Mid-Century Modern Architects
- Born in Kuortane, Finland on 3 February 1898; died in Helsinki, Finland on 11 May 1976.
- Aalto was a man of many hats known for his work as an architect, industrial designer (furniture, lighting, glassware, textiles), painter and sculpture.
- He was known for complete design, working on both the structure of a building and its interior.
- Well-known Aalto designs include the Aalto Vase or Savoy Vase, which was Aalto’s winning design from a glass design competition hosted by Karhula-Iittala in 1936. The vase was shown at the 1937 Paris World Exposition.
- He often worked with his wife, architect Aino Aalto (née Marsio).
- The city of Jyväskylä, Finland is home to a museum solely dedicated to Alvar Aalto.
- Born in Pecs, Hungary on 21 May 1902; died in New York City, USA on 1 July 1981.
- Marcel Breuer was a Hungarian-born architect and furniture designer.
- Breuer became a protégé of Walter Gropius at the Bauhaus School where he began his career designing furniture.
- When he fled Nazi Germany in 1938, Breuer was brought in by Gropius to teach at Harvard Graduate School of Design.
- Breuer was a pioneer of the International Style – a style of modern architecture (1920-1930s) that emphasized balance, the importance of function, and clean lines – in his use of steel and glass.
- His famous pieces, the Wassily Chair (1927-1928) and the Cesca Chair (1928), remain some of the most recognizable examples of Bauhaus design.
- Born in Madrid, Spain on 27 January 1910; died in Durham, North Carolina on 7 December 1997.
- Candela was hosted by Mexico as a refugee where in 1950, he founded the company Cubiertas Ala.
- Candela later moved to Chicago and worked as a full-time professor at Harvard University (1961–62) and at the Illinois University (1971–78) while also associating at a US firm based in Toronto, Canada.
- His greatest contribution to the structural field are the shell structures generated from hyperbolic paraboloids, a geometric shape of extraordinary effectiveness that has become the hallmark of his architecture.
- Candela worked very hard during his lifetime to prove the real nature and potential reinforced concrete had in structural engineering – a medium that was subsequently widely adopted and utilized in mid-century modern architectural style.
- Notable works include Los Manantiales Restaurant shell, in Xochimilco, Mexico City , Cosmic Ray Pavilion (in collaboration with Jorge Gonzáles Reyna), and the Sports Palace used in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.
- Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland on 6 October 1887; died in Cap Martin, France on 27 August 1965.
- Architect and designer.
- Seeking to satisfy his taste for asceticism and sculptural forms, Le Corbusier became the first architect to make a studied use of rough-cast concrete. This technique also became his most prolific contribution to Mid-Century Modernism which endorsed necessity, simple pleasures and a technological approach to solve a human need.
- He later met the painter and designer Amédée Ozenfant who introduced Le Corbusier to Purism. In 1918, they wrote and published together the Purist manifesto “Après le cubisme.”
- In 1922, Corbusier opened a studio with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, the association of the two lasted until 1940.
- Although Le Corbusier was from the beginning most interested in building for large numbers of people, during the prewar period he built primarily for privileged individuals who commissioned individual houses.
- In 1927, Le Corbusier competed to design the League of Nations new center in Geneva, though he did not win – on account of not having been drawn up in India ink as the rules of the competition specified – his plan was to become the prototype of all future United Nations buildings.
- Notable works include: architectural advisor for the construction of the new state capital, Chandigarh for Punjab, India (1951), National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo (1960) and the Carpenter Visual Art Center at Harvard University (1964).
- Bernice Alexandra "Ray" & Charles Ormond Eames, Jr, born (1912 & 1907 respectively); Charles died in Los Angeles in 1978, Ray 10 years later in 1988.
- Charles and Ray Eames arrived in Los Angeles in 1941, a year after they met at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Ray began assisting Charles and Eero Saarinen (son of Eliel Saarinen) as a designer in their work for the Museum of Modern Art’s Organic Design in Home Furnishings Competition.
- Began shaping their designs to aid the war effort, making splints, stretchers, and airplane parts with their new technique of molded plywood.
- Pioneered what is known today as the Eamesian Model - low-cost, high-quality furniture that promotes a “do-it-yourself” attitude.
- Their influence can be seen in in low-cost, flat-packed furniture of modern brands such as IKEA, Crate & Barrel and Target.
- Notable works, aside from their furniture designs, include a highly innovative Case Study House in response to an Arts & Architecture contest. The Eames made films, including a seven-screen installation at the 1959 Moscow World’s Fair, presented in a dome designed by Buckminster Fuller.
