George F. Durand

George F. Durand - Quick Facts

Profile Overview of George F. Durand

George Ferguson Durand (July 9, 1850 – December 20, 1889) was a Canadian architect. Born in London, Canada West (now Ontario), to a Scottish immigrant, he showed an interest in the arts from a young age. He apprenticed under William Robinson before working with Thomas Fuller on the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa and the New York State Capitol in Albany, New York. Returning to London by 1878, he joined Robinson, Tracy, & Company as a junior partner, being made partner in 1880; with the departure of Thomas Henry Tracy in 1882, Durand became the lead architect for the firm. He received many commissions in London and throughout Southwestern Ontario, including several from the federal government, and helped establish the Ontario Association of Architects in 1889.

This profile of George F. Durand covers Early Life and Family Background, Durand and Company, Death and Legacy, Style and Legacy and Influence.

Durand designed many houses, post offices, and municipal buildings, including the Stratford Pump House and Perth County Courthouse in Stratford, Talbot Street Baptist Church and Waverly in London, and Victoria Hall in Petrolia. His works employ varied styles, reflecting an eclecticism common in contemporary architecture, though features of Queen Anne style architecture are prominent in many of his buildings. Several of his designs have been designated under the Ontario Heritage Act. The "A" Block of the Wolseley Barracks and Victoria Hall were made National Historic Sites of Canada in 1963 and 1975, respectively.

Early Life and Family Background of George F. Durand

Durand was born in London, Canada West (now Ontario), on July 9, 1850. He was the eldest son of James Durand, a builder from Thurso, Scotland, who established Wright and Durand with John Wright in 1854. Showing an interest in the arts from his youth, George Durand was sent to study under the drawing instructor J. R. Peel in 1864. Later in the 1860s, he was apprenticed to William Robinson; a former student of the architect Thomas Young, Robinson was working as the city engineer for London.

During the construction of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, Durand served as an assistant to architect Thomas Fuller. He later followed Fuller to New York, where he and Augustus Laver were working on the new state capitol in Albany. He was joined by Thomas Henry Tracy, another Robinson apprentice. The capitol faced heavy criticism for its cost and contracting to a non-American builder, and Fuller was dismissed in 1876. Durand, though lauded by Commissioner W.A. Rice for his skill and integrity, also left the project.

After a year in Maine working at a granite works, Durand returned to London in 1878. Following a brief stint at the Globe Iron Works, he rejoined William Robinson and Thomas Tracy to become a junior partner at Robinson, Tracy, & Company. The firm used iron tie rods as reinforcements for wooden girders, and Durand employed wrought-iron beams for an 1880 skating rink. Other works completed as a junior partner included a Roman Catholic church in Ingersoll as well as the Federal Bank and the Charles Murray House in London.

Durand and Company of George F. Durand

Durand was made partner in 1880, after Robinson's retirement. He collaborated with Tracy on several projects, completing the St. George's Anglican Church in Walton, and designing the Palmyra Baptist Church in Palmyra; the latter, funded in part by Minister of Justice David Mills, combined the then-popular High Victorian Gothic with the semicircular arches of the Romanesque style. In London, Durand and Tracy prepared a new separate school model and completed the Talbot Street Baptist Church, a 920-capacity building with prominent pinnacles and a bell-cote. The men, both Freemasons, collaborated on the Masonic Temple and Grand Opera House (1880–1881), a four-storey multifunctional building that occupied 43 by 34 metres (142 ft × 110 ft) on one of the city's main intersections.

With Tracy's departure for a full-time city engineer position in 1882, Durand became the firm's sole architect. During this period, Southwestern Ontario experienced a building boom, and Durand reported aggregate tenders of CA$250,000 in 1882. That year, he completed the London Club, a men's club of which he was a member; the construction was handled by his brother Andrew. He also worked on the Waverly for Charles Goodhue, a CA$25,000 mansion for John Labatt, the Stratford Pump House (now Gallery Stratford), as well as the London East Town Hall (now Aeolian Hall). The commission for the latter two was likely obtained by Durand's employee John Mackenzie Moore, with Durand consulting on the design. Building had slowed by 1884, though Durand remained busy, designing a clock tower and an addition to the Custom House in 1884. Most of Durand's work during the mid-1880s was outside London.

Durand remained busy through the late 1880s. He received several government contracts through Fuller, who had been appointed Chief Architect of the Dominion of Canada in 1881. These included post offices in Strathroy and Goderich, as well as the Infantry School (now Wolseley Barracks, "A" Block) in London. In 1887, he designed an expansion, including a chancel and pulpit, for St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, also in London, and won a competition to build a new Crystal Palace for the Western Fair. Unlike the original design, produced by Robinson for the fair's original site, Durand modelled his exhibition hall after its namesake in London, England, which had been produced by Joseph Paxton in 1854. Elsewhere, he was commissioned to design the Perth County Courthouse in Stratford, replacing an earlier design by Peter Ferguson, as well as Victoria Hall in Petrolia, a combined town hall and opera house. Smaller projects in Petrolia included the Masonic Temple, St. Philip's Catholic Church, and St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church.

In 1888, Durand was contracted by Minister of Education George William Ross to design a new building for Upper Canada College in Toronto. He completed the school after touring similar projects in the Eastern United States. This was his last commissioned structure, and was completed after his death. He also submitted a design for the York County Courthouse in Toronto that year, winning second place. In 1889, he chaired a meeting which led to the establishment of the Ontario Association of Architects and was elected its second vice-president. By this point, his firm employed an average of three to five men, though turnover rates were high. Durand was frequently away from the office, concentrating on promotional and supervisory activities, though he remained involved in the training of his apprentices.

Source: adapted from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_F._Durand), text available under CC BY-SA 4.0.