The spirit and culture of every nation can express itself in many ways. Film, media, sport, music, broadcast, literature, history, politics, religion, ethics, social norms, consumerism, art, language, dialect, and yes very much architecture. Viva Canada! One of the richest in spirit and culture.

Hello Friendoes. Happy Friday. I released song 8 of 10 from my album “Geographics” today - it’s called “Atlantic Ocean Love Explosion” and it’s based on my heart being magnetized to Nova Scotia and PEI when things get heavy. 💚Hope ya dig! Listen/Preorder: graven.bandcamp.com/album/geogra...

In honour of #YukonHeritageDay, I’ll post some links to blogs I’ve written in the past about Yukon architecture. Strange things done, indeed…. carleton.ca/aah/2025/vac...

There are strange things done, in the midnight sun.... Here, an architectural tale. 🐺 😀

Happy #YukonHeritageDay! And such a rich heritage it is. 👇 Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre (Whitehorse), Lucky Dragon Motel (Haines Junction), Bank of Commerce (where Robert Service worked, in Dawson), Dredge #4 (Near Dawson). Every building, every place has scores of stories to tell.

The Remains of Holyrood Abbey Edinburgh, Scotland May 2025 #ScapeDay #Landscape #TravelPhotography #UrbanLandscape #Nature #Photography #Outdoor #Art #OutdoorPhotography #LandscapePhotography #PhotographersOfBlueSky #EastCoastKin

"'Canada has never had a comprehensive national guide for architectural styles,' Mikel explains" Well, except for "A Guide to Canadian Architectural Styles” by Shannon Ricketts, Leslie Maitland & Jacqueline Hucker. And the Parks Canada Architectural Styles Series.🤷‍♂️ ottawacitizen.com/life/homes-h...

Homes: How Canada got built ottawacitizen.com/life/homes-h...

I’ll tell you what the latest design shows: it shows that no one involved has even a rudimentary understanding of the principles of Classical design. To them, it's not about harmony and proportion; it's just bling carved in stone. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

To (slightly) paraphrase Oscar Wilde: “To lose one caucus member, Mr. Poilievre, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose three looks like carelessness.”

I teach ‘idea-weaving’. It’s not on Ford’s approved list, but it’s the most practical skill a human being can have. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

#WindowsOnWednesday North Pacific Cannery, near Prince Rupert, British Columbia.

I teach ‘idea-weaving’. It’s not on Ford’s approved list, but it’s the most practical skill a human being can have. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Irony is in 10 years there’ll likely be more jobs teaching traditional crafts to seniors—occupational therapy—than coding jobs or most careers parents urge their kids into. The best advice you can give a kid today is “The job you’re going to have probably doesn’t exist yet so study what you love.”

#WindowsOnWednesday North Pacific Cannery, near Prince Rupert, British Columbia.

@brittlestar.com delivers this year’s Kesterton Lecture in the School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University. An inspired choice. March 25.

Just in case the recent announcement had fooled anyone into thinking that the Ford government had suddenly become a friend to higher education: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Eddie Carvery, known as ’The Hermit of Africville’, has died. His story is a remarkable one. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

I enjoyed @jordanhr.bsky.social's latest cancon podcast on tourism in Canada. As usual, though, scenery/wildlife dominate the talk. But we also have unforgettable buildings, neighbourhoods, historic towns, etc. Our built places are destinations too. 1/4 elbows-up.simplecast.com/episodes/can...

LLMs do not understand, will not understand, and cannot ever understand information. It's a glorified search engine combined with auto-compete, and you should treat it as such. No matter how much LLM companies try to tell you their machines can think or reason, they cannot and will not. 12/12

I appreciate that the internet has made everyone into an amateur investigative journalist. But actual investigative work requires aggressively checking, double-checking, and trying to poke holes in your own work — not just rushing to publish because you want to believe it's true.

