Douglas Cardinal is a Canadian architect and author, who is famous for flowing architecture marked with smooth lines and influenced by his Aboriginal heritage as well as European Expressionist architecture. He is best known for his designs of the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, and the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. He was one of the first architects to use computers to assist in the design process.
Background
Ethnicity:
His parents were of mixed European and native Canadian blood - his father was one-quarter Blackfoot and his mother was of German and Métis ancestry.
Douglas Joseph Cardinal was born on March 7, 1934, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is a son of Joseph Treffle Cardinal, a forest ranger and game warden, and Frances Margarete Rach, a nurse. Douglas Cardinal was the eldest of eight children. His father was a member of the Blackfeet tribe.
Education
Douglas Cardinal attended St. Joseph's Convent Residential School near Red Deer, where he was immersed in literature, and the fine arts of drawing and music. In 1953-1954, Douglas Cardinal attended the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He was asked to withdraw because of his radical designs and ideas about creating buildings. He later attended the University of Texas at Austin, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree with honors in 1963. It was the University of Texas School of Architecture that provided the intellectually open, yet rigorous, training he needed to develop the complex, undulating architecture.
Douglas Cardinal earned such honorary degrees as a Doctor of Fine Arts from Massachusetts School of Art in 1983; a Doctor of Laws from the University of Calgary in 1989; a Doctor of Laws from the University of Windsor in 1992; a Doctor of Humanities from the University of Lethbridge in 1994; a Doctor of Laws from Trent University in 1994; a Doctor of Architecture from Carleton University in 1994; a Doctor of Laws from Concordia University in 1998; a Doctor of Letters from , Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 2000; a Doctor of Engineering from the University of Lakehead in 2000; a Doctor of Laws from St. Francis Xavier University in 2001; a Doctor of Laws from the University of Western Ontario in 2001; a Doctor of Laws from the University of Alberta in 2002; a Doctor of the University from the University of Ottawa in 2003; a Doctor of Laws from the University of Regina in 2011; a Doctor of Laws from the University of Manitoba in 2012; a Doctor of Letters from the University of Saskatchewan in 2012; a Doctor of Laws from Laurentian University in 2015; a Doctor of Science from McGill University in 2017; a Doctor of Laws from Queens University in 2018.
Since 1963, Douglas Cardinal is the owner of Douglas Cardinal Architect Inc. As early as the 1960's he began using the amazing capability of computers in order to calculate the complex organic forms, most notably in the curved roof of his first masterpiece, St. Mary's church. He incorporated the technology further to increase the dimensioning precision and affordability of his organic forms, and by the late 1970's Douglas Cardinal Architect became the first architectural practice to be entirely computerized, utilizing an architectural program designed exclusively for the firm. St. Albert Place, in St. Albert, Alberta - now designated a historic building - was the first building in the world to be built with totally computerized architectural technology to dimension all construction drawings. Douglas Cardinal's unique approach to computers extends beyond the conceptual design phase, as he constructs in three dimensions with detailed accuracy to at least ten decimal places. His exceptional use of computer software is unparalleled to this day, as he integrates computer technology in a manner that creatively encourages the evolution of techniques and technologies of the construction and trade industries.
Douglas Cardinal's design for St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church (began in 1967) in Red Deer, the town where he grew up, first brought him into the spotlight. Its curving forms, dramatic use of natural lighting over the altar and lectern, and his imaginative use of brick, which were to become trademarks of his style, prompted critics to note that his architecture combines the contemplative and the sensuous. In the Grande Prairie Regional College, a recreational, cultural, and educational center for that community, the Alberta Government Services Centre at Ponoka, the St. Albert Civic & Cultural Centre, and his own home at Stony Plain, he continued to design and build beautifully undulating shells. Another side of his creativity was shown in the Edmonton Space Sciences Centre, which had a futuristic appearance.
