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Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 25
Gothic Revival in Canadian Architecture
by Mathilde Brosseau
Gothic Revival in the Beaux-Arts Manner
The object of the last section of this study is to analyze the final
manifestations of the Gothic Revival in Canadian architecture during the
first decades of the 20th century. This work is heavily dependent on the
data collected by the Canadian Inventory of Historic Building from 1970
to 1976; but at that time the Canadian Inventory of Historic Building
had set their historical limits at 1880-90 for eastern Canada and 1914
for the West. This section will appear less specific than the preceding
parts, since the lack of data gives little opportunity to thoroughly
examine all the regions of Canada or all relevant types of buildings.
Nevertheless, the Canadian periodical Construction, which
appeared for the first time in 1907, partially makes up for this
deficiency in that it provides ample comments and illustrations on the
great architectural projects of the time. By examining the first twenty
years of publication of this monthly periodical, we have been able to
establish guidelines that explain the mutation of the Gothic Revival of
the first decades of the 20th century and analyze the buildings that are
most representative of our subject.
All through the 19th century, architecture in the Western World had
been governed by the principles of picturesqueness and renewal of past
style. Architects have been actively engaged in reviving the formal
concepts from bygone architectural eras and using them to create
composition based more on the silhouette than the plan. In the last
years of the 19th century, this trend died down; there arose a need for
discipline and a return to basic principles governing both the plan of
the building and its outer walls. This new spirit explains the
enthusiasm of North American architectural circles for the academic
tradition of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. While still
giving preference to the renewal of bygone styles, the Beaux-Arts
encouraged many architects to design the plan according to a strict
system of corresponding axes. This concept of discipline arises
partially from a desire to emphasize the monumental character of public
architecture, frequently expressed by an articulation of rectangular
wings arranged symmetrically on either side of a central block and
joined visually by a colonnade and classical pilasters.1
Through the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, this fashion quickly took
over the public architecture of North America. The distinct preference
of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts for the classical repertoire of forms
was to have a lesser effect on religious and institutional architecture,
whose inherent functions still pointed to an association with the Middle
Ages. Since the Beaux-Arts school of thought was perfectly open
to the idea of reviving styles from the past, it was a simple matter to
combine the ideals of discipline, order and monumentalism with a Gothic
Revival repertoire.
Several architectural firms specialized in this type of adaptation.
One of the most influential was incontestably the American firm of Ralph
Cram and Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue.2 Cram, who was gifted
with both a philosophical and artistic turn of mind, even worked out an
ingenious theory alleging that the English Gothic style had not come to
a natural demise. It had supposedly been undermined by the simultaneous
occurrence of the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation at a time
when, it was still a vital force in the country's architecture. Cram
therefore suggested the resumption of Gothic evolution from the time of
its disappearance under Henry VIII and its adaptation to modern
needs.3 Cram and Goodhue broadened this vision in their
churches by using typical motifs from the two phases of the Gothic era
that best materialized the concept of monumentalism upheld by the Ecole
des Beaux-Arts the 14th century (Early English) and the 15th
century (Perpendicular). Their churches were almost always built of
stone and they were characterized by their simplicity of articulation
and the preponderant proportions of their naves, extended by a chancel
and flanked by aisles and a transept. At the point of intersection, the
transept was dominated by a square tower with a low elevation (in
relation to the overall mass) and a flat roof in almost all
cases.4 This scheme was also accompanied by an emphasis on
the amplitude of flat surfaces, the visual effect of volumes penetrated
by very wide windows and a horizontal rather than vertical line effect.
As a whole, these features gave the building an impression of solemnity
and recumbency the exact opposite of the spirit of High Victorian
Gothic.
The influence of the Cram and Goodhue firm quickly spread to Canada.
This is demonstrated by two large church projects for big cities
the Anglican cathedral of All Saints in Halifax, built in
1906,5 and St. Alban the Martyr, for which the plans were
prepared for Toronto in 19136 but were never put into effect
(Fig. 112, 113). Each is a good illustration of the direction Gothic
Revival religious architecture was to take from then on. In smaller
churches, several Canadian architects expressed the same concern for
simplification by emphasizing a pure, highly geometric arrangement of
volumes. In compositions of this type, the Gothic Revival formal
repertoire gives way to an amplitude of masonry surfaces that heighten
the monumental character of the composition (Figs. 114, 115).
