Banff National Park Pavilion

Last updated
Banff National Park Pavilion
Banff National Park Pavilion, circa 1920.jpg
The Pavilion, circa 1920
Banff National Park Pavilion
Alternative namesFrank Lloyd Wright Pavilion [1]
General information
TypePublic pavilion
Architectural style Prairie School
Coordinates 51°10′25″N115°34′46″W / 51.173720°N 115.579326°W / 51.173720; -115.579326
Construction startedDesigned 1911 [2]
Construction 1913 [3]
Completed1914 [4]
Demolished1939 [5]
Cost CAD$20000 [3]
$40000 (estimated 1913) [6]
$100000 (speculated 1964) [7]
Client Public Works and Government Services Canada [6]
Dimensions
Other dimensions200ft x 50ft [3]
Technical details
Floor countSingle [3]
Design and construction
Architect(s) Frank Lloyd Wright
Francis Conroy Sullivan
Main contractorBennett, Debman, & Co. [3]

The Banff National Park Pavilion, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and Francis Conroy Sullivan, one of Wright's only Canadian students. Designed in 1911, in the Prairie School style, construction began in 1913 and was completed the following year. The pavilion was built on the Recreation Grounds near the south end of the Bow River Bridge on the edge of the town of Banff, itself located within Banff National Park in Alberta. The last of only two Wright designs in Canada, the pavilion was demolished in 1938. [8]

Contents

History

Banff National Park had been established in 1885 as Banff Hot Springs Reserve. Expanded in 1887 as Rocky Mountains Park under the Rocky Mountains Park Act the area became the first national park in Canada, and the second in North America behind Yellowstone. As a national park the controlling authority became the Federal Government of Canada, rather than the province of Alberta.

Sullivan, unrelated to Wright's previous employer Louis Sullivan, had worked in Wright's Oak Park Studio [5] before leaving for Ottawa in 1908 to work for the government as an architect for, as it was then known, the Department of Public Works.

By the 1900s Banff National Park, as it had become known, was increasing in popularity and, by 1911, had become accessible by automobile. A visitor pavilion was commissioned by government officials in Ottawa. [4] A concept plan had been submitted by residents of Banff to Ottawa, but officials rejected it. Envisioning a more refined structure [9] Wright and Sullivan were hired. The building contract was awarded to Bennett, Debman, & Co., of Calgary [3] who aimed to use local labour and purchase building supplies from local merchants. [3]

After completion, in 1914 during World War I, the pavilion was used as a Quartermaster's store by the Department of National Defence. [4] After the War the main function of the pavilion became a gathering area for tourists waiting on trains. [4]

Wright and Sullivan worked together on four built projects. While the Banff National Park Pavilion is attributed to Wright with Sullivan's assistance, the other three are attributed to Sullivan with Wright's assistance. [5]

Design

Interior, circa 1913. Assembly lounge, art glass windows on the right, fireplace at the far end. Banff National Park Pavillion, circa 1913, interior.jpg
Interior, circa 1913. Assembly lounge, art glass windows on the right, fireplace at the far end.

The pavilion featured a rustic style over a frame construction, [4] and was an elongated visitor shelter of wood and stone. [1] Supported by low stone walls [5] the length of the building was constructed of wood, in a board-and-batten fashion. [5] Steel beams supported the cantilevered roof. [5]

The interior was primarily an assembly lounge 100 ft by 50 ft in size. [4] A row of art glass windows [1] ran the entire length of the wall opposite the main entrance, and three cobblestone [4] fireplaces featured on the remaining three. [5] Clerestory windows contributed additional light, [5] through the exposed beams of the roof.

A ladies' powder room was at one end of the lounge, with a gentlemen's retiring room at the other. [1] Each room measured 50 ft by 25 ft. [4] The pavilion also featured public lockers. [4]

The finished product was only usable four months of the year, suitable only for a few summer sports, and as a picnickers' lounging area. [6]

Similar in design to the River Forest Tennis Club, in River Forest, Illinois, [5] the pavilion is also considered comparable to the Lake Geneva Hotel, in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, also designed in 1911 and itself demolished in 1970. [10]

Destruction

Flooded Pavilion grounds, circa 1920. Banff National Park Pavillion, flooded grounds.jpg
Flooded Pavilion grounds, circa 1920.

Built on the shore of the Bow River, on swampy ground, the pavilion was subject to flooding, [11] severe frost, [4] and consequent decay.

