ALLAN, Marvin Francis (1905-1964) was an important Toronto architect who was invited to join the office of F.H. Marani and Robert S. Morris in August 1947 and remained active in this firm until his unexpected death in June, 1964. Born in Delhi, Ont. on 3 November 1905 he attended Hamilton Central Collegiate and received his architectural education from the School of Architecture at the University of Toronto where he graduated in 1929. After working for two years as a junior architect in the Toronto office of Murray Brown, he travelled to Europe in 1932 and enrolled in fine arts courses at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, and then worked in the offices of Sir John J. Burnett of London, England and Guenther-Wentzel of Berlin, Germany in 1932 and 1933. He returned to Hamilton, Ont. in 1934 and maintained his own office there until 1939. While serving with the Royal Canadian Engineers from 1939 until August 1945 he undertook the design and construction of invasion airfields for Allied Forces, an accomplishment for which he was made a member of the Order of the British Empire. Upon returning to civilian life he became Chief Architect for the Housing Enterprises of Canada, a forerunner of the present Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. which was conceived to develop low-cost housing in post-war Canada. He joined the firm of Marani & Morris as an associate partner in 1947 and became a full partner in 1959, and was elected a Fellow of the R.A.I.C. in 1962. Allan died in Saint John, N.B. on 22 June 1964 while attending the R.A.I.C. Convention (obituaries in the Toronto Star, 23 June 1964, 39; R.A.I.C. Journal, xli, August 1964, 8-9; biography and list of works in Who's Who in Canada, 1960-61, 92).
OTTAWA, ONT., a model residentail community of sixty-six low rise apartment buildings in Sandy Hill, to be built for returning war veterans, Mann Avenue, from Range Road to Russell Avenue, 1947 (Ottawa Journal, 9 Jan. 1947, 1, illus., 15, descrip.)