Persoon

Adamson, Gordon S.

1904-1986

Born in Orangeville, Ont. on 19 May 1904 he was educated at public and high schools in that town and came to Toronto in 1924 where he enrolled at the School of Architecture at the University of Toronto. Upon graduation with honours in 1928 he was employed by F. Hilton Wilkes of Toronto and worked on the design of the Canada Permanent Building, Bay Street (1928-30) and then joined the office of Sproatt & Rolph in November 1929 where he remained until September 1930. He assisted the prominent landscape architect Edwin Kay of Toronto from June of 1932 until October 1933 and then moved to Montreal where he supervised the construction of multiple-unit housing projects for the Shell Oil Co. Adamson commenced his own practise in Toronto in July, 1934
In the company of other young talented architects who had emerged in Toronto at this time, including John B. Parkin, Robert S. Morris, and Earle Morgan (the latter with whom he had a brief partnership from 1943 to 1945), the Adamson office grew and by the mid-1950's had become one of the dominant forces in the development of a distinctive Canadian interpretation of modern architecture. Adamson was elected as an Associate Member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1950, and became president of the Ontario Association of Architects in 1953. It was in that year that he received his first Massey Medal from the Governor General for his design of an apartment building on Forest Hill Road at Eglinton Avenue West in Toronto. He retired from active practice in March 1971 and died in Toronto on 8 January 1986

Adamson Associates Architects (1934-)