KUGEL, John [Jack] J. (1914- c. 1945), active in Montreal, Que. where he was recorded as an architect from 1937 to 1945. Born in Vienna, Austria on 27 September 1914, he was the son of Emil Kugel (1888-1943), an architect who lived and worked in Czechoslovakia in the early 20th C. When his father emigrated to Canada in June 1928, he brought his son John (also known as Jack) to Montreal, and arranged for him to study architecture at McGill University in 1931. Jack was an outstanding student there, and received several prizes for his first year studies (Gazette [Montreal], 27 April 1932, 11). In 1936 he was awarded the R.A.I.C. Medal for most successful student in his final year at the School of Architecture (R.A.I.C. Journal, xiii, June 1936, 125). He launched his own practise in Montreal in 1937, and his works include projects in an early modernist style for the Willowcourt Apartments in Outremont (1937), and The Claridge Apartments on Peel Street in Montreal in 1941. No information has been found on his activity after 1945
OUTREMONT, Willowcourt Apartments, Willowdale Avenue at Phillips Avenue, 1937-38 (C.R., Vol. 50, 27 Oct. 1937, 54; 24 Nov. 1937, 30; City of Outremont b.p. 3271, 12 Nov. 1937)
MONTREAL, a 3 storey apartment block on MacKay Street, south of de Maisonneuve Boulevard, for Karl Meyer, 1940; demol. (Gazette [Montreal], 23 Aug. 1940, 4, inf. Scott Edwards)
MONTREAL, The Claridge Apartments, Peel Street, north of Sherbrooke Street West, a four storey apartment block for Joscer Construction Co., 1941 (C.R., liv, 9 April 1941, 32; Gazette [Montreal], 16 Aug. 1941, 21, illus. & descrip.)