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He Was the Son of a Movie

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He Was the Son of a Movie B24 OBITUARIES G THE GLOBE AND MAIL | SATURDAY,DECEMBER 12, 2020 GEOFFREY MASSEY ARCHITECT, 96 PIONEER OF WEST COAST MODERNISM HELPED SHAPE VA NCOUVER CULTURE He partnered with Arthur Erickson to create a wide array of landmarks and masterpieces, including Simon Fraser University ADELE WEDER son, a Vancouver lawyer and fellow avid skier, persuaded him to take a close look at what was then a raw e was the son of a movie swathe of land at the base of a spec- star, the nephew of the first tacular mountainscape. “There HCanadian-born governor- was nothing here but two logging general and the descendent of camps and some summer cottag- farm-tool manufacturers who be- es,” Mr. Watson recalls, “In effect, gat one of the richest and most the whole town had to be powerful families in the nation. planned.” But Geoffrey Massey was his own Mr. Watson joined forces with man, and when it came time to es- Mr. Massey and three other part- tablish his career, he chose archi- ners to form the Garibaldi Whistler tecture. By the time by Mr. Massey Development Company. Along died in Vancouver this month at with a handful of other groups, the age of 96, he had helped shape they supported a rough communi- buildings and communities across ty plan and a bid to host the 1968 the land. Olympic Games. The quixotic Among architects, much of Mr. Olympic bid failed, but it triggered Massey’s renown derives from his thearea’sfirstseriousconstruction 15-year association with Arthur Er- activity and publicly branded ickson, which began in the Whistler as an up-and-coming ski mid-1950s. Their partnership pro- mecca. duced an array of landmark The Garibaldi Whistler group houses, plus two large-scale mas- acquired a large tract of provincial terpieces: the MacMillan Bloedel Crown land, built Whistler’s first headquarters on Vancouver’s West condominium project, and laid Georgia Street and Simon Fraser out building sites for family chalets University on nearby Burnaby near the base of the first ski lift to Mountain. Whistler mountain. In the ensuing At Erickson/Massey Architects, years, Mr. Massey continued to their complementary talents and help shape Whistler, working with personalities made them a sym- other architects on cabins and pri- biotic team. Mr. Erickson focused vate homes. on the conceptual design work, Mr. Massey had big ideas for the while Mr. Massey provided a broad City of Vancouver as well. With Mr. urban outlook and administrative Erickson, he co-produced Project oversight. As their portfolio grew, 56 and Project 58, a series of they attracted emerging talents, late-1950s visions for high-rise den- including Bruno Freschi, Bo Helli- sification, whose principles later well and Nick Milkovich, all of informed the growth of Vancouv- whom later established notable er’s West End. And in 1966, he practices of their own. worked with Mr. Erickson and Mr. Mr. Erickson served as the main Freschi to devise and propose a spokesman and front man for the massive conceptual transforma- firm, but Mr. Massey – tall, dark, tion of downtown Vancouver into handsome and taciturn – com- Arthur Erickson, left, and Geoffrey Massey stand outside Simon Fraser University, on which they collaborated, abustling core of glass-domed manded attention just by entering in 1965. The pair’s firm, Erickson/Massey Architects, attracted numerous emerging talents who would later shopping zones and pedestrian aroom. When Mr. Erickson was form notable practices of their own. COURTESY OF THE ERICKSON FAMILY COLLECTION streets. away on his frequent travels, Mr. “Architectural designs are not Massey’s reliable presence became the forefront of what was going the critical problem at this time. the ballast that stabilized the firm. on,” Mr. Massey recalled in a 2014 Consideration of the pedestrian is “Geoff and Arthur were a dy- interview with this writer. the most important,” Mr. Massey namic pair together, bringing in After graduating, Mr. Massey argued in a public presentation. corporateandinstitutionalworkat worked briefly in Montreal “at a Both the provincial and munici- that time,” Mr. Helliwell recalls. fuddy-duddy old firm,” as he de- pal governments rejected the “Both of them had radio-announ- scribed it. When he was fired from $500-million concept as too ex- cer voices. Arthur had the social that job, he relocated to Vancouv- pensive. Still, the scheme prompt- connections in Vancouver and Ge- er. ed citizens and civic leaders to off through the Massey family had At Harvard, much of the aca- imagine new possibilities for den- connections across the country.” demic and peer discussion had sifying their city. Mr. Massey’s steady hand would centred on new ways of designing The Erickson/Massey dynamic turn out to be crucial when it came urban