CANADA

Canada’s architecture has been intricately bound up with the nation’s search for an
identity distinct from European and American influences. At the dawn of the 20th
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century, the lingering effects of England’s authority over Canadian political and
economic affairs were still keenly felt, and Canadian architecture was held firmly in the
thrall of Victorian trends. Although the major external influences on Canada’s
architecture originally came from France and Great Britain, movements popular in the
United States began to attract notice as Canada directed more interest toward the nation
with whom it shared a common geography and a history of recent settlement.
Nonetheless, the new century also represented a coming of age for Canada’s architects, as
professional associations of architecture and engineering were established to ensure
clients of minimum standards of practice and to enable Canadian architects to offer
serious competition to British and American architects, who had been awarded many
substantial contracts during the preceding years.
A significant factor affecting Canada’s architectural evolution was the
political autonomy that came with the costly sacrifices in World War I.
This served as a national coming of age, and Canadians realized that they
were now entitled to make their own decisions with regard to their
country. The struggles during the Great Depression of the 1930s and the
contributions to the World War II effort were followed by a high-spirited
postwar era of booming population and extensive development. Canada’s
economy relies heavily on abundant natural resources, but technological
innovation and development have diversified the country’s research and
manufacturing sectors. The perceived architectural colonialism of the
early decades has evolved into an architectural vocabulary that reflects a
maturing sense of independence and emerging national identity. There
were several factors propelling this architectural evolution.
Immigration and Early External Influences
Canada had benefited greatly as a consequence of the global economic depression
between 1873 and 1896. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, publicity schemes
and land grants attracted thousands of impoverished immigrants from the British Isles
and Europe, in addition to young families who migrated from the eastern provinces to
settle the western plains. In their new and harsh environment, the settlers experienced
limited success at reproducing familiar architecture, and inevitably the use of locally
available construction materials merged with cultural heritage, creating a distinctive
Canadian “folk” architecture. Such original, vernacular design was particularly noticeable
in regions settled by immigrants from Eastern Europe, the Ukraine, Russia, Scandinavia,
Iceland, and China. The strict religious beliefs of some prairie settlers, such as the
Doukhobors and the Hutterite Brethren, predetermined the form of their communityfocused
architecture.
With the massive immigration to the newly created prairie provinces of Manitoba,
Saskatchewan, and Alberta, as well as British Columbia, governments embarked on an
ambitious program to supply new settlements with essential services—legislative
buildings, post offices, immigration and customs houses, policing, courthouses, and
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correctional facilities. The federal government architecture of the early 20th century
closely adhered to precedents set by Thomas Fuller, chief architect of the Department of
Public Works from 1881 until 1896. His carefully situated and finely detailed buildings
with their rusticated masonry and textured surfaces contributed significantly to the High
Victorian character still evident in many Canadian communities. However, Victorian
eclecticism was gradually over-taken by more contemporary approaches to design, such
as the Edwardian baroque, the Richardsonian Romanesque, the Château style derived
from the Loire Valley of France, and the neo-classical Beaux-Arts tradition promoted at
the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The classical principles of rational
clarity and ordered planning that were the hallmarks of the teachings of the École des
Beaux-Arts influenced Canadian architectural education of this era. Whether the
practitioners acquired their skills in Paris or from American architecture schools, many of
Canada’s early 20th-century architects converted to this multinational design philosophy.
As particular styles became associated with certain building types,
Canadian architecture assumed a more consistent and less decorative
character. Beaux-Arts classicism was expressed in the monumental
legislatures designed and built in the prairie provinces between 1888 and
World War I. These were highlighted by statuesque central domes and
entrance porticoes with rhythmic arrays of double-height columns,
strikingly similar to the Minnesota and Rhode Island state capitols. The
sole exception was the Richardsonian Romanesque design of the Ontario
Legislative Building (1892, Richard A.Waite) at Toronto’s Queen’s Park.
