A friend was commenting on how he likes the Lester B. Pearson Building. The same friend who send us down the Jacobean Architecture rabbit hole that took us quite far including Elizabethan Architecture and Former Royal residences. But back to the Lester B. Pearson Building, he and his partner disagreed on the merits of said building. I’ll side with my friend here (as one should) and say I’ve always liked that building. Well of course I have; as I was looking at a pic of the building more attentively I thought, isn’t that a bit brutalist with its sculptural form? Well yes, it is considered modern with a brutalist influence. Modern and brutalist – what a great combination.
WZMH Architects was founded in 1961. The firm was originally known as Webb Zerafa Menkes Housden. Its founders are Peter Webb, Boris Zerafa, René Menkès, and Warwick Housden. The 4 founders were associates of Peter Dickinson, more on him in a future post. WZMH specializes in tall modern buildings. They did create a few Brutalist buildings. I quite like 222 Jarvis – it very much reminds me Boston City Hall.
Lester B Pearson Building
1973, Ottawa
Late modern style with Brutalist influence
Tabor Park Vocational School
1965, Toronto
Maplewood High School
1968, Toronto
222 Jarvis Street
1971, Toronto
Brutalist style
The Crossways
1971, Toronto
Brutalist style
CN Tower
1976, Toronto
Harbour Centre
1977, Vancouver
Brutalist / Modernist
Royal Bank Plaza
1979, Toronto
Exchange Place
1985, Boston
Modern style
Scotia Plaza
1988, Toronto
Modern style
Casino Rama
1996, Mjikaning First Nation Reserve, Ontario
Shanghai Securities Exchange Building
1997, Shanghai, China
Ceasars Windsor
1998, Ontario
Bay Adelaine Centre
2009, Toronto
Modernist style
Centennial Place
2010, Calgary
RBC Water Park Place
2014, Toronto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WZMH_Architects