environments, including Le grew strained over the years after time to oversee their more com- Corbusier’s entirely new city of Mr. Erickson’s life partner, interior plex projects through to construc- Chandigarh in India. He hoped to designer Francisco Kripacz, be- tion. When the two men won the find similar opportunities in fast- came more involved with their 1963 competition to plan and de- growing British Columbia. firm. Mr. Massey blamed the firm’s sign a new university from scratch, Mr. Massey joined Thompson, dire financial straits on Mr. Kri- they hadn’t even established a firm Berwick & Pratt Architects, which pacz’s unfettered spending and the or rented an office yet, and they was designing a brand-new town partnership dissolved in 1972. had just two years to bring their named Kitimat to serve the work- After the breakup of Erickson/ conceptual scheme to fruition. ers of an aluminum smelting plant Massey,Mr. Massey entered munic- They succeeded, albeit with on the North Coast. ipalpoliticsandwaselectedto Van- some inevitable glitches as the “This was going to be the new couver City Council in 1972, just as campus took shape. Their distinc- model city,” Mr. Massey recalled in Art Phillips won the mayoral race tive personae are recounted in a2010 interview with this writer. on a progressive urban agenda. biographer David Stouck’s book “So I told Thompson Berwick While on council, Mr. Massey sup- Arthur Erickson: An Architect’s Life. Pratt: ‘I’d love to work on Kitimat.’ ported the development of Gran- When informed that one of the And they said: ‘Oh, by all means, ville Island, the halting of a university’s concrete slabs was too you are welcome to work on Kiti- planned inner-city freeway, and thin to bear the weight it was re- mat!’” the conversion of a stretch of quired to carry, “Geoff burned up Once hired, however, Mr. Mas- downtown Granville Street into a the telephone lines, shouting at sey was dismayed when he saw pedestrian mall. But he found it various contractors and suppliers drawings of its rigid urban tem- too difficult to implement his ideas to deal with the problem at once,” plate and monotonous house de- Mr. Massey, shown in Vancouver in 2010, also played a key role in the properly, and he left politics at the Mr.Stouckwrote.“Simultaneously, signs. He then realized that instead creation of Massey College at the University of Toronto, persuading end of his two-year term. “Munici- Arthur was on another line trying of Canada’s Chandigarh, this his uncle, philanthropist and founder Vincent Massey, to seek a pal politics drove him crazy,” ac- to track down a certain kind of would be Alcan’s company town – groundbreaking contemporary design. ALEX WATERHOUSE-HAYWARD cording to his son Raymond. “The gold-scaled koi for a reflecting economically driven and utterly amount of effort it took to accom- pool.” banal. It was his first rude awaken- room player who is crucial to mov- sey: the Arts Club, which later plish even a no-brainer project was Geoffrey Massey was born on ing to the limitations of his chosen ing the plot forward. evolved into the city’s renowned agonizing.” Oct. 29, 1924, in London, England, profession. His behind-the-scenes influen- Arts Club Theatre. Returning to architecture, Mr. to Margery (née Fremantle) and Mr. Massey found his day job to ce extended to the other arts as Mr.Masseyalsoplayedakeyrole Massey co-founded the Coal Har- Raymond Massey, a Canadian- be disappointingly dull, but his life well. In 1955, he invited his Harvard in the creation of Massey College at bour Architectural Group in 1978, born stage actor and the son of was enlivened by living with Mr. Er- classmate Abraham Rogatnick to the University of Toronto. His un- spending much of his remaining Massey-Harris Tractor Company ickson and moonlighting together Vancouver,whereheandMr.Erick- cle Vincent Massey, who did phil- career designing projects in Whis- owner Daniel Massey. He saw little on their own architectural pro- son introduced him and his part- anthropic work with the Massey tler and on Hernando Island. After of his mother after his parents di- jects. One of their earliest clients ner,AlvinBalkind,to aselectgroup Foundation following his term as retiringfromarchitecture,Mr.Mas- vorced in 1929, but remained close was a young woman named Ruth of artists. Enraptured by the city governor-general, originally want- sey kept periodically involved with to his father, following him to Killam, herself the scion of an illus- and its tightly knit cultural com- ed a Gothic Revival structure simi- design advocacy projects, most re- America when the elder Mr. Mas- trious Canadian family. Mr. Erick- munity, Mr. Rogatnick and Mr. Bal- lar to the adjacent campus archi- cently as a founding director of the sey continued his career on Broad- son started the design of her mod- kindthenmovedto Vancouverand tecture.
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