Neoclassical vocabulary was further adapted to situations such as
E.J.Lennox’s Toronto Power Generating Station (1903–13) at Niagara
Falls, where his client wished to create a majestic temple to new
technology. This building is visually grounded by a large central block and
pedimented entrance portico. The extremities of the side wings are
anchored by smaller cubic blocks, and the entire facade is unified by the
entablature and an imposing arrangement of Ionic columns—a grandiose
shell for a utilitarian function.
Climate and the Natural Environment: Technological Innovation
As the first immigrants had discovered, the Canadian climate and physical geography
ensured that, over a period of time, it proved expedient to adapt foreign styles and
building technologies. Early in the 20th century, the National Research Council, a
multidisciplinary institute of the federal government, saw the necessity for developing
building materials and techniques to assist Canadians in their perpetual battle against the
elements. The Institute for Research in Construction was established to develop
materials, insulation, and construction standards suita-ble to every part of the country.
This research led to specialized construction appropriate to Arctic conditions, such as
cold temperatures, permafrost, low snow cover, and high winds. During the 1970s
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escalating energy costs fostered interest in solar design and collector panels, heat pumps,
superinsulated windows, and low-emission glazing, culminating in the development of
the R-2000 building system.
In addition, prefabrication and standardized housing designs have often been used to
offset construction costs. During the World War II era, available housing was at a
premium, forcing the federal government to establish Wartime Housing Limited to design
and build thousands of small family homes. Many Canadian cities still retain
neighborhoods of these “wartime” houses, originally considered to be an expedient yet
temporary measure to alleviate the housing shortage. The lessons learned from such
projects were adapted to other circumstances, where the lumbering, mining, pulp and
paper milling, and hydroelectric power generation industries established company towns
in remote parts of the country. On a site selected for an aluminum smelter because of its
deep-water access to the Pacific, the hydroelectric power capacity of the Nechako River,
and the broad alluvial plain on which a town could be built, the planned community of
Kitimat, British Columbia, was created by Alcan Aluminum during the early 1950s.
Referencing Ebenezer Howard’s garden city concept, the model town included a
greenbelt that encircled distinct residential and commercial districts.
Many of Canada’s rapidly constructed northern and aboriginal
communities are also distinguished by standardized and prefabricated
buildings. Although the earliest of these quickly proved unsuited to the
climatic extremes of the northern territories, recent buildings were more
appropriately designed. They are now raised off the ground, with an
insulating barrier under the main floor to prevent the building’s heat from
melting the permafrost; walls and roofs are totally insulated with no
vented roof crawl spaces; and the windows are few and small in area.
Even though these engineered structures are not necessarily architectural
masterpieces, they are very characteristic of Canada’s north. With
continued improvements to materials and technology, northern
communities now have many examples of a creatively designed yet
pragmatic architecture. The Nunavut Legislative Assembly (1999),
designed for the new northern territory by The Arcop Group and Full
Circle Architecture, combines the latest in energy-conservation technology
with a series of interior spaces and symbolic forms important to Inuit
culture.
Geography and Transportation: Regionalism
For centuries, aboriginal communities existed along trade routes or wherever agriculture
was viable, and with a growing European interest in Canada’s natural resources,
particularly furs and lumber, permanent settlements sprang up near trading posts and
transshipment centers. In the late 19th century, completion of the first Canadian
transcontinental railway (1886) expedited the shipment of goods and people and fostered
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the establishment of towns along its route. The western railway towns of wooden falsefronted
buildings overlooking a broad Main Street greeted thousands of immigrants as
they disembarked to begin their homesteading life. By contrast, government buildings,
prosperous businesses, and financial institutions were usually constructed of brick or
assembled from prefabricated components that had been shipped from the east. The
thriving agricultural economy of the 20th century added another prominent feature to
prairie towns: the grain storage elevator, or “prairie sentinel.” These mammoth wooden
structures, with steeply pitched roofs and the town’s name boldly emblazoned on their
sides, could be identified from a great distance. Industrial versions of these elevators can
be found at the major Great Lakes and ocean ports, where a phalanx of massive concrete
silos stretches along the waterfront, with the railway spur line on one side and the
freighters tied up on the other. It was a complex such as this that attracted Le Corbusier’s
admiration for their honest industrial form.
