Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Sharp and Thompson
Sharp, Thomson, Berwick and Pratt
Thompson, Berwick and Pratt
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Thompson, Berwick, Pratt and Partners was founded in 1908 in Vancouver by British architects George Lister Thornton Sharp (1880-1974) and Charles Joseph Thompson (1878-1961) as Sharp and Thompson. When the University of British Columbia was created by the Provincial Legislature as the province's first public institution for higher education in 1908, Sharp & Thompson won an international competition for the Point Grey campus in Vancouver in 1912. Sharp and Thompson produced a master plan in 1913 and building was begun, only to be interrupted by the outbreak of World War I. Not until 1922 was building resumed and the central part of the library completed. The firm based their early designs on medieval and classically inspired commercial, institutional, and residential buildings. In 1937, recent University of Toronto graduates Robert A.D. Berwick (1909-1974) and Charles Edward Pratt (1911-1996) joined the firm. Through the influence of Berwick and Pratt the firm’s design increasingly reflected the principles of European modernism. The firm’s name changed to Sharp, Thomson, Berwick and Pratt in 1945 and ten years later changed again to Thompson, Berwick and Pratt. Over the course of the firm’s first five decades it was the leading architectural firm in Vancouver, and more broadly played a key role in the development of Canadian architecture. The firm designed hundreds of projects over the course of its eight decades of existence and several notable Canadian architects started their careers at the firm, including Barry Downs, Arthur Erickson, Richard Mann, Paul Merrick, and Ron Thom. One of the most significant projects by the firm is the BC Electric Building (1957), a 22-storey office building in Vancouver. Designed by Pratt, working with Ron Thom and Ted Watkins, the building is among the earliest modernist office buildings in Canada. The firm eventually merged with two engineering companies and the name of the firm was subsequently changed to Thompson, Berwick, Pratt and Partners. The firm was reorganized and renamed Hemingway Nelson Architects in 1990.