THOMPSON, Charles Joseph (1878-1961), a leading architect in Vancouver in the 20th C. and a partner there in the following firms:
Sharp & Thompson, 1908 to 1945
Sharp, Thompson, Berwick & Pratt 1945 to 1956
Thompson, Berwick & Pratt 1956 to 1960
Born in London, England on 13 September 1878, he was the son of Joseph A. Thompson, a local architect in that city, and it was his father who likely influenced the decision of his son Charles to pursue a career in architecture. Charles attended United Westminster College in London in 1892-95, and later studied architecture at the London Polytechnic and at the Architectural Association. He articled in the office John A. Gill-Knight (in 1897-1900), and was then employed as assistant to John Cash, FRIBA (in 1900-01), and as assistant in the architectural firm of Cubitt, Sons & Chuter (in 1901-03) in London. He rejoined his father’s office in 1903, but later decided to emigrate to Canada in 1906 and settled in Montreal where he joined the architectural office of the Canadian Pacific Railway. There, he worked under the direct supervision of Walter S. Painter, assisting him with designs for the Mount Carmel Wing of the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City, and with layouts for the Banff Springs Hotel, and the original Chateau Lake Louise Hotel.
In May 1908 he resigned his position as Assistant Chief Architect at the C.P.R. Railway in Montreal and moved to Vancouver where he formed a partnership with G.L.Thornton Sharp (Vancouver Daily World, 23 May 1908, 10). Much of their early work was residential in nature (see list of works under Sharp & Thompson), but they achieved a major breakthrough by winning the international competition for the new campus of the University of British Columbia at Point Grey in Vancouver in 1912.
Their office dominated the architectural profession in Vancouver for the next 20 years, and in 1936 they were joined by Robert A.D. Berwick (1909-1974), and by Charles E. Pratt (1911-1996) as staff members in the firm. When Sharp retired in 1939, Thompson invited the two young Toronto graduates to become associates, then in 1946 they became full partners. The office name was changed from Sharp, Thompson Berwick & Pratt to Thompson Berwick & Pratt in 1955. Collectively, they established an exceptional record of excellence, winning two Gold and seven Silver Massey Medals for Architecture between 1952 and 1964. Their crowning achievement was the remarkable B.C. Hydro Building in Vancouver (1955-57), a beacon of modernism conceived by its designer C.E. (Ned) Pratt as a tower built like a tree. The lozenge-shaped floor plates are cantilevered outwards from a heavy structural core or “backbone” containing elevators, stairs, services and ductwork, leaving the exterior skin virtually column-free. This innovative design generated significant international press coverage (Architectural Forum [New York], Vol. cvii, July 1957, 106-113, illus.; Architectural Review [London], Vol. cxxvi, October 1959, 154-55, 157, illus.; Vitrum [Journal of Glass in Modern Architecture], Milan, No. 100, Feb. 1958, cover). A sixteen page newspaper supplement with a comprehensive description of this landmark was published in The Vancouver Sun, 29 March 1957, Hydro Supplement, pp. 1 to 16, illus. & descrip.
Thompson died in Vancouver on 14 April 1961 (obit. Vancouver Sun, 17 April 1961, 12; obit. The Province [Vancouver], 17 April 1961, 7; obit. R.A.I.C. Journal, xxxviii, May 1961, 80; biog. Who’s Who in Western Canada, 1911, 360; Who’s Who & Why in Canada, 1913, 803; biog. In S.M. Carter, Who’s Who in British Columbia, 1942-43, 300; Grove Dictionary of Art, 1996, Vol. 28, 557; biog. in D. Luxton, Building The West: The Early Architects of British Columbia, 2003, 348-53; inf. Architectural Institute of British Columbia, Vancouver; inf. Royal Inst. of British Architects, London). The Canadian Architectural Archives at the Univ. of Calgary holds a collection of more than 2,000 original drawings by the firm of Sharp & Thompson, and by Thompson, Berwick & Pratt, dating from 1908 to 1959.