The high costs of transporting goods, materials, and labor over immense
distances and the climatic extremes in this, the world’s second-largest
country, continue to foster regionalism in Canadian architecture.
Professional architects have incorporated local characteristics in their
projects, as seen in Peter Rose’s post-modern Bradley House (1979) in
North Hatley, Québec. This country home evokes the spirit of a 16thcentury
Palladian villa, adopts Queen Anne Revival features prevalent in
the community, and incorporates local building materials. One of the most
outstanding examples of postmodern Canadian regionalism is the
Mississauga City Hall and Civic Square (1986), designed by Edward
Jones and Michael Kirkland to reflect both the maturity of this sprawling
Toronto suburb and its roots as a rural farming community. A lofty clock
tower presides over an intricate collage of massive agricultural forms,
fronted by an open agora that is enclosed by modest colonnades. The
dramatic interior spaces continue these historical references, and the
intricate detailing and high-tech finishes imbue the building with a modern
persona.
International Architecture and Canadian Identity
When Canada acquired dominion status with the 1867 confederation of four British
provinces, Canadian sensibilities turned toward the picturesque neo-Gothic and its High
Victorian interpretation. Used for religious buildings, educational institutions, and most
outstanding, the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa (1865, Frederick Warburton Stent and
Augustus Laver; 1866, Thomas Fuller and H.Chilion Jones), the neo-Gothic style defined
Canada’s affiliation with the British Empire. It was subsequently reproduced in the
Centre Block (1927, John A.Pearson and J.Omar Marchand), which was redesigned and
rebuilt following a disastrous fire in 1916. Even though the heavy masonry and mansard
roofs of the Second Empire style had been popular for a brief period at the turn of the
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century, particularly in Québec, where it expressed the province’s historic ties with
France, Victorian neo-Gothicism remained the prevalent form of architectural expression
in English-speaking Canada well into the 20th century. This style was evident not only in
large public buildings but also in vernacular architecture, as manifested in the numerous
white, clapboarded community churches and gable-fronted farmhouses of Ontario.
Because it symbolized a valued affiliation with all things British, Victorian Gothic
remained in vogue in the Canadian architectural landscape long after it fell from favor
elsewhere.
Nonetheless, Canadians were becoming ever more preoccupied with defining their
own distinctive and recognizable architectural style. The most successful of these efforts
was achieved by a series of luxurious railway hotels, initiated at Québec City with the
Canadian Pacific Railway’s Château Frontenac (1892–93, Bruce Price). The last and
undoubtedly most impressive of these, the Banff Springs Hotel, was constructed in two
phases to enlarge the original wood-frame resort. Designed by the railway’s own
personnel, Walter S.Painter in 1911–14 and John Wilson Orrock in 1925–28, this
building was characterized by steeply pitched roofs, multiple dormer windows, corner
turrets, and solid massing. This unabashedly picturesque style has been termed either
Northern French Gothic or Canadian Château. In acknowledging the effect of this
Canadian architectural idiom, the federal government approved an urban plan for the
national capital, Ottawa, which made particular reference to the appropriateness of the
Château style. Consequently, several mansard-roofed government buildings were
constructed in the vicinity of Parliament Hill during the Depression era. Even after World
War II the federal government commissioned H.L.Allward and G.R.Gouinlock of
Toronto to design the East (1949–56) and West (1954–58) Memorial buildings in this
idiom. These interconnecting buildings successfully combined the Château style with the
restrained and subtle detailing of the “stripped” classicism that had emerged during the
1930s.