- Born in New York on 25 June 1901; died in California on 25 July 1974.
- Eichler was by profession a real estate developer who helped create mid-century modern residential subdivisions in California. He built over 10,000 single-family homes of which the majority were located in the San Francisco Bay area.
- Eichler was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s style after having stayed in the Wright Usonian-style Bazett House in Hillsborough, California – a home his family rented for three years.
- He was known for building large scale homes known as “Eichlers.”
- Known for his liberal, non-discriminatory policies, Eichler sold to anyone, regardless of race or religion, which was rare for builders at the time.
- Born 18 May 1883 in Berlin Germany; died 5 July 1969 in Boston Massachusetts U.S.
- German-born Gropius fled Nazi Germany to Britain in 1934 and later immigrated to USA in 1937 where he taught at Harvard Graduate School of Design.
- Gropius founded the world-renowned Bauhaus School (1919-1933), which focused on simplified design and which would go on to inspire many Modernist legends.
- He would go on to open an architecture firm with Marcel Breuer, a former student of his at the Bauhaus School.
- Gropius also founded The Architects’ Collaborative (TAC), an architectural firm that focused on collaboration in projects rather than the individual, a notion that was not common in architectural practice at the time.
- Born 9 September 1894 in Ordrup, Denmark; died in Copenhagen, Denmark on 31 January 1967.
- Poul Henningsen (commonly referred to as PH) was a Danish designer, author, and architect, who influenced design in Scandinavia, as well as culture in Denmark throughout the period between the two world wars.
- PH was the illegitimate son of feminist and author, Agnes Henningsen, and satirist, Carl Ewald, which may have contributed to his progressive and tolerant upbringing.
- He began training as an architect at the Frederiksberg Technical School and Copenhagen Technical College between 1911 and 1917 but never finished his formal training.
- Perhaps his best-known contribution to design is the PH Lamp, which he designed in 1925 and is still manufactured and sold today by prominent Danish lighting manufacturer, Louis Poulsen.
- Henningsen's work can be found in museum collections around the world, including MoMA, Vitra, and the V&A.
- Born in Copenhagen on 11 February 1902; died in Copenhagen 24 March 1971.
- Studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen until 1927. Both an architect and designer, Jacobsen was awarded medals during this time for his chair design at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and his design for an art gallery from the academy.
- Working with Flemming Lassen, the two designed “The House of the Future”, exhibiting the latest technological advances at the time. In 1929 the life-size model won first prize at the Academic Architects’ Association’s Housing and Building Fair.
- Jacobsen is unique in that some of architectural commissions incorporated compatible interior design features. Most notable designs such as the SAS Royal Hotel and St. Catherine’s College included furniture, fixtures and flatware all designed by Jacobsen.
- Most notable is Jacobsen’s ability to translate aspects of the modernist movement into practical, functional design.
- Born in Ordrup, Denmark on 30 January 1912; died in Ordrup, Denmark on 17 May 1989.
- Received his degree in architecture from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, studying under leading architect Kay Fisker. Upon graduating, Juhl went on to work at Vilhelm Lauritzen’s architectural firm where he was responsible for designing Denmark’s Radio Building.
- Crossing over into interior design, he began creating pieces for his own home. Joined cabinet maker Niels Vodder in 1937 and presented their collaboration at the 1945 Cabinetmakers’ Guild exhibition showcasing their furniture, including the Model 45 Armchair.
- Made his debut in the US in 1951. He represented Denmark, designing a meeting hall inside the United Nations headquarters located in New York. Along with Arne Jacobsen and several other Danish architects, is considered a pioneer in introducing Danish Modern architecture to the US.
- Kaare Klint, born in Copenhagen, Denmark on 15 December 1888; died on 28 March 1954.
- Klint is renowned as the father of Danish furniture design. He believed that a thorough understanding of materials, proportions and constructions of classical furniture was the best basis for designing new, and ideal held in opposite of the Bauhaus modernist movement.
- Klint helped found the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Furniture School in 1923, and was appointed professor there in 1924. In this role, he inspired and taught a number of prominent Danish furniture designers, who went on to pave the way for the golden age of Danish design, from 1945 to 1975.
- Klint's influence led to a comprehensive renewal of Danish furniture design. He demanded clear and logical structures, with nothing superficial - only honest, pure lines, the best materials, and genuine craftsmanship.
