![]() If Doris Tanner had been a man, I wonder, would the scope of her work spring more readily to mind? But you could tell that she knew her stuff about architecture.” She married Ches Tanner, and she raised a pack of kids. ![]() ![]() “She must have taken her architecture about the same time as Wallbridge and Imrie, but she kind of vanished from the architectural scene because she – she became a housewife. “Doris was an interesting case of a lady architect,” he says. Image provided by the author.īack in Edmonton, retired engineer Henry Kasten has clearer memories, having worked on some Tanner projects. Four early female architects amid the men at 1948 AAA AGM – second row fr left Margaret Findlay, Mary Imrie, Doris Tanner front row Jean Wallbridge.Ebenezer United Church, completed in 1964.Talk turns to Doris’s husband the alderman (as city councilors were called at that time), and Bob describes social events where “we would tell Doris our problems, hoping she would whisper to him.” “Doris’s own house on the south side was a notable design,” architect Bob Bouey offers. The memory of being passed over for that job still brings a note of irritation to his voice: “If you’re going to do something for nothing, don’t expect to get anything back.”Īrchitects and engineers who’ve retired from Edmonton to balmy British Columbia also have trouble recalling much about Doris Tanner, but over coffee in Victoria’s inner harbour a few projects surface. “She designed Ebenezer United Church, quite a unique structure out in the west end,” says engineer Percy Butler, who also recalls some “nice modern” houses. “But she never really got into big work.” “The only thing I know she did was one I was involved in originally: the Air Force Association clubhouse up on Kingsway.” He describes helping the 700 Wing RCAF Association plan and raise funds for the building, only to see Doris Tanner chosen as architect. He turns to fellow architect Gordon Forbes during a visit to his retirement home in Edmonton, hoping for insights. What did she do?” Bernie Wood asks the question that soon becomes a recurring theme in my quest. In their absence, I reach out to others who may have known her – retired architects and engineers, clients, friends – anyone with memories to share. Doris Tanner died in 1997, and all the women who registered as architects before her are gone as well. His talent was recognized almost immediately but it would take years of perseverance before he actually made a living doing what he loved to do – designing boats.It’s 2003, early in the new millennium but regrettably late in the story I’m aiming to tell. ![]() Now 18 he worked as a junior clerk at a wholesale grocery company and from his annual salary of $100 spent his first $10 on a junior membership at the Squadron and another $16 to replace the Dixon-Kemp design manuals at the Squadron he had worn to shreds as he taught himself the science of naval architecture. He never went back, deciding to turn his focus to learning what he needed to know in order to pursue his dream of becoming a naval architect.Īnd so he enrolled in night classes in Halifax’s Victoria School of Art & Design to learn the skills of mechanical drafting. When he was 17 he got into a dispute with his school teacher over the pronunciation of a nautical term. As a teenager, when he was still too young to become a member of the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron, he spent hours on the water studying every nuance, every secret the boats and the water could teach him until he could handle a tiller “like a fine violinist handled his bow.” As a young school boy, he was more interested in drawing yachts than paying attention to his teachers. Roué was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1879. His masterpiece, the legendary schooner Bluenose, has been globally recognized since 1921 as a symbol of excellence – hailed as a perfect blend of art and engineering. William James Roué has been widely recognized as Canada’s first naval architect and is still appreciated as one of the best ever.
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