Frank Darling (architect)

Frank Darling (17 February 1850 – 19 May 1923) was an important Canadian architect, winner of the RIBA Gold medal in 1915, who designed many of Toronto's landmark institutional and financial buildings, as well as scores of bank branches throughout the country.

Darling is best described as an 'Edwardian imperialist' in his outlook and architectural approach, and accordingly left a legacy of fine Edwardian Baroque buildings in Canada's major cities, representative of the period's prosperity and optimism.

He worked briefly as a bank teller before becoming apprenticed to architect Henry Langley from 1866 to 1870.

He studied and trained in England under George Edmund Street between 1870 and 1873 and then returned to Canada.

Darling was the first Honorary President of the Toronto Beaux-Arts Club, member of the Holt Commission for planning of Ottawa (1913–1915), and was the first Canadian to win the Royal Institute of British Architects Gold Medal in 1915.