Whereas the federal government was attempting to define a national style, John
M.Lyle, a Toronto architect and teacher, encouraged his colleagues to study European
modernism. Canadian architects and their clients were generally reluctant to
wholeheartedly embrace new trends, and even John Lyle’s own approach sought to
combine traditional forms with a new language of ornament reflecting Canadian history
and regional diversity. An example of his approach to modern classicism was the Bank of
Nova Scotia (1930) in Calgary, which contained neoclassical elements compressed into
the building’s facade and highlighted by decorative imagery of western Canada, such as
Mounties, aboriginal figures, horses, bison, wheat sheaves, and oil wells. Lyle’s ideas
were taken a step further by Ernest Cormier, who successfully combined attributes of the
neoclassical, Art Deco, and moderne to create dramatic architectural statements. For his
1920s design of the Université de Montreal (1943), situated on the slopes of Mont Royal,
Cormier arranged a brick and reinforced-concrete structural system in a symmetrical
Beaux-Arts organizational plan, complemented by the precise, vertical piers that
articulate the main elevation and delineate the tall, domed central tower.
It was not until after World War II, however, that most Canadian architects discarded
historicism. With technological development instigated by wartime research and the
booming population, architects largely ignored the International Style in its pure form
and turned to the Modern movement. This trend first made inroads in Vancouver,
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nurtured by a vibrant community of young artists and designers led by Charles B.K.Van
Norman, B.C.Binning, Frederic Lasserre, Robert A.D.Berwick, and Charles Edward
Pratt, who were followed by Ron Thom and Arthur Erickson. The first Massey Gold
Medal, jointly established by the Right Honorable Vincent Massey, governor-general of
Canada, and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC), was awarded in 1952 to
Semmens and Simpson for Vancouver’s Marwell Place, one of Canada’s earliest
renditions of international modernism.
The 1950s and 1960s heralded an era of profound change and development that saw
the destruction of many buildings, structures, and societal institutions. Glass-enclosed
skyscrapers began to dominate the major Canadian cities, and Toronto in particular saw
the emergence of the large, multidisciplined corporate design firm. One of most prolific
of these was John B. Parkin Associates, renowned for its collection of rectilinear
buildings designed in the international modern style. The characteristic traits of this
design firm—formality, precision, and technology—are evident in the Ortho
Pharmaceutical (1956) office’s bold, white concrete frame; the dark recessed glazing with
steel spandrel panels; and the adjacent manufacturing plant of white glazed brick and
contrasting dark ribbon windows. The John B.Parkin firm, with Bregmann and Hamann,
also worked with Mies van der Rohe on the Toronto-Dominion Centre (phase 1, 1969), a
high-rise development in Toronto’s financial district. The resulting pair of finely detailed
black towers, with exposed I beams traveling the full height of the immense curtain walls,
immediately became a city landmark.
Montréal experienced an exuberant proliferation of new architecture with its hosting
of the world’s fair, Expo 1967, during the centennial year of Canada’s confederation.
This celebration was an opportunity for the nation to showcase its achievements to the
world, and the Expo pavilions were an eclectic sampling of architectural modernism.
Two of the Government of Canada theme pavilions (1967) occupied a massive assembly
of interconnected tetrahedrons constructed of exposed-steel space frames that were
designed by the Montréal firm of Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopulos, Lebensold, and Sise.
Another remarkable Expo 1967 project was the experimental housing complex of
prefabricated concrete block units, Habitat (1967). The original but unsuccessful
intention of the young architect, Moshe Safdie, was to create a prototype for low-cost
housing.
Although large urban centers benefited from these major design projects, smaller-scale
regional architecture continued to flourish. Still a source of creative inspiration, the
prairie provinces produced unique Expressionist projects by young architects. Their
designs employed natural materials, sinuous lines, and organic forms to mold structures
that successfully achieved the contradictory objectives of blending with the landscape
and drawing the attention of the viewer. Partially set into a hillside, Clifford Wiens’ St.
