Guinane, James William

GUINANE, James William (1903-1980), a builder, contractor and architect, was born in Toronto, educated at the University of Toronto Schools and graduated from De La Salle Collegiate in 1921. He served an apprenticeship under Albert Kahn of Detroit before returning to Toronto to work with A.E. Allen. In 1929 he established the James Guinane Construction Co., and in 1933 began to advertise himself as an architect while, at the same time, serving as president and general manager of his own construction company. This dual role as designer and entrepreneur enabled him to undertake a variety of commissions, including that for the Glenview Terraces Apartments, (later the Muir Park Hotel), Yonge Street at Glenview Avenue, TORONTO, ONT., 1941-42 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xix, Sept. 1942, 23, illus. in advert.). Guinane was often employed as contractor for many apartment blocks, churches and private residences designed by other Toronto architects. In 1945 he ceased to call himself an architect and renamed his company Guinane Brothers, General Contractors. He died in Toronto on 29 October 1980 (obituary in the Toronto Star, 31 Oct. 1980, B12). The Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal holds a copy of a self-published pattern book of his house designs printed in 1932 entitled Planning, Building & Financing: The Home, containing a variety of residential designs in the Tudor Revival, Colonial, Georgian and English half-timber styles (CCA, Cat No. PO11268; inf. Robert Hamilton, of Hamilton, Ont.)