McLAREN, John (1879 - c. 1921) was an ambitious and talented architect and delineator active in Vancouver from 1907 until 1913. Born in Scotland in 1879, he arrived in Canada before 1907 and settled in Vancouver. In 1908 he joined in a partnership with W. Stewart Campbell, as Campbell & McLaren, Architects (Vancouver City Directory, 1908, 457). Their collaboration was a brief one, and the following year McLaren joined Grant & Henderson as a draftsman and staff architect, and remained with that firm until 1913.
McLaren also appears to have worked independently, submitting his own designs in four separate architectural competitions. He was evidently very talented as a designer. In 1907 he was one of 29 architects from across Canada who submitted an entry in the competition for the Departmental & Justice Buildings in Ottawa. The chief juror Edmund Burke ranked his entry high in 8th place, and complimented McLaren, stating that “…the architecture is an excellent adaptation of Flemish Gothic, well drawn and admirably treated“ (C.A.B., xx, Sept. 1907, 184, jury comments). The first prize was awarded to E. & W.S. Maxwell, but their design was never built.
In 1913 McLaren was one of 39 Canadian architects who entered the competition for the Winnipeg City Hall (City of Winnipeg Archives, Council Communications, 1913, Box A 169, Item 9741, list of entrants). McLaren was not among the five finalists, and Clemesha & Portnall of Regina were declared the winners, but the project was later cancelled.
Undeterred, McLaren competed against 61 other architects from the British Commonwealth in 1914 by submitting plans in the complicated programme for the new Departmental Buildings on Wellington Street in Ottawa (NAC, Vol. 2952, File 5379-1B, list of entrants). WWI intervened, and the project was cancelled, but it would be nearly 10 years before the government offered financial compensation to 6 finalists in 1923. McLaren was not one of those finalists.
In late 1914, McLaren was one of 30 architects from the United States and Canada who sent in plans in the competition for the Vancouver Civic Centre (C.R., xxix, 6 Jan. 1915, 8, list of competitors). He was not among the three finalists, and Theodore Korner with Robert Mattocks were declared the winners. McLaren left Canada after 1916; he may be the same “John McLaren, architect” who appears in San Francisco in 1921.