Marco L. Polo
Marco L. Polo, OAA, FRAIC is a Professor in the Department of Architectural Science at Toronto Metropolitan University. He has published and lectured widely on Modern and contemporary Canadian architecture, and served as editor of Canadian Architect, a national magazine for architects and related professionals, from 1997 to 2003. Marco’s publications include The Prix de Rome in Architecture: A Retrospective, published by Coach House Books in 2006, and has contributed chapters to Canadian Modern Architecture 1967-2017 edited by Graham Livesey and Elsa Lam, published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2019, and to The Rise of Awards in Architecture edited by Jean-Pierre Chupin, Carmela Cucuzzella and Georges Adamczyk, published by Vernon Press in 2022.
In collaboration with Professor John McMinn of the University of Waterloo Marco co-curated the exhibition 41° to 66° Architecture in Canada: Region, Culture, Tectonics, which represented Canada at the 2008 Venice Biennale of Architecture. He and Professor Colin Ripley of Toronto Metropolitan University curated Architecture and National Identity: The Centennial Projects 50 Years On, an exhibition examining the role of Canada's 1967 Centennial Projects in the articulation of a national identity. The exhibition premiered at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown, PEI in 2014, subsequently touring various locations across Canada. In addition to these, he has been involved in organizing a number of major exhibitions, and from 2014-2019 served as curator of Toronto Metropolitan University's Paul H. Cocker Gallery.
Phone: (416) 979 5000 x556497
Address: Marco L. Polo, OAA, FRAIC
Professor, Department of Architectural Science
Toronto Metropolitan University
350 Victoria Street
Toronto, Ontario
M5B 2K3
Canada
In collaboration with Professor John McMinn of the University of Waterloo Marco co-curated the exhibition 41° to 66° Architecture in Canada: Region, Culture, Tectonics, which represented Canada at the 2008 Venice Biennale of Architecture. He and Professor Colin Ripley of Toronto Metropolitan University curated Architecture and National Identity: The Centennial Projects 50 Years On, an exhibition examining the role of Canada's 1967 Centennial Projects in the articulation of a national identity. The exhibition premiered at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown, PEI in 2014, subsequently touring various locations across Canada. In addition to these, he has been involved in organizing a number of major exhibitions, and from 2014-2019 served as curator of Toronto Metropolitan University's Paul H. Cocker Gallery.
Phone: (416) 979 5000 x556497
Address: Marco L. Polo, OAA, FRAIC
Professor, Department of Architectural Science
Toronto Metropolitan University
350 Victoria Street
Toronto, Ontario
M5B 2K3
Canada
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Books by Marco L. Polo
After 17 years, the Canada Council transformed the Prix de Rome program, citing a shift in architectural experimentation away from “paper architecture” to built work. Since 2004 recipients determine their own destinations and durations of travel, and investigations tend to be more practice-oriented than those of the original program. There are now two distinct versions of the Rome prize: the Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture, “awarded to a young practitioner of architecture or an architectural firm that has completed their first built works and has demonstrated exceptional artistic potential”; and the Prix de Rome in Architecture for Emerging Practitioners, “awarded to a recent graduate from a Canadian architectural school who has demonstrated exceptional potential in contemporary architectural design”.
This underscores how the Prix de Rome differs from most architectural awards; while applicants must submit evidence of prior accomplishments, the prize privileges potential over completed work, uniquely positioning the Prix de Rome to shape, not merely reflect, the culture of architecture in Canada.
In the lead-up to the Centennial of Confederation in 1967, the federal government of Canada instituted funding programs to support the construction of projects across the country celebrating the Centennial. The ambitions of these programs, which amounted to a gigantic public building campaign, were unabashedly about nation-building, and aimed to uncover and give form to the identity of a modern nation entering its second century of existence. The buildings that were created, known as the Centennial Projects, effectively communicated Canada’s self-confidence to its citizens and to the world, allowing everyone to take in and advance the new national spirit.
This exhibition documents 21 of the most important Centennial Projects. All the projects presented, from the National Arts Centre in Ottawa to the UFO Landing Pad in St. Paul, Alberta, are important expressions of a particular moment in Canadian life and culture. The Centennial Projects, in the youthfulness and vigour of their design, expressed the youthfulness, vigour and
optimism of Canada in the 1960s. Now, 50 years on, it is time to re-examine this remarkable moment in Canadian architecture.
