Saturday, September 16, 2006

Stuff Seen - Maxwell Kalman

Howdy!

Maxwell Kalman

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Way back in something like June, there was this really nice little exhibit over at the McGill School of Architecture that had been organized by Susan Bronson about the Architectural practice of Maxwell Kalman. It had been set up to coincide with his 100th birthday. Basically, Mr. Kalman had over the course of his career built a bunch of buildings here in Montreal. Nothing terribly earth shattering (unless of course you count the first strip mall in Canada). But that was what made the show so wonderful.

Basically, there was a map with some pins in it, pointing out where all the buildings Mr. Kalman had designed were. Then there were a whack of pictures (both before and after) of the buildings built, a short video, and some photocopies of his books. If you want some more details, click here.

Or in easier terms a very nicely designed quick glance at someone who was extremely important to some very specific people previously but who has now sort of faded out of consciousness. Sorta like your Dad's mom. Grandma was a wonderful person, but once I'm dead there aren't going to be an awful lot of people around who will even have so much as a forgotten memory of her. I quite like it when forgotten memories reappear.

As I told Ms. Bronson, it should be put on line, and it is a real pity that this here blog is the number one result for Maxwell Kalman, but then, unfortunately, like my grandmother, once I'm dead there aren't going to be an awful lot of people around who will even have so much as a forgotten memory of Maxwell Kalman. I'm happy that I actually got a chance to know what he did.

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