McGILL WEB GEMS

Spiritual bricks and mortar

by Mark Shainblum | Join us as we unearth the hidden gems and secret places on the websites of McGill University and its affiliated institutions.

Montreal Religious Sites Project
http://mrsp.mcgill.ca

There was a time, not too long ago, when you'd have to look under "Churches" in the Montreal Yellow Pages to find a house of worship of any kind, even a synagogue, a mosque or a Sikh gurdwara (if the gurdwara had a listing at all, that is.) Things are very different today, a fact the creators of the Montreal Religious Sites Project website have set out to emphasize. A project of the Asian Religion and Ethics Research Unit at McGill's Faculty of Religion, the MRSP documents the local religious sites of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Asian Christians and some new religious movements. "Canadian cities have become multicultural so suddenly that the public has not had a chance to develop a good understanding of the culture and religions of their new ethnic neighbours," say the site's creators.

Arthur Erickson: The Middle East Projects
http://cac.mcgill.ca/erickson

Architectural drawings for the Saudi Arabian National Center for Science and Technology

On a similar note, this website puts the focus on the beautiful architectural designs of Arthur Erickson, one of the best-known graduates of McGill's School of Architecture. Since 1975, Erickson has undertaken over 40 large-scale public projects in the Middle East, including museums, universities, hospitals, office buildings and housing complexes. Perhaps more than any other Canadian architect, the website says, Erickson has explored and addressed cultural differences in his design work, a fact admirably showcased here.