He sought to interpret the teachings of European modernism by investigating a regional modification of the International Style. He was particularly influenced by Antonio Gaudi, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Le Corbusier. His mature work harmonizes an attraction to Italian and Spanish baroque buildings with the expressionist arm of European modern architecture that reached its ascendancy in Germany just after the First World War. Cardinal was to synthesize his direct experience of architecture in Western Canada (Prairie expressionism, in particular) and the neo-baroque of Mexican church architecture, which he would encounter during his travels in the late 1950s, with his formal training in architecture and the history of architecture. This knowledge merged with his experience of the terrain of Western Canada, in particular the Plains and Alberta's badlands, in the development of the curvilinear massing that is a signatory feature of his buildings. In Cardinal's architecture, principles of seamless unity, sustainability, community, green buildings, and ecological design are interwoven with his strong sense of nature.
Douglas Cardinal was hired in 1972 to design Grande Prairie Regional College - his first major building, which provided the springboard to an illustrious international career. In 1993, he was hired by The Smithsonian Institution as the Primary Design Architect for the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). The NMAI is situated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and directly faces the Capital of the United States of America. After contractual disputes, Cardinal was removed from the project in 1998 before it was completed, but he continued to provide input into the building’s design. In 2008, his firm was hired by the Kirkland Foundation to design a museum/convention center in Union City, Tennessee. The Discovery Park of America was to be a unique structure housing a multi-level museum with artifacts from across the nation as well as provide a place for large conventions/meetings for the community. Early in 2009, the firm's contract was terminated with the owner, and all construction activity was halted, due to undisclosed differences between the two parties.
Douglas Cardinal's principal public buildings include Grande Prairie Regional College in Grande Prairie, Alberta (1972-1976), the Alberta Government Services Building at Ponoka (1977), and the St. Albert Civic and Cultural Centre at St. Albert, Alberta (1984), as well as numerous schools, all of which continued the curving wall exterior adapted to ever-increasing complex functional programs. One of Cardinal's first projects outside Alberta and the Northwest Territories brought Prairie expressionism to central Canada through the design for the Canadian Museum of Civilization (now Canadian Museum of History) in Hull, Québec, inaugurated in 1989. Throughout the 1990s, Cardinal undertook a leadership role by providing architectural definition to the aims and aspirations of Indigenous communities. These projects included, among others: the Institute of American Indian Arts master plan, Santa Fe, New Mexico (1993); a master plan and design of principal public buildings for the Cree Village of Oujé-Bougoumou in Northern Québec (1994); Kainai Middle School, Blood Indian Reserve, Alberta (1995); and the Saskatchewan Federated Indian College (now First Nations University) master plan and concept design for expansion, Regina, Saskatchewan (2003). Other accomplishments include the design of the Cree Cultural Institute (2011) in Québec and the Meno Ya Win Health Centre (2010) in Northern Ontario. His works include several master plans, a student center at the University of Saskatchewan, a stadium in Regina, and prefabricated/modular housing. Cardinal has also designed a gallery to house the permanent collection of the great Indigenous artist Alex Janvier in Cold Lake, AB. These projects show how Cardinal's material palette has become much more varied, revealing his willingness to continually explore.
Cardinal is also the author of a collection of writings published in 1977, titled Of the Spirit. He also contributed personal essays to the book The Architecture of Douglas Cardinal, published in 1989, and was one of the authors of The Native Creative Process: A Collaborative Discourse, published in 1991.
Douglas Cardinal became one of the most famous and well-respected Native American architects in North America. He is especially recognized for his innovative and enterprising use of technology, such as computer-drawn blueprints. Cardinal's firm pioneered the use of Computer-Aided Drafting and Design systems (CADD) in Canada and was considered one of the leading firms in North America in that field, pushing CADD software to the limits of its performance and identifying new frontiers for it. Cardinal's CADD equipment facilitated the design of the complex geometrical forms, enabled alterations to be made easily, and permitted quick production of updated site plans.
