The practice even extended beyond the Victorian era - and even came to Canada!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=S85b...
@petercoffman.bsky.social
Architectural Historian; Supervisor of History & Theory of Architecture program @carleton.ca. https://carleton.ca/aah/people/peter-coffman/ Photographer. Pilgrim. Occasionally a writer. Chief of Staff to two cats. Photos mine unless otherwise credited.
The practice even extended beyond the Victorian era - and even came to Canada!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=S85b...
I’m sure you were in academia long enough to have encountered the “How dare you write the article you wrote instead of the one I would have written” complaint many times before.
07.03.2026 20:35 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0A board-and-batten wall with white boards ornamented by light yellow battens is pierced by a dark Gothic arch, within which a colourful bouquet of flowers seems to float.
Saint Andrews United Baptist Church, St. Andrews, New Brunswick, 1865.
#MarchArch
A curving wooden staircase rises from a wooden floor within a teardrop-shaped opening to several floors above.
Calgary Central Library, Snøhetta and DIALOG, 2013-18.
#StaircaseSaturday
#SaturdayStairs
Make that 303 years ago today.
07.03.2026 12:40 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
I think the late, great Robbie Robertson wrote a song about him without even realizing it:
🎶
Life is a carnival, believe it or not
Life is a carnival, two bits a shot
Hey, buddy, would you like to buy a watch real cheap?
Here on the street
I got six on each arm and two more round my feet
🎶
Done!
06.03.2026 13:19 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0A lovely obit of Bruno Schlumberger, a photographer so many of us had the pleasure of working with as reporters. Thanks, Bruce Deachman. @ottawacitizen.com #ottnews ottawacitizen.com/news/local-n...
05.03.2026 23:21 — 👍 5 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 4Are ‘foreigners’ allowed to sign? or would it be counterproductive to do so?
05.03.2026 18:52 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
The right decision. And I note that although he says he “accept[s] responsibility” for his actions, both he and his lawyer did everything possible to evade that responsibility until they ran out of options. I would really like him to address *that*.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Very sad to learn of the death of Robert Hill, author of 'The Biographical Dictionary of Canadian Architects 1800-1950’. We had many pleasant correspondences about architecture, architectural writing, and especially architectural photography. He made a huge contribution and will be greatly missed.
04.03.2026 13:47 — 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0Nature can’t wait. Canada’s plan to restore and protect nature has fallen dangerously off track — and funding is about to dry up. 🧵
03.03.2026 20:55 — 👍 9 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0If ‘covfefe’ could speak….
02.03.2026 19:57 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Me too. Having seen it, I now can’t even watch the trailer without weeping!
02.03.2026 00:55 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
I finally saw Hamnet this weekend at the @mayfairtheatre.bsky.social. Superb. Pulls together a few very loose historical threads to weave a story of fantastic beauty and emotional virtuosity. 💔❤️
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYcg...
If it happened today, they’d conduct an internet poll about whom to vote off the island!
02.03.2026 00:42 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0An odd comparison, given that I assume he must have seen a few English cathedrals by then. If he wanted a true historical precedent, he’d have mentioned Roman baths.
02.03.2026 00:40 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
After the Great Toronto Fire of 1904, the decision was made to build a new train terminal in the city. It took two decades before the building was open. Today, it is the second busiest train terminal in North America.
This is the story of Toronto's Union Station.
🧵 1/10
Actually, he died three years before the group was formally founded. Had he lived, he would certainly have been part of the group.
02.03.2026 00:17 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Glad you like it! It’s a building that richly deserves a good photograph or two.
01.03.2026 18:19 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0A large room in a mosque with a beautifully mosaic-ed vaulted ceiling, carpet on the floor, and most notably stained glass windows which cast vibrant colours on the interior, including the visitors
Stunning!
And allow me to brag about the famed stained glass windows in the Nasir al-Mulk Mosque in Shiraz, which I was so privileged to visit in 2019.
😍
01.03.2026 14:36 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Here’s a very interesting project on Hintonburg’s historic working-class housing, done by one of our MA students, Keegan Speelman.
scalar.ssac.carleton.ca/manchestervi...
Hintonburg has become more and more gentrified, and the Carleton is one of the last reminders of its long history as a working-class neighbourhood. It will be missed. The planned replica seems rather pointless to me.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
My recipe for my first #StainedGlassSunday contribution to BlueSky:
Begin with stained glass. Add sunlight, Lincoln Cathedral, and stir. Blend the material with the immaterial.
A series of semi-circular arches recedes into the distance, each one framing the one behind. All is finished with a pale yellow stucco, lit gently by indirect sources forming a rhythmic pattern of light and dark surfaces.
It’s March 1! When the architectural nerd’s fancy turns to #MarchArch.
👇 A passageway in the Real Alcázar, Seville.
#Andalucia #Architecture #Photography #BlueskyArtShow #PhotographersOfBlueSky
Someone always does, and she knows it!
28.02.2026 21:15 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0A tortoise-shell cat meows out her food order surrounded by the warm tones of a wooden floor and furniture.
Calling for food on #Caturday.
28.02.2026 19:00 — 👍 8 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0I’m having fun following the ‘likes’ on the three posts I made this morning for #StaircaseSaturday and #SaturdayStairs. After trailing initially, Wells Cathedral is starting to pull clear of Carlo Scarpa. But Douglas Cardinal has left them both behind. 🇨🇦 🙂
28.02.2026 18:48 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0A crisp, modern interior finished in warm-toned stone and tile, with a long, shallow-angles staircase of irregular geometry leading to a second floor.
And for those who prefer their timeline cleanses to have a more modern feel: The Olivetti Showroom, Venice, by Carlo Scarpa, 1958.
#StaircaseSaturday
#SaturdayStairs
#ComfortInBeauty