John Bland (architect)

He played a fundamental role in transforming architectural education in Canada, spending more than five decades teaching at the McGill School of Architecture including a 31-year tenure as director,[1] under which Bland transformed the School from a Beaux-Arts institution into one based on contemporary design principles.

John was married to Fay Bland and was a father to a daughter, Clara, and three sons, Johnny, Andrew and Harry.

[3] After graduating from the Architectural Association School, Bland worked for the planning department of the London County Council.

He carried out his architectural work in Montreal through a series of partnerships at different periods, with architects Gordon Edwards, Michel Lacroix, Roy LeMoyne, Vincent Rother, Charles Elliot Trudeau and Anthony Shine.

[1] Although he had retired from full-time teaching at the School, he continued to teach part-time for nearly twenty years and founded the John Bland Canadian Architecture Collection (CAC) at McGill during this time, which remains one of the most important architecture collections in Canada.

"[1] His long tenure with the School lent him the opportunity to teach many generations of architects, including some of the most important individuals in the field, such as Moshe Safdie, Arthur Erickson, and the directors of multiple Schools of Architecture in Canada, the United States, England, Norway, Israel, Colombia and India.