Arthur Cubbidge (1881-1952) was a Winnipeg architect. Cubbidge was born in Maidstone, England and immigrated to Winnipeg in 1907, where he worked as an assistant to local architect John Woodman. In 1917, Woodman invited Cubbidge to become a partner in his firm, where they worked on local public buildings, primarily schools. In 1924, Cubbidge began his own firm, where he continued his work on public buildings such as schools, hospitals, businesses both locally and beyond. Cubbidge also designed many residential projects, particularly in the Wellington Crescent neighbourhood.

Arthur Cubbidge (1881-1952) was a Winnipeg architect. Cubbidge was born in Maidstone, England and immigrated to Winnipeg in 1907, where he worked as an assistant to local architect John Woodman. In 1917, Woodman invited Cubbidge to become a partner in his firm, where they worked on local public buildings, primarily schools. In 1924, Cubbidge began his own firm, where he continued his work on public buildings such as schools, hospitals, businesses both locally and beyond. Cubbidge also designed many residential projects, particularly in the Wellington Crescent neighbourhood.

Augustus Burton Stovel was born in Winnipeg in 1921 and attended the University of Manitoba from 1941-1947. His studies were interrupted by the Second World War. He served in the Armed Forces, first as a pilot with R.A.F. No. 139 (Mosquito Bomber) squadron, then instructed on Wellingtons for Transport Command, and ferried Mosquitoes for No. 45 Atlantic Transport Group. He was discharged as a Flight Lieutenant and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (D.F.C.)

He graduated from the University of Manitoba as Gold Medallist, Bachelor of Architecture, in 1947. Upon graduation, Mr. Stovel began his career with Frank R. Lount and Son Ltd. The company was active in the development of Silver Heights, a new residential community in St. James, and Stovel designed and supervised the construction of many of the homes in that development. He was also involved in the design of a number of apartment blocks for the company.

In 1968, Stovel left Frank R. Lount and established his own design and construction firm, A.B. Stovel Limited. Projects included numerous private residences in Tuxedo, River Heights, St. Charles and Charleswood, as well as summer homes in the Lake of the Woods area. Mr. Stovel was also involved in the design and construction of several commercial buildings in Winnipeg.

He served on the National Housebuilders' Research Committee; Special Committee on Housing, National Building Code; Canadian Housing Design Council; Building By-Law Advisory Committee, Winnipeg Metropolitan Corporation; and was Chairman of both the St. James School Board Building Committee and the St. James Y.M.C.A. Board Building Committee.

Claude was born in 1931 in Basel, Switzerland to George and Esther De Forest. Immigrating to Canada in 1949, the de Forest family landed in Montreal before settling in Winnipeg in the early fifties. Claude's natural drawing abilities and long family line of architects led him to pursue a BArch from the University of Manitoba in 1955 followed by a Masters in Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Upon graduation, Claude was hired as a junior designer with the prestigious Eero Saarinen and Associates office outside of Detroit. In 1958, he took an architectural pilgrimage through Asia and it was during this trip that he met his future wife Yoshiko in Kyoto, Japan. They were married in 1960 and returned to Winnipeg where he had begun teaching in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba under the Deanship of John A. Russell. He became a Registered Architect, with the Manitoba Association of Architects, in 1962. In 1994, he retired as Full Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies.

Known for his energetic and imaginative teaching style, Claude was also prescient in his teachings of alternative energy sources and ecological awareness. A committed activist and believer in social justice, he was dedicated to disability issues and socially responsible design and was a leading force in the establishment of the Universal Design Institute at the University of Manitoba. Claude taught Environmental Studies at the inner city based Winnipeg Education Centre and served as Executive Director for the Canadian Institute for Barrier Free Design. He was also Chair of the Education Committee for the Canadian Centre on Disability Studies and received the Lifetime Achievement Winnipeg Accessibility Award for community leadership in Universal Design from the City of Winnipeg in 2007.

