Growing Up Modern: The Life and Designs of A.J. Donahue

Biography

“At his most charming A.J. looked uncannily like Peter Sellers, and like Sellers, could convey the sense of being almost anybody.¹”

Jim Donahue Jr.

In 1917, Arthur James Donahue was born to affluent parents in Regina, Saskatchewan.² The records are inconsistent; it seems he was known to friends as A.J., Jim, and James.

Donahue’s early life was marked by tragedy and privilege. His father died when he was very young, and he was only eleven when his much-loved step-father also died.³ These early heartbreaks left Donahue with a hefty inheritance which paid for the best schooling available in Regina, as well as one year spent at a boarding school in Switzerland.⁴

As a young man Donahue briefly attended the University of Regina before moving on to the University of Minnesota where he graduated in 1941 with a B.A. from the School of Architecture. Afterwards he was off to Harvard to pursue his M.A. in Architecture from the Graduate School of Design, having received a scholarship.⁵ He was the first Canadian ever to graduate from the program. While at Harvard, Donahue studied under famed Modernists Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer, whose influence can be identified throughout Donahue’s entire career. He graduated in 1942.

Following his stint in the United States, Donahue considered a career change. He moved to Montreal and enrolled in an Arts and Science course at McGill University. He ultimately chose not to complete this degree, however it was during his time in Montreal that he met his future wife, Alice Bridget Donahue.⁶

Donahue’s 1943 move from Montreal to Ottawa kicked off his career in earnest, a career which was in many ways emblematic of the post-war period. He quickly made a name for himself among Canada’s leading Modernist architects and Industrial designers, two fields experiencing intense growth in the wake of the Second World War. His tenure studying under Gropius and Breuer, both of whom were pioneers of prefabricated housing, resulted in Donahue’s recruitment by the National Housing Authority in Ottawa to work on city planning and prefab housing research. The following year Donahue was appointed Director of Information Displays for the National Film Board, a role which saw him organize travelling exhibits displaying post-war Industrial design innovations.⁷

By 1945, Donahue had been hired by the National Research Council’s Building Research Division to conduct further research on prefab housing, as well as to work with materials newly developed during the Federal government’s recent war efforts. Donahue and his colleague Douglas Simpson worked with plastics, plywood, epoxies and aluminum to innovate on miscellaneous peace-time goods.⁸ Among the goods prototyped by Donahue and Douglas was the first-ever plastic chair, a light-weight stackable auditorium chair moulded from a single piece of plastic. This period is perhaps when Donahue discovered his life-long love for designing furniture.

Also in 1945, Donahue returned to Montreal to marry Alice. The pair settled down in Ottawa and quickly had their first child together, James (Jim).

Donahue’s groundbreaking work for the National Research Council won him acclaim as an Industrial designer and led him to co-found the Affiliation of Canadian Industrial Designers (ACID) in 1946. That same year, his reputation got him head-hunted for an Associate Professorship by John A. Russell, the Director of the University of Manitoba’s School of Architecture and Fine Arts. And so, he moved to Winnipeg!

Winnipeg offered Donahue a rich working life; the mid-twentieth century was a period of architectural revitalization for the city and Winnipeg was a particular stronghold of Modernism, Donahue’s signature style. His teaching career was a success; his students remembered him as a “dynamic and challenging lecturer.” His lecturing was in fact so sought after that he was invited to speak at the University of Minnesota, the Institute of Design in Chicago, and Notre Dame University.⁹ At the beginning of his time at the University of Manitoba, he worked with K. C. Stanley to create the interdisciplinary Planning Research Centre. Soon afterwards, the Faculty of Architecture experienced an enrollment boom which Donahue helped to navigate through his contributions to the 1957 Campus Design and Planning Committee.¹⁰ In his capacity as Associate Professor, Donahue travelled to Ottawa to serve as the University of Manitoba’s representative at the National Industrial Design Council.¹¹

While living in Winnipeg, Donahue’s working life was not limited to his role at the University - his architectural career was in full swing. Privately, he designed two apartment buildings, three warehouses, and twenty homes across the city. By the late 1950s, he often partnered with the architectural firm Smith Carter Searle to work on major projects, including a failed bid to design the new City Hall and the acclaimed Monarch Life Assurance building at 333 Broadway Avenue. Also throughout the 1950s, Donahue served consecutive terms on the council of the Manitoba Association of Architects; his co-councillors included famed local architects Ernest J. Smith, Cecil N. Blankstein, and Dennis H. Carter.

