Pearson and Darling
Encyclopedia
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
firm based in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
from 1897 through 1923, a key player in shaping the urban look of the city and the rest of Canada in the first half of the 20th century.
Formation
The firm was organized first as Darling, Curry, Sproatt, & Pearson in 1892, with partners Frank DarlingFrank Darling (architect)
Frank Darling was a Canadian architect and key player in buildings built in Toronto during the early 20th century and promoter of the Beaux-Arts style.-Life and career:...
, S. George Curry
S. George Curry
Samuel George Curry was a Canadian architect who practiced in Toronto as the junior partner of several of Toronto’s leading architects, among them Frank Darling and from 1892 Darling's partner John A. Pearson, Henry Sproatt, Francis S. Baker, Ernest Rolph and W. F...
, Henry Sproatt
Henry Sproatt
Henry Sproatt was a Canadian architect in the early 20th Century.Born in Toronto, he trained in Europe and in New York. He formed a partnership with another celebrated architect, John A. Pearson in 1890 and with Frank Darling in 1893...
, and John A. Pearson
John A. Pearson
John Andrew Pearson was an early 20th Century Canadian architect and partner to the Toronto-based firm of Pearson and Darling.Pearson emigrated to Canada in 1888...
. From 1893 through 1896 it evolved into Darling, Sproatt & Pearson, then finally Pearson and Darling was founded as such in 1897.
Its heyday began with Darling's commissions from the Canadian Bank of Commerce
Canadian Bank of Commerce
The Canadian Bank of Commerce was a Canadian bank cofounded in 1867 by William McMaster. The Canadian Bank of Commerce opened in Toronto with a charter in 1866 that it purchased from the defunct Bank of Canada, which folded in 1858....
in 1898, grand Beaux-Arts buildings in Toronto, Winnipeg, Montreal, and Vancouver, and dozens of smaller branches in smaller Canadian cities and towns. Darling's training with the English architect George Edmund Street
George Edmund Street
George Edmund Street was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex.- Life :Street was the third son of Thomas Street, solicitor, by his second wife, Mary Anne Millington. George went to school at Mitcham in about 1830, and later to the Camberwell collegiate school, which he left in 1839...
in the early 1870s brought a serious, substantial, Victorian influence, well-suited to large civic and institutional projects in the years of the nation's development.
Their subsequent projects included the first tall steel-frame building in Canada (the Royal Tower in Winnipeg, 1904), the tallest building in Canada for three decades (the 1930 Canadian Bank of Commerce Building
Commerce Court
Commerce Court is a complex of four office buildings on King- and Bay-streets in the financial district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, The main tenant is the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce...
in Toronto), and the largest single building in the British Commonwealth (the Sun Life Building
Sun Life Building
The Sun Life Building is a historic office building on Dorchester Square in downtown Montreal, Canada.-History and construction:...
, Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, 1931).
Legacy
After the deaths of Frank Darling in 1923 and Pearson in 1940, the firm was renamed Darling, Pearson and Cleveland with Darling's nephew as a partner. The firm continued asClark, Darling and Downey Architects Incorporated in 1977. The firm lives on now as Toronto based Stanford Downey Architects Incoporated.
Pearson and Darling
- Alpha Delta PhiAlpha Delta PhiAlpha Delta Phi is a Greek-letter social college fraternity and the fourth-oldest continuous Greek-letter fraternity in the United States and Canada. Alpha Delta Phi was founded on October 29, 1832 by Samuel Eells at Hamilton College and includes former U.S. Presidents, Chief Justices of the U.S....
Toronto Chapter House, 1894. Originally known as the Ince house - University of Toronto Faculty of LawUniversity of Toronto Faculty of LawEstablished in 1887, the University of Toronto Faculty of Law is one of the oldest professional faculties at the University of Toronto. The Faculty of Law is particularly renowned in the areas of corporate law, international law, law and economics, and legal theory.The law school has been...
, Flavelle House, 1901 - Royal Tower, Winnipeg, with the George A. FullerGeorge A. FullerGeorge A. Fuller was an architect often credited as being the "inventor" of modern skyscrapers and the modern contracting system.-Early life and career:Fuller was born in Templeton, Massachusetts, near Worcester...
Co., 1904 - 197 Yonge Street197 Yonge StreetImage: 199 Yonge Street Toronto.jpg|320px|right|thumb| The historic building at 197 - 199 Yonge Streetwas formerly a four-floor Canadian Bank of Commerce building built in 1905 by architects Pearson and Darling...
, Toronto, 1905 - Canadian Bank of CommerceCanadian Bank of Commerce (Watson, Saskatchewan)The Canadian Bank of Commerce in Watson, Saskatchewan, was constructed in 1906 in a Greek Revival style. The Toronto firm of Pearson and Darling served as architects. This building was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1977 and currently houses the Watson and District Heritage Museum....
, Watson, Saskatchewan, 1906 - Convocation HallConvocation Hall (University of Toronto)Convocation Hall is a domed rotunda on the grounds of the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Designed by Pearson and Darling and completed in 1907, it was inspired by the grand theatre of the Sorbonne and the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford...
