Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Promised Decisive Memo to Builders: December 1

 In that Calgary has the great potential of being home base for us in the future, our futures shall be found in more than one location. For that our contributions to locales are magnificent and great, and bring great wealth to each of the location, we must achieve the understanding that our works find appreciation by discerning individuals across dimensions of society.  To disclose thus, we have to make time in addition to our actual work to socialize at different levels of society because the disclosure of appreciation brings to our immediate life the awareness of recognition and the possession of joy which we must not disallow for ourselves.  It is part of life to find recognition and joy for work we rend; though it may seem like a simple pleasure perhaps outstanding from the hard work we do, their allowance will open new doors for the future which we can expect to be of a grander stage than what we had previously attained.  It will be to our advantage to find more doors than we can walk through, as the public's recognition of our contributions can in this way reach new lands of which our architecture shall celebrate.

Here are the five items as in the previous months:

1) The final concept drawings have been slightly rocky due to them finding modifications for improvements as well an additional change to circumstances, but they will reach completion by February as promised.  The complex in California as mentioned before is proposed to be on the water.  This is a more complex siting that requires review by advanced architects, engineers, and builders and thus may be projected as at a later date, even if the call for it is more immediate in celebration.  There is great excitement from the advance of the digital frontier by that location as correspondent to our advance of the built frontier from wherever we build.  A quiet discussion is ongoing for rebuilding in NYC, but with the geopolitical circumstances being so incredibly complicated, we must submit to keeping that project in mind and within the domain of possibility without overextending ourselves in worry over the scale of build.

2) Considering our work futures in Calgary continues to be an item that I hope you will retain in your agenda.  There should not be any great number of further broad stroke determinations made concerning how to invest time and energy into this city.  In summary from the last few months, there are the following: to frame what we created as a principle of architectural nature, to advance a zoning paradigm and associated frameworks for guiding the wise and timely use of portions of the principle for economic and cultural growth, to facilitate the improvement and completion of interior spaces hopefully partly with our contributions, to contribute to such as prototypal floors that should act as examples for future tenants in considering completion of the spaces, and to create a simulatory digital and virtual setting to improve the quality of interest and to gain in volume of application.

3) Insofar as the opportunity provided to have a home base in Calgary, the establishment of our presence will involve not only finding permanent space in the public or commercial sphere, but also establishing continuing activity in this city.  It is my understanding that we have persisted in finding alternative work, usually at small scales, and hopefully this should continue.  With our advice and small actions, we must recall how rare it is for the public to find such content and service.  As such, it is important to find opportunity to articulate to those we serve something of our work history, of the intense learning habits, of the pride we take in undertaking any work.  Also relevant to our present considerations is the possibility that we may teach and educate select youths and other invested individuals of our trade and profession.  This educative capacity of ours will also add to the value we bring to the city for many young people of this city are with great outlook and dreams not out of line with how we ourselves had been when young.  The logo now has a hammer and a level in the coat of arms, thanks to a brilliant suggestion, but if anybody feels that the traditional image of construction in the hammer is still better replaced by something more appropriate, do let me know. I am very excited to share my projection of the gold eagle through this expression.  Finally, I am aware that my location has changed: I can now easily be found every Monday at Brookfield where I will take a coffee between 11am and 1pm.  My enquiry for an office last year did reach success; however, as you know, my health did suffer from unfortunate events last year, so the completion of deal there has now been delayed.

4) It is with regret that progress in my report to RCMP and public has now paused due to the emergence of urgent affairs requiring documents south of the border, which are also relevant here in Canada.  The good news is that the blunt of what had been advanced in the previous sections, as revealed in last months' memo, concerning our safety and experiences due unusual interventions, did reach readership.  I discovered in the newspaper of the Globe and Mail yesterday an article on the front page that alluded to the matter which had been so incredibly sticky.  It is a start to have public awareness of our delicate situation amidst our work.  The other matter concerning compensation is something being reviewed in my mind if not yet in writing.  Concerning this matter, I would like input from any relevant party so that I can attain a more comprehensive grasp of the problem.

5) The extraordinary value granted to a city by skyscrapers means that at any given time, there is interest in them by more than one city.  As before, my eyes continue to be casted on Saskatoon: I like this city very much for the hardiness, honesty, and being down to earth displayed and exhibited by its peoples.  I also find the horizon which can be viewed from every vantage point in every direction to be a romantic setting for the situating of elegant vertical architecture.  The consideration for building a world in such a place must contain itself to a humbler proposition where the scale of any such world will be reduced to fit best in a modest context.  It is not within my awareness whether any of you has already embarked to view the city, but I certainly hope that on holidays, for instance, you may find the opportunity.  Saskatoon is a beautiful city, with a sentimentality that borders between a sophisticated rural and the new urban.  It is true that many buildings there have reached an age, but there is no reason where our views, initially, and eventual contributions could not stimulate actions of maintenance and excite the civic bodies to consider renewing portions of the urbanscape.  Part of my work presently, indicated before concerning affairs south of the border, investigates the interest and potential in the public at large to not only stimulate restoration and maintenance of existing buildings, but also to bring about an outlook favorable for the new and prototypal.  Both infrastructure and architecture are being examined for work, especially if our teams could find support and coordination so to focus on certain localities, work which could be exhibited and circulated through media.  Such investigations are being made for advisory purposes, but also to open new doors in the future as we embark on a focused schedule of works.

There has been a certain concentration and intensity as we look forward in time to see where we can find the best fit and the most promising future.  Even though for now we need to delimit our ambitions due to the constraints of the present, we must remember that our public communication will open new doors.  Every new door is a portal into a different future, yet in discovery of new ones and looking through them without stepping through, we shall grow a better idea of how we are seen, who we are, and what great appreciation could support our works.  This city is future oriented as compared to other cities, in not that it fantasizes about the future unnecessarily, but in that its past is firmly established.  Tight connections within the community lend the city its strength, while selective curation of heritage and past buildings for functional retention as well as realistic and paced development in infrastructure continually create a weighty urban basis within which individual activity is undertaken.  We must not be too quick to relegate this location in favor of future locations; although it is with difficulty that we reach and attain widespread recognition, our works speak highly of our presence here and this we must not forget.  Calgary is not a city particularly memorable for being sweet, yet I find that this may just be my Home Sweet Home.

A new memo will be forwarded on January 1.

Thank you.

Ann Lee


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