Ross and Macdonald was one of Canada's most notable

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

firms in the early 20th century. Based in

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-p ...

, the firm originally operated as a partnership between

George Allen Ross George Allen Ross (October 24, 1878 – January 21, 1946) was a Canadian architect, for many years senior partner in the important Montreal firm of Ross and Macdonald. Life Born in Montreal on October 24, 1878, Ross was educated at the High Sc ...

and David MacFarlane (known as Ross and MacFarlane) from 1907 to 1912. MacFarlane withdrew from the firm in 1912, and Robert Henry Macdonald became a partner. The Ross and Macdonald name was used until 1944, after which it became Ross & Ross, Architects, when John Kenneth Ross joined his father as partner. Following George Allen Ross's death in 1946, the firm continued as Ross, Patterson, Townsend & Heughan. By 1970, the firm was known as Ross, Fish, Duschenes & Barrett. Since 2006, it has operated as DFS Inc. Architecture & Design.

George Allen Ross

Ross (1879–1946) was born in Montreal, and later studied at the

High School of Montreal The High School of Montreal was an English-language high school founded in 1843, serving Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in the area eventually known as the Golden Square Mile. It was less formally known as Montreal High School and from 1853 to 1870 wa ...

, the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, and the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

.Antonia Brodie, ed., ''Directory of British Architects, 1834-1914'': Vol. 2 (L-Z) (A. & C. Black, Royal Institute of British Architects, 2001), p. 504 Ross was apprenticed to Brown, MacVicar & Heriot in Montreal, and later become a draftsman for the

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rai ...

. He also did work with Parker & Thomas in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

and

Carrere & Hastings Carrere or Carrère may refer to: As a name * Georges Carrère (1897–1986), French classical violinist * Edward Carrere (1906–1984), Mexican art director * Emmanuel Carrère (1957–), French author, screenwriter, and director * Fernando Car ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

before partnering with MacFarlane in Montreal. He was a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. He was also a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, becoming an Associate in 1904 and a Fellow in 1913.

Robert Henry Macdonald

Macdonald (1875–1942) was born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...

, Australia. He articled to Richard B. Whitaker, M.S.A. of Melbourne, and became a junior draftsman to Robert Findlay in Montreal in 1895. After positions as a draftsman for

George B. Post George Browne Post (December 15, 1837 – November 28, 1913) was an American architect trained in the Beaux-Arts tradition. He was recognized as a master of modern American architecture as well as being instrumental in the birth of the skyscrap ...

starting in 1903, a senior draftsman with Crighton & McKay in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by m ...

, New Zealand in 1905, and head draftsman with W.W. Bosworth in New York in 1906, Macdonald joined Ross and MacFarlane in Montreal as a junior partner and draftsman in 1907. He ultimately became a partner of the firm in 1912. He was a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He served as president of the Quebec Association of Architects in 1939, and was a recipient of the association's Award of Merit.

Important works

Image:FortGarryWinnipeg.jpg, The

Fort Garry Hotel The Fort Garry Hotel—officially the Fort Garry Hotel, Spa and Conference Centre—is an early-20th-century hotel in downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba, that opened for the first time on December 11, 1913. Built by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, it is ...

in Winnipeg, a chateau-style hotel popularized by Ross and MacDonald Image:Holt Renfrew in Montreal in 1937.jpg,

Holt Renfrew Holt, Renfrew & Co., Limited (doing business as Holt Renfrew and known colloquially as Holt's) is a Canadian luxury department store chain founded in 1837 by William S. Henderson. It has been owned by the Weston family since 1986, and was previ ...

Store, 1937 in Montreal, Quebec Image:Union Station, Toronto (30427373561).jpg, Union Station

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Image:Holtfacade.jpg, Calgary Eaton's store Image:Maple Leaf Gardens 2016.jpg,

Maple Leaf Gardens Maple Leaf Gardens is a historic building located at the northwest corner of Carlton Street and Church Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The building was initially constructed in 1931 as an arena to host ice hockey games, though it has sin ...