By the 1950s, Donahue and his wife Alice had welcomed two more children, Dan and Maria, and were living in the second of their two Donahue-designed homes (the first at 8 Fulham Crescent, the second at 301 Hosmer Boulevard). There had also been a brief stint wherein the family lived at 375 Wellington Crescent, an apartment building which was designed, built and owned by Donahue. According to Donahue's oldest son, Jim:

"Each of our moves was like a jump to the next planet of possibility. The cozy Wrightian nest of Fulham Crescent House was quite perfect enough for the kids’ early childhood. Hosmer House was a series of runways and uncluttered spaces, perfect for the rambunctious years of us kids and the ever-more demanding stresses of the young fifties professional career.¹²"

The Donahue home, wherever its address, was “a culturally stimulating household.” Family life was lively, and music was always playing. Donahue and Alice, according to their oldest son, were “rather inclined to challenge conventional thinking.”

Unfortunately, Donahue’s personal life was badly impacted by his struggle with alcoholism. Though for many years Donahue was able to keep the fallout from his alcoholism somewhat contained, eventually the severity of his drinking irreparably damaged both his personal and professional life in Winnipeg. In 1963, Donahue abruptly left. According to some, “he didn’t have a choice in the matter.¹³”

Donahue relocated to Halifax, taking an Assistant Professor position at the Technical University of Nova Scotia. The Director of the University, Doug Shanbold, was aware of his alcoholism, however Donahue’s reputation as a respected lecturer and student mentor caused Shambold to take a chance on him.¹⁴ While living in Halifax Donahue also continued to work as an architect, partnering on several projects with local firm Duffus, Romans, Single, and Kundzins Architects.¹⁵

In 1976, poor health forced Donahue to resign from his position at T.U.N.S. This did not mark his retirement; that same year he began a working relationship with Keith L. Graham and Associates.¹⁶ Donahue moved to the village of Chester, Nova Scotia, where he remained for the rest of his life. During these years he moved within the community often, restoring three old houses and building one according to his own design.¹⁷ Donahue spent his final years expressing himself strongly through art. Anger at Chester’s municipal council, fondness for his maritime home, revisited designs for furniture and houses, and more abstract expressions are all among the themes present in the large catalogue of personal drawings created at the end of Donahue’s life.

Also at the end of his life, Donahue got involved in politics. In 1993, just three years before his death, he ran for office with the National Party of Canada, a short-lived anti-free trade political party. He (and the party) did not win.¹⁸

Donahue died at the South Shore Regional Hospital in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia on February 4th, 1996. He was 77. His life partner at the time of his death was Helena Marks.¹⁹

Donahue was remembered fondly by his former University of Manitoba student and colleague Douglas Gillmor as a funny person with a gift for story-telling, who was fun to be around.²⁰ Dennis Carter, for whom Donahue served as a consultant while living in Winnipeg, remembered his work ethic and intensity, as well as his fearlessness in experimentation.²¹ Although he only spent 17 of his 77 years in Manitoba, their significance to his career and reputation cannot be understated. Donahue has been called “easily the best architect of the Modern period in Manitoba and perhaps in Canada,” and it has been said that he “was charged with the task of bringing the gospel of Modern to the prairies.²²”

Dad had a productive life and a pretty long one, with many troubles along the way. The AJ I last spoke with was a pretty happy and creative guy back home in his maritime environment of Nova Scotia.²³

Jim Donahue Jr.

The Mystery of the Winnipeg Chair

I have a lounge chair in my office. I should say that I have a great lounge chair in my office. It was designed by architect Jim Donahue in Winnipeg during the early 1950s. Constructed of upholstery, moulded plywood, brass-plated wrought iron and rubber, it exemplifies the post-war shift in production from a military focus to the domestic and commercial realm.

Neil Minuk, Border Crossing, 1999.

Donahue did not quit furniture-making when his patent for the stacking auditorium chair was denied, continuing to design furniture after his 1946 move to Winnipeg. His most famous design, known both as the Winnipeg Chair and the Canadian Coconut Chair, was conceived in 1947.

This chair is distinctive; a large, sloped plywood shell is covered by an upholstered foam pad, the entire structure of which is supported by four metal rods. It's a no-doubt-about-it mid-century-modern Scandinavian-inspired lounge chair, but it maintains originality. That is, it would maintain originality, if it hadn’t been ripped off.