- His style from the 1920s and 1930s had an immense influence on designers from the West, most notably Hans Wegner and Finn Juhl, and his notoriously Scandinavian aesthetic would make a lasting impression on modernist practices.
- He is ostensibly best noted for the Faaborg Chair (1914), the Safari Chair (1933) and the Church Chair (1936).
- Florence Knoll (née Schust), born in Saginaw, Michigan on 24 May 1917.
- An early protégée of Eliel Saarinen (father of Eero Saarinen; architect and industrial designer noted for his neo-futuristic style), Knoll studied architecture at the Kingswood School on the campus of the Cranbrook Academy of Art. She went on to study at the Architectural Association (AA) in London and the Armour Institute (Illinois Institute of Technology) in Chicago.
- While in Chicago, Knoll studied with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. She worked briefly in Boston for Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer.
- Knoll was part of a movement to professionalize interior design in America and played a key role in defining the new field of interior design.
- Knoll was commissioned to do the interiors of the Rockefeller family offices in Rockefeller Plaza, design of the offices of Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1952-54), and is also renowned for her furniture designs.
- Pioneered “paste-up” tool, a miniature bird’s-eye view of the interior with fabric swatches and wood chips for furniture, a tool that is still used today.
- Born in Marquette, Michigan on 16 August 1911; died in Los Angeles, California on 24 October 1994.
- Lautner worked with Frank Lloyd Wright in 1930s, as a result, his later work would reflect many of Wright’s ideas, designs and philosophies.
- The homes Lautner designed were often on unique sites and locations including sides of hills or coastal shores.
- Lautner was officially named the Olympic Architect for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
- Lautner practiced for over 50 years, designing more than 200 buildings of which only a dozen or so are outside of California.
- He was known for his contributions to Googie architecture – a distinct form influenced by the Atomic Age. A popular design for motels, coffee houses and gas stations, characteristics of this style included large glass walls and large neon signage to capture patrons in automobiles.
- born in Aachen, Germany on 27 March 1886; died in Chicago, Illinois on 17 August 1969.
- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, commonly referred to as “Mies,” was a German-born architect and furniture designer. In 1930, Mies became the director of the Bauhaus but fled Nazi Germany to US in 1938.
- Once there, Mies led the Department of Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology for 20 years, resigning in 1958 at the age of 72.
- He received Gold Medals from both the Royal Institute of British Architects (1959) and the AIA (1960), as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon Johnson in 1963.
- Mies is renowned for his Barcelona chair and ottoman, the Brno chair, and the expression “less is more” in architecture.
- Born in San Francisco on 20 January 1872; died in San Francisco on 2 February 1957.
- Morgan graduated with a degree in civil engineering from Berkeley where her interest in architecture was presumably sparked by her mother’s cousin, Pierre Le Brun (designer of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower in New York City).
- Went on to pursue her architectural studies in Paris at École des Beaux-Arts; however, was initially refused admission as the school had never before admitted a woman.
- After a two-year wait, Julia Morgan gained entrance to the prestigious program and became the first woman to receive a certificate in architecture.
- After returning to San Francisco, Morgan began working for John Galen Howard, who at that time was the supervising architect of the University of California’s Master Plan.
- Morgan opened her own architectural firm in 1904 and was soon commissioned for a number of residences in the Piedmont, Claremont and Berkeley neighbourhoods.
- She was a pioneer in the First Bay Tradition – a local adaptation of several related architectural styles – which echoed mid-century aesthetics of links to nature, and use of locally sourced materials.
- Notable works include the bell tower on the campus of Mills College in Oakland, which withstood the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake, as well as the Fairmont Hotel after the 1906 earthquake, the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove and a series of YMCA buildings in California, Hawaii and Utah.
- Born in Hartford, Connecticut on 29 May 1908; died in New York on 5 March 1986.
- Nelson graduated from Yale with a degree in architecture in 1928 and a degree in fine arts in 1931. He received the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome in 1932. While in Rome, Nelson first took to writing articles and interviewing leading designers for the magazine Pencil Points.
- Published in 1945, Nelson co-authored Tomorrow’s House with Henry Wright. The book, introducing innovative interior design concepts, caught the attention of Herman Miller. The furniture manufacturer invited Nelson to become the design director of his company, initiating a business relationship that would last for several decades.
- Prior to his employment at Herman Miller, Nelson’s primary concern with design was the process more than the product, as he had yet to design anything. Despite this, he became one of the leading founders of American Modernism. His most prominent works, developed by himself and his associates, include the ball clock, the marshmallow and coconut chair, the bubble lamp, the living room and the Storagewall.
