THE NINTH DECADE (1971 - 1980)

The 1970's brought further significant changes to the firm generated by the completion of the work at Mount Allison, the marked decline in church buildings and the retirement of Bruce Brown and Ross Brisley from the practice in 1972. Douglas Brown found himself alone in practice with a few key employees namely David Paine and John Goodyear and a much-reduced body of work. There was the completion of some work at Mount Allison and a small but continuous flow of work made up of additions and the completion of work from the previous decade. New work included the redevelopment of Bolton Camp with its new Outdoor Centre, a Leader Training Building for the Boy Scouts, and the New Grace Church in Newmarket.
Phoenix Place (1978)    Phoenix Place (1978)	With the decline of the downtown churches at this period and a growing need for affordable housing came the beginnings of church sponsored housing. At this period many downtown churches were being sold and demolished for commercial developments. Church leaders saw the opportunity to combine more appropriate facilities for the church with a housing component. This allowed for a continuing ministry, while at the same time meeting an increased demand for affordable housing. One of the first of these redevelopments was Project Phoenix in 1975, an undertaking of Parkdale United Church whereby the huge and no longer viable facility was redeveloped as a church/housing project which combined modest church facilities on the main floor with several floor of affordable housing above. The financial arrangement with the help of CMHC was, in its simplest form, a combination of the church asset, expensive land, being traded for a new more modest and appropriate church facility that would share that land with a housing development all under the sponsorship of a Not-for- Profit Corporation set up to develop the project.
Land costs that were now becoming critical and had everything to do with the forgoing developments, also gave birth to a new phenomenon: the Church Campus.
Malvern Church Campus,    Scarborough (1980)	Religious denominations were finding that they could no longer afford land and were looking for ways it could be more highly utilized. In addition to church housing, there arose the practice of several denominations sharing church sites and parking areas, and building shared facilities.
Two of these projects were carried out in the late seventies at Malvern in Scarborough and North Waterloo, Ontario. This work along with a resurgence of church building, which had been quiet for over a decade, persuaded Douglas Brown, whose workload had increased gradually, that he needed additional help as well as the stimulation of professional colleagues.

 

BACK  NEXT