Ron Thom

Ron Thom (1923-1986), Canadian architect, who was a leading designer of homes and public buildings in western and central Canada from the 1950s to the 1980s. His modernist designs are noted for their interesting organization of space, use of natural materials, and response to setting.

Born in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada, Thom studied painting at the Vancouver School of Art and graduated in 1947, after serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1943 and 1944. He apprenticed with the most progressive architectural firm in Vancouver, Sharp and Thompson Berwick Pratt, in 1947. Thom experimented with inexpensive processed wood, helping pioneer the use of precut plywood panels in construction. In 1952 he won a Massey Medal, Canada’s highest architectural award, for designing the Harold Copp House (1950-1951) in Vancouver.

Thom became prominent in his firm because of his ability as both a draftsman and a designer, especially in selecting decorative elements appropriate for modernist buildings. For example, he fitted the interior of the BC Electric Building in Vancouver (1955) with blue and green mosaic tiles that matched the utility agency’s logo. He gained experience in commercial architecture, designing BC Hydro’s office in Victoria (1955-1956) and tower in Vancouver (1956-1957). In 1958 Thom became a partner at Sharp and Thompson Berwick Pratt. He designed the firm's entry in the national competition for Massey College, the new residential college at the University of Toronto. Winning the commission, Thom meshed historical and modernist themes in a unique design inspired by medieval collegiate design and the work of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Built in 1963, the Massey College design stressed function, but it included decorative masonry and was laid out to give a cloistered effect.

After winning a second Massey Medal in 1963 for his Massey College design, Thom received a series of commissions for university and institutional buildings. In 1963, the year he started his own firm, Thom was commissioned to plan the new Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, and to design several of its colleges and research buildings. At Trent University (1963-1971) he refined his blend of traditional and modern architecture, arranging the buildings according to their educational purposes and to the campus’s topography. The rough-pebble finish of Trent’s Champlain College (1964-1971) incorporates stone quarried from the site.

While nurturing the talent of young local architects, Thom liked to keep control over all aspects of the architectural process. Commissioned to renovate Confederation Square in Toronto in 1982, Thom cleverly interconnected the office complex’s old and new elements. He was named an officer of the Order of Canada in 1980.