Raymond Moriyama, architect behind iconic Canadian buildings, dies at 93 | 24CA News
Raymond Moriyama, a famend architect behind the design of a few of Canada’s most iconic buildings, has died. He was 93.
A spokesperson for the structure agency he based mentioned Moriyama died on Friday, however provided few different particulars.
“The world has lost a visionary architect and (his family members) have lost a treasured loved one,” learn the assertion from Moriyama Teshima Architects.
Moriyama was behind the creation of quite a few iconic landmarks each in Canada and overseas, together with the National War Museum, Ottawa’s City Hall, the Bata Shoe Museum, the Toronto Reference Library, the Ontario Science Centre, the Saudi Arabian National Museum and the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo.
Earlier this yr, the agency Moriyama based referred to as on authorities to protect the Ontario Science Centre constructing, erected in Toronto in 1969, urging them to regenerate and use the house. The constructing is slated to be demolished as soon as the centre strikes from its present location in east Toronto to a redeveloped Ontario Place on the town’s waterfront.
Moriyama was a extremely completed architect who received quite a few skilled accolades over his profession, together with the Confederation of Canada Medal and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Gold Medal. He was named to the very best stage of the Order of Canada in 2008 and acquired honorary levels from 10 Canadian universities.
Moriyama additionally served as chancellor of Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., between 2001 and 2007, an establishment the place he additionally designed most of the buildings on campus over time.
Moriyama was born in Vancouver in 1929. He and his household had been dispersed amongst internment camps the federal authorities arrange for the forcible detention of Japanese Canadians through the Second World War. While Moriyama and different family had been held at a facility within the British Columbia Interior, his father was despatched to at least one in Ontario. The household’s possessions had been finally seized and bought.
A launch from the Canadian War Museum, which named a corridor after its designer in 2021, mentioned Moriyama’s first architectural challenge was a tree home he constructed as a teen throughout his time within the camp.
The household relocated to the Ontario metropolis of Hamilton after the struggle, and Moriyama acquired a Bachelor of Architecture diploma from the University of Toronto. He went on to earn a Masters of Architecture diploma in Civic and Town Planning from McGill University in Montreal.
In an interview with Maclean’s journal in 2014, Moriyama mentioned he was impressed to develop into an architect whereas bedridden with a burn on the age of 4 whereas. During that point, he watched an architect come and go from a Vancouver building web site throughout the road.
Moriyama based his personal architectural agency in 1958. He later teamed up with Ted Teshima in 1970 to create Moriyama Teshima Architects, which the pair ran till 2003 earlier than passing it on to the following era.
That firm paid tribute to its founder in a press release launched on Saturday and mentioned it could make a extra complete assertion about his legacy sooner or later.
The agency mentioned its ideas had been with Moriyama’s household and family members and requested for privateness to permit them to grieve the profound loss.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow additionally paid tribute in a press release, calling Moriyama a “pioneering city builder and architect who designed many of our city’s most treasured landmarks.”
“I spent countless hours at the reference library and always left with gratitude through the tranquility created by his design,” she added.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
