Do You Love Your City?

Personal reflections on being in love with the place you call home.

This is a reading of an article I wrote that appears in the November 2011 edition of urbanicity. It's from the heart - 100%.

SLEEK 2

SLEEK 2 is coming to Hamilton HIStory + HERitage on November 11 and runs until February 10, 2012. The exhibition features another 6 modernist residential residences designed by Canadian architects between 1955 and 1975.

For each of the homes, the exhibition will feature exteriors, interiors, facts about the home and the architect, floor plans. 

A beautiful book of photographs and facts will feature 12 SLEEK homes. It will make a great holiday gift or personal keepsake.

Stay tuned.

Come On-A My House - Growing Up Italian In Hamilton's North End

Come On-A My House – Growing Up Italian in Hamilton’s North End is an exhibition that began fortuitously. Andrea Malloni, granddaughter of Anita Malloni who had passed away in early 2010, came in with a book under her arm. It was a tribute that she and Len her dad and son of Anita, had put together for family members.

The book includes remarkable family photographs dating as far back as the 1920’s, as well as recipes from Anita’s own hand-written recipe book. The photographs reveal the story of Italian immigrant family and their life in Hamilton’s North End on Bay Street North where Anita’s parents and her own house still stand today. The recipes reveal a culture of food, from taralli, to stuffed Ascolano olives, to ravioli. All done Anita’s way.

The exhibition includes dozens of photographs and a 15 minute multi-media piece that tells the story of Anita Malloni. Of her marriage to Umberto. Of her children Laura, Rosemarie, Len and Albert.

Whether you’re Italian, or another nationality whose family came to Canada and to Hamilton in particular, you’ll see your own family history reflected in this exhibition.

SLEEK: Hamilton's Modernist Residential Architecture 1950-1975

Whether called a house, a home, a residence, a dwelling, or simply a place, always we make it possessive. It’s our house. Their place. My home. Whether grand or humble, unique or ubiquitous,
traditional or modern, it's never about the materials, or the size to which we lay claim It's to the idea of a
space, an enclosure, a vessel made personal by what we put in it, and by how we live our lives within it. Combining personal possessions and a chosen lifestyle to fashion an individual experience.

From just after the turn of the last century, a new approach to residential, commercial and institutional
architecture was evident in Europe and North America. Sleek lines, industrial materials, open and integrated spaces, little or no ornamentation, all were the antithesis of the styles which preceded what would be called the International Style and Modernism. The term Mid-Century Modern focuses on the period of Modernism from the 1950's through to the mid 1970's. It is this period that SLEEK - Hamilton's Modernist Residential Architecture, celebrates.

Each of the residences in this exhibition have a special provenance and singularity. Each was designed by an architect, mostly for specific clients. Each is designed in the modern style. Each is located in the now amalgamated City of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Each was constructed between 1950 and 1975.

Each is still a home. Where the original owners have moved on, others have moved in. Most are in original condition. They continue now as they did then, as unique statements to a very modern way of living.

Hamilton HIStory + HERitage would like to thank each of the owners of the marvelous homes featured in this exhibition. We thank them for allowing us to showcase the beauty, elegance and uniqueness of the places each of them call home. We’d also like to thank architect Tony Butler, photographer Jeff Tessier, printer Tom Kelly of CopyDog, and Brian Kowalewicz and Paul Dolanjski of Historical Hamilton, for their remarkable work in helping to make this exhibition possible.

Be sure to check out the photographs and the location of each SLEEK home on Google at
historicalhamilton.com

fragments - The Hamilton Photography of Jack Whorwood

Jack Whorwood has been taking photographs all of his life. In fact, he earned his living as a professional photographer for decades. Although now officially retired, Jack is nevertheless still a photographer. As he says, "You simply never stop being a photographer, whether you're being paid or not."

The exhibition of Jack's photographs in the "fragments" exhibition feature dozens of his black and white images taken during the late 1950's through to the mid 1970's in downtown Hamilton. From Gore Park the way it was, to the before and after of Jackson Square and of York Boulevard. But Jack Whorwood did not simply record the way it was. His images demonstrate his remarkable eye for urban details. They include the buildings in Hamilton's core, as well as the people who lived and worked in those buildings. His is an emotionally infused catalogue of the Hamilton that is now, for so many, simply history.