The name “Canadian Coconut Chair” is not only a reference to Donahue’s nationality and the resemblance between his design and a quartered coconut shell. Instead, it refers to the Coconut Slice Chair by American Industrial designer George Nelson, created for the Herman Miller brand. The Coconut Slice Chair is remarkably similar to Donahue’s lounge chair, a broader version with a back which tapers into a point rather than a squared-off top. Because of Nelson and Herman Miller’s repute and manufacturing power, the Coconut Slice Chair became the dominant design associated with this shape. Meanwhile, Nelson published his design in 1955, eight years after Donahue’s chair was created. According to some, Nelson visited an exhibition which displayed Donahue’s chair, and copied the design.¹

Possible plagiarism by an American design superstar is, surprisingly, not the most persistent rumor surrounding the Winnipeg Chair.

Almost every article, blog post, vintage reseller listing, and comment section mentioning the Winnipeg Chair repeats the same piece of mythology: Donahue designed the chair and enlisted his architecture students to manufacture prototypes out of a workshop in his basement. Approximately two-hundred chairs were made, some of which were sold by the Hudson’s Bay Company for thirty-five dollars. Today, a surviving Winnipeg Chair is a rare and sought-after collectors’ item worth thousands. A comprehensive book on modern Canadian home goods published by the Design Exchange in 2001 stated that only “about two dozen of what has come to be known as the Winnipeg Chair exist.²”

The trouble with this story is that there are several Winnipeg Chairs for sale online at any given time. Several Winnipeg Chair restoration projects have been chronicled on Instagram. If you’re a true mid-century modern furniture nerd, you may own a Winnipeg Chair. Not to put too fine a point on it (looking at you, Coconut Slice Chair), there are too many Winnipeg Chairs out there for this story to be the whole truth. The Winnipeg Chair, while it may have originated in Donahue’s basement, was certainly mass-produced.

There is probably some truth to the Winnipeg Chair’s mythology. Throughout his time in Manitoba, Donahue occasionally collaborated with the U of M’s faculties of Architecture and Interior Design and the Winnipeg Art Gallery to create showcases of home goods designed by staff and students. The prototypes displayed at these exhibitions (exhibitions very similar to those Donahue organized while working as Director of Information Displays for the National Film Board) were available for purchase.³ It is likely that the basement workshop wherein students manufactured prototypes of the Winnipeg Chair was organized in preparation for one of these exhibitions.

Donahue did not stop production of his chair after the first batch had been sold locally. Instead, it appears Donahue took his design to Montreal to be mass-manufactured. It is unclear why Donahue shopped his design in Quebec - He had lived in Montreal in his youth and had met his wife there, so it’s possible he had business contacts in the city. The timeline here is long and somewhat muddled; it seems that Donahue brought his design to Montreal in the late 1940s, but that the large-scale manufacturing of the chair did not take place until the mid-1950s, presumably after Nelson’s imitation chair had popularized the style.

The Musée National des Beaux-Arts au Québec has a Winnipeg Chair in their collection which was produced in Montreal in 1947.⁴ The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts also has a Winnipeg Chair, dated to the late 1940s - early 1950s, location of production unknown. Some current-day Winnipeg Chair owners have reported labels on their chairs attributing their manufacture to Cortini Furniture Manufacturing Ltd., a Montreal company strongly associated with Scandinavian- inspired furniture which was founded in 1956, the year after Nelson’s Coconut Slice Chair came onto the scene.⁵ After this point, it appears the chair was being sold nationally and had made its way back to Winnipeg. By 1957, the Eaton’s Department Store in Winnipeg was advertising “Exciting modern pieces by Cortini of Montreal⁶” and Cortini brand furniture was being advertised regularly by Genser & Sons Ltd, a major Winnipeg furniture chain, throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s.⁷

However, the greatest concentration of Winnipeg Chairs seems to have remained in and around Montreal throughout the mid-20th century. Secondary sources note that Winnipeg Chairs were sold at Morgan’s department, a Quebecois chain - this chain was absorbed by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1960, which may account for the persistent belief that the chairs were sold at the Bay.⁸ An illustrated advertisement in Montreal’s La Presse newspaper shows a second-hand Winnipeg Chair being sold for $ 39 (down from $89.50) by the Quebecois discount emporium Faucher in 1961.⁹ There is no mention of the Cortini brand, which suggests that the Winnipeg Chair design was not proprietary to Cortini - the chair may have also been manufactured by another company.

