Helga Plumb facts for kids

Helga Plumb is a Canadian architect famous for her modern and eco-friendly designs. She was born in Bruck/Mur, Austria, in 1939. When she was 20, Plumb moved from Austria to Canada, settling in Toronto in 1959.

Learning About Architecture

Helga Plumb started studying architecture at the Technische Hochschule in Austria. After one year, she moved to Toronto, Canada. She finished her first architecture degree at the University of Toronto in 1963. She then earned her master's degree in Urban design from the same university in 1967.

It was quite unusual for women in Ontario to study architecture back then. Countries like Austria had more female students in these fields. Many women who came to Canada for architecture were often the only women in their classes. Female architects, including Plumb, have talked about feeling a bit alone as women studying in Ontario during the 1960s and 70s.

Helga Plumb's Career

After getting her master's degree, Helga Plumb started working for different architecture companies. She began her career at Diamond and Clark. There, she was a project architect in Edmonton, Alberta. She helped design the Edmonton Health Sciences Centre, a housing project, and an Amphitheatre in Calgary.

Around the same time, she also worked for Sasaki Dawson & DeMay in Watertown, Massachusetts. With this company, Plumb helped build the Barrington College Gymnasium and the Watertown University Library. Later, she worked for Shore and Moffat in Toronto as a production architect. Her projects included the General Arts Building at the University of Saskatoon and the Coinco Research Building in Burlington, Ontario.

While gaining experience, Plumb also became involved in teaching architecture. From 1981 to 1982, she was a professor at the University of Waterloo. Then, from 1985 to 1986, she was a visiting professor at the Technical University of Nova Scotia. Through her teaching, Plumb became very interested in how classrooms were used. She wondered if they helped or distracted students. How people interacted in her buildings was always important to Plumb. She believed buildings should help people connect, not stop them.

As her career grew, she joined Fairfield and Du Bois Partnership. There, she met Macy Du Bois, who would later become her husband. When Fairfield retired, Plumb became a partner, and the company was renamed Du Bois Plumb Partnership. Between 1979 and 1993, Plumb and Du Bois created some of their most famous works. One of these was the Canadian Embassy in Beijing. This building took over ten years to plan because of many official problems. The embassy, located at 19 Dongzhimenwai Dajie, Caho Yang District in Beijing, is one of many foreign offices in China.

Plumb enjoyed working with her husband until she retired in 2001. Plumb once said, "I'm not sure I would get jobs if clients didn't know I had a male back-up." It was common in Ontario for people to think women needed a man's support to succeed in architecture. Female architects in Ontario often felt intimidated by how male-dominated the field was. However, many female architects in Quebec felt differently. They would often be offended if someone suggested they needed male co-workers to succeed.

Her Architectural Style

Plumb's design style is known for bringing people together inside a space. She liked to take old architectural ideas and update them for modern life. She believed that contemporary ideas came from the past, not from completely new thoughts. She often focused on how a building would be used (function), how it was built (structure), and what materials were used. She thought these were the main parts of a great design. However, she felt that function and structure were a bit more important than materials. Materials, she believed, should support the function and structure.

She wanted her buildings to be like a background where people could interact. Her buildings never stood out too much. Instead, they blended into their surroundings. Growing up, Plumb was very inspired by the old buildings in Austria. She noticed how these buildings and streets made people act. Plumb took these ideas and used them in a post-modern style. She liked the simple look of the modern movement and how it moved away from too much decoration. Plumb once said, "I don’t think you have to attach things to architecture because you can utilize everything you have." This idea is often seen in her designs.

Famous Buildings She Designed

The Oakland Condominium is a large housing complex built in 1981. This was two years after she became partners with Macy Du Bois. This building, located on 315 Avenue Road and 20-40 Oakland's Ave in Summer Hill, Toronto, has six floors and 65 apartments. Plumb wanted to create a "city within a city" here. To do this, she designed an inside walkway through the building filled with natural light. This way, residents could use this mini-city to meet each other. All residents have access to parking, and there's visitor parking too, to encourage guests. This building's design won Plumb several awards, including the Habitation Space International Award of Excellence and the Governor General’s Medal for Architecture.

Plumb also used the Scaramouche Restaurant in Toronto to explore how people interact. Built in 1979, this restaurant is at 1 Benevento Place in Toronto, Ontario. The restaurant's base uses a grid-like structure that helps guide people through the space. Plumb designed this building to sit on a hillside. This way, diners could enjoy looking down at the city while eating. At night, the city lights create a romantic background for the restaurant's French cuisine. The original owner, who worked with Plumb, still runs the restaurant over 35 years later. They worked together to create a space that matched the chef's modern French food. The restaurant is divided so people can enjoy a casual dinner downstairs or fine dining upstairs. Reviews of this restaurant still praise Plumb's design, saying it creates the perfect atmosphere for relaxing.

Another well-known project from the Du Bois Plumb Partnership is the Tom Longboat Elementary School, built in 1978. This school is located at 37 Crow Trail in Scarborough Malvern. It is named after the famous long-distance runner and Onondaga Aboriginal, Tom Longboat. The school shows Plumb's famous postmodern style, which has a grid-like foundation similar to the Scaramouche Restaurant. The grid encourages children to play and learn together but also to stay organized. This building won the Scarborough Planning Board Urban Design Certificate of Merit and the OMRC Award of Merit.

Plumb was often sad about the lack of effort put into designing schools for children. She thought Canadian schools looked too much like jails and did not encourage learning. Helga Plumb often turned down requests for schools with no windows. She believed students should not be locked inside. Once, in an interview, Plumb said, "there is this whole idea that children will be distracted outside which is incredible to me because there is so much to learn outside. To lock a kid up inside is unbelievable."

A special moment changed how Plumb saw classrooms. One day, a butterfly flew through her window while she was teaching. She said all the students stopped their work and became completely interested in the butterfly. After she tried to get their attention back, she gave up. She spent the rest of the class talking about and watching the butterfly. Plumb realized that students were disconnected from nature in the classroom. Schools, she felt, did not reflect what students' minds needed. Instead, they tried to control them. Plumb tried to change classrooms in ways that didn't cost a lot. Sometimes, she would slant roofs to allow more windows, or she would colour the walls. School boards kept asking architects to make schools very strong so they would last a long time. However, Plumb noticed this made them look more and more like prison cells. By adding more natural light and colour, Plumb was trying to bring softness and life back into the classroom.

Awards for Her Work

• Helga Plumb received the Governor General's medal for architecture.
• Her designs have been featured in books about energy-efficient buildings.
• Plumb received the O.M.R.C Award of Merit for the Grand River Cable Television building.
• Plumb was given the Low Energy Building Design Award of Excellence for the Government of Canada Office Building.
• Plumb received the Modern Healthcare/ AIA Design Award and the Nova Scotia Association of Architects Award for the Souris Hospital in Nova Scotia.

Groups She Was Part Of

• Member of the Ontario Association of Architects.
• Fellow member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.
• Former executive member of the Toronto Society of Architects.
• Former member of the Toronto Urban Action Committee.
• Former member of the O.A.A Task Force on Conservation.
• Member of the Professional Advisory Council at Humber College (Interior design department).
• Advisor of the Architectural Science Department at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute.
• Former Faculty Council member of the school of architecture at the University of Toronto.
• Former member of the board of directors at the Canadian Wood Council.
• Chairman for the RAIC Awards Committee.
• A member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.
• Design critic at various schools of architecture across Canada and the United States of America.