ALWARD, William Wallace (1892-1963) was an important architect in New Brunswick and one of the first in the Maritimes to introduce a modernist aesthetic to a wide range of building types in the 1940's and 1950's. Born in Saint John, N.B. on 23 August 1892 he was educated at Rothesay Collegiate and moved to Lennoxville, Que. to receive his undergraduate general arts education at Bishop's College. He went to Boston in September 1912 and enrolled in the School of Architecture at Harvard University where he graduated with a Master of Architecture degree in 1916. After serving overseas with Canadian Forces in France during World War I he returned to Montreal in August 1919 to begin an apprenticeship with the firm of Nobbs & Hyde. Upon completion of this term in August 1924 he joined the large Montreal office of Ross & Macdonald and supervised their commission for the Admiral Beatty Hotel in his home town of Saint John. In 1926 Alward opened his own office in partnership with J. Kenneth Gillies and together this firm executed a wide variety of residential, educational, institutional, ecclesiastical and public buildings throughout New Brunswick.
At first, the predominant style of their work was executed in the fashionable Georgian Revival style, best seen in their design for the Lady Beaverbrook Residence at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton (1929-30). After 1945 however, the influence of the International Style was evident as the post-war construction boom generated dozens of major commissions for their office, and permitted Alward to use a less conservative and more modern and progressive style for these works. The National Archives of Canada in Ottawa holds an extensive collection of nearly 3,500 drawings relating to over 200 projects executed by their office between 1926 and 1963. Alward died in Saint John on 19 July 1963 (biography in the National Reference Book, iii, 1929-30, 7-8; biog. and port. in the R.A.I.C. Journal, xxxvii, Jan. 1960, 40; obituary in the Evening Times-Globe [Saint John], 19 July 1963, 13, 20; R.A.I.C. Journal, xl, Sept. 1963, 15-16).
SAINT JOHN
EASTERN BAKERIES LTD., City Road, offices and factory, 1928 (C.R., xlii, 27 June 1928, 63)
(with Pond, Pond, Martin & Lloyd) SAINT JOHN PUBLIC HOSPITAL, Waterloo Street at Alma Street, 1930-31; Nurses Home, 1943 (C.R., xliii, 27 Nov. 1929, 64, t.c.; Const., April 1932, 78-84, 86, illus. & descrip.; C.R., lv, 16 Dec. 1942, 24)
ADMIRAL BEATTY HOTEL, King Square, major addition, 1930 (C.R., xliv, 8 Jan 1930, 55)
GOLDEN BALL GARAGE, Union Street at Sydney Street, 1931 (C.R., xlv, 23 Sept. 1931, 54)
ROBBINS DRUG STORE, Charlotte Street, 1939; demol. c. 1977 (J. Leroux, Building New Brunswick-An Architectural History, 2008, 167, illus.; Tim Morawetz, Art Deco Architecture Across Canada, 2017, 189, illus. & descrip.)
TUBERCULOSIS HOSPITAL, Power House, 1945; Nurses Residence, 1950 (C.R., lviii, Aug. 1945, 154; C.R., lxiii, June 1950, 121)
KING EDWARD SCHOOL, 1947 (J. Leroux, Building New Brunswick-An Architectural History, 2008, 176, illus.)
ELSEWHERE
FREDERICTON, N.B., St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Carleton Street at Charlotte Street, 1927 (C.R., xli, 4 May 1927, 55)
FREDERICTON, N.B., apartment house for the York Apt. Co., Courthouse Square, 1928 (C.R., xlii, 16 May 1928, 64, t.c.)
FREDERICTON, N.B., University of New Brunswick, Lady Beaverbrook Residence Building, 1928-29, a commission won in a competition; and Lady Beaverbrook Gymnasium, 1941 (Evening Mail [Halifax], 22 May 1928, 15; C.R., xlii, 10 Oct. 1928, 1082, illus. & descrip.; R.A.I.C. Journal, vii, July 1930, 257-62, illus. & descrip.; J. Leroux, Building New Brunswick-An Architectural History, 2008, 152, illus.; J. Leroux, Building a University: The Architecture of the Univ. of New Brunswick, 2010, 46-50, illus.)
ROTHESAY, N.B., The Collegiate School, a new college building, 1929; Memorial Residence, 1938 (C.R., xliii, 10 July 1929, 69; J. Leroux, Building New Brunswick-An Architectural History, 2008, 141, illus.; dwgs. at PAC)
(with Andrew R. Cobb) SACKVILLE, N.B., Mount Allison University, Science Building, 1930-31 (Const., xxiii, Aug. 1930, 278)
OAK POINT, N.B., hotel for the Saint John River Hotels Co., on the Saint John River, 1930-31 (C.R., xliv, 17 Sept. 1930, 54)
ST. ANDREWS, N.B., Federal Public Building, Water Street at King Street, 1936 (J. Leroux & T. Holownia, St. Andrews Architecture 1604-1966, 2010, Item 16, illus.)
FREDERICTON, N.B., Forest Ranger School, for the University of New Brunswick Faculty of Forestry Studies, near the Fredericton Exhibition Grounds, Smythe Street at Saunders Street, 1945-46 (Financial Post [Toronto], 16 March 1946, 6, descrip.)
MINTO, N.B., Memorial High School, 1949 (J. Leroux, Building New Brunswick-An Architectural History, 2008, 177, illus.; Tim Morawetz, Art Deco Architecture Across Canada, 2017, 106, illus. & descrip.)
(with H. Claire Mott) FREDERICTON, N.B., New Brunswick Telephone Co. Dial Exchange, King Street near Carleton Street, 1949 (J. Leroux, Building New Brunswick-An Architectural History, 2008, 179-82, illus.)