When he was less than two years out of grad school, Frank Milus came to Canada to become Director of Landscape Architecture for one of Canada’s largest, most prestigious firms, Project Planning Associates Ltd. (PPAL). He had graduated with Jack Milliken from the University of Michigan (MLA, 1963), and for the future Fellows, the sixties would prove to be a time of exponential growth for landscape architecture in Canada.
Raised in New Jersey, Frank had already worked briefly with Lawrence Halprin Associates, served with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and worked as a teaching assistant en route to his MLA. With PPAL, Milus was tasked with such major projects as the Welland Canal Relocation Design Study. But by 1968, he had moved on, becoming both Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and Secretary Treasurer of the OALA.
Alexander Topps (Fellow 2015) first met Milus at U of T, where Milus was the fourth-year design coordinator, affectionately known as “Swanky Franky”. But Milus was also principal of his own firm, Frank Milus and Associates, and establishing a niche in community development (Villages of Heart Lake, Brampton). By 1973, Milus had drawn Toronto grad Pat Bollenberghe (Fellow 2001) into the firm, and a year later, Alex Topps. By 1976, the two had become partners in Milus Bollenberghe Topps.
“Frank worked at both the macro and micro scale, with equal proficiency and creativity,” said Pat Bollenberghe. The emerging firm grew quickly. Pamela Bell, writing in the OALA Review (1979), described the “clean renovated factory chic” of the firm’s Toronto office, and its “refreshing graphic style.” MBT’s LAs, graphic designers, artists and community consultants had become a progressive force in community planning and design.
Over the next two decades, MBT took on massive master planning projects (Wasaga Beach Provincial Park, Goldbar Park along the north Saskatchewan River, William A Switzer Provincial Park near Hinton, Alberta), but also smaller community projects (revisioned landscape designs for the Ontario Housing Corporation, small neighbourhood parkettes), and even midway pedestrian flow studies for the Canadian National Exhibition (Toronto).
In the early 1980s, Milus stepped up his advocacy with the OALA, working to more fully integrate LAs into urban master planning. And by 1984, the firm had added architect Garry Watchorn, becoming The MBTW Group. “Under Frank's stewardship as the senior partner,” said Topps, “the firm grew to a substantial size,” and regularly employed more landscape architects than almost all offices in Ontario.
In 1994, a number of personal calamities prompted Frank to “quite literally, vanish… he left our corporate life and the profession in his mid-50s, at the height of a very successful career,” said Topps.
The firm continued to prosper, winning numerous project awards. Frank had been a major influence, says Bollenberge. “He was a fabulous mentor to staff. He always had time for constructive dialogue. His creative guidance energized us all.”
He died in Victoria in 2012.
Sources
Lead photo b/w : Photo courtesy The MBTW Group.
1. Yearbook: The Cornellian (Cornell University). Frosh Group Photo, v. 89, 1957.
2. Heart Lake Conservation Area and Community Development, Brampton. Heart Lake Villages, the first neighborhood was planned by Milus in the early 1970s.
3 + 4. "Milus Bollenberghe Topps: A Profile", by Pamela Bell. ALAO Magazine, vol. 5, June 1979.
5. Wasaga Beach Provincial Park
6 + 7. William A. Switzer Provincial Park near Hinton, Alberta (originally Entrance Provincial Park).
