GIBSON, George Dean (1908-1989), active in Toronto in the partnership of Gibson & Pokorny from 1946 onwards. Gibson was born in London, England in June 1908 but grew up in Victoria B.C. where he was educated in primary and secondary schools. In September 1925 he was accepted as a student at Princeton University in New Jersey and studied architecture there, graduting from the School of Architecture in 1929. He returned to Toronto and later formed a partnership with George K. Pokorny in 1946 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxiii, July 1946, 180). Their largest and most important commission was awarded to the firm in 1948 for Variety Village Vocational School, for the Crippled Children’s Foundation, Scarborough (1948-49). They later collaborated with Somerville, McMurrich & Oxley, and Wilson & Newton, on the design for three 16-storey apartment blocks which now comprise The Moss Park Apartments, Queen Street East near Parliament Street, Toronto (1961). Gibson served as President of the Ontario Association of Architects in 1955 and continued to practise in Toronto until after 1973. He died in Uxbridge, Ont. on 3 March 1989 (death notice Globe & Mail [Toronto], 6 March 1989, D 13)
GIBSON & POKORNY
OAKVILLE, ONT., residence for J.G. Tatham, 1946 (C.H.G., xxiv, April 1947, 31-35, illus.)
SCARBOROUGH, ONT., Variety Village Vocational School for Crippled Children, Danforth Avenue at Kingston Road, 1948-49 (C.R., lxi, Oct. 1948, 179; Globe & Mail [Toronto], 15 Nov. 1949, 15, descrip.)
TORONTO, ONT. Virginai Dare Retail Store, 1948 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxv, Aug. 1948, 270-71, illus.)
GLEN MAJOR, ONT., ski cabin for Keith Rapsey, 1950-51 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxix, Jan. 1952, 6, illus.)
YORK TOWNSHIP, in West Toronto, Warren Park Subdivision, a group of 300 semi-detached low cost houses, south of Dundas Street West and west of Jane Street, near St. Mark’s Road, 1954-55 (Toronto Star, 21 July 1954, 21, illus. & descrip.)