Claude's connection to Japan led him to organize the Shimizu-Manitoba Architect Exchange Fellowship which hosted Japanese architects for 18 years and sent young Canadian architects to Japan. He also spent two sabbaticals studying and living in Kyoto with Yoshiko where they enjoyed seeing the many sites and visiting with family and friends.

The Manitoba Association of Architects (MAA) is a professional organization which regulates the practice of architecture in the province of Manitoba. The MAA appoints representatives to a number of community organizations, including the Winnipeg Building Commission, the Historic Buildings Committee, the Manitoba Association of Architects/Winnipeg Construction Association Joint Committee, and various task groups. The MAA formed in 1906 following the establishment of a Provincial Architects’ Office for Manitoba in 1904 as a result of a demand for the self-regulation of architectural practice. One of the aims of the organization was to better the professional reputation of architects practicing in Manitoba, aided by the MAA’s formal incorporation under the Manitoba Architects’ Act in 1914.

Born in Montreal on October 9, 1920, Dennis Carter grew up in Croydon, England; his father held a position in London with the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1939, having returned to Canada just as the Second World War began, Carter began a Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Manitoba. He graduated with Honours in 1945 and was awarded the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) Gold Medal. His fifth year project, which was published in the RAIC Journal, was a detailed and thoughtful design for an office building-movie theatre complex and for a mixed-use community recreation centre that featured modular construction to facilitate future additional phases. During his academic years Carter worked for several months for Cowin and Co. Reinforced Concrete Engineers and spent two years with Moody Moore Architects.

In June 1947 Carter registered with the Manitoba Association of Architects. That same year, only two years out of university, he joined with two fellow University of Manitoba graduates – Ernest Smith and Walter L. Katelnikoff – to form a partnership known as Smith Carter Katelnikoff. This firm (in its later years without Katelnikoff) would become one of the pre-eminent architectural offices in Winnipeg, and one of the largest practices in the country. The post-war years proved to be an auspicious time for the firm to begin, with pent-up demand from the Depression and war, and increasing population unleashing a wave of construction. Smith Carter Katelnikoff quickly made a name for itself with such early projects as the 1948 renovation of its offices (on Portage Avenue East) followed by such academic works as Varennes School (22 Varennes Avenue, 1951), Ecole Marion (619 Rue Des Meurons, 1952) and Norwood Collegiate (188 St. Mary’s Road, 1955). The demand was such that the trio added a fourth partner, the experienced E. Fitz Munn, in 1954. In 1959, with Munn and Katelnikoff having departed in 1956 and 1958, respectively, Smith and Carter were joined by James E. Searle, another University of Manitoba architecture graduate.

Over the 1950s the young firm’s commissions grew both in terms of scale and sophistication. Careful attention to interior functions and appropriate materials satisfied their clients’ expectations and the practice became known for advocating a modernism adapted to express local climatic and cultural circumstances. The design and construction of the University of Manitoba’s School of Architecture in 1958-59 was a benchmark for Smith Carter Katelnikoff. Rectangular in form, the building contains an interior courtyard and entrances approached north and south by raised bridges. The curtain wall construction alternates clear and opaque glass with spandrels and columns of precast concrete of a fine limestone aggregate, set off by aluminum mullion (vertical bar between window panes) fins. Given its specialized functions for drafting, classroom, library and administration, the architects worked closely with the staff and students to achieve the best possible building and – under the direction of Dean John Russell – “good architecture.” In light of the building programme and specific requirements of the client group and the architects on both sides of the faculty, the School of Architecture (now known as the Russell Building) is a paradigmatic example of 1950s institutional architecture.

Carter and his eponymous firm were a central player in the architectural development of the city for the following decades. The many Winnipeg landmarks designed by Smith Carter continue to contribute to the life of the city. Examples of this – and of their distinctly modern approach during the post-war decades – include the Centennial Concert Hall (555 Main Street), the Manitoba Museum (190 Rupert Avenue), St. John's Ravenscourt School (400 South Drive) and the Monarch Life Building (333 Broadway). Carter himself took particular pride in his own contribution to the design of Rae & Jerry's Steak House (1405 Portage Avenue).

