Welgrove Apartments

The Welgrove Apartments exhibit a definitive modernist bent. Here, within a grid of concrete—whose structure is clearly manifested on all exterior facades—are expanses of glass and unembellished red brick. The latter material ties the building to its neighbourhood context. The overall arrangement is orderly and calm, with the extensive use of windows opening suites to the park-like and riverfront milieu.

Architect Arthur James Donahue was intimately familiar with the International Style, which he studied under Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius at Harvard University in Cambridge. The mix of large plate glass windows and smaller horizontal strips of glazing are indicative of Breuer’s work, and of Breuer’s influence on Donahue.