RUSSELL, Ambrose James (1857-1938) was active in Seattle, Wash. where he was in partnership with Everett P. Babcock and Walter E. Rice from 1909 to 1912. Born in Trivandram, India on 15 October 1857, his family returned to their native Scotland in 1862 and Russell studied architecture at the University of Glasgow in 1875-1880. He then moved to Paris to study at the Ecole-des-Beaux-Arts in 1881-84 (E.A. Delaire, Les Architectes Eleves de l‘Ecole des Beaux Arts 1793-1907, 396). At the Ecole, he studied under Julien Guadet (1834-1908), an important architect in France, and one of his classmates at the school was Bernard Maybeck (1862-1957) who would later become a leading architect in California. In 1884 Russell moved to Boston, Mass. and took a job in the office of H.H. Richardson, and the following year Russell opened an office in Worcester, Mass. From 1885 onward he was active in many firms and partnerships in several states including:
Russell & Maybeck, Worcester, Mass. 1885
Russell & Maybeck, Kansas City, Missouri, 1886
Russell & Sutton, Tacoma, Wash., 1893-95
Russell & White, Tacoma, Wash., 1899 (with C. Ferris White)
A.J. Russell, Tacoma, Wash., 1900
Spaulding, Russell & Heath, Tacoma, Wash., 1901-02 (with A. Walter Spalding & Frederick Heath)
Russell & Heath, Tacoma, Wash., 1902-03 (with Frederick Heath)
Russell & Babcock, Tacoma, Wash., 1904-11 (with Everett P. Babcock)
Russell & Rice, Seattle, Wash., 1909-12 (with Walter E. Rice)
Russell, Babcock & Rice, Vancouver, B.C. 1911-13 (with Everett P. Babcock and Walter E. Rice)
In 1904 Russell, then a resident of Tacoma, formed a partnership with his former draftsman Everett P. Babcock and with him operated two offices, one in Tacoma (1904-11), and another in nearby Seattle (1909-12). In 1909 Russell asked Walter E. Rice to form a partnership in Seattle (as Russell & Rice) while Babcock continued to operate the Tacoma branch (as Russell & Babcock). In 1911 they opened a Canadian office in Vancouver and were successful in obtaining a major commission for one of the tallest commercial buildings in the city which shrewdly evaded the ten storey height limit then in force on buildings in the core area. First called the Weart Building, it towered fifteen stories above Hastings Street and was clad entirely in terra cotta. The structure was crowned by J.W. Weart's private nine room apartment on the top floor. Their design for the Grossman Building, executed in a Renaissance Revival style and clad in a matte glazed terra cotta, was intended to commence construction in early 1913 but was not built. The Seattle firm of Russell & Rice was dissolved in 1912, and Russell continued to practise until after 1920, and he then became a building contractor. The Vancouver office of Babcock & Rice remained active until 1915. Russell died in Tacoma on 16 March 1938 (biog. William D. Prosser, A History of Puget Sound Country, 1903, Vol. ii, 217; D. Luxton, Building the West: The Early Architects of British Columbia, 2003, 412-13, 516; inf. Mr. K.R. Turner, Seattle Public Library)
A.J. RUSSELL
KITCHENER, ONT., Zion Evangelical Church, Weber Street West near Queen Street North, 1893-94 (Zion Evangelical Church 100th Anniversary 1839-1939, 55, illus.; signed drawings in the possession of Zion United Church; inf. Karl Kessler, Kitchener, Ont.)
RUSSELL, BABCOCK & RICE
VANCOUVER, B.C., The Metropolitan Building (also called the Standard Bank Building), Hastings Street West at Richards Street, for J.W. Weart, 1911-14 (C.R., xxv, 27 Sept. 1911, 61; xxix, 19 May 1915, 546, illus. & descrip.; Province [Vancouver], 19 Oct. 1912, 48, descrip.; The Sun [Vancouver], 10 Jan. 1913, 7, descrip.; Year Book of the British Columbia Society of Architects, 1913, illus.; Vancouver Daily World, 24 Jan. 1914, 5, descrip.)
EBURNE, B.C., commercial block with apartments, Fourth Street at River Road, for J. Gauer, 1912 (Province [Vancouver], 15 June 1912, 27, illus. & descrip.)
VANCOUVER, B.C., Grossman Building, West Hastings Street at Abbot Street, a 10 storey office building, 1912-13 (Vancouver Daily World, 12 April 1912, 15; The Express [North Vancouver], 12 April 1912, 3, descrip.; The Sun [Vancouver], 15 April 1912, 9, descrip.; C.R., xxvi, 25 Sept. 1912, 51, illus. & descrip.)
VANCOUVER, B.C., stores and offices for James Borland, Granville Street at Helmcken Street, 1913 (C.R., xxvii, 22 Jan. 1913, 70)