Toronto, Ontario Image:Exterior of Eaton’s College Street Store - Toronto - ca 1930.jpg, Eaton's College Street store in Toronto, Ontario - now

College Park (Toronto) College Park is a shopping mall, residential and office complex on the southwest corner of Yonge and College streets in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. An Art Deco landmark, the building was initially known as Eaton's College Street. It was operated b ...

File:Eaton montreal.png,

Complexe Les Ailes The Montreal Eaton Centre (french: Centre Eaton de Montréal) is a shopping mall located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located in the downtown core within the borough of Ville-Marie, and is accessible through the Underground City, and is con ...

(Former

Eaton's The T. Eaton Company Limited, later known as Eaton's, was a Canadian department store chain that was once the largest in the country. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an immigrant from what is now Northern Ireland. Eaton's grew ...

department store) File:EatonsBuilding.jpg,

Eaton's Building (Saskatoon) The Eaton's Building is a landmark building located in downtown Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Formerly serving as an Eaton's department store, the building is currently occupied by the Saskatoon Board of Education. History In 1927, Eaton's ...

Saskatoon Board of Education File:Holtfacade.jpg,

The Core Shopping Centre, Canada The Core (stylized The CORE), which consists of TD Square, the Holt Renfrew building, and the former Calgary Eaton Centre, is the dominant shopping complex located in the downtown core of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It spans three city blocks and c ...

File:Dominion Square Building.JPG,

Dominion Square Building The Dominion Square Building (french: Édifice Dominion Square), also known as the Gazette Building (french: Édifice Gazette), is a landmark office building in Downtown Montreal facing Dorchester Square on its northern side. It is located at 1010 ...

File:College_ParkYonge.jpg, College Park (Toronto) (Former

department store) File:Château Laurier from Parliament Hill.jpg,

Château Laurier The Fairmont Château Laurier is a hotel with 429 guest rooms in the downtown core of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, located near the intersection of Rideau Street and Sussex Drive and designed in a French Gothic Revival Châteauesque style to compl ...

File:Lord-elgin-hotel-night.jpg,

Lord Elgin Hotel The Lord Elgin Hotel is a prominent hotel in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. With 355 guest rooms, it is located at 100 Elgin Street at Laurier Avenue, across from Confederation Park in Downtown Ottawa. The twelve-storey limestone structure was name ...

File:Hotel-Saskatchewan.jpg,

Hotel Saskatchewan The Hotel Saskatchewan is a historic hotel, one of Canada's grand railway hotels located in downtown Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, overlooking Victoria Park. The Hotel Saskatchewan was the fourteenth hotel in a nationwide chain constructed and ow ...

File:Hotel Macdonald.jpg,

Hotel Macdonald The Fairmont Hotel Macdonald, formerly and commonly known as the Hotel Macdonald (colloquially known as The Mac), is a large historic luxury hotel in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Located along 100 Street NW, south of Jasper Avenue, the hotel is situ ...

File:Cours Mont-Royal, accès sur de Maisonneuve (Montréal) 2006-01-27.JPG,

Les Cours Mont-Royal Les Cours Mont-Royal is an upscale shopping mall in the city's downtown core of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, which was converted from the former Mount Royal Hotel. Architecture The Mount Royal Hotel was designed by Ross and Macdonald, a prolific ar ...

File:Government Conference Centre Ottawa.jpg,

Government Conference Centre The Senate of Canada Building (french: édifice du Sénat du Canada) is located at 2 Rideau Street in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and serves as the temporary seat of the Senate of Canada. The building served as Ottawa's central railway stati ...

File:Québec, Édifice Price1.jpg,

Édifice Price The Édifice Price ( en, Price Building) is an 18-floor (originally 16) skyscraper in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Built in 1928–1931 amid controversy for Price Brothers Limited, it is the tallest building in the Old Quebec historical distric ...

File:HydrostoneShops.jpg,

The Hydrostone Hydrostone is a neighbourhood in the North End of the Halifax Peninsula in the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada. It consists of ten short parallel streets and is bordered by Duffus Street to the north, Young Street to the south, ...

