RANKIN, Thomas Dunlop (1886-1965) was a senior staff architect with the federal Department of Public Works in Ottawa from 1910 to 1946 and was associated with the design of the Confederation Building, Wellington Street at Bank Street, OTTAWA, ONT., 1928-31 (H. Kalman, History of Canadian Architecture, 1994, 720-21, illus.). This was among the first government buildings executed in the Chateau style, which had normally been associated with the great Canadian railway hotels erected earlier in the century.
Rankin was born in Glasgow, Scotland and articled to a local firm of Stewart & Paterson from 1900 to 1906. During his apprenticeship he attended courses at the Glasgow Technical College and graduated from the School of Architecture there in 1906. After moving to Canada he joined the Montreal firm of Ross & MacFarlane in June 1906 and remained there for four years, supervising work on the Chateau Laurier Hotel and Union Station in Ottawa. In September 1910 he accepted a position with the Dept. of Public Works, and rose through the ranks from draftsman, assistant Architect, construction Architect and finally to the position of Supervising Architect until his retirment in 1946. After fire destroyed the Parliament Buildings in April 1916 Rankin prepared several designs for new interior furnishings for the House and Senate Chamber, and presented an elaborate neo-Gothic design for the Peace Tower, a scheme that was later set aside in favour of the proposal from John A. Pearson. Rankin was a draftsman of considerable skill; several of his student drawings as well as those prepared while a junior architect with the DPW in Ottawa have survived (NAC, National Map Coll., Acc. 78903/97; 80103/20). One of the last projects he supervised was the construction of Temporary Offices Buildings Nos. 2 and 3, Wellington Street, which eventually took on a 'permanent' status and remained in use for nearly fifty years. Rankin died in Ottawa on 22 September 1965 (death notice Ottawa Citizen, 22 Sept. 1965, 40; biog. M. Archibald, By Federal Design: The Chief Architect's Branch of the Dept. of Public Works 1881-1914, 1983, 42; inf. Ontario Assoc. of Architects; inf. Ian F. Rankin, Mississauga, Ont.).