, University of Toronto, 1906 - Moose Jaw Court HouseMoose Jaw Court HouseThe historic Moose Jaw Court House building is located in downtown Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. The building is 2 stores making use of steel construction, hydraulic pressed brick and Bedford Stone trimmed with Indiana Limestone. The building is oldest continuously functioning provincial court...
, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan 1908 - Old Canadian Bank of Commerce Building, MontrealOld Canadian Bank of Commerce Building, MontrealThe Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Building is a building at 265 Saint-Jacques Street in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.-History:The building was erected in was built in 1906-1909...
, 1906-09 - University of TorontoUniversity of TorontoThe University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
Sanford Fleming Building and Sigmund Samuel Building, 1907, and additions to the latter in 1912
- The Church of St. Mary MagdaleneChurch of St. Mary Magdalene (Toronto)The Church of St. Mary Magdalene is an Anglo-Catholic parish of the Anglican Church of Canada located in Toronto. It is famous for its association with composer Healey Willan and was part of the composite Robertson Davies used to form "St. Aidan's" in his novel The Cunning Man...
, 1908 - Grain Exchange Building, Winnipeg, 1908
- Toronto General HospitalToronto General HospitalThe Toronto General Hospital , is a part of the University Health Network, and a major teaching hospital in downtown Toronto, Ontario. It is located in the Discovery District, directly north of the Hospital for Sick Children, across Gerrard Street West, and east of Princess Margaret Hospital and...
, College Wing, now the MaRS Discovery DistrictMaRS Discovery DistrictMaRS Discovery District is a not-for-profit corporation founded in Toronto in 2000. Its stated goal is to commercialize publicly funded medical research with the help of local private enterprises and as such is a public-private partnership....
building, 1911 - Canadian Pacific Building, Toronto, for a time the tallest building in Canada, 1913
- One King Street West, Toronto, 1914
- Royal Ontario MuseumRoyal Ontario MuseumThe Royal Ontario Museum is a museum of world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With its main entrance facing Bloor Street in Downtown Toronto, the museum is situated north of Queen's Park and east of Philosopher's Walk in the University of Toronto...
original building, 1914 - Parkwood EstateParkwood EstateThe Parkwood Estate, located in Oshawa, Ontario Canada was the home of Samuel McLaughlin and was home to the McLaughlins from 1917 until 1972. Construction began in 1916 by the Toronto architectural firm of Pearson and Darling...
, 1916 - Summerhill-North Toronto CPR StationSummerhill-North Toronto CPR StationThe North Toronto or Summerhill CPR Station is a former Canadian Pacific Railway station in Toronto, Canada, located on the east side of Yonge Street, approximately 250m south of the Summerhill TTC subway station...
1916 - Art Gallery of OntarioArt Gallery of OntarioUnder the direction of its CEO Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO embarked on a $254 million redevelopment plan by architect Frank Gehry in 2004, called Transformation AGO. The new addition would require demolition of the 1992 Post-Modernist wing by Barton Myers and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg...
original building, 1916 - 101 College Street, Toronto, 1919
- Varsity ArenaVarsity ArenaVarsity Arena is an arena in Toronto, Ontario. It is located at 299 Bloor Street West and is primarily home to the ice hockey teams of the University of Toronto, the Varsity Blues, though it also hosted the Toronto Toros of the WHA from 1973–74 and the Toronto Planets of the RHI in 1993...
, Toronto, 1926 - Private Patients Pavilion (Thomas J. Bell Wing), Toronto General HospitalToronto General HospitalThe Toronto General Hospital , is a part of the University Health Network, and a major teaching hospital in downtown Toronto, Ontario. It is located in the Discovery District, directly north of the Hospital for Sick Children, across Gerrard Street West, and east of Princess Margaret Hospital and...
, 1930 - Canadian Bank of Commerce BuildingCommerce CourtCommerce Court is a complex of four office buildings on King- and Bay-streets in the financial district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, The main tenant is the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce...
building in TorontoTorontoToronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
; now Commerce Court NorthCommerce CourtCommerce Court is a complex of four office buildings on King- and Bay-streets in the financial district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, The main tenant is the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce...
, 1930
Darling, Pearson and Cleveland
- Sun Life BuildingSun Life BuildingThe Sun Life Building is a historic office building on Dorchester Square in downtown Montreal, Canada.-History and construction:...
, MontrealMontrealMontreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, 1931 - expansions to the Art Gallery of OntarioArt Gallery of OntarioUnder the direction of its CEO Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO embarked on a $254 million redevelopment plan by architect Frank Gehry in 2004, called Transformation AGO. The new addition would require demolition of the 1992 Post-Modernist wing by Barton Myers and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg...
, 1935 - Complexe DesjardinsComplexe DesjardinsComplexe Desjardins is a mixed-use office, hotel, and shopping mall complex located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The project was designed to develop the eastern end of downtown Montreal, it is located in the quadrilateral formed by Saint Catherine, Saint-Urbain, and Jeanne Mance streets, and René...
, Montreal, 1976