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A Victoria-based painter and a self-publisher of a biography about her father, Rosemary James Cross studied architecture for three years with her father and later worked as a secretary for architects in Toronto. She contributed five articles for Donald Luxton's Building the West: Early Architects of BC (Talonbooks 2003) and published The Life and Times of Victoria Architect, P. Leonard James in 2005. It has received the Mark Madoff Award from the Hallmark Society of Victoria and a British Columbia Heritage Society citation for her outstanding contribution to Heritage Conservation. She was presented with a medal of Honorary Membership in the Architectural Institute of B.C. at its President's Dinner in Vancouver on June 16 during the 2006 Festival of Architecture.
BOOKS:
The Life and Times of Victoria Architect, P. Leonard James (Dear Brutus Publishing, 2005).
[BCBW 2006] "Architecture"
BOOKS:
The Life and Times of Victoria Architect, P. Leonard James (Dear Brutus Publishing, 2005).
[BCBW 2006] "Architecture"
Articles: 1 Article for this author
The Life and Times of Victoria Architect, P. Leonard James
Promo
P. Leonard james, was an experienced English-trained architect when he came to Edmonton in 1906. There he won a competition for the Royal Alexandra and Stadacona Hospitals and became a Charter Member in the Alberta Association of Architects and the national Architectural Institute of Canada which added "Royal" to its name a year later. Late in 1908 he moved to Victoria and set up the James & James practice with his brother Douglas. The partners designed houses in the English Arts and Crafts style, and the author details the development of the English Arts and Crafts Style of architecture before and after World War One. Working on his own after the war, P. Leonard James won the competition for the Royal Jubilee Hospital, Fort Street building [1921-25]. In partnership with F.M. Rattenbury, he was the working partner on the CPR Marine Terminal and the Crystal Garden. That partnership came to an acrimonious conclusion, and P.L. James was retained by the CPR to design their outdoor pool at Lake Louise. He designed over 100 houses and a map that shows their locations is included in the book. His final commission was for the Federal Building and Post Office on the corner of Government and Yates Street. Since seismic upgrading this building has been renamed "P.L. James Place" in his honour.
