MADILL, Henry Harrison (1889-1988), a successful architect and educator, active for his entire career in Toronto, Ont.. Born in Beaverton, Ont. on 13 April 1899, he attended Jarvis Collegiate and enrolled in the Dept. of Architecture at the School of Practical Science at the Univ. of Toronto in 1908. Madill showed early skill and talent as a designer and delineator while studying architecture at the University of Toronto. Three of his student designs, including ‘A Design for a Memorial’, and ‘A Colonial Residence’, were published in the journal Construction [Toronto], iii, June 1910, 46, 48, 49, illus. During this period, he trained in the office of John M. Lyle, and with John A. Mackenzie, both of Toronto. He graduated in 1912, and within months he had formed a partnership in Toronto with his classmate James H. Craig (see list of works under Craig & Madill). This collaboration was to endure for more than 40 years until the death of Craig in 1954.
Activity in their office was briefly suspended in 1915-18 when both partners went overseas to serve with the Canadian Army during WWI. Madill attained the rank of Major, and was later appointed commanding officer of the Canadian Officers Training Corps during WWII, receiving the title of Lieut. Colonel, and he was awarded the Order of the British Empire for service during both wars. The firm of Craig & Madill specialised in the design of educational and institutional buildings throughout Ontario, and after 1925 they introduced a more refined and simplified modernist style to their work, best seen in the elegant and restrained elevational treatment of the Palace Pier (1930; demol.), and West Toronto Post Office (1935-36).
Madill was also was a respected educator, teaching classes in architecture at the Univ. of Toronto after 1920, and becoming associate professor there in 1924, and Director of the School of Architecture in 1934. He remained head of the School until 1957, becoming the Dean in 1948 when the school split from the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering. He was later appointed Director Emeritus of the School of Architecture in 1975. Madill was nominated as a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Inst. of Canada in 1935, and was later appointed Honorary Fellow of the American Inst. of Architects in 1956, in acknowledgement of his contribution to architectural education. He died in Toronto on 4 May 1988 (obit. and port. Toronto Star, 6 May 1988, A 30; Globe & Mail [Toronto], 6 May 1988, D 12; biog. R.A.I.C. Journal, xi, June 1934, 95; biog. and port. xxv, Sept. 1948, 346; biog. In Who’s Who in Canada and Why, 1938-39, 1483; 1947-48, 1190; inf. University of Toronto Archives)
SELECTED ESSAYS
“Romantic Architecture”, on the debate over the architectural styles considered suitable for modern buildings in the 20th C., in R.A.I.C. Journal, xii, December 1935, 205.
‘Factors Involved in Apartment House Design’, a detailed essay on the architectural and economic issues that should be carefully considered in preparing plans for multi-storey apartment buildings, in Contract Record [Toronto], xlv, 3 Aug. 1931, 911-15, illus.
‘Architectural Education’, a radio address broadcast on 24 Jan. 1935, prepared as part of a series called ‘Architects on Air’, in the R.A.I.C. Journal, xii, Jan. 1935, 18, and Feb. 1935, 33
‘The School of Architecture, Univ. of Toronto’, an illustrated article showing new student work, with a summary of the teaching programme, in the in the R.A.I.C. Journal, xviii, Feb. 1941, 26-8, illus.
‘Obituary of Charles H.C. Wright’, an appraisal of the contribution of the first Director of the Dept. of Architecture at the Univ. of Toronto, in the R.A.I.C. Journal, xxi, May 1944, 94
‘The School of Architecture, Univ. of Toronto’, an illustrated article showing new student work, with a summary of the teaching programme, in the in the R.A.I.C. Journal, xxii, April 1945, 75
‘The School of Architecture, Univ. of Toronto’, an illustrated article showing new student work, with a summary of the teaching programme, in the in the R.A.I.C. Journal, xxvi, May 1949, 136-7, illus.