The Banff Crag and Canyon reported in July 1920 that;

"The grounds in front of the recreation building were under water last week, and it was possible for a man, if so inclined, to wade out to the building, sit on the steps and fish." [7]

The pavilion suffered severe flood damage in 1933, [4] and deterioration progressed to the point that the building was torn down in 1938. [8] [5] Ruins of the pavilion were visible until the early 1960s, but by 1965 all traces had been washed away or sunk into the bog. [4]

Controversy

During its life residents saw the building as a symbol of Ottawa's contempt for their concerns. [11] Wanting a building designed for local recreational needs, [11] the original and unused plans included areas for curling and ice hockey, [6] calling for a building that could be used year-round. Those plans were overseen by locals and approved by Banff residents after a public meeting at the National Park Theatre. [6] In December 1913, just months after construction began the Banff Crag and Canyon reported that;

"....their wishes and desires were, as usual, ignored by the 'overlords' at Ottawa, who imagine they are wiser as to the conditions in Banff than those who live and have their being here." [6]

Years later, in July 1920, the Banff Crag and Canyon reported of the building and grounds that;

"They are neither ornamental nor usefulexcept as a standing monument to the incapacity of Parks Commissioner Harkin." [7]

Nevertheless, the building was reasonably popular with local residents, and in the last thirty years, interest has grown in the structure and Wright's short-lived career and legacy in Canada.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Lloyd Wright</span> American architect (1867–1959)

Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements of the twentieth century, influencing architects worldwide through his works and mentoring hundreds of apprentices in his Taliesin Fellowship. Wright believed in designing in harmony with humanity and the environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. This philosophy was exemplified in Fallingwater (1935), which has been called "the best all-time work of American architecture".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winslow House (River Forest, Illinois)</span> Historic house in Illinois, United States

The Winslow House is a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house located at 515 Auvergne Place in River Forest, Illinois. A landmark building in Wright's career, the Winslow House, built in 1894–95, was his first major commission as an independent architect. While the design owes a debt to the earlier James Charnley House, Wright always considered the Winslow House extremely important to his career. Looking back on it in 1936, he described it as "the first 'prairie house'."

Francis Conroy Sullivan was a Canadian architect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darwin D. Martin House</span> American historic house in New York (1905)

The Darwin D. Martin House is a historic house museum in Buffalo, New York. The property's buildings were designed by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright and built between 1903 and 1905. The house is considered to be one of the most important projects from Wright's Prairie School era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prairie School</span> Architectural style

Prairie School is a late 19th and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands, integration with the landscape, solid construction, craftsmanship, and discipline in the use of ornament. Horizontal lines were thought to evoke and relate to the wide, flat, treeless expanses of America's native prairie landscape.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pettit Memorial Chapel</span> Historic building in Belvidere, Illinois

Pettit Memorial Chapel or Pettit Chapel was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and constructed in 1907. The Pettit Chapel is located in the Belvidere Cemetery in Belvidere, Illinois, United States, which is in Boone County. The cemetery was chartered in 1837 and contains 13,000 known graves. The chapel was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places December 1, 1978. The Pettit Chapel is an example of Frank Lloyd Wright's famed Prairie Style. It is the only funerary structure designed by Wright to be built in his lifetime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Graycliff</span> Historic house in New York, United States

The Graycliff estate was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1926, and built between 1926 and 1931. It is approximately 17 miles southwest of downtown Buffalo, New York, at 6472 Old Lake Shore Road in the hamlet of Highland-on-the-Lake, with a mailing address of Derby. Situated on a bluff overlooking Lake Erie with sweeping views of downtown Buffalo and the Ontario shore, it is one of the most ambitious and extensive summer estates Wright designed. It is now fully restored and operates as a historic house museum, open for guided tours year round. There is also a summer Market at Graycliff, free and open to the public on select Thursday evenings. Graycliff Conservancy is run by Executive Director Anna Kaplan, who was hired in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heller House</span> Historic house in Illinois, United States

The Isidore H. Heller House is a house located at 5132 South Woodlawn Avenue in the Hyde Park community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The house was designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The design is credited as one of the turning points in Wright's shift to geometric, Prairie School architecture, which is defined by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands, and an integration with the landscape, which is meant to evoke native Prairie surroundings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Gale House</span> Historic house in Illinois, United States

The Walter H. Gale House, located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and constructed in 1893. The house was commissioned by Walter H. Gale of a prominent Oak Park family and is the first home Wright designed after leaving the firm of Adler & Sullivan. The Gale House was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on August 17, 1973.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathan G. Moore House</span> Historic house in Illinois, United States

The Nathan G. Moore House, also known as the Moore-Dugal Residence, is a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The house was built one block south of Wright's home and studio at 333 Forest Avenue in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois. It was originally completed in 1895 in the Tudor Revival style at the request of client Nathan Moore. Wright obliged his client's wishes, but long after disliked the house for its adherence to historical styles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert P. Parker House</span> Historic house in Illinois, United States

The Robert P. Parker House is a house located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States. The house was designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1892 and is an example of his early work. Real-estate agent Thomas H. Gale had it built and sold it to Robert P. Parker later that year. The house was designed by Wright independently while he was still employed by the firm Adler & Sullivan, run by engineer Dankmar Adler and architect, Louis Sullivan; taking outside commissions was something that Sullivan forbade. The Parker House is listed as a contributing property to a U.S. federally Registered Historic District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas H. Gale House</span> Historic house in Illinois, United States

The Thomas H. Gale House, or simply Thomas Gale House, is a house located in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, United States. The house was designed by famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1892 and is an example of his early work. The house was designed by Wright independently while he was still employed in the architecture firm of Adler & Sullivan, run by engineer Dankmar Adler and architect, Louis Sullivan; taking outside commissions was something that Sullivan forbade. The house is significant because of what it shows about Wright's early development period. The Parker House is listed as contributing property to a U.S. federally Registered Historic District. The house was designated an Oak Park Landmark in 2002.