Trends in home furnishings only last so long, and by the mid-1960s the Winnipeg Chair entered a phase of obscurity. The distinctive style became dated, and the chairs were gradually relegated to basements, yardsales, and in many cases, landfills. For several decades the chairs lay dormant and uncool. How then did they attain their current collectible status?

An article titled Collecting Canadians appeared in the Globe and Mail in March of 2000, and it may be the earliest printed reference to the Winnipeg Chair’s unique origin story. Although, in this first iteration of the story, only some of the 150-200 prototypes were assembled by students, and the workshop was in Donahue’s garage rather than his basement. The interviewees are Rachel Gotlieb and Cora Golden, who each recall purchasing Winnipeg Chairs in the early 1990s for very little money. Golden is quoted: “At the time, no one really knew what they were.¹⁰”

This article was published ahead of the release of "Design in Canada: Fifty Years from Tea Kettles to Task Chairs", a comprehensive book on modern Canadian design written by Gotlieb and Golden for the former Design Exchange. The article goes on to note that at the time of publication (2000), Winnipeg Chairs were selling for $5,000 USD (today more than $9,100)¹¹. This sudden and dramatic increase in price can’t then have been correlated to to the release of Gotlieb and Golden’s book which perpetuated the scarcity myth; the book would not be released until the following year. However, the fact that the Design Exchange, Canada’s “epicentre of design industry culture,” had suddenly realized the value of this piece in the mid-to-late 1990s may indicate a broader awakening to the timelessness of mid-century modern furniture design.¹²

The mythology of the Winnipeg Chair, first published by Gotlieb and Golden in their 2000 article and reiterated in their 2001 book, can be traced to a phone call between Gotlieb and Grant Marshall which took place in 1997.¹³ Marshall, an esteemed Winnipeg interior designer who went on to collaborate with Donahue several times, was one of Donahue’s students in the late 1940s. He relayed the basement workshop story to Gotlieb. Whether Gotlieb had begun her research on the Winnipeg Chair in 1997 in response to the extraordinary spike in the chair’s popularity, or whether news of the chair’s supposed scarcity spread via word-of-mouth in the wake of this phone call and the price soared accordingly, is unknown.

While the Winnipeg Chair is not as rare as the mythology surrounding it suggests, it is still an iconic and collectible piece of Canadian design history. And if obtaining any old Winnipeg chair may not be all that challenging, there is still reason to believe that among the many mass-produced chairs there exist some which belonged to the original limited-run of prototypes manufactured by Donahue’s students. The question is, how do we distinguish between an original and a mass-produced Winnipeg Chair?

Some Winnipeg Chairs sold online feature a straight wooden base instead of angled metal rods. Listings for these chairs claim they are “pre-steel frame originals”.¹⁴ Gotlieb and Golden, while describing various differences among the chairs born from their make-shift production in "Design in Canada", also reference a version of the chair with a “Scandinavian-style wooden base” having been produced by Donahue and his students alongside the predominant version with angled metal rods.¹⁵ It's possible that both versions were manufactured in that original run, however contemporaneous photographs of Donahue's living room wherein his own chair is pictured disprove the idea that the wooden base came before the angled metal base. Interestingly, every chair featuring an “pre-steel frame” wooden base came onto the vintage resale scene in 2015. Other Winnipeg Chairs have multiple buttons at the base of the seat, instead of the standard single button. Is this the result of a creative liberty taken by a reupholsterer, or by one of Donahue’s students while the chair was still being prototyped? The hunt and the mystery continues.

Which brings me back to the lounge chair in my office. Beyond the fact that its design is quite exquisite, it represents several things. It encapsulates the potency that a thoughtful, considered design can possess; it is the evidence and the symbol of critical design work which took place in Winnipeg after WWII, and it represents a legacy of Modernism in Winnipeg and throughout Canada during this period. It also represents something depressing. By virtue of its retrieval from the trash, it illustrates how undervalued, uncelebrated, and unknown are most of these works. The Donahue Chair reveals lessons of Modernism that can be applied to our contemporary context. In this sense, it is an object of research, and no less, an enduring and inspirational symbol of the modern character in design.

Neil Minuk, Border Crossings, 1999.