Mark’s Shop (1960) was an artisan’s studio with a conical concrete roof, reminiscent of
the tepees of the plains aboriginal cultures. In Manitoba, Étienne Gaboury’s church for
the Paroisse du Précieux Sang (1967) reflected recent changes to the Roman Catholic
liturgy with a circular interior space, capped by a conical wooden roof that spiraled up to
a strategically placed window at the apex. A third innovator was Douglas Cardinal,
whose first major commission was St. Mary’s Church (1968), constructed in Red Deer,
Alberta. This structure of sinuously curving walls of red brick enclosing a semicircular
nave displays what has become the architect’s signature style. Above this looms a
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prestressed-concrete roof whose form resembles the experimental tensile fabric structures
of the era.
The 1970s and 1980s saw the emergence of several architects, such as A.J.Diamond
and Barton Myers, Raymond Moriyama (Moriyama and Teshima Architects), and
Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects, who addressed the requirements of
urban living. Given the sobriquet of late modernism, their design approach was typified
by projects such as Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre (1976) by Diamond and Myers, with
Richard L.Wilkin. Occupying a busy corner site in the city center, the glass walls,
awnings, and skylights of the reception area initiate a visual conversation between the
people on the street and the theater’s activities inside.
A growing concern over the destruction of the country’s historic architectural fabric
evolved into the heritage conservation movement. In addition to numerous local heritage
initiatives, this received federal government support through the conservation programs
of Parks Canada. Heritage conservation created a need for architects who were skilled at
combining new technologies and public sensibilities with an appreciation for older
structures and traditional building methods. One of the earliest projects was the
midcentury reconstruction of the Fortress of Louisbourg, originally built by France on Île
Royale during the early 18th century and subsequently destroyed by the British. The 1995
declaration of the British colonial port of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia (established 1753), as
a World Heritage Site underlines the importance of Canada’s architectural heritage.
Although modernism continued to dominate Canadian architecture during the last
decades of the 20th century, a new technical style has evolved that merges urban
modernism, industrially based design strategies, and the exuberant individuality of small
innovative firms. This new style has been masterfully executed by several architects with
roots, once again, in the western provinces. The design team of Patricia and John Patkau
has been internationally recognized for their expressive geometric building forms that
successfully reflect the inherent characteristics of the natural surroundings. The small
scale of many of their projects has not precluded them from making bold and
unapologetic architectural statements. In a similar vein IKOY Architects (formerly the
IKOY Partnership), with principal architect Ron Keenberg, has become known for their
High-Tech style, as evinced by the Conservation Laboratories (1996) for the National
Archives of Canada in Gatineau, Québec. Glazed walls completely enclose the large,
climate controlled archival storage vaults on top of which many conservation lab
functions occur. The shallow arched roof is supported on intricately assembled columns,
reminiscent of high-tension power transmission towers. As a major cultural institution,
the National Archives has continued to reflect Canadian cultural identity via architectural
expression.
Throughout the 20th century, Canadian architectural expression generally lagged a
decade or so behind international tastes. Even when influenced by international trends,
Canadian architecture has evinced a restrained and carefully considered personality, often
because geography and climate have enforced a pragmatic respect for the economics of
design and construction. In contrast the dramatic and varied natural Canadian landscape
has inspired architects and encouraged a philosophy of limited interference with the
environment.
For several decades Canada’s major urban centers produced renowned architects of
the Modern movement whose works speak the language common to the rest of the world.
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The search for a recognizable Canadian identity has colored efforts by regional architects
to create a distinctive style rather than following the internationally approved but
anonymous design trends. Unfortunately, their work has frequently gone unnoticed by the
international architectural community, which fails to appreciate the environmental and
cultural constraints under which Canadian architects work. As new technologies shrink
the perceived disparities and distances between countries and settlement increases in the
northern regions of the world, the 21st century may see a new appreciation for Canadian
architecture and building technology.