Wardrop, Lanier Rumel

WARDROP, Lanier Rumel (1883-1954) of Salt Lake City, Utah was active in Calgary during the pre-World War I construction boom, and designed a substantial mixed-use commercial and residential building called the Lougheed Building, First Street West at Sixth Avenue, CALGARY, ALTA., 1911-12 (Morning Albertan [Calgary], 6 Feb. 1912; Const., vi, Oct. 1913, 373, 376-77, illus. and descrip; B. Melnyk, Calgary Builds, 1985, 135-6, illus. & descrip.). Combining a large theatre with seating for 1500 patrons, this innovative work, executed in a Beaux-Arts commercial style, was one of the first buildings in western Canada to integrate stores, offices, a theatre and residential apartments within one structure. Wardrop was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and trained under R.K.A. Kletting, designer of Utah State Capitol. From 1910 until 1917 he and D.C. Dart were partners in the firm of Dart & Wardrop, Architects, who can be credited with the design the Empress Theatre in Salt Lake City (1911) and whose interiors bear a distinct similarity to the Grand Theatre which opened the following year as part of the Lougheed Building complex in Calgary. After the dissolution of their partnership in 1917 Wardrop became the company architect for Eastern & Western Lumber Co., and later served a director of the architectural and plans service of Tri-State Lumber in Utah. He died in Salt Lake City on 14 April 1954 (obituary Salt Lake City Tribune, 16 April 1954; inf. Dr. Donald Smith, Univ. of Calgary).