Alberto Pérez-Gómez, Professor Emeritus in McGill’s Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture, has been appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada (OOC). Pérez-Gómez was recognized “for his contributions to architectural education as a renowned historical theorist, and for his phenomenological approach in discourse,” according to the OOC citation.
In addition to Pérez-Gómez, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada, appointed six other members of the McGill family to the Order of Canada on June 29: Naomi Azrieli (LLD’18), Aled Edwards (BSc’83, PhD’88), Madeleine Féquière, Adam Kahane (BSc’82), Jacques Jean Meor Shore (LLB’80) and Jim West (BA’79). See below
“The Order of Canada celebrates the lives, endeavours and successes of people from coast to coast to coast and from all walks of life,” wrote the Governor General in her announcement. “Those being appointed today come from a variety of sectors, have achieved national and international success, and have shown ingenuity, innovation and generosity. What’s more, they have made a difference in their communities and for Canada with their outstanding dedication and commitment. Congratulations to the new Order of Canada appointees, as well as those celebrating a promotion within the Order.”
Appointments are made for sustained achievement at three levels: Companion, which recognizes national pre-eminence or international service or achievement; Officer, which recognizes national service or achievement; and Member, which recognizes outstanding contributions at the local or regional level or in a special field of activity. Officers and Members may be elevated within the Order in recognition of further achievement, based on continued exceptional or extraordinary service to Canada.
The Governor General will present Pérez-Gómez and the other appointees with their insignia at future investiture ceremonies. The dates are to be determined.
During his more than 30 years at McGill, Pérez-Gómez is widely credited with growing the architecture program to integrate theory, history, and design, bringing architectural history to bear on contemporary architectural practice. He joined McGill’s School of Architecture in 1987, which led to the creation of the Architectural History and Theory option in the post-professional Master’s program. The option looked at the relationship between ethics and poetics in architectural practice.
His book Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science is one of the most well-known and widely read books in architecture. Published by MIT Press in 1983, it won immediate acclaim, including the Alice Davis Hitchcock Award, a prize given annually by the Society of Architectural Historians to “the most distinguished work of scholarship in the history of architecture published by a North American scholar.” The book links the history of architectural theory from the ancient world to the present with the history of ideas and the philosophical tradition of phenomenology.
Read more about Professor Pérez-Gómez's career and the other awardees here.
Alberto Pérez-Gómez initially joined SAH in the early 1980s. He received the Alice Davis Hitchcock Book Award in 1983.