The American System-Built Homes were modest houses in a series designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. They were developed between 1911 and 1917 to fulfill his interest in affordable housing but were sold commercially for just 14 months. The Wright archives include 973 drawings and hundreds of reference materials, the largest collection of any of single Wright project. Wright cancelled the project in July 1917 by successfully suing his partner Arthur Richards for payments due and didn't speak of the program again. The designs were standardized and modular, so customers could choose from one hundred and twenty nine models on seven floorplans and three roof styles. Most materials were prepared and organized at Arthur Richards' lumber yard, so there was less waste and specialized labor needed for construction. Milled and marked materials were delivered to the work site for cutting and assembly by a carpenter. Windows, doors and some cabinetry were built at the yard. Frames, shelves, trim and some fixtures were cut and assembled on site. Most wood parts had a part number and corresponding instructions and drawings for joining, fit and finish. Richards' yard also supplied plaster, concrete, paint and hardware.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Massaro House</span> Architecturally significant residence on Petre Island in Lake Mahopac, New York

Massaro House is an architecturally significant residence on privately owned Petre Island in Lake Mahopac, New York, roughly 50 miles north of New York city. Inspired by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, the home's design and construction have had a complex and controversial history. Wright's plan was initially known as the "Chahroudi House", for the client who commissioned it back in 1949, and for whom Wright designed and built a much smaller cottage on the island when his proposal for the main home proved prohibitively expensive for the local engineer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary W. Adams House</span> Historic house in Illinois, United States

The 1905 Mary W. Adams House, is a Frank Lloyd Wright designed Prairie School home that was constructed in Highland Park, Illinois. The Adams House is a two-story home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms with a light stucco exterior and wooden trim that emphasizes the horizontal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charnley-Norwood House</span>

The Charnley-Norwood House is a summer (winter) cottage designed by architects Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright in 1890 in Ocean Springs, Mississippi on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The home was built as a vacation residence for James Charnley, a wealthy Chicago lumber baron, and its style represents an important change in American residential architecture known as Prairie School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hillside Home School II</span> United States historic place

The Hillside Home School II was originally designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1901 for his aunts Jane and Ellen C. Lloyd Jones in the town of Wyoming, Wisconsin. The Lloyd Jones sisters commissioned the building to provide classrooms for their school, also known as the Hillside Home School. The Hillside Home School structure is on the Taliesin estate, which was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976. There are four other Wright-designed buildings on the estate : the Romeo and Juliet Windmill tower, Tan-y-Deri, Midway Barn, and Wright's home, Taliesin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wyoming Valley School</span> United States historic place

The Wyoming Valley School is a historic school building designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in the town of Wyoming in Iowa County, Wisconsin, United States. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Blossom House</span> House in Illinois, United States

The George Blossom House in Chicago was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1892, while Wright was still working in the firm of Adler and Sullivan. As Wright was working as a draftsman for Adler and Sullivan, he was forbidden from taking outside commissions. He later referred to these designs as his "bootleg houses".

Jon Whyte was a Canadian poet, curator and non-fiction writer in Banff, Alberta. He believed poetry was a "public act" and that it informs and educates in a way almost no other medium can. He was an advocate for the Canadian West and specifically the Rockies in both poetry, non-fiction, and his activities as a conservationist. Even today, his name is considered by many to be synonymous with the Canadian Rockies.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, page 1, at www.archivesalberta.org
  2. FLW design timeline
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Banff Crag and Canyon, October 18, 1913, at www.archivesalberta.org
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Banff Crag and Canyon, December 16, 1964, at www.archivesalberta.org
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 William A Storrer, The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, p.167, University of Chicago Press; 2002
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Banff Crag and Canyon, December 16, 1913, at www.archivesalberta.org
  7. 1 2 3 Banff Crag and Canyon, July 10, 1920, at www.archivesalberta.org
  8. 1 2 Banff Crag & Canyon January 21, 1938
  9. Brian R. Sinclair and Terence J. Walker, "Frank Lloyd Wright's Banff Pavilion: Critical Inquiry and Virtual Reconstruction", APT Bulletin, p. 13, Vol. 28, No. 2/3, 1997, at www.jstor.org
  10. Robert C. Twombly, Frank Lloyd Wright: His Life and His Architecture, p.157, Wiley-Interscience; 1987.
  11. 1 2 3 Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, page 2, at www.archivesalberta.org

Further reading