McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
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Gordon Edwards Fonds
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- Textual record
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Fonds
Repository
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CA MUA MG 4246
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Physical description
3 m of textual records
12 rolls of plans
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Archival description area
Name of creator
(1930-2005)
Biographical history
Gordon Edwards was born 20 April 1930 in Montreal and graduated from McGill's School of Architecture in 1954. After graduation he joined the firm of Rother, Bland, and Trudeau Architects and remained there until 1959 when he became a partner in Bland, Lemoyne, and Edwards Architects and Town Planning Consultants.
Edwards taught at Laval University from 1968 to 1969 and in 1968 went on to work with the firm of Papineau Gerin-Lajoie Edwards, where he became a partner in 1969. In 1978 he founded Edwards Lam Associates and in 1980 Gordon Edwards Architects.
An architect who specialized in lighting systems, he worked on many projects including pavilions at Expo 67, new Chancellor Day Hall at McGill University, Mirabel International Airport, Canada Development Corporation in Toronto, and the Guy Favreau project in Montreal. He started teaching at McGill in 1968 as a Visiting Professor and was named as an adjunct professor for the core lighting design course in the School of Architecture in 1985. He was also a President of the Mount Royal Tennis Club in the 1980s. Gordon Edwards died in 2005.
Custodial history
Records were removed from the home of Gordon Edwards and transferred to McGill University on the 14th of April 2005 by archivist Gordon Burr.
Scope and content
The fonds chiefly reflects Gordon Edwards' professional practice, both in consortium with various firms and as an individual practitioner, and also reflects his teaching career at McGill University and the Université de Montreal, however there are some files of a personal nature. Correspondence, lighting design proposals, and their accompanying documentation (such as architectural plans) are included. A majority of the files representing his professional projects contain the same types of documents: architectural plans, lighting fixture schedules, illuminance grids, and manufacturer's literature and brochures. In addition, there are some miscellaneous photographs both of professional and personal nature, negatives, and fabric samples.
The correspondence is both personal and business-related; most of it deals with his practice and various projects and proposals, but there is also correspondence relating to legal and banking matters. There are letters from Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. There is also correspondence from noted architect Moshe Safdie and Canadian War Museum architect Raymond Moriyama.
Plans include lighting designs for the Supreme Court of Canada, the Outremont Library, and the McCord Museum expansion project.
Notes area
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Deposited by Herbert B. Edwards, 14 July 2005
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Accession nos.
2005-0213
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