Carleton University Awards Prestigious Doctorate of Architecture to Mr. David J. Azrieli

By Vusi Moloi ©2009

(Originally published at AfroCaribOttawa on November 17 2003)

Carleton University has honoured an internationally celebrated architect and developer Mr. David J. Azrieli at a convocation ceremony held in Ottawa yesterday. Mr. Azrieli received a prestigious honour of Doctor of Architecture.

Rated near the top of 100 richest Canadians by Canadian Business last year with a net worth exceeding $2.3 billion Mr. Azrieli ranked comfortably ahead of the highly respected Bombardier family followed closely by the Jamaican born investment guru Mr. Michael Lee-Chin weighing in at $1.7 billion. The only super-wealthy Canadian sitting at the top of the pinnacle was Mr. Kenneth Thompson at a whopping $21.5 billion having made most of his fortune in the high tech boom and one of the few to weather the technology shakedown!

Delivering his energizing convocation speech Mr. Azrieli spoke about his humble beginnings and the real estate property he built. A self-made man with the highest degree of motivation, Mr. Azrieli achieved what to most is unachievable. Before coming to Canada in 1954 Mr. Azrieli lived in South Africa and England. The viewpoints he expressed resonated with many in the audience.

It is interesting to note that despite his impressive and enviable success, Mr. Azrieli’s life of dizzying heights has not been without hurdles of its own. In fact two things seemed to have had a significant impact on his life i.e. his unfinished architecture studies at Haifa’s Technikon University of Palestine as well as his architectural genius. Taking a shot at his failure to complete his studies in Palestine due to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war some of his critics have referred to him as pretending to be an architect without proper credentials. His architectural genius, albeit unorthodox, has led some to characterize him as lacking sensitivity towards the local historical and cultural heritage.

These kinds of criticisms only served to catapult him into greater heights. As if to silence his critics he returned to school in 1997 when he was 75 years old for a newly created post-professional Master of Architecture degree at Carleton University. Not only did Mr. Azrieli complete a Master of Architecture degree but he graduated with a bang silencing his critics forever. This went a long way to fix the damage of the past.

In his enthusing and spellbinding speech Mr. Azrieli reminisced “A number of years ago, I sat where you do - a graduate in Architecture - feeling the satisfaction of having successfully completed two years of hard work. My own experiences at Carleton illuminated and brought together the three most important elements of what I have come to see as the encompassing philosophy for professional success and personal fulfillment: never stop learning, do what you love, and give back to the community.”

Mr. Azrieli did exactly that by generously donating $2.7 million to Carleton University which went towards the David J. Azrieli Pavilion and Theatre. According to the convocation program booklet the facility houses the David J. Azrieli Institute for Graduate Studies in Architecture as well as Carleton’s newly created joint Bachelor of Information Technology with Algonquin College. Mr. Azrieli’s endorsement of the university has resulted in the Ontario government awarding over $40 million in infrastructure funding to the university.

The inexorable determination of Mr. Azrieli has put him on a collision path with certain historical and cultural conservationists some of whom were approached by AfroCarib but declined comment. In fact legal action both in Israel and Canada formed part of a people’s struggle to stop his architectural advances but the unstoppable Mr. Azrieli stayed the course.

One such situation in which Mr. Azrieli stayed the course despite popular resistance pertains to Sir William Cornelius Van Horne’s 52 room mansion which was built in 1869 on Sherbrook Street in Montreal, Quebec. Sir William Cornelius Van Horne was the father of the CP rail and he is also credited with having launched the fine arts career path of the internationally renowned Canadian Artist James Wilson Morrice. What has been referred to as a historical and heritage gem by many was finally demolished by Mr. Azrieli despite court injunction efforts to block the demolition and some in the Montreal circles have never forgiven him for that. As if to add to an existing aggravation Mr. Azrieli installed a plaque of his resemblance in the new office building. In one of the articles published by the Montreal Mirror the writer said “Far from feeling ashamed, Azrieli installed a plaque in his own honour at the corner of the generic office building that went up on the site.” Another architect and a conservationist Phyllis Lambert attempted without success to dissuade Mr. Azrieli from knocking down the building by offering to buy the Sir Van Horne building from him.

The Jewish Bulletin of Northern California published in March 26 1996 said this about Mr. Azrieli “Irked by the controversy and lawsuits that have plagued his bid to radically change the Israeli way of doing business, he remains optimistic his towering ambition will be vindicated.”

In fact controversies and negative campaigns seemed to fuel Mr. Azrieli’s success. Today there are two towering skyscrapers in Israel known as Azrieli Towers and they form the most sophisticated and largest building complexes in the Middle East at a price tag of $400 million US. In place of Sir William Horne's mansion is now a five star hotel to which Mr. Azrieli alluded by a process of elimination when was talking about projects that most influenced him "...surprisingly, it was not the later, larger, more technologically advanced projects that I did such as the Azrieli Center or the more recent conversion of the office building that I designed and built some 30 years ago in downtown Montreal into a beautiful 5-star hotel." This hotel is known as Sofitel Montreal and can be viewed at this web address www.sofitel.com.

Nothing succeeds like success and successful people know what they want and they will, despite adversity, achieve their glorious achievements. The President of Carleton University Richard Van Loon said “the students graduating today can be nothing but inspired by the life and accomplishments of David Azrieli”

Mr. Azrieli and now Doctor of Architecture is a CEO of a privately held company Canpro Investments Ltd. He has received the highest civilian honour ever accorded the Order of Canada as well as the Order of Quebec. The Israeli Prime Minister has awarded him the Jubilee Award the highest honour in that country and there are many more awards that Mr. Azrieli has been honoured with around the globe. Mr. Azrieli is married to Stephanie whom he met in Canada and they have four children Rafi, Naomi, Sharon and Danna who has written a memoir about her father One Step Ahead.

The full text of the speech of Mr. David J. Azrieli can be read here, thanks to Carleton University