In the lead-up to the Centennial of Confederation in 1967, the federal government of Canada instituted funding programs to support the construction of projects across the country celebrating the Centennial. The ambitions of these programs, which amounted to a gigantic public building campaign, were unabashedly about nation-building, and aimed to uncover and give form to the identity of a modern nation entering its second century of existence. The buildings that were created, known as the Centennial Projects, effectively communicated Canada’s self-confidence to its citizens and to the world, allowing everyone to take in and advance the new national spirit.
This exhibition documents 21 of the most important Centennial Projects. All the projects presented, from the National Arts Centre in Ottawa to the UFO Landing Pad in St. Paul, Alberta, are important expressions of a particular moment in Canadian life and culture. The Centennial Projects, in the youthfulness and vigour of their design, expressed the youthfulness, vigour and optimism of Canada in the 1960s. Now, 50 years on, it is time to re-examine this remarkable moment in Canadian architecture.
This book introduces this important work to a broader community. Each of the documented projects includes an explanatory essay by the laureate, as well as a trajectory of the laureate’s career since. Critical essays by Daniel Millette, Marco Polo and Gary Michael Dault consider the interface between art and architecture, between theory and practice, that the Prix de Rome encouraged.
Papers by Marco L. Polo
Talks by Marco L. Polo
After 17 years, the Canada Council transformed the Prix de Rome program, citing a shift in architectural experimentation away from “paper architecture” to built work. Since 2004 recipients determine their own destinations and durations of travel, and investigations tend to be more practice-oriented than those of the original program. There are now two distinct versions of the Rome prize: the Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture, “awarded to a young practitioner of architecture or an architectural firm that has completed their first built works and has demonstrated exceptional artistic potential”; and the Prix de Rome in Architecture for Emerging Practitioners, “awarded to a recent graduate from a Canadian architectural school who has demonstrated exceptional potential in contemporary architectural design”.
This underscores how the Prix de Rome differs from most architectural awards; while applicants must submit evidence of prior accomplishments, the prize privileges potential over completed work, uniquely positioning the Prix de Rome to shape, not merely reflect, the culture of architecture in Canada.
In the lead-up to the Centennial of Confederation in 1967, the federal government of Canada instituted funding programs to support the construction of projects across the country celebrating the Centennial. The ambitions of these programs, which amounted to a gigantic public building campaign, were unabashedly about nation-building, and aimed to uncover and give form to the identity of a modern nation entering its second century of existence. The buildings that were created, known as the Centennial Projects, effectively communicated Canada’s self-confidence to its citizens and to the world, allowing everyone to take in and advance the new national spirit.
This exhibition documents 21 of the most important Centennial Projects. All the projects presented, from the National Arts Centre in Ottawa to the UFO Landing Pad in St. Paul, Alberta, are important expressions of a particular moment in Canadian life and culture. The Centennial Projects, in the youthfulness and vigour of their design, expressed the youthfulness, vigour and
optimism of Canada in the 1960s. Now, 50 years on, it is time to re-examine this remarkable moment in Canadian architecture.
In the lead-up to the Centennial of Confederation in 1967, the federal government of Canada instituted funding programs to support the construction of projects across the country celebrating the Centennial. The ambitions of these programs, which amounted to a gigantic public building campaign, were unabashedly about nation-building, and aimed to uncover and give form to the identity of a modern nation entering its second century of existence. The buildings that were created, known as the Centennial Projects, effectively communicated Canada’s self-confidence to its citizens and to the world, allowing everyone to take in and advance the new national spirit.
This exhibition documents 21 of the most important Centennial Projects. All the projects presented, from the National Arts Centre in Ottawa to the UFO Landing Pad in St. Paul, Alberta, are important expressions of a particular moment in Canadian life and culture. The Centennial Projects, in the youthfulness and vigour of their design, expressed the youthfulness, vigour and optimism of Canada in the 1960s. Now, 50 years on, it is time to re-examine this remarkable moment in Canadian architecture.
This book introduces this important work to a broader community. Each of the documented projects includes an explanatory essay by the laureate, as well as a trajectory of the laureate’s career since. Critical essays by Daniel Millette, Marco Polo and Gary Michael Dault consider the interface between art and architecture, between theory and practice, that the Prix de Rome encouraged.