Introduction

The following interviews with alumni of the School were undertaken between 1995 and 1999 to celebrate the 1996 centennial of the School, all but five of them conducted by Jim Donaldson (B.Arch. 1962); the other five interviews (Bland, Mayerovitch, Merrett, Richards and Wilson) were conducted by Harry Mayerovitch (B.Arch. 1933), David Covo (B.Arch. 1974), and Annmarie Adams (B.A. 1981).

The original VHS tapes were digitized and transcribed by student Maria Javornik (M.Arch. 2007), with the assistance of School media technician Carrie Henzie. The interviews - transcribed verbatim - were proofread by Derek Drummond (B.Arch. 1962). They were then corrected and formatted for the web by student Jessica Thatcher (M.Arch. 2010).

Acknowledgement and thanks go to Air Canada for providing air transportation that facilitated the taping of these interviews and to Armstrong that subsidized a portion of the costs associated with this venture.

The context of this interview is that the School of Architecture is preparing to celebrate its centennial this coming year. And in connection with that, it was felt that some recollections, some notions by those who participated in the early development of the school who were either students or professors there, that these notions would be well to have preserved so that, no doubt, in another hundred years, those future generations will benefit from our experience.
- Harry Mayerovitch, interviewing John Bland in 1995