LAING, William (1871- c. 1914), active in Calgary, Alberta, at first under his own name, and later in partnership with Hugh M. Smyth as Laing & Smyth, Architects from 1911 until late 1913. Laing was born at Wick, Caithness County in Scotland on 1 July 1871 and was educated at Thurso Academy. He obtained a position as assistant in the office of Mitchell & Wilson, Architects in Edinburgh in 1893 and later spent seven years as an assistant to Andrew G. Heiton, a well-known architect in Perth, Scotland. After 1900 he moved to Liverpool and spent one year in the office of C. Percy Hinde, Architect, and then worked for three years in the office of a large firm of structural engineers before emigrating to Canada in early 1908. He found a job in the Winnipeg office of W.W. Blair, then moved to Lethbridge to join the office of James A. MacDonald in 1909. MacDonald dispatched Laing to nearby Calgary to operate a branch office of his firm, but the following year Laing left to open a new office in Calgary under his own name.
In early 1911 Laing invited another Scotsman Hugh M. Smyth to form a new partnership in Calgary, and they remained active until late 1913. No information has been found on Laing after 1914, and he may have returned to Scotland after this period (biography and list of works in promotional publication entitled Calgary Alberta – Merchants & Manufacturers Record, 1911, 196 [copy at the Glenbow Museum, Calgary]; biog. and ink portrait of William Laing in The Calgary News-Telegram, 25 June 1913, 1; biog. in Calgary Daily Herald, 22 Aug. 1912, Section Four, p. 10; biog. in Henry J. Boam, Twentieth Century Impressions of Canada, 1914, 735-36, list of works). Laing should not be confused with George M. Lang, another architect active in Calgary during this period.
(works in Calgary unless noted)
W. LAING
LABOUR TEMPLE, 8th Avenue East, 1911 ( Calgary Alberta – Merchants & Manufacturers Record, 1911, 196, illus.)
MOUNT ROYAL, residence for Francis M. Black, Prospect Avenue at Morrison Street, 1911 (Calgary Daily Herald, 11 March 1911, 2, t.c.; C.R., xxv, 22 March 1911, 54, t.c.)
12th AVENUE WEST, residence for J. Edwards, 1911 (Calgary Daily Herald, 10 April 1911, 4, t.c.)
LAING & SMYTH
BRUNER BLOCK, 1st Street West at 13th Street, re-building and reconstruction, 1912 (H. Boam, Twentieth Century Impressions of Canada, 1914, 735-36, list of works)
DAFOE APARTMENTS, 3rd Street East, 1911-12 (C.R., xxv, 13 Dec. 1911, 119; xxvi, 7 Feb. 1912, 63; Calgary Daily Herald, 22 Aug. 1912, Section Four, p. 8, illus.)
BEAUDRY BLOCK, 9th Avenue East, a three storey commercial block, 1911-12 (Calgary Daily Herald,22 Aug. 1912, Section Four, p. 8, illus.)
2nd STREET WEST, at 21st Avenue, residence for Thomas J. Costello, 1912 (Calgary Daily Herald, 19 Aug. 1912, Section Three, p. 20, illus.)
MASON & RISCH BLOCK, 8th Avenue West, a warehouse block for George D. Venini, 1912 (C.R., xxvi, 13 March 1912, 73; dwgs. at Glenbow Museum – City Clerk's Plans, Folder 55)
ST. BENEDICT ROMAN CATHOLIC COLLEGE, 1913, located “....five miles west of Calgary” (Calgary Daily Herald, 17 March 1913, 2, t.c.; C.R., xxvii, 28 May 1913, 68)