Post-Script

Donahue’s passion for Industrial design did not fade when he retired. His desire to continue improving upon homegoods is apparent in the catalogue of sketches obtained by WAF, most of which were created within the final five years of Donahue’s life. Donahue created schematics for prototype lawnmowers, bottles, combination can and bottle openers, new scripts (fonts), toys, storage solutions, improved grocery store shelving, boats, among many other less decipherable ideas. But the item Donahue re-invented most often by far was the chair.

Some of these sketches are clear revisitations of prior projects, and in 1992 Donahue created some schematics for his famed Winnipeg Chair. In the sparse notes accompanying his sketches Donahue included some details which seem to be rememberings from the period when the chair was designed and produced. For instance, next to one sketch of the Winnipeg Chair, Donahue wrote in point-form:

“Idea/DS/AJD/ Cut sheet ply form for sitting
All materials easily purchased across Canada
1945
Purchased Hudson Bay Winnipeg 1950?
Maker/Unknown
Production
$ 35-40.”

Accompanying another sketch, which most likely depicts a webbed plywood chair created by Donahue for the Design for Use in Canadian Products exhibition (Ottawa, 1947), are more notes in point-form:

“Idea out of 4’x8’ x ¾ Birch Ply All Parts + Strap in Canada
1945
Few Tools
Any Shop
Production
$ 35-40
Design A.J. Donahue
200 Produced (Ottawa).”

From these 1992 sketches we receive an entirely new picture of the Winnipeg Chair’s origin story. If these notes are taken at face value, the Winnipeg Chair was a collaboration between Douglas Simpson and Donahue (“Idea/DS/AJD”; Douglas Simpson/Arthur James Donahue) which took place in 1945, a year before Donahue moved to Winnipeg. Reference is made to the chair being purchased by the Hudson’s Bay department store; this is consistent with the chair’s mythology, as is the $ 35 price tag. Apart from this single mention of the Hudson’s Bay, Winnipeg is not mentioned in connection to this chair.

Also consistent with the Winnipeg Chair’s mythology is Donahue’s reference to a batch of 200 chairs being produced, however this note is attached to his webbed plywood chair design, and he lists the place of production as Ottawa. The Winnipeg Chair’s place of production is listed as unknown. There is no mention of student assistance or an at home workshop.

Has the mythology of the Winnipeg Chair been wholly disproven by these documents, which are literally stamped with “Prof. A.J. Donahue's” stamp of approval? Was the so-called Winnipeg Chair actually created during Donahue’s time working with Simpson for the National Research Council in Ottawa, prior to his move to Winnipeg? Does the story of a limited run of 200 prototypes actually apply to an entirely different chair, and were these prototypes created by the Federal Government in Ottawa rather than by architecture students in Winnipeg?

It's entirely possible. However, it must be said that Donahue’s late-in-life industrial design sketches occasionally veered off topic and into abstract expression. Whether he was merging the technical with the artistic, or experiencing some confusion, is unclear. Many of Donahue’s sketches feature accompanying texts which read as nonsensical. Sometimes the texts appear poetic, sometimes rambling. It is unknown to us whether Donahue, who was in his seventies at the time of creating these sketches, was recalling things with clarity. So, it is also possible that while revisiting the Winnipeg Chair in 1992, Donahue merged certain details with those applying to the webbed plywood chair, or to any other chair that he designed as a young man in Ottawa. The mystery lives on.

The Welgrove, 375 Wellington Crescent

James Donahue, 1955

In August of 1954, the proposed Welgrove Apartments received its building permit, contributing to the major boom in construction within Winnipeg taking place at that time. In just the eight months prior to the Welgrove’s permit approval, Winnipeg had approved $15,938,900 worth of new construction.¹

While the modernization of Winnipeg was in full swing, the modernization of Wellington Crescent through the construction of chic multi-dwelling buildings was kicked off by Donahue’s personal project, the Welgrove Apartments. Donahue designed, constructed, and owned the Welgrove Apartments, even briefly living there with his family in between their bespoke houses. It predates the crush of high-rise condominium buildings which neighbor it, the first in a row which begins at 375 Wellington Crescent and continues along the river all the way to Osborne Avenue (save a single 1930s era apartment building). The Welgrove Apartments, effectively demarcates (on the Northside of Wellington Crescent) the end of the Crescentwood-Enderton Park Heritage Conservation District.² The Crescentwood-Enderton Park HCD encompasses an enclave of gracious single-family homes and adjacent parks established before the 1920s; 375 Wellington Crescent greets you as you exit this district with its distinctly modernist appearance. It is mirrored across the street by Executive House - built four years after the Welgrove and technically within the Crescentwood-Enderton Park HCD by virtue of its lot placement - which shares the same modernist lines and scaling.

