Blanche Lemco van Ginkel

Blanche van Ginkel (née Lemco), CM, FRAIC, architect, planner, educator (born 14 December 1923 in London, England; died 20 October 2022 in Toronto, ON). Blanche Lemco van Ginkel was an architect and planner with van Ginkel Associates, in partnership with her husband, H.P. Daniel van Ginkel. Established in 1957, the firm was well known for its modernist design projects. Lemco van Ginkel was the first woman elected as a fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, and the first woman (and first Canadian) to serve as president of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. In addition to her career as a practitioner, Blanche Lemco van Ginkel was distinguished as an architectural educator.

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Education and Career

At age 13, Blanche Lemco van Ginkel moved with her family to Montreal, Quebec. In 1940, she became one of the first women to study at McGill University’s School of Architecture. Following her graduation in architecture from McGill University (1945) and in city planning from Harvard (1950), she taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard University, the Université de Montréal and McGill University. In 1977, she joined the faculty of the University of Toronto, where she served as dean of the faculty of architecture and landscape architecture from 1980 to 1982. She also acted as an examiner and consultant to other schools of architecture in Canada, the United States and Iceland.

Blanche Lemco van Ginkel and her husband’s interest in combining architecture and planning and their predilection for bold, undecorated forms may have been influenced by Blanche Lemco van Ginkel's experience in the Atelier Le Corbusier in Paris in 1948. During this time she worked on the famous Unité d'Habitation in Marseille, considered a masterpiece of European Modernism. Established in 1957, van Ginkel Associates became well known for its modernist design projects, particularly Bowring Park in St. John's, influential studies of Old Montreal and Manhattan, and the initial planning of Expo 67. (See also H.P. Daniel van Ginkel.)

Legacy

As a pioneering woman in a field dominated by men, Blanche Lemco van Ginkel was highly influential. When she first registered as an architect in Quebec in 1952, there were only three other women members of the Association des architectes de la province de Québec (now the Ordre des architectes du Québec). She subsequently became the first woman elected as a council member and as an officer of the Association des architectes de la province de Québec. Lemco van Ginkel was also the first woman elected as a fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada; and the first woman (and first Canadian) to serve as president of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. As dean at the University of Toronto, Lemco van Ginkel was the first woman to hold such a position at a Canadian school of architecture. She also wrote numerous articles on women architects, architectural education and 20th-century city planning.