Thompson, Berwick, Pratt & Partners

B.C Electrica Building

perspective

ca. 8500 drawings. - ca.16 metres of textual records. - ca. 50 items of display material.

The firm was founded in 1908 by British architects G.L.T. Sharp and Charles J. Thompson as Sharp & Thompson. When the University of British Columbia was created by the Provincial Legislature as the province's first public institution for higher education in 1908, Sharp & Thompson won an international competition for the Point Grey campus. They produced a master plan in 1913 and building was begun, only to be interrupted by the outbreak of World War I. Not until 1922 was building resumed and the central part of the Library completed. The firm based their early designs on medieval and classically inspired commercial, institutional, and residential buildings. Then, in 1937, recent University of Toronto graduates Robert A.D. Berwick and Charles Edward Pratt joined the firm, and its design focus became based on the principles of European modernism.

Significant projects include: Chateau Frontenac (1908); MacAuley Nicholls Office Building (Vancouver, 1927); Library, University of British Columbia (1923); Quadra Club, now University Club (1923).

Fonds consists of drawings, display material and office files from the architectural practice of Thompson, Berwick, Pratt & Partners, 1908-1968.

Title based on contents of fonds.

Acquired by donation in 1977, 1978, 1981, and 1982.

Finding aids available at repository.

View project list.

Further accruals expected.

Accessions: 8A/77.16, 11A/77.54, 30A/78.03, 45A/78.35, 101A/81.05, 143A/82.28