RIXFORD, Loring Pickering (1870-1946) was born in San Francisco, Calif. on 20 September 1870 and graduated from the University of California in 1894. He trained for two years with Albert Pissis, a prominent local architect. In 1896 he moved to Paris to attend the Ecole-des-Beaux-Arts, then returned to San Francisco in 1901 to resume work with Pissis. Rixford opened his own office in 1903 and gained attention as a talented designer with his sophisticated plan to rebuild the Bohemian Club after the Great Earthquake in that city. He closed his office in 1909 and accepted the position of City Architect but within a year he had resigned after repeated difficulties with the Board of Supervisors. He later designed many important civic buildings in San Francisco including the Hall of Justice, the General Hospital, and several schools, fire halls and police stations.
In 1911 he was one of seventeen architects who submitted an entry in the competition for the Union Club in Victoria, B.C. He received First Premium for his refined Beaux Arts design which featured a brick facade and robust terra cotta detailing. In August 1913 Rixford was declared the winner of the competition for the Provincial Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria (Vancouver Sun, 18 Aug. 1913, 4), and he received a prize of $1,500 for his effort. The following year he entered another Canadian competition, this time for the Vancouver Civic Centre (C.R., xxix, 6 Jan. 1915, 8) but his entry was not among the finalists, and the winning design by Theo Korner was never built. Rixford was last recorded in New York City in 1931 (biog. Davis Commercial Encyclopedia of the Pacific Southwest, 1911, 214). He died in Santa Clara, Calif. on 24 September 1946.
(works in Victoria, B.C.)
UNION CLUB, Gordon Street at Humboldt Street, 1911 (Colonist [Victoria], 15 March 1911, 1; and 30 July 1911, 19, illus. & descrip.; C.R., xxv, 18 Oct. 1911, 42, illus. & descrip.; P.L. Bissley, History of the Union Club of British Columbia, 1956, 11)
TROUNCE ARCADE, a glass covered walkway promenade from Government Street to Broad Street, 1912 (Colonist [Victoria], 30 March 1912, 14, descrip.; and 31 March 1912, 19, illus.)
ROYAL JUBILEE HOSPITAL, Fort Street at Richmond Avenue, a commission won in a competition, 1913-14; with extension 1921, using plans donated by Rixford, and modified by Percy L. James & Karl Spurgin (Pacific Coast Architect [San Francisco], vi, Jan. 1914, 477; Const., vii, May 1914, 173; Victoria Daily Times, 2 July 1921, 5, descrip.)