- In addition to opening his own design studio in 1946, Nelson also organized design summits in Aspen and wrote extensively. His architectural portfolio includes the La Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá and the Kirkpatrick family home.
- Born in Vienna, Austria 8 Apr 1892; died in Wuppertal, Germany 16 Apr 1970.
- A talented artist in his youth, Neutra went on to study architecture at the Technishe Hochschule in Vienna.
- Neutra received his earliest architectural inspiration from Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos. He worked in the Berlin office of Erich Mendelsohn and in the Wisconsin studio of Frank Lloyd Wright, before settling in Los Angeles (1925).
- In Switzerland, Neutra worked with the landscape architect Gustav Ammann and in Berlin with Erich Mendelsohn. In 1923 Neutra went to the USA where from time to time worked directly with Frank Lloyd Wright in Taliesin/Wisconsin3. Formed a tenuous partnership with his fellow expatriate Rudolph Schindler before establishing his own practice.
- Notable works include Singleton House, Bel Air, California, the Kaufmann Desert House (1946) and the Lovell Health House (1927-29).
- Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 15 December 1907; died in Rio de Janeiro on 5 December 2012.
- Graduated from the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes in 1934 and joined the offices of Lúcio Costa, an architect from the Modernist school.
- His designs were noted for their free-flowing forms with a heavy use of concrete and a propensity toward curves.
- Niemeyer worked with Costa on many major buildings between 1936 and 1943, including the design for Brazil's Ministry of Education and Health building, which was part of a collaboration with Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier.
- Niemeyer received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1988, the highest award in the profession, for his Cathedral of Brasilia.
- Niemeyer was recognized on the US scene when his and Lúcio Costa’s (an architect from the Modernist school) iconic pavilion for the 1939 New York World’s Fair gained the attention and praise of legendary Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. La Guardia was so impressed with Niemeyer's design that he declared him an honorary citizen of New York.
- Notable works include the United Nations building, the Contemporary Art Museum in Niterói and major buildings in the capital city of Brasília including; the presidential palace, the Brasília Palace Hotel, the Ministry of Justice building, the presidential chapel and the cathedral as the government’s Chief Architect.
- Niemeyer’s work was largely commercial with the exception of his personal residence, Casa das Canoas (1952) in Rio de Janeiro.
- Jean Prouvé, born in Nancy, France on 8 April 1901; died in Nancy, France on 23 March 1984.
- Architect and designer.
- Prouvé owned and operated from 1922 to 1954 a workshop for the manufacture of wrought-iron objects having been traditionally trained as a metalworker.
- From 1958 to 1971, he went on to teach at the School of Arts and Crafts (Conservatoire National des Arts et Matières) where he was elected a member of the Academy of Architecture in Paris in 1972.
- During his time, Prouvé established himself as a key figure for his pioneering work with prefabricated metal structures which increasingly abandoned the over enthusiastic curves of Art Deco to embrace the clean lines and flat planes of Mid-Century Modernism.
- He was also notably a consultant and collaborator to the likes of Le Corbusier, Marcel Lods and Eugène Beaudoin, Charlotte Perriand, Yona Friedman, Georges Candilis.
- Partly due to their shared militancy in the Resistance, Prouvé found a kindred spirit in Pierre Jeanneret with whom he had an extremely worthwhile intellectual and technical exchange. He collaborated heavily with Jeanneret on furnishings for his designs.
- Charlotte Perriand, born in Paris, France on 24 October 1903; died in Paris, France on 27 October 1999.
- Perriand become renowned as an architect but also as a designer, especially for her iconic 20th-century furniture including such pieces as the LC “Fauteuil Grand Confort” set of Modernist living-room furniture. This was one of many collaborations with Le Corbusier and his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret.
- At the age of 24, Perriand designed a rooftop bar for the Salon d’Automne to which she invited Le Corbusier. Upon seeing her work, Le Corbusier hastily invited Perriand to join the Le Corbusier studio.
- While attending lectures by Maurice Dufrêne – the studio director of La Maîtrise workshop – at the Galeries Lafayette department store, Perriand was able to create pragmatic applicable projects.
- In 1940, together with Jeanneret, Jean Prouvé and Georges Blanchon, Perriand established an architectural office for the design of prefabricated aluminum buildings.
- Her notable works include a prototype kitchen for Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation (1950), the London office for Air France (1958)1 and conference rooms for the United Nations in Geneva.