Over his career Carter served for many years as a studio critic at the University of Manitoba Faculty of Architecture. Made a fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 1963, he served as president of the Manitoba Association of Architects (MAA) in 1966 and 1967. Alongside his lifelong business partner Ernest Smith, Carter was awarded an honourary life membership to the MAA in 2000. Having worked as a student in the 1940s with Professor John A. Russell on sets for various drama and ballet productions, it was only natural for Carter to return to these interests as a professional, through his involvement with Rainbow Stage and as president of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet from 1961 to 1964. Carter likewise cared greatly for the improvement of health care spaces and architecture as a professional and citizen. During his final days at the Grace Hospital he delighted in telling the nurses there of his role in designing his own room. He was furthermore engaged in such organizations as the Winnipeg Flying Club, the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada (having been a founding member), the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba and the Zoological Society of Manitoba. In his retirement years Carter indulged his interest in flight through building model planes and helping to restore the aviation museum’s Tiger Moth heritage airplane.

Carter passed away at the age of 91 in June 2012.

Harlyn Elwood Thompson was born in Fargo, North Dakota, on July 3, 1933. He graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from North Dakota State University in 1956. He then studied at the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana) receiving a masters of Architecture in 1960. After graduation, he moved to London, England and worked for Chamberlin, Powell & Bon Architects, the architects for the Barbican. He was a ‘Block’ Architect responsible for large scale 'flat' housing.

Returning to the USA, he worked for a year with Vincent G. Kling & Associates, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the Norfolk Civic Center, Norfork, Virginia. From 1962-64, he worked with Louis I. Kahn, in Philadelphia. Projects underway included the Salk Institute in LaJolla, California. Thompson was Project Architect on the Bryn Mawr College Dormitory, Pennsylvania.

From 1964-1973, Thompson taught in the Department of Architecture & Planning, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland; the Department of Architecture, North Dakota State University, and the Department of Architecture, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio.

In 1973, he became a Professor at the New Jersey School of Architecture, New Jersey Institute of Technology. He was also appointed as the new school's first dean. He was accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) in 1978.

In 1980, Harlyn Thompson came to the University of Manitoba and joined the Faculty of Architecture as a professor and then as Dean, as well as working in private practice. He continued with the University in teaching and management roles until 1996. From 1997-2007, Thompson was Senior Scholar in the Faculty of Architecture, University of Manitoba.

Thompson also served as a consultant on a range of international projects. From 1990-96, he worked with the Architecture & Rural Planning, Nepal Education Project, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). From 1996-2005, he was a volunteer advisor through CES/SACO on the following projects: Site Analysis/Site Planning for a Motel, Grand Rapids First Nation (1996); Space Planning, Neechi Foods Co-op, Winnipeg (1998); Site Report, Outdoor Recreation Facility, Fisher River First Nation (1998); Introduce Architectural Consulting Services using CAD via the Internet, Chisinau, Moldova (2002).

Harlyn Thompson continued to contribute to Winnipeg’s architectural community through support of the annual Harlyn Thompson lecture series at the University of Manitoba and participation as a member of the Faculty of Architecture Partners Programme.

Harlyn Thompson passed away on August 17, 2021.

Born in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1917, Arthur James Donahue showed an early aptitude for design. The only child of a family involved in business and farming, Donahue was educated in Regina, followed by a year in Switzerland. His mother later married a man named Wallace, who was a partner in Wallace and Milne Ltd., Insurance and Loans in Regina. Wallace’s wealth allowed young Donahue to attend the best schools. In 1941, he graduated from the School of Architecture at the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Architecture, then with a Masters from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1942. There, under the influence of Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius, he gained strong exposure to the International Style. Donahue was the first Canadian to complete a degree at Harvard's Graduate School of Design.

