The Citizen, 1986-01-29, Page 5THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29,1986. PAGE 5.
Architects busy province-wide
John Rutledge works on an interior design for a local home. Although the company has developed a
wide-reputation for Its restoration and museum work, it also serves local needs for everything from Are
halls to country homes.
A grade 8 school teacher in
Halifax and a summer theatre in
Blyth have a lot to do with the
creation of one of Canada’s top
restoration architecture and mus
eum architecture firms located in
an historic house on King Street in
Blyth.
Chris Borgal, one of the top three
restoration architects in the coun
try and designer of many new
museum buildings going up a-
round the country credits his grade
8 teacher with instilling in him an
interest in architecture and parti
cularly historic architecture.
The teacher was something of a
nut in the 1950’s when it wasn’t
fashionable to like old buildings.
He took his students on walking
tours of the historic buildings of
Halifax and ^t least one of his
students caught the bug. (The
teacher went on to become official
historian of the city and was
instrumental in saving the old
waterfront buildings of Halifax
which have been restored into one
of the most fashionable areas of the
city).
After studying to become an
architect, Chris made a plan to get
out of the city where there were so
many other young architects com
peting for few jobs and to move to a
smaller centre where he could get
work designing buildings that
would have his own name on them,
not being just a junior architect in a
big firm.
In 1977 he joined Nick Hill,
former Auburn-area architect who
had set up a firm specializing in
restoration work in Goderich. One
of the first jobs he became involved
in was the addition to Blyth
Memorial Hall which would pro
vide dressing rooms, offices, and
backstage space and a fire escape
from the balcony. While working
on the project he grew to like Blyth
and found an historic house he fell
in love with. He moved to Blyth
himself and commuted to work in
Goderich.
Later when the partners decided
to split up (Hill moved to london),
Chris moved his whole operation to
Blyth.
But the influence of the theatre
was more than just bringing him to
Blyth. Through his association
with the theatre (he later became a
member of the board and is
currently board treasurer) he
gained a lot of self confidence, he
says. Watching the little theatre, in
a most unlikely spot, grow to gain a
national reputation taught him that
“anybody can do it, you just have to
go get it.’’
The theatre has also brought him
into contact with some of the top
people in the theatre profession in
Canada. Sitting down having a
beer with a top actor like David
Fox, he says, made him realize that
the top people are just ordinary
people working very hard. He has
since found that the top people in
any profession are usually very
down to earth.
The Huron county experience
has brought him into daily contact
with such a wide range of people,
people he would have been
unlikely to meet if he had stayed in
abigcity.hesays.Inthecity.he
says, he would likely have been
surrounded only by other archi
tects and wouldn’t have the same
varied experience.
His contrariness in not going
along with the general pattern of
young architects has paid off, he
says. Most of the museum-design
contracts he bids on these days are
outside big centres and his down
home folksy approach, that comes
natural from his every-day life,
often suits people sitting on the
boards of the museums better than
the buttoned-down, slick approach
of city architects.
Something has certainly work
ed. He’s one of the busiest
museum designers in the country.
It started with work on Van
Egmond House in Egmondville
then got a big boost when he
designed the renovation of the
Bruce County Museum in South
ampton. It provided a unique
experience, conversion of an exist
ing historic building and design of
a large new addition. The result
was so successful it became a sort
of prototype for other small-town
museums with people coming to
look at what had been done. He was
invited to speak at museum
conferences as far east as his old
home town of Halifax.
Currently he is involved in 12 -14
museum projects around the coun
try. He has worked on museums in
Barrie, Woodstock, Etobicoke,
Mississauga and St. Catharines,
among others. He did work on the
Joseph Schneider House in Kitch
ener. Recently, he has co-ordinat-
d the feasibility study into the new
Huron County museum.
With success has come growth of
the company. Working with him is
John Rutledge, originally from
Brussels, who has completed his
architecture degree from Carleton
University and is interning with the
firm for the three-year period
required before he can pass his
final exam. Bruce Youmans also
works in the office, a graduate of
Environmental Studies at Univer
sity of Waterloo. Completing the
staffisCheryl Ackertof Auburn
who runs the firm’s two computers
among other things.
The firm has grown so quickly
that space in the house has become
limited and consideration is being
given to finding a location outside
the home for the office.
There are other drawbacks to the
location of such a firm in Blyth.
Chris estimates he spends about
five working weeks a year in the
driver’s seat of his car going to
meetings in various parts of the
country.
Still necessity is the mother of
invention and his tight time
schedules led him to be an early
convert to the world of computers.
Today the only place he spends
more time than in his car is in front
of his computer, writing reports on
the various projects he’s involved
with. It has given him more time to
get out and meet his clients face to
face, he says. Until recently he was
the most computerized small
architect in Ontario and organized
a seminar for a convention of
architects on computers.
Despite a fast-rising career he
managed to find time a couple of
years ago to take part in an
exchange program that sent him to
work in Uganda for six weeks. He
had a first hand opportunity to see
the violence that has since found its
way onto the world's front pages
and television screen. Ten minutes
Chris Borgal [standing] supervises a drawing by assistant Bruce Youmans. Anativeof Halifax, he came to
Blyth to design an addition to the theatre and stayed to open an office.
The Blyth architecture firm was a leader among small Ontario architects in adapting computer technology
to its needs of the small architect. Here Cheryl Ackert runs one of the two computers In the office.
from the airport there were road
blocks and soldiers and it wasn’t
the last time he saw trouble. He
worked with a rural architect in a
mud hut with lizards on the ceilings
dropping dirt on the drafting boards
and the sounds of shots in the
distance. Sometimes in the morn
ing they would see people standing
around an empty field where
bodies had been dumped from
death squad rampages the night
before.
While the firm is best known for
its work with museums at present,
it still branches out in other
directions. It designed the new
Wingham fire hall completed last
year and John Rutledge has done
several designs for country hous
es.
Still, heritage work has a high
place in the interests of Chris. He’s
a vice president of the Huron
County Architectural Conservancy
and feels there’s still a lot of
consciousness-raising to be done
toward the preservation of our
heritage in architecture.
Look at a picture of a field, he
says, and it could almost be
anywhere in the world. Put a
building in the field and it tells you
where you are. Buildings are like
stage dressing, he says, giving you
a sense of history, a sense of your
roots.
You don’t get rich by squander
ing the money you already have, he
says, and you don’t get a rich
culture by tearing down everything
you’ve already built and rebuild-
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