Attracted by the reputation of Cram and Goodhue, some Canadian
architects completed apprenticeships in their shops. One of these
architects was the young Torontonian Henry Sproatt, who followed the
example of 19th century architects by completing his education with a
study tour in Europe.7 Back in Toronto in 1893, he worked
with the prolific architect Frank Darling before going into partnership
with the engineer Ernest Rolph, thus founding one of the firms that were
to perpetuate the new visage of Gothic Revival in Canada and
particularly in Ontario. The greatest influence of Sproatt and Rolph was
in the institutional sector, where their first great success was the
construction of Victoria College Library, built in Toronto in
1909.8
By 1910, their prestige was such that Vincent Massey, a
philanthropist and known anglophile, called upon their services to
realize one of the most ambitious projects of this final phase of Gothic
Revival. The project was Hart House, a building for the University of
Toronto campus, which would house all sorts of extracurricular
activities with a view to drawing together the various aspects of
student life.9 The complexity of the project lay in the fact
that spaces with a great variety of purposes and sizes had to be
arranged under the same roof: swimming pool, library, dining room
(seating 350), theatre and shooting range.
The result was thoroughly in keeping with the great student houses
that were being built during the same period in American universities.
One of these, Campbell Hall at Princeton University, was actually the
work of Cram and Goodhue, who had previously made Beaux-Arts
Gothic Revival official in this field with their large extension project
for West Point Military Academy (N.Y.). With Hart House, Sproatt and
Rolph followed suit. True to the grand tradition of English medieval
colleges, they adopted the medieval quadrangle plan with the various
functions of the building arranged on either side of a courtyard
according to a plan that followed the tradition of the Ecole des
Beaux-Arts. Hart House also applies another cherished principle in
this tradition: the external disclosure of internal functions. Thus the
wing of the building that houses functions of a domestic nature is
characterized by specific Tudor manor features: large windows with
multiple mullions, bay windows and sharply defined chimneys, whereas the
wing designed for sporting activities has a more austere appearance. As
a whole, the building's horizontality and its sense of balance and
stability give it the monumental effect recommended by the Ecole des
Beaux-Arts in Paris (Fig. 116).
With the interruption of the war years, the construction of Hart
House extended from 1911 to 1919 and consumed a budget of several
million dollars. Once completed, however, the building was a masterly
actualization of the architectural conception of the architects and
their client. For the quality of their composition, Sproatt and Rolph
received the gold medal of the American Institute of Architects and were
awarded honorary membership in the Royal Institute of British
Architects.
During the decade of Hart House construction and through the 1920s,
Gothic Revival in the Beaux-Arts manner gradually took root in
Canadian universities and schools. At the University of Toronto, the
second Knox College built by Chapman and McGiffin was a harmonious
complement to the composition of Sproatt and Rolph.10 From
the University of Toronto, the style spread to other Ontario
universities such as Queen's University in Kingston11 and the
University of Western Ontario in London.12 Department of
Education architects brought the style to Ontario schools. During the
same period, versions that were often more austere also appeared on the
Prairies; examples are the University of Saskatchewan
complex13 or the Government Normal School, Regina College and
Chad's College in Regina,14 or again the Institute of
Technology and Art in Calgary15 and the Manitoba School for
the Deaf in Winnipeg16 (Figs. 117-19).
Actually, this style of Gothic Revival became so closely associated
with the educational sector that some competitions instructed architects
to use a specific Gothic phase endorsed by proponents of the academic
manner of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Thus the article offered to
readers of Construction on a competition for the construction of
a university at Point Grey, Vancouver, relates the following
reasoning:
Among other features which influenced the final decision of the
jury was the suggestion that one of the three distinctive styles, late
Tudor, Elizabethan or Scotch Baronial should permeate the whole design.
