THE FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT INFLUENCE PART II

The Westmount Public Library Interior

4574 Sherbrooke West, Montreal

Robert Findlay : original building, 1899

Peter Rose : renovations and extensions, 1990-95

The Westmount Public Library celebrated its centennial in 1999. In the 100 years since architect Robert Findlay’s vision was made reality, his building has been restored and expanded. A children’s pavilion was added to the original building in 1911, and a south addition was constructed in 1924. The interior was refurbished and modernized in the mid-30s and the Annex, which would later house the children’s collection, was built in 1959.

A major restoration and expansion project was completed in 1995, which returned the Library to its former glory. The Library retained its physical link to the Greenhouse and Conservatory. This link was extended west in 1999 to Victoria Hall.

Robert Findlay (1859–1951) was a Canadian architect. He was born in Inverness, Scotland, and moved to Montreal in 1885. He won the competition for the first Sun Life Building, and was the architect for the project, which he began in 1890. The Sun Life company left this building for its current location in 1913.

Findlay cultivated an extensive practice, working in later years with his son, Frank. He designed many homes for Montreal merchants and businessmen, including the Bronfman family and the Molson family. Many of these homes were in the "Golden Square Mile" and in the city of Westmount. Many of the Golden Square Mile homes he designed were later purchased by McGill University, including theMortimer Davis House (now Purvis Hall). He also designed the Calvary Congregational Church in Westmount (1911), located at the intersection of Greene Street and Dorchester Boulevard, but was demolished in 1961. He was also responsible for Mull Hall (1916), (later known as Stewart Hall) on Lakeshore Rd, and for the Hallward House (1925), later the Martlet House, now home to McGill's Faculty of Medicine administrative offices.

Certainly not Robert Findlay’s responsibility but rather Peter Rose conception, the interior feel of this reading room is definitively Wrightian. To me the wood furniture of this room is an integral part of the surrounding architecture and I tried to integrate them in my compositions.  The Images are a dynamic composite of several different exposures. On the first one I shot to the corner to give a sense of space. On the second one I integrated the table into the composition as a leading line to the window.