- Perriand went on to further develop an egalitarian philosophy of furniture design, rapidly becoming one of France's most prolific and collected furniture designers of the 20th century.
- Born in Kirkkonummi, Finland on 20 August 1910; died in Ann Arbor, Michigan on 1 September 1961.
- Eero was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer born in Finland to famous parents, architect Eliel Saarinen and sculptor Loja Gesellius.
- He moved to the US in 1923 and would later go on to join his father’s firm in 1938.
- Eero’s first independent work following his father’s death was the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan.
- In the 11 years that he survived his father, Saarinen’s own work included a series of dramatically different designs that displayed a richer and more diverse vocabulary.
- Saarinen also notably won a national furniture award with Charles Eames in 1941 for a molded plywood chair design known as the “relaxation chair”.
- Born in Portland, Oregon 4 Apr 1913; died in La Jolla, California 19 Dec 2010
- Watkin earned her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College in 1933, and a B. Arch. from the Architecture School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1937.
- At that time, Penn did not admit women to the Architecture School, so she enrolled in the School of Fine Arts. There she took all the courses required for an architecture degree, and together with two other young women, insisted that the university confer a Bachelor of Architecture degree, making them the first women to receive that degree from Penn's distinguished Architecture School.
- Watkin designed her own home in Kent Woodlands with husband Joe consulting. She also collaborated with architect Fred Coolidge from 1953 to 1970.
- Women were often discouraged from studying architecture. Many men preferred not to work alongside them simply because they were different, or because men thought they would not work as hard, or would prove disruptive.
- After her divorce from Joseph Esherick (1951), she started her own practice, mostly designing houses, apartments and alterations, some of which were built by her second husband, Harold Watkin.
- Watkin helped found and lead the Marin Ecumenical Association for Housing, which has provided hundreds of low-income housing units in the county.
- Notable works include the summer camp for Girl Scouts as well as the family home in Kent Woodlands, CA (1950).
- Born in Los Angeles on 18 February 1894; died 23 January 1980, Los Angeles.
- Williams attended the Los Angeles atelier of the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design (1913–16) and was certified as an architect in 1915.
- From 1920 to 1922 he worked for John C. Austin (with whom he later collaborated), turning his attention to designs for large public buildings.
- At age 28, Williams founded his own practice, Paul R. Williams and Associates and become the first African American member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1923.
- His retro-futuristic designs guided the mid-century modern movement into what later became known as Googie – a style of futurist architecture influenced by car culture, jets, the Space Age, and the Atomic Age.
- Notable works include LAX Theme Building, Palm Springs Tennis Club and the private residences of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and Frank Sinatra.
- Born in Richland Center, Wisconsin on 8 June 1867; died in Phoenix, Arizona on 9 April 1959.
- Originally Wright studied civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, but after assisting architect Joseph Silsbee with the construction of the Unity Chapel in Chicago, he shifted focus to architecture, dropping out of school after two years to go work with the architect in Chicago.
- Wright was greatly influenced by architect Louis Sullivan –known for his skyscraper designs—following an apprenticeship with his Chicago firm, Adler and Sullivan.
- He was known for his “organic style” of architecture which linked the human environment with its natural setting. Wright’s buildings integrated with the surroundings they were built in becoming a “grace to the landscape instead of a disgrace.”
- Wright’s work was known as “prairie style,” characterized by strong horizontal lines, organic materials and flat or hipped roofs with broad overhangs—a uniquely American style inspired by prairie landscapes.
- Well known buildings designed by Wright include: Taliesen, Taliesen West, Fallingwater, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
- Wright would also go on to train Mid-Century Modern architects Richard Neutra and Rudolph Schindler.
West Coast Mid-Century Modern Architects
- Richard (Dick) Archambault, born in Vancouver, BC; died in Vancouver, BC 23 November 2010.
- Archambault received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of British Columbia in 1955. In 1959, he joined the AIBC, later serving on AIBC Council from 1968 to 1975 including time as treasurer and a two-year term as president.
- Archambault received funding from the British Pilkington Glass Company to study in Britain in 1956. There had been a few Canadian Modernists who were able to tap the opportunity to visit Europe before the war.
- Once returning to Vancouver, Archambault would go on to co-found the reputable Downs/Archambault Architects together with Barry Downs.
- His notable works include the Hebb Physics Addition, University of British Columbia (1956).
- Born in Medicine Hat, Alberta 10 Feb 1909; died in Vancouver 16 Mar 1976.
