PAINE, Arthur James Carman (1886-1965), a native of Trinity, Newfoundland who was born there on 21 August 1886 and educated at the Methodist College in St. John’s, Nfld. in 1900 to 1905. He enrolled in the School of Architecture at McGill University in 1906, and later graduated from that school in 1910. He articled in the office of Robert Findlay in Montreal in 1910-12, and during this period he completed his first private architectural commission, the Edwardian design for a private house for his brother John B. Paine. Located on Keith Road East in North Vancouver, this residence still stands as of 2016, and is now a listed heritage property.
In 1913, Paine joined the leading Toronto firm of Darling & Pearson as the clerk or works and local site supervisor overseeing the construction of their design for the Sun Life Assurance Building in Montreal in 1913-18. John Pearson was impressed with the skills of Paine, and appointed him to his team in Ottawa who were overseeing the rebuilding of the centre block of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa in 1918-22. After completing this project, Paine moved back to Montreal, taking a position as Superintendent of Construction for the Sun Life Assurance Co. in 1922, and then receiving the appointment as Staff Architect for that company in September 1927. This provided him with the opportunity to collaborate with Septimus Warwick on the construction for the Sun Life building in London, England, as well as overseeing the major additions to the headquarters building for that company in Montreal, designed by John Pearson and built in 1929-31.
Paine opened his own office as an architect in the depths of the Depression, and his career received a major boost in 1935 when he won the competition for the new Gymnasium & Stadium Complex at his alma mater, McGill University. He later joined some of his former classmates from McGill University in 1958 and completed the largest and most significant commission of his career, the design for new Provincial Parliament Building in St. John’s (with Lawson, Betts & Cash of Montreal). After 1950, he also served as consulting architect for the planning and layout of the first buildings on the campus of Memorial University in St. John’s.
Paine held the post of President of the Province of Quebec Association of Architects in 1947, and was presented with the Gold Medal of Merit from the P.Q.A.A. in 1951 for “valuable service to the profession”. In addition, he was elected as President of the Royal Architectural Inst. of Canada in 1954 and served a term of two years. He was later nominated as a Fellow of the Royal Inst. of British Architects in London, England. Paine died in Montreal on 8 July 1965 (obituary and port. Gazette [Montreal], 10 July 1965, 39; biog. and port. R.A.I.C. Journal, xxxi, June 1954, 170; biog. and port. Evening Telegram [St. Johns, 10 Oct. 1961; inf. Ontario Association of Architects). A photographic portrait of Paine was published in the Daily Commercial News [Toronto], 5 March 1936, p. 4.
A.J.C. PAINE (works in St. John’s, Newfoundland)
NORMAL SCHOOL [now the Fisheries College], 1922 (dwgs. Newfoundland Dept. of Public Works, Pocket 8, Folder 2; Newfoundland Public Archives, Paton Papers, Box 1)
METHODIST COLLEGE, LONG’S HILL, 1926 (Daily News [St. John’s], 3 Aug. 1926, 4). Paine prepared the drawings free of charge, and he was “…delighted to serve the College Executive Board in remembrance of his happy relationships as a scholar of the old Methodist College”
PROVINCIAL SANATORIUM, Topsail Road, administration building, 1936 (dwgs. Newfoundland Dept. of Public Works, Pocket 4; Folder 10)
PROVINCIAL MENTAL HOSPITAL, Central Laundry Building, 1937 (dwgs. Newfoundland Public Archives)
GENERAL HOSPITAL, addition of a new West Block, 1940 (dwgs. Newfoundland Dept. of Public Works, Pocket 12, Folder 3)
(with Harold J. Doran, of Montreal) PROVINCIAL MENTAL HOSPITAL, semi-detached doctor’s residences, 1946 (dwgs. Newfoundland Public Archives)
(with Lawson & Betts, of Montreal) SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT BUILDING, a new office block for the Federal Government, Water Street, 1957-58 (Evening Telegram [St. John’s], 1 Feb. 1957, 3; St. John Daily News, 20 Oct. 1959, 3 and 11-13, illus. & descrip.)
(with Lawson, Betts & Cash, of Montreal) PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT BUILDING (also called The Confederation Building), Prince Philip Drive, 1958-60 (Atlantic Advocate [Fredericton], xlix, January 1959, 34-37, illus. & descrip.; and vol. 50, June 1960, 27, illus.; Daily News [St. John’s], 8 July 1960, 3; Tim Morawetz, Art Deco Architecture Across Canada, 2017, 71, illus. & descrip.)
A.J.C. PAINE (works elsewhere)
NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C., residence for John B. Paine, Keith Road East near St. George’s Avenue, 1911 (City of North Vancouver Heritage Inventory, 1994, 100-101)
LONDON, ENGLAND (with Septimus Warwick), Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada, Cockspur Street,1927-28 (Saturday Night [Toronto], 12 June 1926, 16, illus. & descrip.; Montreal Daily Star, 30 June 1927, 11, descrip.; Const., xx, July 1927, 218; Architect & Building News [London], cxix, 8 June 1928, 834-5, illus. & descrip.)
MONTREAL, QUE. (with Darling & Pearson), major addition with tower for the Sun Life Assurance Building, Dominion Square, 1927-32 (Gazette [Montreal], 21 May 1927, 5; Canadian Engineer, lxiii, 27 Sept.1932, 5-10, illus. & descrip.; City of Montreal, Les Hotels Les Immeubles de Bureaux, 1983, 215-20, illus.; inf. Scott Edwards)
HUDSON HEIGHTS, QUE., large residence for Thomas B. Macaulay, Mount Victoria Street, 1929 (Concordia Univ., Dept. of Art Thesis by Hazel Power, "Robert Findlay and the Macaulay Family Architecture", 1993, p. 162, Fig. 60, illus.; inf. Scott Edwards)
MONTREAL, QUE., McGill University, Sir Arthur Currie Memorial Gymnasium & Armoury, Pine Avenue, designed in 1935; plans altered 1938; built 1939-42; and major addition of Swimming Pool Building by Paine, 1945-47 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xii, May 1935, 81-82, 84, illus. & descrip.; and xv, July 1938, 170; and xxi, Feb. 1944, 34-35, illus.; C.R., li, 30 March 1938, 47; and lxii, July 1949, 134; Ottawa Journal, 18 April 1939, 24, illus. & descrip.; Montreal Daily Star, 5 March 1945, 3, descrip.; and 6 March 1945, 3, illus. & descrip.)