McKINSTRY, David Gordon (1905-1979) served as Chief Architect of the Engineering & Architectural Dept. of the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission from September 1935 until his retirement in June 1969. In this position he played a major role in the design of radio transmitter and broadcasting buildings across Canada, and he was an acknowledged expert in acoustic design, an essential aspect of the radio studios located within these structures. Born in Ottawa, Ont. on 27 September 1905 he was educated at Lisgar Collegiate but appears to have no formal education in architecture. Instead, he served an apprenticeship in Ottawa under J.L. Kingston (1921-23), and with Burritt & Kingston (1923-25), and with J.B. McRae (1925-26). He moved to New York City in 1926 to attend classes at the Beaux-Arts Institute, and worked briefly for Warren & Wetmore, a leading firm in that city, and with Gundlach & Yocca (1927-28). He returned to Ottawa in 1928 and joined the Dept. of Public Works as a draftsman (1928-31), and then as an assistant with A.J. Hazelgrove (1931-33).
McKinstry joined the C.R.B.C. in Ottawa in late 1933 as a staff architect, and by 1953 he was supervising a team of more than twenty architects and engineers who were overseeing the design and construction of CBC buildings in every province, many of them utilizing a progressive modernist style. This included the transformation of the Toronto studios for the CBC, located in the old Havergal College buildings on Jarvis Street, into a new broadcast complex (built c. 1955). His most important project was the creation of a new national headquarters in Ottawa for the CBC, located on Bronson Avenue at Riverside Drive , Ottawa, Ont. (1961-63). The design for this important work, now a designated landmark, bears a striking resemblance to Marcel Breuer’s design for the UNESCO Headquarters Building in Paris, France (built 1953-58).
McKinstry retired in 1969 and later died at Nepean, Ont. on 30 March 1979 (death notice Montreal Star, 3 April 1979, D 11; inf. from Ontario Assoc. of Architects; inf. Province of Quebec Assoc. of Architects) .A detailed biography of the architect appeared in the CBC staff magazine entitled Radio, February 1953, 10-11, illus. A lengthy article written by McKinstry on the subject of Acoustic Design in Architecture, was published in the R.A.I.C. Journal, xiii, Aug. 1936, 158-62.
LULU ISLAND, VANCOUVER, a new 400 foot radio transmitter tower and Transmitting Station, for the C.B.C., 1936-37 (Vancouver News-Herald, 6 Aug. 1936, 6, descrip.)
VANCOUVER, B.C., new C.B.C. Radio Station & Studio for CRCV, Hornby Street, 1936-37 (Vancouver Sun, 13 Feb. 1937, 21, illus. & detailed descrip.; The Province [Vancouver], 15 Feb. 1937, 5, illus. & descrip.)
CONTRECOEUR, QUE., radio station for the C.B.C., 1937 (C.R., vol. L., 2 June 1937, 30)
HAWTHORNE, ONT., C.B.C. Transmitter Building, c. 1937 (inf. from Prov. Of Quebec Assoc. of Architects)
HORNBY, ONT., C.B.C. Transmitter Building, 1937-38 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xv, Oct. 1938, 218-19, illus.; Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, xxxvi, Autumn, 2011, 5-12, illus.; Tim Morawetz, Art Deco Architecture Across Canada, 2017, 41-42, illus. & descrip.)
WATROUS, SASK., C.B.C. Transmitter Building, 1939 (Red Deer Advocate, 8 Feb. 1939, 4, illus. & descrip., but lacking attribution; Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, xxxviii, Autumn, 2013, 7, illus.)
VERCHERES, QUE., C.B.C. Transmitter Building, c. 1939-40 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xviii, April 1941, 66, illus.; Architecture Batiment Construction, ii, Nov. 1947, 39-40, illus.)
MARIEVILLE, QUE., C.B.C. Transmitter Building, c. 1939-40 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xviii, April 1941, 66, illus.; Architecture Batiment Construction, ii, Nov. 1947, 38, illus.)
EDMONTON, ALTA., Radio Station CBX, c. 1945 (Architecture Batiment Construction, ii, Nov. 1947, 41, illus.)
SACKVILLE, N.B., C.B.C. Radio Canada International Transmitting Building, designed 1939; built 1944 (Red Deer Advocate, 8 Feb. 1939, illus. & descrip., but lacking attribution; Architecture Batiment Construction, ii, Nov. 1947, 36-37, illus.; John Leroux, Building New Brunswick-An Architectural History, 2008, 169, illus.)
MONTREAL, QUE., major addition to offices and broadcasting studios for the C.B.C., 1950-51 (C.R., lxiii, Feb. 1950, 130; R.A.I.C. Journal, xxix, March 1952, 64-66, illus.; Batiment, xxvii, Nov. 1952, 16-18, illus.)