The Globe and Mail

Larry Jones needs to walk only a block from his downtown office to marvel at the office his firm helped design in Charlottetown. But he hopes visitors to Prince Edward Island's capital won't be so awestruck. Rather, he wants the new Jean Canfield Government of Canada building to enhance the approach to Province House, a neo-classical structure that contains the PEI legislature and the historic chamber where the Fathers of Confederation met in 1864. "We didn't want a building that was going to take away from that focus but to complement that focus," he says. "That was one of the major challenges because we knew it was going to be a big building." Mr. Jones sees integrating the building as part of his job. But, in general, there appears to be a resurgence in the importance of blending architecture with the local streetscape. Even McDonald's Restaurants, among other fast-food chains, has begun to adopt this philosophy - trading a cookie-cutter approach for its restaurants in favour of, say, a Tudor style - to blend in better with the community.