Updn: 88 Spins with Bill Pechet - by Leslie Van Duzer (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Neither an architect nor a landscape architect, Pechet might best be described as an urban acupuncturist.

As a keen observer of interactions between animate beings and inanimate things, Pechet has sensitively mended public spaces in Canada and the United States for decades, designing strategic and delightful interventions in public parks and plazas, waterfronts and streetscapes, LRT stations and cemeteries. As a beloved teacher, he has also educated generations of architecture and design students at the University of British Columbia to approach their work with the same sense of curiosity and adventure he brings to his own.

Despite Pechet's extensive body of work, nearly all of which is publicly accessible, he remains little known internationally.

This project aims to correct that oversight by extending the collaborative nature of Pechet's own practice to include talent from Europe, South America, the United States and Canada. With each collaborator presenting their unique perspective on the work, this monograph will be unusually complex and multivalent.
A fulsome monograph on the work of Bill Pechet is long overdue. This book will be a rich and joyful celebration of a talented and beloved Canadian artist, designer and teacher who has much to offer us all.

Review Quotes

"For those of us who haven't had the benefit of being taught by Pechet, or who live far from his public artworks and urban furniture installations in Central and Western Canada, Van Duzer's wonderful book offers an opportunity to spend time in his world, where wit and whimsy become tools to navigate complexity, and a way to approach the world with compassion."--Canadian Architect