Article

Thompson, Berwick, Pratt and Partners

Published Online February 7, 2006

Last Edited December 16, 2013

Thompson, Berwick, Pratt and Partners, architects, Vancouver, BC. Founded in 1908 as Sharp and Thompson by Englishmen G.L.T. Sharp and Charles J. Thompson, this firm played a major role in Vancouver and Canadian architecture through the century.

Thompson, Berwick, Pratt and Partners

Thompson, Berwick, Pratt and Partners, architects, Vancouver, BC. Founded in 1908 as Sharp and Thompson by Englishmen G.L.T. Sharp and Charles J. Thompson, this firm played a major role in Vancouver and Canadian architecture through the century. Its founders first designed medieval and classically inspired commercial, institutional and residential buildings in BC, especially on UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA campus whose plan they produced in 1913. In 1937 they were joined by recent U of T graduates Robert A.D. Berwick and Charles Edward Pratt, committed to developing a regional architecture inspired by the principles of European modernism.

Through the 1950s and 1960s the firm received international attention for such projects as the BC Electric Building (1957). Through to the late 1980s a succession of major Canadian architects worked within the firm before pursuing independent careers, including Barry DOWNS, Arthur ERICKSON and Ron THOM. The firm was finally closed 30 June 1990.