Donahue returned to Canada during the war years and was promptly hired by the National Housing Authority in Ottawa, under the guidance of S. A. Gitterman. During this time, he was involved in creating a touring exhibit “Wood in Canada,” with Donald Buchanan in 1945. From May to October 1946, he worked at the National Research Council, later Central Mortgage and Housing, in Vancouver. These positions gave Donahue experience both in design and in the application of new pre-fabricated building techniques that were being developed at that time.

In May 1947, at the age of 30, he was recruited by John Russell at the University of Manitoba as a professor of architectural design for the faculty of the School of Architecture.

Donahue showed a keen aptitude and interest in furniture design, producing both a plywood-framed web chair in 1945, and a moulded plywood radio cabinet with A. G. Medwin. In 1946, he produced a prototype light-weight fiberglass-stacking chair (similar to the ubiquitous patio furniture of today) with the support of the National Research Council. Designed in partnership with fellow University of Manitoba graduate Douglas C. Simpson, this chair has been credited as the world's first plastic furniture. Four years later, Charles Eames produced his classic DAR series chairs in the United States, similar in design to Donahue’s. The Donahue moulded chair never went into production. Not long after his arrival in Winnipeg, Donahue designed another lounge chair which he produced in his basement with the help of his students. With low-slung curved lines made into a plywood shell, the chair was supported with metal rod legs. It was upholstered in fabrics in colours such as mustard, orange and lime green. Originally sold for $35 at the Hudson’s Bay Company, today the chairs are now considered collectors’ items. In 1946, he helped establish the Affiliation of Canadian Industrial Designers, and while furniture design remained a passion, his career took him elsewhere.

When applying to the Manitoba Architects Association (MAA) in 1948, Donahue stated that he had worked from May 1947 for a year under K. C. Stanley at the Planning Research Center at the University of Manitoba, which was part of a new program of interdisciplinary study. In response to the great increase in enrolment and over-crowded facilities, the School of Architecture was reorganising itself. The departments needed separation, so it was a period of change in which Jim Donahue was a vital element. Donahue was a dynamic and challenging lecturer whom many students regarded as a mentor through his years on campus. He participated fully in campus life, from committee work to studio critiques and as an advisor to Dean Russell on the School of Architecture’s role on the Campus Design and Planning Committee of 1957.

Some time before 1951, Donahue designed a home for his growing family of five at 8 Fulham Crescent in Tuxedo. Period photos illustrate a low rectangular mass with an angled roof and attached carport. When the family outgrew the home, he designed another at 301 Hosmer Boulevard, completed in 1956. The family vacated the old house and lived briefly in the Welgrove Apartments at 375 Wellington Crescent, which Donahue designed and oversaw construction of in 1955. Included in John Graham’s Winnipeg Architecture, the Welgrove is described as having a small reinforced concrete frame, sympathetic in scale to its older neighbours, with lines expressed in glass and masonry panels.

The new Donahue residence at the corner of Hosmer Boulevard and Corydon Avenue, was a rectangular form in natural cedar supported on stilts around a raised basement. Although only one storey, the building capitalises on the vistas and light of its raised design, thereby producing comfortable interior space and an inviting exterior. Donahue designed several houses in his career, preferring only natural materials and the use of large windows to integrate the interior with its setting. His philosophical functionalism was always tempered in his residential design.

In 1952, Donahue designed the Niakwa Country Club, located at 620 Niakwa Road. In 1959, he joined the Smith Carter Searle design team, to work on its submission to the Winnipeg City Hall juried competition. Although unsuccessful in that bid, Smith Carter Searle again partnered with Donahue for the design of the Monarch Life Building (1959-63) and the Faculty of Architecture Building, now the J.A. Russell Building (1959) at the University of Manitoba. Donahue is generally credited with being the principal designer for both of these landmark projects.

