Robert Calvert was a dynamic, multi-faceted man of the arts, “a man of warmth and colorful character, a sometimes irascible wit, and a constant cigar.”
Renowned CSLA Fellow Brad Johnson (1974), writing in a CSLA Bulletin of 1994, remembers the CSLA pioneer as an artistic force, and recounts highlights from the storied life of the London, Ontario boy who even from his youth, “did” gardens for family friends and wanted to be an artist.
Though World War II interrupted his ambitions, Bob none-the-less began exhibiting works by 1948, and building “Dali-like windmill mobiles” at the University of Toronto School of Architecture, where he was also introduced informally to landscape architecture through courses taught by Howard Dunnington-Grubb (Fellow, 1964) and Austin Floyd (Fellow, 1973). After he graduated in 1949 (BArch), Bob joined the Vancouver architectural firm Sharpe, Thompson, Berwick & Pratt, as well as creating stylish, inexpensive home furnishings for the Design for Living exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery, 1949. (His work was featured some 70 years later, in the gallery’s 2020 exhibit, Modern in the Making.)
With his passion for design, Calvert served as Architectural Editor for Canadian Homes and Gardens magazine in the early 50s. When he returned to Ontario, he launched a private architectural practice, but soon he became Chief Architect for Hancock, Little, Calvert Associates. By 1957 he had become a full CSLA Member, serving as CSLA Secretary-Treasurer in 1959, and planning a syllabus for a school of LA at the University of Toronto – a dream not achieved until 1965.
Calvert credited Don Pettit, (Fellow, 1974) for his growing LA expertise. Both worked with the firm founded by Macklin Hancock, by then evolved into Project Planning Associates Ltd. (PPAL). Calvert had gained considerable experience working on Toronto Island Parks and St. Lawrence Seaway Parks System.
By 1963, through PPAL, Calvert was appointed Chief Landscape Architect for Expo ’67. Calvert, says historian/Fellow Ron Williams, was the “organization man,” overseeing the timing and logistics of the many landscape architectural contracts for the common lands.
With his love of history and preservation, Calvert simultaneously acted as consulting architect/ sculptor for elements of the Fortress Louisburg reconstruction, then after Expo, on Fort Edmonton Park. He consulted for the World Bank in the early 70s, then served as Heritage Architect for Public Works Canada from 1974 to his retirement in 1985. He was awarded the Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 1977.
Bob retired to Kingston, Ontario, to paint and teach painting. Brad Johnson recalls walking with him in his garden, “a wonderful venue for the expression of his artistic talents and the application of his impressive knowledge of plants.”
Sources
Read Brad Johnson’s full article in the CSLA Bulletin of November, 1994.
Photos:
1 Calvert working on a reading chair for the “Design for Living” exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery, 1949. Image: Jack Long/Weekend Collection/Library and Archives Canada/e002344014
2 University of Toronto Archives: Robert Calvert, student at the University of Toronto (1948), creating a mobile
3 University of Toronto Archives: Calvert in 1949
4 Promotional brochure
5 A photo of Long Sault Parkway, St. Lawrence Seaway Park, circa 1959, accompanies a Brad Johnson memoriam for Bob Calvert, published in the CSLA Bulletin, November 1994
