The Canadian prairies have an architectural tradition of impermanence, committed pragmatism and humble resolve. These early settlements and buildings had a tenuous link to the earth, their very existence a flaunting of the distances and the endless plains. Infused with old country visions only partially resolved, our first builders grasped the most basic of spatial and architectural means-the survey grid, the windbreak, the exaggerated facade – to tame an immense plain.
