manufactur-ers of custom casework and millwork in the interior of British Columbia. Lortap Enterprises is the company’s in-house archi-tectural millwork operation which is highly efficient, providing multiple services, estimates and options for clients on all types of projects. A full service equip-ment and rental shop offering equipment training, full-time Journeyman Mechanic, Journeyman Welder, Purchasing Manager, Service Manager, and a wide range of heavy equip-ment and tools.Glacier Fabricating: This creative team is a small but essen-tial asset within the Vic Van Isle Group. The team has the skills that make dreams a reality when it comes to any type of fab-ricating needs and has been responsible for some unusual projects, such as aluminum bed frames and shelving, railway rails, hand railings, hydro dam tripods and saddles, and are post and beam experts.Its staff are both mentors and students of the trade and share equal responsibility to turn out qualified finished products in NOVEMBER 201816 a timely manner; more importantly, safety comes first. What makes the Glacier Fabricating team the best is that it has the loyalty and drive to be the best they can be. Two independent RONA Building Centers with a strong focus on contractors’ building supply needs. This affiliated company includes a full-service building, offering competitive pricing for clients.These five divisions have developed an excellent reputation of competence, quality and client satisfaction for The Vic Van Isle Group as a whole and helped it to grow into a diversified builder and manufacturer operating in the interior of British Columbia, as well as Alberta and Ontario. Values you can count onThe company strives for quality and client satisfaction, and holds the following values dear:• VVI Construction has a passion for construction and thrives on the challenges of this industry.• VVI Construction is selective in the work it undertakes and commits the full resources of the company to success on any project.• VVI Construction will mobilize a competent and safe construction team to any location in BC, Alberta or surrounding areas.• VVI Construction provides more than just contractor services and can deliver better value to clients needing a broader scope of involvement.• VVI Construction conducts business with integrity and strives for client satisfaction.“We build and renovate everything from affordable homes, to world-class mountain resorts.”What we do“VVI Construction has a vast amount of experience and exper-tise,” says the company. “We build and renovate everything from affordable homes, to world-class mountain resorts… no project is too big or small and we are proud to bring the highest engineering and development standards to every job site.” Its areas of expertise include:• – building and renovating everything from affordable homes to high-end estates.• – developing community and local infrastructure is an important way for VVI to do its part.• large scale hydro dam and power structure projects.• project management and development best practices ensure timely, on-budget delivery.• – beautiful and functional are two words often used to describe the company’s resort and hotel developments.• Civil Construction – the company performs construction of underground utilities, curbs and gutters, sidewalks and roadways.Equal opportunity employer“The Vic Van Isle Group would like to take a moment to appreci-ate, inspire and congratulate the strong women in our company, our partners and elsewhere who are making a difference in the construction industry. In an industry where women have tradi-tionally been an extreme minority, these women work hard to prove that gender is not a determining factor when it comes to attaining the highest level of excellence. As women continue to contribute to an industry in need of more workers, VVI plans to support and empower them in every way possible.”The Vic Van Isle Group looks for younger workers who are adapt-able and eager to train for more complicated positions. The Group has many experienced and seasoned project managers and superintendents who can incorporate apprentices into the workplace and successfully train the younger generation. “We focus on bringing younger bright people into the office to train them in project management, estimating and contract administration. The people we have brought in are focused with the drive to be successful,” says Lewis Hendrickson. The execu-tive members of the company take an active role in production responsibilities to ensure that the work is expedited with efficien-cy and integrity while satisfying the customer’s needs.The Vic Van Isle Group also invests in its communities in British Columbia through charities, local sports teams, food bank, trees for tots, and golf tournaments to name a few. The Group strives to help with the labour shortage in the area and is one of the major tax-paying companies in Revelstoke, which is a sig-nificant contribution to the Town of Revelstoke. The company looks to participate in projects that improve communities and quality of life. It is currently working on a campground for Parks Canada in Revelstoke. NOVEMBER 201818Kal Tire Place, Vernon, BC – on time, on budgetVVI Construction recently completed the expansion of the Vernon Multi-Use Facility and is proud to announce that the Kal Tire Place North was handed over to the city of Vernon on time and on budget. In May 2017, VVI was awarded the construc-tion of the new 400 seat arena at the existing Kal Tire Place in Vernon, BC. The project consists of the construction of an additional NHL size ice surface and seating for 400. The main floor has a front lobby with administrative office, a concession, public washrooms, change room facilities and an elevator. The seating is located on the second floor along with a dryland training facility and additional leasable space and connection to the adjoining arena.The structure is a non-combustible construction, a combination of steel and concrete suspended slab, columns and walls with infill CMU. Exterior finishes include Kingspan composite insu-lated wall panels, CMU veneer and corrugated wall cladding over an exterior insulation system. VVI’s contract also included the expansion of existing refrigeration to accommodate new ice sheet and installation of new HVAC systems with dehumidi-fication. Civil works entailed removal of existing site material and existing subsurface drainage and provision of compacted structural fill and adjustment to hard landscaping.VVI’s management team coordinated and supervised the work of multiple subtrades while also supplementing with its own labour as needed. As the project included several sophisticated building systems, including the expansion of the refrigeration plant, mechanical system, building envelope and more, a thorough understanding of construction prin-ciples and a keen eye for detail was required daily. With over 20 subtrades performing work on the project, planning and coordinating were of the utmost importance in the project’s successful delivery.Throughout the project VVI has worked closely with the city’s representatives, MQN Architects and the other consultant teams to ensure project delivery within the target schedule and budget. The city of Vernon was able to host a grand opening on September 7, and the project received several positive reviews.“We focus on bringing younger bright people into the office to train them in project management, estimating and contract administration.”19CONSTRUCTION IN FOCUS Next >