Architecture of Richard Ivey School of Business
Welcome to the first week of this new photo series for my website. The intent is to celebrate and share the modern architecture built or being built within London, Ontario. For this post, I want to share a handful of summer architectural photos of the Richard Ivey School of Business. It’s important to know, I was not hired by Ivey to shoot these specific photos. The photos were shot on my own time and for the purpose of this series. Sadly, there are no images of the interior as I wasn’t permitted to shoot inside. In a future post, I intend to add images of the exterior courtyard that exists within the centre of the building and other areas of the exterior.
All of the architecture photos were shot on July 31, 2017 while in the Western campus area. Along with these photos, I’ve added some thoughts on why high-quality photos have never been more important and what they mean to me.
The importance, in my eyes, for sharing architectural photography of the Richard Ivey School of Business is because of how the school is typically first experienced — visually online. I believe the images used to show the school become part of the process in attracting some of the brightest business students, professors, and other employees.
The building, designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects, was completed back in 2013. They’ve got some great images on their website (some appear to be renderings), but over the 4 years we’ve see the building evolve with the landscape elements. As well, I think it’s of importance to share some imagery during all seasons. If treasured as an iconic building, let’s treat it so.
In doing a little research, I discovered the vision for the design and it matched up with my vision for high-quality architectural photography:
The vision for the Richard Ivey Building in London, Ontario, was to create a vibrant, unified campus that attracts the best students and faculty, expresses Richard Ivey School of Business’ global identity, and celebrates Western University’s history.
Remember, architecture is experienced most through photos — online. With lacklustre photos used to show the building, is the vision being accurately experienced? Maybe it’s just me, but I believe the quality of imagery is part of the overall expression for the building’s purpose. If Ivey is one of the best schools for business, I believe all aspects I encounter related to the school should be on point. For example, I want to see a beautifully designed website with high-quality images because if they show such a high level of care to design and visual content, it tells me: “if they care this much about the smallest details, they’ll probably care about me too.”
But what about Instagram & Social Media?
I love that the Ivey Business School has an active presence on Instagram and Facebook. I just can’t help wonder if social media has caused there to be less of an interest in showcasing the architecture in beautiful high-res photography. I’ve also wondered how much of the social media imagery is created from their own image assets compared to user generated content. From looking at Facebook, a lot of the same imagery is used and it makes me believe there isn’t a large library for them to pull from — images they own. Providing as many images as possible to my architectural photography clients is partly due this reason. I want clients, and their clients, to be armed with a library of photographs to use anywhere to promote their architecture projects and the positive impact in London. With a strong library of images for a project, I’m aiming to leave clients better off than they were before.
Iconic Architecture in London
There are currently beautiful architectural images of the Richard Ivey School of Business. I am not saying there aren’t. I love a good number of images that I’ve come across. My desire is for iconic architecture, like Ivey, to be updated and shown in ways that aligns with it’s ability to attract great new people to London or keep great minds, here. I also love showing some different vantage points than what’s always shot.
This is the type of architecture I want to see for Doors Open London. This building has won a bunch of awards and I want this amazing example of creative and modern architecture to be celebrated just as much as London celebrates heritage buildings. Londoner’s could be impressed with how these modern buildings are being designed with heritage, sustainability and technology in mind.
Originally posted on my website. You can find it here
Scott Webb is a London Ontario Photographer specializing in architectural and interiors photography. I help Southwestern Ontario architecture firms, interior designers to elevate the experience of architecture projects, connect with clients and community, revolutionize marketing, and grow their business.
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