Alberta used to be part of the Northwest Territories so paintings of NWT governors still hang on the walls of Alberta’s Legislature. Its main interior architectural oddity is a water fountain installed to celebrate the visit of Queen Elizabeth II. Its sound echoes around the walls of the rotunda until Read more…
There are railway crossings, water slides, and rollercoasters in West Edmonton Mall. It’s purported to be the largest shopping mall in the world until 2004 and claims to be the largest in North America. However, conflicting sources cite the Mall of America in Minneapolis as the largest. Regardless, Edmonton definitely Read more…
Universities are a public good, even more so when they run museums with free admission. Yale University runs the Yale Center for British Art, which houses the largest collection of British art anywhere in the world outside of the UK. Visitors are greeted by friendly and helpful staff in a Read more…
Yale ranks as one of the world’s most prestigious universities and is the third oldest in the US. Founded in 1701 in New Haven, the Ivy League private institution is one of the most well-endowed in the world and it shows through its impressive museum collection in its art museum Read more…
Anyone who has spent at least 50 hours studying 20th century architecture would recognize Albany’s Empire State Plaza as Le Corbusier’s brainchild, a one-block model of his Radiant City, except it’s not. It was a poorly-executed urban renewal project under governor Nelson Rockefeller supported by Albany mayor Erastus Corning II, Read more…
After the French stole this tract of land from indigenous people, the king granted it to Monseigneur François de Laval in 1674. In 1801, Joseph Papineau, a Lower Canadian legislator, bought the land and developed it. He sold it to his eldest son in 1817, who in 1855, named his Read more…
My visit to the textile museum was brief so I wouldn’t get ticketed for parking overtime in downtown Toronto. It’s nearby the Campbell House Museum so the two make a good geographical pairing. The main exhibition area showed Inuit textile art, something I found quintessentially Canadian. The gallery that shares Read more…
Its been half a decade since my first visit to the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto. I came by bus last time, but even though I drove this time I still had to transfer onto a shuttle bus to the rear entrance. I didn’t enjoy seeing the exhibits in reverse. Read more…
The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto is Canada’s largest museum dedicated to Muslim culture. Photography isn’t permitted in most of the museum, so I can’t show you ancient Quran manuscripts or the 16th century marble fountain. The only gallery where photography is permitted is the ceramics showcase. Islam is present Read more…
On the short of Lake Erie, Fort Erie stares down Buffalo with its might 18-pound cannons. Soldiers from all over Europe, including Swiss mercenaries, fought for Britain against the rebellious 13 colonies. But in 1814, the Americans captured the fort and used it as a base for attacking the British Read more…