[2][4] During his time at the university, he was influenced by the architectural and design themes of minimalism advanced by architects such as the German-American Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

[4] During his time there, he was introduced to other architects, including Ronald Thom, Doug Shadbolt, and Freddy Hollingsworth, shaping his early views of West Coast Modern architecture.

[2] In 1956, he took an architectural tour around the world with his wife, visiting landmarks including Frank Lloyd Wright's houses in Oak Park, Illinois, and the Johnson Wax Headquarters in Wisconsin, before traveling to Europe to see Le Corbusier's Unité d'habitation residential buildings in Marseille, France.

[5] In the 1990s, Downs was part of the team that redeveloped the site of Expo 86 along False Creek, converting it into the largest private development in North America at that time.

The citation specifically called his contributions to the West Coast Modernist style of architecture and his works that blended buildings and their surrounding natural landscape.