File 6 - Proposal of Sketch Block Plan for McGill University

“In November 1904, in connection with choosing a site for a new central power house, [Nobbs] prepared a sketch block plan showing possible locations for future buildings on the grounds and adjoining properties…The proposal served as a convenient expedient for the architect to set forth his planning ideas for the University…. Nobbs’s plan called for an orderly, symmetrical layout of the grounds relating to the main axes of the existing structures with future buildings occupying the perimeter. Ultimately, this would have made the campus an enclosed and quiet precinct within Montreal’s busy core. The architect’s plea for the preservation of the dilapidated Arts Building, first voiced in this proposal, stemmed from his desire to keep an attractive and historic building and use it as a compositional focal point.” -- --Susan Wagg, Percy Erskine Nobbs: Architect, Artist, Craftsman (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1982) , 45-46. --