Blog # 141…May, 2023
Every year (56 times now!) when April 27th comes along, my thoughts travel back to opening day of EXPO67, an exciting day for me - with the world’s eyes on Canada. This year I also just happened to finish If Walls Could Speak, Moshe Safdie’s fascinating memoir, published last Fall. His iconic Habitat67 was the signature building on the site, situated in the harbour and anchoring the city of Montreal to the terrain of the exhibition. His memories of the months leading up to opening day resonated with mine and made my journey back there, preparing for the big day, even more vivid.
Born in 1938, Safdie spent a happy early childhood on one of the hillsides of Haifa - then part of Palestine - surrounded by Bauhaus architecture and classical music. The family moved to Jerusalem to escape bombing during WWll and a different life took place among the narrow passageways and up and down steps leading everywhere in the old city. Those rich surroundings as well as young Moshe’s passion for observing the hives of bees he kept influenced his future approach to building design. Life shifted again with the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. As Sephardic Jews his family experienced some discrimination in their business and personal lives and decided to leave for Canada…Montreal in the grey March of 1953 was their first glimpse of their new home.
An aptitude test at Westmount High suggested architecture as a good fit for Moshe’s talent for art and math and although he knew nothing about the field, he was intrigued. First he had to deal with his father’s expectation that, as the eldest son in a Sephardic family, he join the family business. Striking a bargain that he would work there in the summers, Moshe entered architecture at McGill, the field having gone through enormous changes by the late 50’s. No longer the elite realm of the wealthy to build palaces, museums and churches, it was now guided by the principles of Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright and grounded in a sense of social responsibility, concerning itself with mass housing, transportation and utilities.
In his fifth year at McGill, Moshe was the recipient of a travelling scholarship that changed his plan for his graduating year project and ultimately his life. It was a crash course in urban and sub urbanism as he moved with five other students across Canada and the US visiting cities and architects. He was appalled by the endless tracts of monotonous towers composed of identical blocks heaped on top of one another and longed to find a way to incorporate some of the space of suburban living into the density required in inner cities. And so, the ideas for Habitat were born and formed the basis for his final year thesis - titled A Case for City Living.
Graduating in 1961 and beginning life as an architect started a
series of
The memoir continues to follow Safdie’s life and career with a backstage look at the world of architecture and the worldwide presence of Safdie and his growing group of collaborators…fifty three completed projects and seven in progress as the book went to press in 2022. There are fascinating accounts of how projects are conceived and constructed with the climate, political and personality issues involved from Habitat in 1967 to Habitat Quinhuangdao in 2017, with its phase 2 currently under construction. He’s also candid about the work (and money) that goes into competitions they lose.
His lifelong dream to return to work in Israel was realized when he was engaged to expand the Yad Veshem Holocaust History Museum in 2005 after completing the Airside terminal at the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv in 2004. Work in Canada after Habitat includes Quebec City’s Musee de la Civilisation in 1987, Montreal's Museum of Fine Arts in 1991and the Vancouver Public Library in 1995. The jewel in his Canadian crown is the National Gallery in Ottawa and he tells a particularly interesting story of how this project came his way and his collaboration with director Jean Sutherland Boggs.
The penultimate (been longing to use that word) chapter is devoted to concepts of ideal cities…no private cars in the centre! And in the last chapter he examines the dilemma of the situation in Israel from his view as a secular Jew. It’s altogether one of the most compelling books I’ve read in a long time, a refreshing break from much of what we see and hear daily. His great friend, cellist YoYo Ma calls him ”a man in search of beauty, truth and service to people through examining nature.” And at 84 he intends to remain at the drawing board for as long as he can.
You may have suspected by now that I liked this book...back next month with something yet to be decided.