- Bertram Charles Binning, who built one of Vancouver’s first modernist houses, began as a painter, and was influenced by the likes of William Morris, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus school.
- Appointed to Vancouver School of Art in 1934, and to the University of British Columbia School of Architecture in 1949.
- Soon after he founded the Department of Fine Arts (and became involved in the "Art in Living Group,”), which he headed for a quarter century.
- Notable works include mural for Imperial Bank of Commerce, and the colour scheme for downtown Vancouver’s B.C. Electric Building, and Dal Grauer Substation.
- Worked closely with architects C.E. Pratt and R.A.D. Berwick in constructing his now famous historic residence built in 1941 on Mathers Crescent. Binning’s home was also something of a mid-century salon, with writers, artists and architects, including Ron Thom and Arthur Erickson, coming there to mingle and be inspired.
- Pioneered and advocated for the development of a contemporary residential building vocabulary that was economical in construction and sensitive to its setting.
- Born in Vancouver, on 19 June 1930.
- Barry Downs earned his architecture degree at the University of Washington from 1950 to 1954. In 1969, after working independently for a couple years, he formed the firm Downs Archambault Architects with Richard B. Archambault.
- Downs’ work is characterized as carefully planned, simple and undecorated; however, it is also highly conscious of its surroundings and is cited to have pioneered the architectural style known as ‘West Coast Modernism’.
- Barry trained at Thompson, Berwick and Pratt and worked with some of the city’s most exciting and imaginative architects. Arthur Erickson, Ron Thom, Fred Hollingsworth, Paul Merrick and B.C. Binning at one time all worked under the guidance of Ned Pratt. Downs left to form a partnership with Fred Hollingsworth in 1963. Six years later he and Richard Archambault launched their own company with residential houses as their bread and butter.
- The Downs residence – created in 1959 for his family by Downs himself in the Dunbar-Southlands area of Vancouver – was one of 15 Canadian houses selected for the Massey Medal Exhibition in 1961.
- Among his most notable projects are Pearson College, Kwantlen University, the Vancouver Library, the new Vancouver communities of Champlain Heights and False Creek, and the former Expo 86 site.
- Born in Vancouver, BC 14 June 1924; died in Vancouver 20 May 2009.
- In 1963, Erickson won a competition with Geoffrey Massey to design Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC. He would go on to partner with Massey from 1963-1972.
- Besides residential commissions, other notable Erickson buildings within the Vancouver area include the Provincial Law Courts on Hornby Street and the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.
- In 1986, Erickson became the first Canadian to win the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects.
- Originally, Erickson had planned to be a diplomat, however after seeing a 1947 article featuring Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesen West, he decided to study architecture instead.
- Born in Golborne, Lancaster, England on 8 Jan, 1917; died in North Vancouver, BC on 10 April 2015 .
- Hollingsworth first came to prominence in the late 1940s, designing simple, elegant post-and-beam homes in North Vancouver and drew inspiration from architectural legend Frank Lloyd Wright whom he knew and visited in Arizona.
- Formed a group known as “The Intellects" with his friend Ron Thom, and including Bud Wood, Beans Justice, Arthur Erickson and Barry Downs, with whom he would form a partnership in 1963.
- Developed a line of houses entitled “Neoteric” houses. Neoteric houses had modular post-and-beam structure atop concrete slab on grade containing a radiant heating system. They followed a generic type adjusted for individual clients.
- He has won the highest professional honours, being elected President of the Architectural Institute of BC (1971-72) and of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, (1975-76), as well as Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1976.
- Notable works include the West Vancouver mansion for the developer Nat Bosa (1991-93), and the Sky Bungalow (1949).
- The Sky Bungalow was a sample home commissioned by developer Eric Allan intended for display in the Hudson’s Bay parking lot. As per the Bay’s instructions, the house was to take up no more than three stalls. Hollingsworth built the Frank Lloyd Wright inspired show home atop beams that floated it above the cars. The Bungalow is a beautifully detailed example of Hollingsworth’s “Neoteric” post-and-beam design and still exists at its current address on Aintree Drive.
- Hollingsworth’s son, Russell Hollingsworth, is also a successful architect, and established Hollingsworth Architecture Inc. in Vancouver.
- Born in Geneva, Switzerland 1911; died in Langdale, England 1961.
- Swiss-born Frederic Lasserre was a McGill graduate who had studied modern design in Switzerland and had worked with the British avant-garde architectural group Tecton
- Lasserre founded and served as first Chair of the architectural programme - the province's first and, so far, only one - at the University of British Columbia (1946-47).