Shout out to Hintonburg’s newest eatery, Solomon’s Oven. Delicious food, very large servings (but I eat it all because it’s so good). A great addition to the ‘hood! solomonsoven.ca/our-story

#BlueSkyArtShow #Wood

This potato was an outcast, but is finally having its moment in the sun. Happy #ValentinesDay

St. Matthew’s Church, Halifax, Nova Scotia, by Cyrus Thomas, 1858. #StaircaseSaturday #SaturdayStairs

United Baptist Church, Bear River, Nova Scotia. Steeple remodelled 1893. #SteepleSaturday

Happy Valentine’s Day, to those who celebrate! 👇 Corbel, St. Mary & St. David, Kilpeck, ca. 1140. #SculptureSaturday

Field, British Columbia, population 169. A moment of beauty at the end of a week full of pain.

This was, I guess, inevitable. But AFAIK every other mass shooting in Canadian history has been perpetrated by a Cisgender male. If there’s truly a link between gender identity and mass violence, the data makes it pretty clear where the threat lies (and where it doesn’t).

We are incredibly honoured and thrilled to share this news with you! Chapman’s is named The Most Reputable CPG Company in Canada by The Harris Poll 2025, among other top rankings. 🍁🍦 Read more here 👉 https://www.chapmans.ca/scoop/chapmans-2025-harris-poll-canada/ #TheHarrisPoll #proudlycanadian

Let’s see, a 2% increase in tuition fees will just about (with a bit of luck) keep pace with inflation. Unfortunately, treading water is only an attractive option if your nose is currently above the surface. www.thestar.com/news/ontario...

Some sort of big Ontario post-sec ministerial presser happening at 1030. Not sure if this is where we hear about tuition being unfrozen or the results of the funding formula exercise or what.

@petercoffman.bsky.social I am sure you saw today the motion did not live long enough to get a next discussion. www.youtube.com/live/12ng2s3...

St. Paul’s Church, Birchtown, NS, built 1888-1905 for a Black Anglican Loyalist community. The story of the Black Loyalists in Birchtown is a difficult one, replete with exploitation, racism, violence and cruelty. But we must bear witness, and buildings like this help us do so. #BlackHistoryMonth

If you’re in Ottawa, don’t miss Miroyama Teshima’s extraordinary architecture for the Canadian War Museum.

Some of our students get a good look at the Moriyama Regeneration Hall during an excellent tour of the Canadian War Museum today.

"Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump International Airport? This Has to Stop. Trump may be realizing that he will never win broad public adulation. Then again, maybe he’s operating out of pure, untethered vanity." I favour a simpler explanation. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/o...

I think a lot of the world can identify with this right now. #StareDown

What I'm going to be like when I become a ghost:

I hadn’t seen this rendering before. My first impression is that it seems to understand Classicism as a set of ornamental forms, not as a coherent, harmonious visual language. And I’m not that surprised.

For #AncientSiteSunday: Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, near Fort MacLeod, Alberta. Used for millennia by the Blackfoot to drive bison off the cliff, making possible the harvest of meat, bone, hide, etc. A @unesco.org World Heritage Site since 1981.

Waiting for the launch of @grahamlindsey.bsky.social’s new album at Red Bird.

I’m grateful to @arieltroster.com for shining some light on the problem of demolition by neglect. It’s a cynical and destructive manipulation of legal loopholes. www.arieltroster.com/swm_65

A splendid book, highly recommended!

As we head into Week 2 of #BlackHistoryMonth, some thoughts on Oro African Methodist Episcopal Church, a national historic site in Oro Medonte, Ontario. I’m thinking out loud in this blog, and would welcome any thoughts or suggestions. carleton.ca/aah/2024/oro...

Something a bit different for #CastleSaturday: Casa Loma, Toronto, desogned by E.J. Lennox for Sir Henry Pellatt, begun 1911. And if you’re about to say “Hey, that’s not a *real* castle”, I suggest you examine your definition of “castle”….

trundle, trundle, trundle 😍 🌿

Oh no. His potential is off the scale - not just as a player but as a person. I have no information to share and no insight to offer. I just hope that things turn out alright for everyone. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

So.… They were smart enough to invent their own weapon system, but not smart enough to realize that developing a weapon system at home and flogging it on Youtube would get them in trouble? I simply do not understand humans any more. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...