SECORD, James Edwin (1917-1979), active in St. Catharines, Ontario and now best-known for his mid-century Modernist residential designs which still stand in that city. He was active in the following firms:
James E. Secord, Architect, 1955-1960
Secord & Herzog, Architects, 1961-62
Salter, Flemming & Secord, Architects, 1965-1969
Flemming & Secord, Architects, 1970-76
Secord was born in Grantham Township, Ontario on 2 December 1917 and studied Landscape Gardening and Horticulture at the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph, Ontario in 1935-39. He then moved to Boston and enrolled in the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University where he studied under Walter Gropius from 1939 to 1942. During the summer of 1940, he toured the northern United States and personally met Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesen East in Spring Green, Wisconsin. This pivotal meeting prompted Secord to then visit many of Wright's northern U.S. projects. This tour left a lasting impression on Secord which would later influence his works in Ontario after 1955.
In 1942 Secord moved to Washington, D.C. to work in the office of Dan Kiley, a leading American landscape architect, and in 1943-45 Secord served overseas during WWII with the Canadian Army Engineers, and with the 2nd Canadian Corps. In 1946 he returned to Harvard University where he received his Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture (in 1946-47), and he was later awarded the Charles Elliot Traveling Fellowship by Harvard Univ. and traveled extensively in Central and South America. After returning to Canada, he worked as an architectural designer in the office of Wilson A. Salter in 1951-53, then studied architecture at the Univ. of Toronto where he graduated in 1955. He opened his own office in St. Catharines in 1955, and between 1958 and 1961 he was awarded three Massey Medals for his architectural designs prepared under his own name, or in collaboration with the Hamilton architect L.M. Huget, or with Saul Herzog of St. Catharines. The team of Secord & Herzog also received First Prize in the national architectural competition for the City Hall at Red Deer, Alberta in 1961. In 1965 Secord was invited by Wilson Salter to form a new partnership with both he and David E. Flemming, and this office was later renamed Flemming & Secord, Architects.
Secord had a long-standing passion for landscape architecture, and 1966 he was appointed as an Architectural Advisor to Expo '67 in Montreal, and served a term of 2 ½ years there. He collaborated with Hideo Sasaki, Chairman of the Landscape Architecture Dept. at Harvard Univ from 1958 to 1968, on the design and supervision of La Ronde, the large outdoor amusement park for Expo '67. Secord later died in St. Catharines on 4 August 1979 (biog. In R.A.I.C. Journal, xxv, April 1948, 137; inf. Mrs. James E. Secord, St. Catharines)
Huget, Secord & Pagani
BEAMSVILLE, ONT., Central Elementary School, 1958 (inf. R.A.I.C. Ottawa, Massey Medals for Architecture, list of Silver Medal winners, 1958)
Huget & Secord
NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, ONT., footbridge for the Niagara Parks Commission (inf. R.A.I.C. Ottawa, Massey Medals for Architecture, list of Silver Medal winners, 1961)
Secord & Herzog
RED DEER, ALTA., City Hall, 1961-63. Twelve architects from across Canada submitted plans for this important civic building. The international jury included Paul Thiry of Seattle and none other than Viljo Revell of Finland who had won the competition for the Toronto City Hall in 1958, and who was living and working in Toronto at this time The winners were Secord & Herzog of St. Catharines. An illustration of their winning design, in the Brutalist style, was published in the Red Deer Advocate, 26 September 1961, p. 5, exterior perspective, and one month earlier in the Red Deer Advocate of 26 Aug. 1961, page 1, interior illustrations.
ST. CATHARINES, ONT., residence for Dr. Armand Lapierre, Wood Dale Drive, 1961 (Canadian Architect, vi, Nov. 1961, 6, illus.; R.A.I.C. Journal, xxxviii, Nov. 1961, 64, illus.; Canadian Builder [Toronto], xi, Dec. 1961, 38-39, 43, illus.; R.A.I.C., Massey Medals for Architecture 1961, 9, illus. & descrip.; Globe & Mail [Toronto], 17 June 2010, p. G1 and G4, illus. & descrip.)
CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I., entry in the architectural competition for the Fathers of Confederation Memorial Building, 1962 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxxix, Feb. 1962, 31-33, 42, illus. & descrip.). The submission by Secord & Herzog was passed over and the competition was won by Afflek, Desbarats, Dimakopolous, Lebensold & Sise, architects of Montreal .
Flemming & Secord
(with John Andrews) ST. CATHARINES, ONT., Brock University, new buildings for the School of Education, Student Union Building, and Student Residence Block, 1970-71 (Architecture Canada [Ottawa], xlvii, 26 Oct. 1970, 1-2, illus. & descrip.; Canadian Architect, xv, Nov. 1970, 7, and 31-35, illus. & descrip.)