IN BRIEF: Libeskind's modest London debut and more

Last Updated: Thursday, March 18, 2004 | 12:00 AM ET

CBC Arts

LONDON - Daniel Libeskind created controversial designs for the World Trade Center site in New York and the crystal-inspired renovation to Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum, but the Polish-born architect's latest building is a decidedly more modest endeavour.

The new Graduate Centre for London Metropolitan University, Libeskind's first building in the English capital, encompasses three concrete prisms, several sloping exterior walls and windows in large, geometric cuts. The two-storey building has simple, white interiors lit with both natural and artificial light -- to eliminate dark corners -- and has flexible rooms that can be reconfigured for the teaching of different subjects.

"Just because the university wanted a small building on a small budget doesn't mean it can't deliver an architectural experience that has quality," the 56-year-old architect told The Associated Press. "Because I was a student and a teacher, I knew that buildings should not be just factories for knowledge, but have an interesting atmosphere and that students and teachers should have some fun."

Libeskind won the design competition for the project in 2001 and construction, which began in Feb. 2003, was completed for the equivalent of $5.4 million US.

David Phillips, one of the school's professors, called the new building "a very exciting environment, an amazing physical space and very good for teaching and study with so much light everywhere."

Students, some of whom have been using the centre since Feb. 2, have demonstrated "an extra level of keenness," Phillips said, which he attributes to the new building. "Too much education in London is carried on in dreary buildings."

Libeskind's designs also include the Jewish Museum in Berlin, the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester, and the as-yet-unbuilt extension to London's Victoria and Albert Musem. A former University of Toronto architecture professor, the U.S.-raised Libeskind was selected as the first holder of the school's Frank Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architectural Design in January 2003.

Poetry by rail

PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. - The French subway system can keep its roving accordion players: Canada's first-ever "poetry train" pulled into a northern B.C. station Wednesday, completing a five-day trip that saw six Canadian poets perform their works for passengers and at whistle stops along the way.

Passengers on the VIA Rail train, which travelled from Winnipeg to Prince George, seemed to enjoy the performances, like Bill Bissett 's unusual sound poetry.

"It's just fantastic," said a visitor from Munich, Germany. "I think I have to become an innovator of German sound poetry back home."

Others took the opportunity to join in the versifying.

"When the poets are on the train, people can come and see them and read their own poetry ... that's what I was doing," said Danae Barrager. The nine-year-old passenger climbed aboard in Jasper and found herself reciting verse alongside some well-known Canadian poets, including Bissett, George Elliot Clarke, Kate Braid, Deborah Stiles, Jon Paul Fiorentino and Chandra Mayor. The trip also included workshops for aspiring poets.

Braid was delighted by the warm reception she received. "You get the feeling that people have been hungry for this," she said.

Poetry-loving engineer John Howarth came up with the idea for this "rhyme along the railway," and drove the passenger train to the end of the line. He hopes that the poetry train will become an annual event.

Sotheby's to auction Hepburn's possessions

NEW YORK - An upcoming auction will shed some light on the intensely private life of the late Katharine Hepburn, whose film memorabilia, clothing, furniture and love notes from Howard Hughes will be put on the block.

Expected to bring in about $1 million US, the Sotheby's sale will take place almost a year after the death of the iconic actress, who died in June 2003 at the age of 96.

Items up for sale include a lock of Hepburn's baby hair, the dress she wore to her 1928 wedding to her college beau Ludlow Ogden Smith, romantic telegrams between Hepburn and Hughes, signed photos of Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, and contracts and press kits from films like The Rainmaker , Bringing Up Baby and Holiday .

Leila Dunbar, director of the Sotheby's collectibles department, expressed delight with the property offered by the estate of the late actress, whom she called "one of Hollywood's most important actors."

The sale is scheduled for June 10-11.

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