MAYEROVITCH, Harry (1910-2004), active as an architect, author, artist, photographer and sculptor in Montreal for over fifty years. Born in Montreal on 16 April 1910, he grew up in Rockland, Ont. and moved to Montreal in 1926 to attend classes at McGill Univ. A brief visit to the School of Architecture there piqued his interest, and after receiving his B.A., he obtained a second degree, in architecture, and later articled in the office of Percy Nobbs, a leading architect in that city and Professor of Architecture at McGill Univ. He opened an office in 1936, working under his own name, and then in partnership with Alan L. Bernstein (from 1940 to 1967), and as Mayerovitch, Bernstein & Mincoff from 1968. One of his best known modernist works, designed in collaboration with C.D. Goodman, was the Sternthal Building (1949-50), a 10 storey office block with deeply recessed horizontal bands of glazing set within a stone-clad façade.
Mayerovitch was also a prolific author and artist. During WWII, his activity as an graphic designer caught the eye of John Grierson of the National Film Board, who hired Mayerovitch to design a number of war posters which Mayerovitch signed using the pseudonym ‘Mayo’. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Inst. of Canada in 1965, and he was the author of twelve books including Jibes, Jabs & Jeers in Verse and Line (1987), How Architecture Speaks and Fashions Our Lives (1996), and Way To Go (2004). A biography of the architect was published in The Canadian Architect, xvii, Oct. 1972, 7, and an interview and memoir of his career appeared in The Gazette [Montreal], 6 October 1996, D8, illus. Mayerovitch died in Montreal on 16 April 2004 (obit. Gazette [Montreal], 17 April 2004, A7; obituary with port. Globe & Mail [Toronto], 1 July 2004; inf. Ontario Association of Architects, Members Files)
H. MAYEROVITCH (works in Montreal)
OUTREMONT, residence for Simon Kirsch, Pagnuelo Avenue, 1937 (Outremont b.p. 3162, 19 Feb. 1937)
MAYEROVITCH & BERNSTEIN (works in Montreal unless noted)
OUTREMONT, duplex house for H. Gottlieb, Bloomfield Avenue, 1940 (Outremont b.p. 3487, 12 June 1940)
VAN HORNE AVENUE, at Deacon Road, a 3 storey apartment block for M. Miller and H. Gold, 1941 (Montreal Daily Star, 15 Feb. 1941, 26, descrip.; and 22 Feb. 1941, 25, illus. & descrip.; C.R., liv, 26 Feb. 1941, 118; and 12 March 1941, 35, t.c.; and 21 May 1941, 113)
OUTREMONT, residence for B. Sternthal, Pagnuelo Avenue, 1941 (Outremont b.p. 3599, 3 Oct. 1941)
OUTREMONT, residence for Morris Miller, Rockland Avenue, 1941-42 (Outremont b.p. 3615, 21 Nov. 1941)
JEWISH ASSISTANCE & SOCIAL ORGANIZATION INC., a community centre, Laurier Avenue, 1946 (C.R., lix, Oct. 1946, 96)
PARK HOLDINGS LTD., Hutchison Street, a four storey factory, 1947 (C.R., lx, April 1947, 94)
BUCHAREST RESTAURANT, St. Lawrence Boulevard, near Napoleon Street, 1947-48 (Architecture Batiment Construction, iii, Feb. 1948, 29, illus.)
LEVINE BROTHERS BAKERS., near Prince Arthur Avenue, store front and interiors, 1947-48 (Architecture Batiment Construction, iii, April 1948, 33, illus.)
SPIVAK’S DRESS MFR. CO., St. Dominique Street, garment factory, 1949 (C.R., lxii, May 1949, 170, t.c.)
PREMIER PAPER BOX CO., Grand Avenue, office and factory, 1950 (C.R., lxiii, July 1950, 128)
(with C. Davis Goodman) STERNTHAL BUILDING, St. Alexander Street, near Ste. Catherine Street West, 1949-50 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxvii, Nov. 1950, 386-7, illus.; France Vanlaethem, Patrimoine en Devenir: l‘Architecture Moderne du Quebec, 2012, 148-9, illus.)
MILCHIN-WACHMAN LTD., a large two storey factory, 1950 (Financial Post [Toronto], 17 June 1950, 17, descrip.)
OUTREMONT, school for the Adath Israel Congregation, Ducharme Avenue, 1950 (C.R., lxiii, June 1950, 124; Sept. 1950, 128; Outremont b.p. 4771, 22 Aug. 1950)
CAP DE LA MADELAINE, QUE., a tract of 100 cottages for the Model Development Co., 1950 (C.R., lxiii, May 1950, 152)
COMPETITIONS
TORONTO, ONT., Toronto City Hall, 1958. The Montreal firm of Mayerovitch & Bernstein was one of nearly 100 Canadian entrants in this international competition. The modernist design submitted by this firm was not among the finalists, but their proposal has recently been published in G.T. Kapelos, Competing Modernisms: Toronto's New City Hall and Square, 2015, 64, illus. The competition was won by Viljo Revell from Finland.