Associate professor
Member, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
PhD (Penn), MSc (Penn), MArch (McGill)
MSc Arch (Penn State), BArch (Penn State)
NLAA, FRAIC
Macdonald-Harrington Building
Room 313
Tel.: 514-398-6719
robert [dot] mellin [at] mcgill [dot] ca (Email)
Robert Mellin has been a registered architect since 1978. In 2002 he was elected to the R.C.A. (Royal Canadian Academy), and he was elected to Fellowship in the RAIC in 2009. He has received eight Southcott Awards for his heritage conservation projects in Newfoundland, and in 2005 he received a Manning Award from the Historic Sites Association of Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2006 he received the Paul E. Buchanan Award for excellence in fieldwork and interpretation from the Vernacular Architecture Forum. He is past-Chair of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador. His book Tilting: House Launching, Slide Hauling, Potato Trenching and Other Tales from a Newfoundland Fishing Village was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2003 and it won the Winterset Literary Award. His chapter on the Ludlow premises in Joe Batt's Arm, Fogo Island, Newfoundland appears in the anthology Despite This Loss: Essays on Culture, Memory, and Identity in Newfoundland and Labrador (St. John's: ISER, 2010). In 2011, Professor Mellin’s book Newfoundland Modern: Architecture in the Smallwood Years, 1949-1972, was published as part of the McGill Queen’s/Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation Studies in Art History series.
Research interests
- Vernacular architecture / cultural landscapes
- Heritage conservation
- Modern architecture
Community service
- Past-Chair, Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador
- Editorial Board, Journal of Architectural Education
- Board Member, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
- Board Member, Vernacular Architecture Forum (VAF)
- Volunteer architectural consultant: Tilting, Fogo Island, NL (Registered Heritage District and National Cultural Landscape District)
Recent awards
- 1997: Southcott Award (Harold Dwyer House, Tilting)
- 1997: Southcott Award (Lane House, Tilting)
- 1999: Southcott Award (F.P.U. Premises, Seldom, Fogo Island)
- 2002: Southcott Award (Restoration of 113 Bond Street, St. John’s)
- 2003: Southcott Award (Rowe House addition, St. John’s)
- 2004: Winterset Literary Award (first place: for Tilting)
- 2005: Manning Award (Dwyer Premises restoration, Tilting)
- 2005: Southcott Award (Dwyer house restoration, Kelley’s Island, Tilting)
- 2006: Paul E. Buchanan Award for interpretation and heritage conservation (Vernacular Architecture Forum)
- 2007: Southcott Award (Brett House, Joe Batt's Arm, Fogo Island)
- 2009: Southcott Award (Old Post Office, Tilting, Fogo Island)
Courses given (2011-2012)
ARCH 201 Communication, Behaviour&Arch
ARCH 202 Arch Graphics&Elements of Des
ARCH 221 Architectural Drawing
ARCH 324 Sketching School
ARCH 566 Cultural Landscapes Seminar
ARCH 700 Dissertation Proposal
ARCH 701 Comprehensive Oral Examination
ARCH 702 Progress Report 1
ARCH 703 Progress Report 2
Courses given previously
ARCH 303 Design and Construction 1
ARCH 304 Design and Construction 2
ARCH 541 Sel Topics in Architecture 2
ARCH 627 Research Methods for Arch
ARCH 645 Housing Project 1
ARCH 671 Design Research & Methodology
ARCH 672 Architectural Design 1
ARCH 673 Architectural Design 2
Current Research
www.mcgill.ca/cmt/faculty/mellin/current
Past Research
www.mcgill.ca/cmt/faculty/mellin/past
Roddick Gates Reconsidered: ARCH 673 Charrette Project, January 7-17, 2011
www.arch.mcgill.ca/prof/mellin/2011arch673/indexgates.html
Architectural Design 1 (ARCH 672)
Architectural Drawing (ARCH 221)
Architectural Graphics and Elements of Design (ARCH 202)
Communication, Behaviour and Architecture (ARCH 201)
Design and Construction 1 (ARCH 303)
Design and Construction 2 (ARCH 304)
Housing Seminar 2 (ARCH 631)
Cultural Landscapes Seminar (ARCH 566)
Cultural Landscapes Seminar (ARCH 541)
Cultural Landscapes Studio
Design Research and Methodology (ARCH 671)
Tilting exhibition at The Rooms, St. John's, Newfoundland (Sept. 28, 2007 - Jan. 13, 2008)
Peel Basin Revisited by McGill University Students, Winter 2008
On the website of the Committee for the Sustainable Redevelopment of Griffintown
BBC radio documentary with content from Robert Mellin's Tilting research
On the Battery Radio website, click on The Currency Exchange.