Commercial Buildings: *

Bank of Toronto The Bank of Toronto was a Canadian bank that was founded in 1855 by a group of grain dealers and flour millers. On February 1, 1955, it merged with The Dominion Bank to form the Toronto-Dominion Bank, which is now known as the present-day TD Ban ...

branch (Guy St. and St. Catherine St. W.), Montreal, 1908 *

, Montreal, 1925-27 (Former

department store) * Saskatoon Board of Education offices,

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway, and has served as ...

, 1928-29 (Former Eaton's department store) * Former Eaton's Store,

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

, 1928-29 (demolished 1988, façade incorporated into Calgary Eaton Centre) *

, Montreal, 1928–1930 * College Park, Toronto, 1928-30 (Former Eaton's department store)(with Sproatt and Rolph) * Holt Renfrew Montreal at 1300 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, 1937 (building closed in 2020, moved with nearby Ogilvy's store on St.Catherine St.) Hotels: *

Hotel,

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, 1909-12 (with Bradford Lee Gilbert) **
History of the Fairmont Château Laurier
*

, Ottawa, 1940–41 * Royal York Hotel, Toronto, 1927-29 (with Sproatt and Rolph) **
Royal York Hotel
*

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...

, 1910–14 *

Regina Regina (Latin for "queen") may refer to: Places Canada * Regina, Saskatchewan, the capital city of the province ** Regina (electoral district) ** Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina France * Régina, French Guiana, a commune United States * ...

, 1926–27 *

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anc ...

, 1912–14 *

, Montreal, 1920-24 (Former Sheraton Mount Royal Hotel, now a shopping mall, condo and office complex) Public Buildings: *

, Ottawa, (Former Ottawa Union Station), 1911-1912 **
The Architecture of Ottawa's Union Station
*

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

, Toronto (with Hugh G. Jones, John Lyle) 1914-1920 **
Toronto Union Station - Heritage Character Analysis
Office Buildings: * Architects' Building, Montreal, 1929-34 (demolished) * Confederation Building (McGill College Ave. and St. Catherine St. W.), Montreal, 1927–28 *

Castle Building The Castle Building is an office building in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Its address is 1410 Stanley Street on the corner of Saint Catherine Street West in Downtown Montreal. It is owned by Gold Castle Holdings Limited. The building is now home to ...

(Stanley Street and St. Catherine St. W.), Montreal, 1924–27 *

(Peel Street and St. Catherine St. W.), Montreal, 1928–40 *

Montreal Star Building The Montreal Star Building is a former office complex, now hotel, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The complex, which is located in Old Montreal is composed of three different attached buildings belonging to the ''Montreal Star'' newspaper. The compl ...

(St. Jacques St.), Montreal, 1926–31 * Royal Bank Building (Yonge Street and King Street East), Toronto, 1913–15 *

(Sainte-Anne street), Quebec City, 1929–1930. * Medical Arts Building, Montreal, 1922 Residential: * Le Chateau Apartments, (Sherbrooke and De La Montagne) Montreal, 1926 *

The Gleneagles ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in E ...

, (Cote des Neiges Road) Montreal, 1929 Other: *

Central Technical School Central Technical School (CTS or Central Tech) is a Canadian composite high school in Toronto, Ontario. The school is run by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB); before 1998, it was run by the Toronto Board of Education (TBE). Central Tech ...

, Toronto, 1915 *

, Halifax, 1918 *

, Toronto, 1931–32

References

External links

(current website of the successor firm)
Photos of Ross and MacDonald buildings in Montreal

Finding aid for the Ross & Macdonald fonds

Canadian Centre for Architecture The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA; french: Centre Canadien d'Architecture) is a museum of architecture and research centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at 1920, rue Baile (1920, Baile Street), between rue Fort (Fort Street ...

digitized items
{{Authority control Architecture firms of Canada Companies based in Montreal

George Allen Ross

Robert Henry Macdonald

Important works

References

Further reading

External links