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Oriole
York Mills
United, Toronto (1960)
Central
Presbyterian,
Brantford (1960)
St
Bride Anglican,
Clarkson, Mississauga
(1961)
St
Bride Anglican,
Clarkson, Mississauga
(1961)
Wellington
Square United,
Burlington (1965)
Mount
Allison University
Chapel (1963)
Spring
Garden Baptist
(1961)
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The
momentum of church growth in the fifties carried on into
the early sixties, but at a considerably reduced level.
This may have been partly due to over building in the previous
decade, but also to a change in society's view of the church.
This was the period of Pierre Berton's "A Comfortable Pew"
and Bishop John Robinson's "Honest to God". The Hippie Movement
was just getting under way, and traditional life styles
were not only questioned but also often overturned.
The
result of these factors was that following the completion
of Oriole York Mills United
in Toronto, Central Presbyterian
in Brantford, St. Bride (Clarkson)
in Mississauga and others built in 1961 and 1962, there
was a marked reduction in church work available. The firm
designed a few large church projects in the 196O's, but
these, like Wellington Square
United in Burlington and Kingsview United in Oshawa,
were the results of amalgamations and relocations of established
churches rather than pure growth.
At
about this time the firm was invited to Mount Allison University
in Sackville, New Brunswick. Dr. Laurie Craig, chemist turned
administrator, had just been brought from McMaster University
to take over as President. Dr. Craig had been much taken
with the Divinity College at McMaster and there was considerable
pressure to build a Chapel at Mount Allison.
The
difficulty in launching this project was in site selection.
It was a disorganized series of buildings that faced the
two Browns when they visited this small but charming campus,
and they decided that they could not make an informed judgment
about a new chapel without some idea of where the university
was going, and how it was to develop. The campus at this
time was a collection of white frame and red Sackville stone
buildings forming the centre of the Town of Sackville and
bounded by city streets. The buildings for the most part
where built facing the street so that the central core of
the complex was a maze of parking lots, service areas, utility
poles and garbage cans. Conveying their unease about adding
to this, the Browns persuaded administration to commission
a study for the redevelopment of the campus.
The
result of this was a plan that virtually turned the campus
inside out. The buildings were to be re-oriented so that
they were serviced from the surrounding streets, thus freeing
the Central Core to become an enclosed green pedestrian
space. This central campus formed a rough rectangle enclosed
at one end by the proposed new chapel and at the other by
the library/arts complex.
Aware
that the frame buildings would have to be replaced and that
further building was certain to take place Bruce Brown persuaded
the University to re-open its own quarry and continue the
use of the stone character established much earlier.
From
this Master Plan came work including the Chapel,
the Fine Arts Building, the Conservatory of Music, the Chemistry
Building, the Library and the Men's Residences, and in addition
substantial renovation to the Owens' Art Gallery, and the
University Centre (formerly the library). The Arts Building
that was to complete the central campus was completed some
years later.
Fortunately
the decline in church building in the sixties and seventies
was offset by this University work that also included the
design of the Conservatory of Music at Acadia University
in Wolfville Nova Scotia.
The
sixties were not completely devoid of church work and saw
in addition to examples mentioned previously, Immanuel Baptist
Church and Spring Garden Baptist
Church in North York, West Humber United Church in Rexdale,
and Bethesda United Church in Mississauga.
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