LAWSON, James Irving (1886-1964), active in Toronto, Ont. under his own name, and in partnership with Ferdinand H. Marani, in the following firms:
Marani, Lawson & Paisley (1926 to 1928)
Marani & Lawson (1928 to 1929)
Marani, Lawson & Morris (1930 to 1941)
Born in Toronto on 25 September 1886, he studied building construction and drafting at the Toronto Technical School in 1901-04, and articled with the firm of Wickson & Gregg from 1904 to 1908. He then worked in a succession of prominent local firms including Darling & Pearson (1909-10), for Bond & Smith (1910), then moved to New York City to spend three years in the office of Donn Barber, a leading architect in that city and master of the Beaux-Arts style. It was there that he likely heard of, or met, some of the staff of Carrere & Hastings; on his return to Toronto in 1913 he worked as a draftsman in their Toronto office, in collaboration with Eustace G. Bird (in 1913-14). After serving with the R.C.H.A. Regiment during WWI in 1917-18, he returned to Toronto and joined Molesworth, West & Secord as a draftsman (1919). In 1920 he was appointed as Chief Architect of the Toronto Transit Commission, overseeing the design and construction of all of their buildings from 1921 to 1927, including offices, car barns, bus and streetcar shelters, and bus storage facilities.
In late 1926 he was invited by Ferdinand H. Marani to join him in a new partnership in Toronto (see list of works under Marani, Lawson & Paisley). When Paisley departed, the firm was renamed (see list of works under Marani & Lawson), and in 1930 Robert S. Morris joined the partnership (see works under Marani, Lawson & Morris). Lawson collaborated with Marani for nearly 14 years, but left the partnership in 1941 to serve as a general supervising engineer with Allied War Supplies in Montreal. After 1945 he was affiliated with Central Mortgage & Housing Corp. in Ottawa, and with the National Research Council as a consultant. Lawson died in Ottawa, Ont. on 18 January 1964 (death notice Globe & Mail [Toronto], 20 Jan. 1964, 29; obit. Ottawa Citizen, 21 Jan. 1964, 29; biog. National Reference Book, vi, 1940, 410-11; Who’s Who in Canada, 1930-31, 170; 1947-48, 310; R. Hamilton, Prominent Men of Canada, 1931-32, 476; inf. Ontario Association of Architects).