One competitor was thrown out by producing a classical scheme of
grandiose and palatial character.17
Each of the buildings of the winning project submitted by Sharpe and
Thompson, bore the distinctive features of the Tudor era adapted to the
strict tradition of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
With the exception of the Parliament Buildings, Gothic Revival had
not been associated with public architecture in Canada. It may have been
for this reason that the classical character of the Beaux-Arts
tradition had so much more success than the Gothic repertoire in public
architecture, as demonstrated, moreover, by the appearance of new
legislative buildings in the Prairie provinces. However, as fate would
have it, the embodiment of this new Neo-Gothic spirit was to be
realized, as in the 19th century, in the most important public edifice
in the country the Parliament in Ottawa. The fire that ravaged
the central building of the Parliament complex in 1916 provided a unique
opportunity to use again a formal Gothic concept along with basic
elements of the Fuller and Jones composition while integrating them in a
new building reflecting the architectural tenets of the Ecole des
Beaux-Arts.18
This new composition designed by architects John Pearson and Omer
Marchand is a striking example of the evolution of tastes in
interpreting the Gothic Revival style. The first building was brilliant
in its portrayal of forms devoted to the creation of picturesque
effects. It had a strong impact on the observer with its contrasting
textures, colours and shapes. The second version resembles its
predecessor in its use of a rhythmic arrangement of mansard-roofed
towers and similar motifs and materials. However, the overall impression
is much more intellectual than sensual: the formula of corresponding
axes in the interior plan can be immediately seen in the exterior
composition. Like the masonry treatment and tower design, the visual
effects have a rigid character that would seem to indicate that Gothic
motifs were used much more for their symbolic effect than their
picturesque potential (Fig. 120). The reconstruction project for the
central building gave the Parliament complex a new value from the
architectural viewpoint in that it combines two distinct periods in the
history of the Canadian Gothic Revival on one of the most impressive
sights in the country.
Commercial architecture was scarcely touched by this new aspect of
the Gothic Revival. Rare examples of this stylistic change are
identified by a preference, in terms of materials, for smooth white
stone that accentuates the abstract nature of the composition. Purified
and schematized Gothic motifs are seen in the arrangement of bays and
decorative panels on a commercial building in Montreal (Fig. 121), and
even by the design of its gargoyles, which are positioned on the roof
cornice in a way that emphasizes the horizontality of the
composition.
The inherent Beaux-Arts propensity for monumentalism promised
a more prolific development in public architecture than in the domestic
sector. In the first decades of the 20th century, grand residences with
very ordered plans and rather solemn compositions revealed the influence
of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Most of these residences were to
revive a repertoire of classical designs. The English-speaking
clientele, however, was attracted by the prestigious impression produced
by the old stone manors of the Tudor era. For these dwellings, typical
motifs were borrowed from that period: entrance turrets, crenelations,
tapered chimneys and multiple mullion or bay windows. A regular
composition was obtained by a very orderly plan enclosing spaces like a
cloisonne enamel. These houses made no attempt, as in the 19th century,
to reproduce the picturesque charm of buildings made up of a series of
aggregated additions. The Ainsley house, built on a vast domain at
Eglinton, in the suburbs of Toronto, is a perfect example of this stage
of the Gothic Revival in domestic architecture19 (Fig.
122).
Homes of the substance of the Ainsley residence were, in fact,
limited to an elite enamoured with the splendour of the vast dwellings
of the medieval English nobility. Their number is limited. At the turn
of the century, the trend in North American architecture was more toward
flexible, informal interiors. However, there was a taste for combining
this type of spatial arrangement with houses influenced by another Tudor
style the half-timbered houses built at the same time as the
large stone manors, but for a less affluent population and in regions
where timber was more plentiful, such as Cheshire and
Lancashire.20 These houses, their exteriors combining
half-timbered second stories with brick-faced first stories, owe their
presence largely to the talent of Samuel Maclure, the architect who made
them popular among the new middle classes of Vancouver and
Victoria21 (Fig. 123). They are also seen in many well-to-do
neighbourhoods developed between 1910 and 1920 in the cities of the
Prairies, Ontario and even Quebec (Fig. 124).
After the visual outburst of High Victorian Gothic, the Gothic
Revival thus continued on into the early 20th century by adhering to the
architectural tenets of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The
result is a recumbent, monumental atmosphere after the agitated
silhouettes of buildings derived from High Victorian Gothic. As a result
of the impact created by the Chicago World's Fair, this change came to
Canada more through the United States than directly from Europe.
Similarly it is important to note the example of the large American
architectural firms, which demonstrated that the Gothic Revival
repertoire could be conciliated with the approach recommended by the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Canadian architects immediately followed
this example. Here, as in the United States, the particular character of
the Beaux-Arts manner had its greatest effect on the expansion of
existing universities and the construction of new schools and
universities called upon to meet the needs of an ever-increasing student
population. Its repercussions are also visible in religious architecture
a sector that had long been synonymous with the repertoire of the
Gothic Revival. Other areas of public architecture had often preferred
to perpetuate the classical repertoire generally associated with the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Finally, in private architecture, this new
visage of the Neo-Gothic style affected only the design of a few grand
residences that reproduced the distinctive features of the Tudor
era.
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