Fonds F0059 - Henry Yorke Mann fonds

Identity area

Reference code

CA ACU CAA F0059

Title

Henry Yorke Mann fonds

Date(s)

  • [189-?], [ca. 1940?]-2018, predominantly 1960-1970, 1997-2015 (Creation)

Level of description

Fonds

Extent and medium

2 linear meters of textual records and other material

Other material includes:
6,202 architectural drawings

15 presentation panels:
13 hand col. reprographic copies of drawings on cardboard
1 pastel on cardboard
1 col. pencil on cardboard

3,770 photographs:
1273 prints (299 b&w, 907 col., 67 sepia)
63 b&w prints on cardboard
5 hand col. b&w prints
698 col. inkjet prints
478 35mm col. slides
1177 35mm negatives (504 b&w, 598 col., 75 sepia)
32 copy negatives (12 b&w and 20 col.)
4 col. transparencies
38 b&w contact sheets (ca. 230 frames)
2 stereoscopic photographs

122 graphic materials:
96 drawings
5 paintings
3 col. postcards
17 exhibit panels on film
1 collage (containing 3 col. photographs and 1 architectural drawing)

2,747 digital files (CAD, photographs, and audiovisual files):
70 CD-Rs and 6 DVD-Rs containing 2747 digital files (123 dxf, 121 shx, 30 dwg, 481 pdf, 11 bak, 7 dc5, 14 png, 1373 jpg, 360 tif, 1 mp4, and 1 avi files; 7.7GB)

Context area

Name of creator

(1930-2015)

Biographical history

Henry Yorke Mann was born 15 August 1930 in Rossland, British Columbia, to parents Richard and Barbara Mann. His father was a building contractor and master craftsman carpenter in Rossland. While growing up Mann worked summers and weekends with his father and his grandfather, Henry George Mann, learning carpentry and concrete work. Mann completed his senior matriculation in 1949 at Trail, B.C., and the same year entered Washington State College, Pullman, WA, in mechanical engineering on a ski scholarship. A competitive skier since his youth, Mann trained to compete in the 1952 Olympic Winter Games before an athletic injury ended his skiing career. While attending Washington State College Mann married Pat Watson from Trail, B.C. In 1951 Mann transferred to the University of Oregon’s School of Architecture on a foreign student scholarship and obtained his Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1954. During his studies in Oregon, Mann worked for a month as a designer and draftsman for Buckminster Fuller, assisting with a prototype structure at Eugene, OR. In 1954 Mann served as a research architect with McMillan & Bloedel and in 1955 he served as an architectural engineer with Western Consulting Ltd. From 1955 to 1963 he worked as a project architect and chief draftsman with Mercer & Mercer Architects in Vancouver. From 1960 to 1963 he served as chief architect on the Killarney Community Centre in Vancouver for Mercer & Mercer. In 1963 he started his private practice, Henry Mann Architect, in North Vancouver. Between 1963 and 1969 Mann’s private practice grew to consist of five office staff and a twelve person construction firm. The construction firm, which he started with his father in 1965, eventually merged to include John Senac, becoming Senac and Mann, in 1967. The construction side of the business carried out custom builds for projects designed by Mann’s architectural firm. During this time Mann designed around 60 projects and built around 25 projects, including his own residence in North Vancouver (1958), his office (Architect’s Floating Office in Coal’s Harbour, Vancouver), the Eijgel residence (1968), the Jankola residence (1967), the Ralph residence (1968), the Clark residence (1969), the Ozard residence (1969), the Laura Lynn Riding and Country Club, the Engineers’ Club in Vancouver (1964), a number of other major projects, as well as feasibility and design studies for Arbutus Point Resorts and the Mountain Village Ski Resort in Rossland, B.C. Mann’s Eijgel residence was nominated for a Massey Award in Architecture and selected as one of the top 100 buildings in Canada by the Massey Foundation in 1969. From 1966 to 1967 and 1970 Mann was a part-time lecturer at the University of British Columbia’s School of Architecture. In 1964 he served as chair of the Architectural Institute of B.C.’s communication committee. In 1969 Mann decided to restrict the size of his practice and the following year dissolved his partnership with Senac and moved to the Tantualus Mountains near Squamish, B.C., with his wife Elizabeth (Hillmer) and stepson Eric. In 1973 Mann purchased ranch land near Oliver, B.C., and built the McCuddy Creek Ranch, which over the following years grew to 50,000 acres and a purebred herd of 250 Mann Polled Charolais cattle. As a rancher during the 1970s and 1980s, Mann garnered numerous awards and records for his Charolais breeding program. In 1997 Mann sold the herd and ranch property with the exception of his residence, Manndala, and returned to architecture. Over the following eighteen years, Mann designed numerous award winning projects including the Nightowl residence (2003), Dunira Lodge (2005), Allard residence Chestermere (2004), Allard residence Salt Spring (2012), Posts Standing (2001), Salix Straw Bale House (2004), Totems (2005), and Quietude (1999). Mann’s designs are characterized by a philosophical combination of the spiritual and the physical which is reflected in his building’s structural integrity, sustainability and natural materials, and respect for the needs of the client and for the site. Mann was married in 2014 to Denise Franklin, his partner of 20 years. He was the father to stepsons Eric Hillmer-Mann and Kym Franklin and stepdaughters Theresa Slater and Cindy Bahm. Mann died on 2 April 2015 in Oliver, B.C.

Archival history

Records were maintained by Henry Yorke Mann at his residence in Oliver and were donated to the Canadian Architectural Archives in 2018 by his wife Denise Mann. Following Mann’s death in 2015, his stepson Eric Hillmer-Mann compiled a listing of the materials and produced a print copy of Mann’s website, a memorial binder, and a portfolio of articles and publications about Mann.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

The fonds consists of records documenting the architectural career of Henry Yorke Mann primarily from 1953 to 1970 and 1997 to 2015. There are also records relating to his training as an architect at Washington State College and the University of Oregon from 1949 to 1954. Records include architectural drawings, photographs, notes, correspondence, sketches, journals, reports, contracts, teaching materials, articles, and grant and award submissions. There are over 100 of Mann’s projects documented in the fonds, including 1960s projects Eijgel Residence, Clark Residence, Engineers’ Club, Killarney Community Centre, Mann Residence, and the Laura Lynn Riding and Country Club, as well as projects from the 1990s to 2015 including the Allard Residences at Salt Spring and Chestermere, Posts Standing (Ramus Residence), the Totems, Quietude Residence, and Manndala (Architect’s Residence). The fonds has been arranged into four series: 1. Personal records; 2. Professional records; 3. Office records; and 4. Project records.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

No further accruals are expected

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Open

Conditions governing reproduction

The University of Calgary fulfills requests for materials in our collections in accordance with Canadian copyright laws. The University of Calgary does not hold the copyright for materials in the Henry Yorke Mann fonds. The University of Calgary Libraries and Cultural Resources may provide materials for individual study and research purposes under fair dealing and library exceptions in the Canadian Copyright Act. Permission to publish, copy or otherwise use the content must be obtained for any works under copyright protection. Patrons are responsible for ensuring they use copyright-protected works in accordance with applicable laws.

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

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    Existence and location of originals

    Existence and location of copies

    Digital content is available

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    Dates of creation revision deletion

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