The Canadian Center for Architecture was founded in 1979 by Phyllis Lambert with the goal of promoting public awareness of the role architecture plays in society, encouraging academic architectural research and innovative design practices. It was built between 1985 and 1989 by architect Peter Rose, and incorporated into the project the Shaughnessy house, built for Thomas Shaughnessy (1874-75), a Second Empire style mansion that was purchased in 1974 to prevent its demolition,
The new E-shaped building that surrounds the old house, it is conceived as an organization intended to collect knowledge as a museum and research library, archive and document, conduct supporting research, and conceptualize and disseminate knowledge.The CCA, with an approximate area of 12,000 m2, houses exhibition rooms, the Paul Desmarais theatre, the library and other facilities for the reception, conservation, study and research of architectural collections. Both the building and the CCA garden (designed by Melvin Charney, composed of a set of sculptures that deconstruct architecture) are part of an urban reconstruction project for Montreal, conceived in the 1980s, which attempts to safeguard the architectural identity of a city in constant growth.
The CCA with its modern facilities, which protect the historic building of the former maison, aims “through scale, siting and the juxtaposition of local traditional and modern materials (mainly gray limestone, structural aluminum and maple wood), relate the past and present of architecture.
Ander GONZÁLEZ