- Collaborated with Wolfgang Gerson, Rolf Duschenes and H. Peter Oberlander, as well as Oberlander’s wife, landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander.
- His namesake building on the UBC campus, which still houses the architecture program and administrative offices, reflects his vision of modernist architecture. He also proposed that the School of Architecture play a major consulting role in the overall campus design.
- The Friedman House - his famous collaboration with Cornelia Oberlander - was recently purchased by tech millionaire Cody Fauser of Shopify and wife Maria Urbina-Fauser.
- Geoffrey Massey received both his bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture from Harvard University.
- After graduation in 1952 he worked for Sharp & Thompson, Berwick, Pratt until 1957.
- Involved with Arthur Erickson on various projects in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the two formed Erickson/Massey Architects in 1963 and almost immediately drew international acclaim for their Simon Fraser University.
- Along with Erickson, Massey would work on Ruth Killiam’s home in Whytecliffe and later, go on to marry the painter.
- After the dissolving of the partnership in 1972, Massey continued his own practice until 1994.
- The Massey family has long been one of the most prominent supporters of Canadian culture and arts and Massey’s own art and influence shaped the modernist style of West Coast homes.
- Notable works include residence of Ruth Killam (1955) in West Vancouver, Simon Fraser University (1965), MacMillan Bloedel Building (1968).
- Robert Ross McKee, born in Vancouver, BC in 1913; died in Vancouver, BC on 20 October 1984.
- Born in Vancouver, McKee studied architecture at the University of Washington in Seattle from 1934-38, training in the beaux-arts style.
- McKee spent his summer vacations back in Vancouver working in the office of McCarter & Nairne, and for B.K. Van Norman from 1935 to 1939.
- In the 1940s and 50s, McKee was one of the city’s more prominent architects, completing significant commissions and gaining regular coverage in Canadian architecture journals and magazines.
- After the Second World War, McKee began his own Vancouver practice where he regularly mixed European Modernism with Populuxe influences – a consumer culture a combining what was popular and luxury.
- In 1964 McKee left Vancouver for Ottawa to join the office of John C. Parkin, then Canada’s largest Modernist firm and highly regarded for their institutional and corporate work. He returned in 1968 and quietly continued his practice until retiring in 1979.
- His most notable works include the Pearson Residence (1951), Rupert Taylor Motel in Hope, BC (1949), Granville Chapel (1950) and the offices of Lovick Advertising (1957).
- Duncan Stuart McNab, born in Nanton, Alberta on 9 February 1917; died in Vancouver, BC on April 18, 2007.
- Graduating from McGill’s School of Architecture, McNab defied the Beaux-Arts paradigm there and settled in Vancouver after the Second World War.
- His designs expressed the residential building mode of post-war Vancouver. They incorporated elements of the International Style yet responded to the regionalism of the Northwest coast forest by using primary inexpensive building materials of wood and glass.
- McNab quickly became a prolific designer of Modernist schools and other facilities, including Esquimalt’s 1964 Naval Armament Depot and the 1974 Vancouver Aquatic Centre.
- McNab was awarded fifth place in the 1963 competition to design Simon Fraser University and would go on to design the secondary buildings including the gymnasium and theatre.
- Paul Merrick, born in Vancouver, BC in 1938.
- Born in British Columbia, Paul Merrick graduated from the UBC School of Architecture in 1964.
- He joined Ron Thom in Toronto in 1966 and made contributions as principle to Trent University Sciences Complex, University Library and Court and the University Bridge.
- Upon returning to Vancouver in 1969 to join Thompson Berwick Pratt and Partners, he was promoted to partner in 1972 and became Chairman in 1976.
- Merrick undertook the CBC Building in Vancouver and the Orpheum Theatre renovation, for which the firm received a Governor General’s Award.
- In 1976, Merrick travelled to Britain with fellow architect Ned Pratt to develop the King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Upon his return, he formed Merrick Kennedy Architectural Group.
- Significant projects include a Trade and Convention Centre in Victoria; Meridian Hotel in Vancouver; Mount Royal College expansion in Calgary; and the Main and Terminal Complex concept in Vancouver, which won a 1985 Canadian Architect Award.
- Born in Meaford, Ont. on 20 March 1907; died in Vancouver on 13 September 1975.
- Charles Burwell Kerrens Van Norman moved to Vancouver in 1935 upon graduating from the University of Manitoba (ahead of Semmens, Simpson, and, in 1954, Jessiman) and joined Townley & Matheson to assist with the design and preparation of the drawings for the Vancouver Stock Exchange.
