Architect Cardinal on jury for Edmonton urban design competition

Well-known Canadian architect Douglas Cardinal was announced Tuesday as a jury member for the 2009 Edmonton Urban Design Awards.

"Many of you may not remember, but he spent 18 years practising architecture in the city of Edmonton. So we see Mr. Cardinal as an excellent juror in terms of joining us during this process this year," said Gary Klassen, the general manager of planning and development for the City of Edmonton.

Cardinal, a recipient of the Order of Canada, is best known for designing the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, Que.

Rounding out the jury are: Brent Toderian, director of planning for the City of Vancouver; Tim Jones, president and CEO of Artscape in Toronto; Michael Hough, founder of the school of landscape architecture at the University of Toronto and Montreal architect Dan Hanganu.

The awards were launched in 2005, the same year Mayor Stephen Mandel declared "our tolerance for crap must be zero" in relation to the quality of architectural design in Edmonton.

The quality of designs has improved since then, Klassen said.

"It is absolutely better work than we've seen from perhaps five or 10 years ago. There is no question that there is more attention being paid to urban design," Klassen said.

Awards will be given out in six categories. Plans for designs that have not been implementedwill also be considered.

The competition was launched in 2005.It was also held in 2007 when the transformation of the old downtown Bay building into the University of Alberta's Enterprise Square received one of the awards.

The competition is open to architects, engineers, planners, landscape architects and artists.

The deadline is Oct. 8and the winners will be announced in November.