Monarch Life at 333 Broadway is a six-storey granite clad, steel frame office building, with prominent vertical lines. The upper floors cantilever over the main level at either end. The Russell Building, which is cited in many studies for its sparse modernistic lines, also floats over its basement with its cantilevered form. It is a persistent grid of exposed columns alternating with mullions that reach through its two floors. With its curtain wall and interior courtyard, it symbolically defined the School of Architecture’s commitment to modernist design.

On his own at this period, Donahue submitted an entry in the Confederation Building competition in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island in 1961, which Dean John Russell administered. His design was a three-sided development around an historic structure. This project paved the way for him to leave Winnipeg to accept a position in the fall of 1963, teaching at the Nova Scotia Technical College School of Architecture in Halifax, thus ending his career in Winnipeg.

Donahue’s practice included several buildings at the Technical University of Nova Scotia (TUNS) which is now DalTech: a university residence (O’Brian Hall in 1970), the School of Architecture Building (1976), and as a partner on the TUNS Design Center in 1985-89. Other projects include the Halifax Police Station (1975), the Nova Scotia Archives (1977) and the HMCS Sackville Theater in 1991.

Jim Donahue resided in an old house, which he renovated with his second wife in Chester, Nova Scotia. Later, he built his third residence, again of natural wood, in Lunenberg County outside Halifax, where he lived until his death on February 4, 1996.

George Andrew Stewart was born in Boissevain, Manitoba and was the son of a United Church minister, Reverend J. F. Stewart. Stewart graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from the University of Manitoba in 1948. He was awarded, among other prizes, the Manitoba Association of Architects (MAA) Scholarship and the Ralph Hamm Memorial Scholarship. After graduation, he established his own practice which he ran until 1970.

From 1970-1982, George A. Stewart worked as the Director of the University of Manitoba, Physical Planning and Design Office. During this time, he designed the Ellis Building, renovated the Buller Biological Laboratories and oversaw the design and construction of several new buildings.

Stewart served on the Manitoba Association of Architects (MAA) Council and as MAA President (1958). As well he served on numerous committees of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC). He was appointed as a Fellow of the RAIC in 1966. In 1965, he was appointed to the Winnipeg Better Housing Commission.

Stewart had a particular interest in community public libraries which led to commissions for both the St. Vital and the Fort Garry branches.

Stan was born on July 23, 1931 in Richmond, British Columbia, to Otokichi and Midori Osaka. During the Second World War, he and his parents and sister, Kimiko, were interned at Tashme Internment Camp, British Columbia, by order of the Canadian Government. After the war, he relocated to Montreal to attend McGill University, but later transferred to the University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg, where he received his Bachelor of Architecture in 1957 and his Master of Architecture in 1958. He was active in his fraternity, the Pi Epsilon Chapter of the Zeta Psi Fraternity. Stan also attended the University of Tokyo from 1959 to 1961 on a Japanese Ministry of Education Fellowship to complete two years of his doctorate studies in Civic Design with Professors Kenzo Tange and Eika Takayama. While in Japan, he also had the opportunity to study for and receive a teaching certificate from the Misho-Ryu School of Floral Arrangement.

In 1962, Stan met his wife, Georgia Morishita, and they were married for 28 years. Stan and Georgia had one son, Robert. They spent many happy years, traveling all over the world until Georgia's passing in 1993. Stan was a founding partner and architect of the architectural and interior design firm, The IKOY Partnership, where he worked from 1968 to 1978. IKOY became a successful firm that gained national attention. Major projects during this time included apartment and townhouse projects in Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon and Calgary, as well as many commercial facilities, schools, colleges and institutional buildings.

In 1978, Stan established Stan H. Osaka Architect, where he was the sole principal architect working on many university and residential projects. From 1988 to 1997, Stan became the University Architect and Campus Planner for the President's Office of the University of Manitoba. Though he was dedicated to architecture, Stan was equally passionate about serving on the boards of many community organizations, such as the St. Boniface St. Vital Rotary Club, where he was a Director and President, and the Buddhist Churches of Canada, where he served as Director and Treasurer for many years. He was also a Director and President of the St. Vital Curling Club.