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Allied Works celebrates winning National Music Centre project in Calgary
The Cantos Music Foundation in Calgary Canada has selected Portland based Allied Works Architecture led by Brad Cloepfil to design a new National Music Centre in Calgary’s East Village. The $100 million project presents an unprecedented opportunity to invent a new kind of institution; the first of its kind in Canada. The new centre, which will incorporate the now defunct historic King Edward Hotel, a legendary house of blues, will be part museum, part education and outreach facility, and part performance space.
Allied Works’ winning proposal, which perhaps owes a debt to the architecture of Louis Kahn, envisions a five-storey building designed as a series of “resonant vessels” or instruments orchestrated by the collections and programs of the new building. The design takes inspiration from the Western landscape, in particular the canyons and mountains of Alberta. “The concept truly captured the heart and soul of this project”, said Andrew Mosker, executive director of the Cantos Music Foundation. “Brad and his team will give us an innovative building that fits with Calgary, Alberta, the West and is symbolic of something that is truly uniquely Canadian”.
Allied Works, which partnered with local firm BKDI, was chosen from a short list of top international competitors: Diller Scofidio+Renfro, New York, with Kasian, Calgary; Ateliers Jean Nouvel, Paris, France; Saucier + Perrotte, Montreal; and SPF:architects of Los Angeles.
Sharon McHugh
US Correspondent
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