Architecture in Transition: From Art to Practice, 1885-1906

Patricia Vervoort is an assistant professor of art history at Lakehead
University.

This is an eminently readable history of architects, architecture, and aesthetic ideas in Canada from 1865 to 1906. Crossman begins with the bungled competition for the Ontario Parliament Building in 1880-86, when Richard Watts, an American, was hired outright; this sets the stage for discussing the problems confronting the Canadian architect. By 1907, when the study concludes, Edward and William Maxwell had won the international competition for the Saskatchewan Legislature Building, demonstrating the significant change in the status of the architect in Canada. Crossman based his research on a review of architectural writing from 1885 to 1906; Ontario and Quebec are emphasized here, the Maritimes are barely mentioned, but architectural activity in Western Canada receives some attention. Seventy-one plates illustrate architects, plans, elevation drawings, and photographs. Notes and a bibliography clarify the sources, and an index ensures easy use.

After an introduction, Crossman divided his text into three parts: “Professionalism,” “New Ideas,” and “Nationalism.” “Professionalism,” in four chapters, traces developments from 1885 when the field of architecture was unregulated and commissions for major buildings were being offered to American architects. To combat this trend, Canadian architects attempted to organize themselves, campaigned for statutory regulations concerning the use of the title “architect, “ and endeavoured to establish formal architectural training in Canada. “New Ideas” includes chapters on new materials, and the importation of the French Beaux-Arts sys-tem of training architects by the Eighteen Club of Toronto, John Lyle, and the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal. “Nationalism” explores the role of architecture in the development of Canadian society and “Percy Nobbs and a National Theory” reviews the impact of Nobbs as a teacher at McGill and the influence of his writing. The final chapter sums up the attempts to create a national architecture in competitions for Ottawa and Regina. And as Crossman indicates, the role of the architect in Canada parallels that of other countries as architects adjusted to industrialized society. On reading Crossman’s book, it becomes evident that there has been a large gap in the history of architecture and aesthetic ideas in Canada.