Douglas Cardinal has received many national and international awards. He was awarded the declaration of being "World Master of Contemporary Architecture" by the International Association of Architects. He is included in numerous publications, for instance in Explore Canada by George Ronald and A Decade of Canadian Architecture by Carole Moore Ede. His works have been exhibited in France, Belgium, and Poland; in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and throughout Canada.
Douglas Cardinal believes that the design of each building is a spiritual act that demands from all those participating in it the very best of their endeavors. At the start of each project, he declares a total commitment to excellence in architecture and to serving the needs of his client and demands the same commitment from all of his staff and sub-consultants.
Cardinal is a landscape-inspired architect. He considers the first step in architectural design to be to reach an understanding and feeling for the land on which a building will stand; for nature has its own sculptural forms, alive and dynamic, to which the architect can respond. He expresses his buildings in a signature style of harmonious curvilinear forms. Yet, the elegance of his designs is not limited to aesthetics - he has a deep understanding of architecture as a tool to better the world. A proponent of Organic Architecture, Douglas Cardinal understands architecture as a holistic enterprise where all members of the architectural process conjunctively create a legacy for the future. Indeed, Douglas Cardinal believes that each building takes a life of its own as a living, organic being shaped in close partnership with the client and all stakeholders. He considers people have a responsibility to their gift of creativity, and that with the wills connected, people can create anything. To make this happen, his unique architectural process starts with a Vision Session. He encourages the client to analyze all aspects of the usage of space by studying the empirical, practical, emotional, and spiritual needs of a building. Precisely because he believes there is no end to our capability to create that which is envisioned, Douglas Cardinal has defied rectilinear conventional principles of architecture.
Quotations:
"I have always maintained that the endeavors of all Canadians should be directed towards a betterment of the human condition. Therefore in my role as planner and architect, and as the coordinator of technologists, I see a tremendous opportunity to petition the needs of the individual and to reinstate our humanness as the most important element in all of our efforts. I have found that by placing the needs of the human being before the systems that modern man has created, we can ensure that man is indeed served by these systems rather than becoming a slave to them."
"Instead of viewing the museum as a sculptural problem, instead of identifying all the historical forms and making them the vocabulary for my solutions, I prefer to take a walk in nature, observe how nature has solved its problems, and let it be an inspiration to me in solving mine."
"Our buildings must be part of nature, must flow out of the land; the landscape must weave in and out of them so that, even in the harshness of winter, we are not deprived of our closeness with nature."
Membership
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
,
Canada
1974 - present
Douglas Cardinal was awarded an Honorary Membership of the Society of American Registered Architects in 2005.
Society of American Registered Architects
,
United States
2005 - present
Connections
Douglas Cardinal's first wife was Marilyn Zahar. They married in 1973 and have two children - Lisa and Jean-Marc. Douglas Cardinal's second wife was Carole Olson. They have three children: Nancy, Guy, and Bret. His third wife is Idoia Arana-Beobide. They have two children.
Father:
Joseph Treffle Cardinal
Mother:
Frances Margarete Rach
ex-wife:
Marilyn Zahar
Wife:
Idoia Arana-Beobide
Idoia Arana-Beobide works as a director at Douglas cardinal's architectural firm.
Daughter:
Nancy Cardinal
Nancy Cardinal speaks highly of her father's influence in her life. She describes her father's work as being aligned with seasonal solstices: the sunrise, sunset, and the medicine wheel. Indigenous principles are embedded inside and out of centers he has made, many whose interiors are equally astonishing.
ex-wife:
Carole Olson
Daughter:
Lisa Cardinal
Son:
Jean-Mark Cardinal
Son:
Guy Cardinal
Son:
Bret Cardinal
Bret Cardinal had worked with his father Douglas Cardinal for 25 years until he started his own architecture firm.
colleague:
Adrienne Fainman
Adrienne Fainman is an architectural designer at Douglas Cardinal Architect Inc.
colleague:
Nicole Bowyer
Nicole Bowyer is an executive assistant at Douglas Cardinal Architect Inc.
