RAIC Journal

• Published in: The Canadian Architect Vol. 67; no. 3; pp. 15 - 30
• Main Author: Miller, Miller J
• Format: Trade Publication Article
• Language: English; French
• Published: Toronto IQ Business Media 01.05.2022
• Subjects: Architects; Architectural elements; Architecture; Awards & honors; Buildings; Careers; Cities; Design; Housing; Markson, Jerome; Modernism; Modernization; Sequences; Canada; Winnipeg Manitoba Canada; Montreal Quebec Canada; Toronto Ontario Canada
• ISSN: 0008-2872

Markson also discovered the work of the British Townscape movement, led by Gordon Cullen, Nicholas Pevsner, and others who argued that the incorporation of new, Modern buildings should be based on spatial relationships and visual sequences calibrated in relation to the existing urban context-counter to the Modernist preference for more singular, object-oriented buildings. The emergence of socialized medicine was registered in Mark-son's groundbreaking design for the Sault St. Marie Group Health Centre, demonstrating that a systemic overhaul in the name of greater social equity could also spark a more humane model for spaces of treatment. Markson and his collaborators proposed brick, mostly low-rise walk-ups with ground-level access, laid out as a series of undulating units with wood bay windows and individual entries, interspersed with garden cour ts configured to preser ve heritage trees. The modulation of Market Square's bulky exterior-from the expression of its structural frame and recessed infill panels, to the building's generous windows with their elegant, recessed brick jambs, to the distribution of tall glass bays- suggests the forthright efficiency found in nearby industrial loft buildings, yet, in its refinement, Markson's design stands apart.