- In 1930 he commenced his own practice in that city and during the next ten years specialized in the design of private residences in the Lower Mainland.
- Van Norman had a particular interest in the techniques of prefabrication for wood frame houses often executed in a dramatic International Modern style, and he can be credited with being one of first architects in Vancouver to introduce this new aesthetic to the West Coast.
- Designed his family two-storey Vancouver residence in collaboration with Peter M. Thornton and two other young architects, William H. Birmingham and Robert McKee. The simple rectangular building was clad in local stone and wood siding, and possessed a gently sloping roof.
- Notable works include City Hall, Revelstoke, B.C. (1938), Park Royal Centre, West Vancouver and Beach Towers, Beach Avenue (1965).
- Born in Golborne, Lancaster, England on 8 January 1917; died in North Vancouver, BC on 10 April 2015.
- Ned Pratt was a key figure in the development of post-and-beam construction in the Vancouver area during the late 1940s. Using readily available timber, Pratt created radical-appearing yet functional and cost-effective housing suited to the West Coast climate.
- Pratt joined the firm Sharp and Thompson, became a principal in 1945, and transformed the firm Sharp and Thompson, Berwick and Pratt and Partners into the largest and most active architectural firm in Western Canada.
- Pratt became an influential proponent of the relatively new clean-lined International Style of 20th-century architecture.
- In 1949, he incorporated an architectural manifesto for future West Coast homes into a high-profile exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery entitled "Design for Living.”
- Pratt helped shape the careers of renowned architects Ronald Thom, Fred Hollingsworth and Barry Vance Downs, and steered them and others towards a more rationalist and pragmatic design approach.
- Born in Penticton, BC on 15 May 1923; died in Toronto 29 October 1986.
- Thom was trained as a painter at the Vancouver School of Art (now known as the Emily Carr University of Art and Design), where his interest in architecture was catalyzed B.C. Binning.
- In 1963, established his own Toronto-based practice entitled the “Thom Partnership” after apprenticing and later becoming partner at Thompson, Berwick and Pratt in Vancouver.
- He made his mark designing the iconic B.C. Electric head office building (now the Electra condominium tower) at Burrard Street and Nelson Avenue.
- Much of Thom’s work reflects his inclination for the Mingei folk craft movement which sought to find higher beauty in the handmade - he preferred artful irregularity over machine-like precision. The Japanese folk art movement was developed in the late 1920s and 1930s in Japan.
- Thom’s son Adam is himself an architect, co-founding the Toronto-based firm Agathom Co.
- Notable works include Trent University (Peterborough, ON), Massey College, University of Toronto, Faculty of Arts & Social Science Complex, Queen's University, Shaw Festival Theatre (Niagara-on-the-Lake), the Metropolitan Toronto Zoo (Toronto, ON) as well as the Cohen Residence (Vancouver, 1960), currently home to Jacqui Cohen and built for her father Samuel Cohen – the founder of Army and Navy Ltd.
- Born in London, in 1878; died in Vancouver on 1 August 1961.
- Thompson emigrated to Canada in 1906 and settled in Montreal. Here, he joined the architectural office of the Canadian Pacific Railway where he worked under the direct supervision of Walter S. Painter, assisting him with designs for the Mount Carmel Wing of the Chateau Frontenac in Québec City, and with layouts for the Banff Springs Hotel, and the original Chateau Lake Louise Hotel.
- Later, Thompson resigned his position as Assistant Chief Architect at the C.P.R. Railway, Montreal, and shifted to Vancouver where he formed a partnership with G.L. Thornton Sharp.
- Founded the longest surviving architectural firm in the history of Vancouver with George Sharp in 1908.
- Sharp & Thompson (1908 to 1945) firm’s major breakthrough came with the winning of an international competition for the new campus of the University of British Columbia at Point Grey in Vancouver in 1912.
- In 1936, they were joined by Robert A.D. Berwick and Charles E. Pratt as staff members in the firm. Upon Sharp’s retirement in 1939, Thompson invited the two to become associates and eventually, full partners.
- Thompson’s use of exposed concrete finishes jettisoned Mid-Century Modern style in Vancouver and his firm became instrumental in the local Modernist movement employing the likes of Ned Pratt, Ron Thom, Arthur Erickson and Barry Downs.
- Notable works include the B.C. Hydro Building in Vancouver (1955-57), the Vancouver Club (1912), and the University of British Columbia (1912).