Toronto's Inclusive Modernity: The Architecture of Jerome Markson

(Paperback)

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Jerome Marksons nearly six-decade-long architectural practice began in a time of profound transformation during the post-war period. His buildings were harbingers of important shifts in sociopolitical attitudes, urban policies, and modes of architectural production. From speculative homes in fledgling suburbs, to bespoke private houses, to social housing in downtown Toronto, to luxury landmarks like the Market Square condominiums, as well as important cultural and institutional buildings, his architecture reflects his pursuit of a more open and inclusive expression of modernity, one that moved past late-Modernism's formal legibility in favour of an increasingly idiosyncratic formal, spatial, and material expression.

Torontos Inclusive Modernity: The Architecture of Jerome Markson is the first comprehensive critical assessment of Markson's diverse body of work, interwoven with an account of Toronto's emergence as a cosmopolitan city. Extensive illustrations include wide-format collages by Scott Norsworthy, capturing Marksons buildings in their urban environments today; architectural drawings; and contemporaneous images from the popular press, such as Macleans and Chatelaine magazines. The significance of Markson's work is examined through three main themes: his prescient use of photography to situate architecture as an inclusive cultural medium and object of human desire; his nuanced responsiveness to Toronto's fast-evolving urban and suburban geographies; and the ways in which his diverse influencesincluding the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, Britain's Townscape movement, and his encounters with vernacular architecturewere instrumental in his development of a more pluralistic, materially-oriented approach.

Author Bio

Laura J. Miller is trained as an architect. She has had a diverse career as a designer, educator, and scholar. She was a member of the architecture faculty at Harvards Graduate School of Design for over a decade, and was the American Fellow in Architectural Design at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study (200304). Currently, she is Associate Professor of Architecture at the John H. Daniels School of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto. A Quite Individual Course: The Architecture of Jerome Markson, an exhibition curated and designed by Miller, opens in Fall 2019. George Baird is emeritus professor and former dean of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto, and founding principal of Baird Sampson Neuert Architects, Toronto. He received the Gold Medal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (2010), and the AIA/ACSA Topaz Medallion (2012). Scott Norsworthy is an architect and photographer based in Toronto. He documents award-winning projects for firms across North America, including Arup, Shim Sutcliffe Architects, and KPMB. His work is published internationally and has been included in numerous exhibitions.