The longevity of glass buildings

I like older buildings that are substantial and that are built to last, we still have many of these older buildings in Montreal. The new Science Hub on the Loyola Campus of Concordia University is a striking addition to the university, it is what students and faculty expect and want in a new building. There is no point in constructing an old fashioned brick and concrete building, it would be incongruous and inconsistent with a contemporary campus. It would also be prohibitive in terms of cost. So, my hesitancy regarding this new building is just my taste in architecture; however, I also question the future of the building in a post-pandemic world, I wonder if buildings like this will be needed. Furniture has been carried into the new science building, it's ready to be occupied, but I'm not sure if they'll have any students on-campus this year due to the pandemic. Everything is changing, not for the better but just changing. The Science Hub doesn't look like it was constructed to last; I suspect that in a hundred years, if this building is still standing, people will scratch their heads and say "what were they thinking?" But do we even want buildings to last? Or are buildings like Ikea furniture, they look good for a while, they're functional, but they're still just made of laminated particle board, future junk.  No one had the idea of built-in obsolescence when they were constructing our many older buildings in Montreal; these older buildings add much to the quality of life in this city, they give us a feeling of substance, workmanship, creativity, and our culture and history. This is not the case with the Science Hub building, it could be located in any large city, in Toronto or elsewhere. 

New Sculpture on Loyola Campus

The science hub, the new building on the Loyola Campus of Concordia University, includes a recently installed sculpture. I don't know the artist's name or what the sculpture is called (it hasn't been announced), but it is quite imposing and you get an idea of what it might mean when you approach it from a distance. It looks like a "rough beast", almost an invisible man not wrapped in gauze but in striations of aluminum. This is a formidable sculpture, as though an amorphous human body, one arm bent and protruding from the body making it look like it is slouching towards something; standing beside the sculpture it doesn't seem to be anything but a formless mass. I don't see any celebration of science in this sculpture assuming there should be considering it is located between two science buildings (literal me), it is more of a dystopian impression of the new soulless human being that has been manifesting for the last hundred years or so. The sculpture is hollow so you can step inside and looking up you see the blue sky, windows of the new building, and the endless and infinite universe over one's head. These shapes above one's head remind me of work done by Hans Arp, if I remember correctly. The sculpture is actually a very perceptive and accurate image of an aspect of our new world order, one that is both disturbing and disconcerting.

Now I remember what the sculpture reminds me of, it is the Golem from Jewish mythology; this seems appropriate considering the age in which we live. 

And now (09 October 2020) I know the artist's name, it is Marc-Antoine Cote. 

Honey Bees in Flight

Photos taken in mid-August 2018 at the City Farm garden on the Loyola Campus of Concordia University in Montreal. One of my favourite activities, watching honey bees in flight collecting nectar and pollen.

At Concordia (Loyola Campus)

At Concordia (Loyola Campus)

These are hollyhock flowers and day lilies.