Scaling is important; the Welgrove eases the transition from the three-storey family homes of the Crescentwood-Enderton Park HCD to the soaring multi-dwelling towers further down Wellington Crescent by respecting the scale of its preceding buildings, appropriating the same height and remaining set well back within its lot, away from the street.

Though the Welgrove may have taken certain cues from its mature surroundings, it is undeniably Modern. The clean horizontal lines, low rectangular silhouette, and expansive use of glass are classically Modern and influenced by the International style. The influence of Donahue’s mentors, Breuer and Gropius, is also present through the interspersing of horizontal and vertical bands of glazing on the windows.³ These broad, banded windows which make up the greatest portion of the building’s front facade interact with the curtains of the interior of the building, creating an effect which is complementary and dramatic when viewed from street level.

The late 1950s and 1960s saw the construction of a huge number of three-storey, symmetrical apartment buildings with plain brick facades. These buildings are now considered typically Winnipeg. The Welgrove is not identical to these buildings, but it bears a strong enough resemblance to them that Donahue can be said to have anticipated a trend. 375 Wellington Crescent may be considered a modest project when compared to Donahue’s other contributions to Winnipeg, and it may be considered modest in scale when compared to Wellington Crescent’s other apartment buildings, but the Welgrove Apartments were trailblazing.

Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba Building (Formerly Monarch Life Assurance Building), 333 Broadway Avenue

A.J. Donahue for Smith Carter Searles Associates, 1960

Local architects and the general public alike have come to regard the Monarch Life Assurance Building as an example of the best public-building architecture in Winnipeg. It was designed by A.J. Donahue for Smith, Carter, Searle Associates.¹

Theodore Matoff, University of Manitoba, 1965.

Donahue was something of a trendsetter in the world of Winnipeg real estate development. Just as Donahue had kicked-off the transformation of Wellington Crescent into a hub of multi-dwelling properties with the construction of his Welgrove Apartments, he also initiated (or, perhaps, confirmed) the transformation of Broadway Avenue into Winnipeg’s business row by designing one of Winnipeg’s most impressive Modern buildings: 333 Broadway.

333 Broadway was designed to house the head office of the Monarch Life Assurance Company, a major player in Canadian insurance at the time. The company’s decision to locate their headquarters in Winnipeg was significant to the city, as this “get” would breathe new economic and architectural life into Winnipeg’s post-war landscape. The location within Winnipeg was equally significant; choosing to situate themselves on Broadway Avenue instead of within the Downtown core signalled that Broadway was a desirable address - Winnipeg’s burgeoning business district. The Monarch Life Assurance Company was among the earliest and most prestigious businesses to make this move.²

This move was not undertaken lightly. The building’s design had to indicate to the public that the office - its placement, scale, and appearance- was in every way intentional, to bolster trust. To ensure this, the Monarch Life Assurance Company examined several proposals before eventually selecting the design submitted by Smith Carter Searle Associates, a local architecture firm who had enlisted Donahue to help them win their bid.

The building is six-storeys tall and sits on a pedestal of marble and precast concrete.³ It boasts a unique silhouette; the first floor footprint is smaller than the floors above, so that the second-through-fifth floors overhang slightly. The sixth floor retracts back to the circumference of the ground floor. The building is also crowned by a “recessed section of the office building housing the mechanical elements” which emerges from the roof.⁴ The front and back facades are nearly identical, which was a sign of affluence (consider that generally along Broadway Avenue, office buildings have plain back facades clad in less expensive building materials). While similar to one another, these facades are unique. They are decorated generously by protruding columns, narrow windows, and panels of grey granite and Tyndall limestone which form vertical and horizontal rows. Most of the windows and panels of grey granite are angled slightly to create the impression of bay windows.

Donahue’s design had some lofty expectations to meet; the anticipation for the finished product was huge. His elaborate design, which took two years to plan, was intended to “express the bold confidence and security of the corporation, its concern for its clients and employees, as well as its commitment to the economic development of the city of Winnipeg.⁵” To do this, Donahue sought inspiration from his favourite architect, Mies van der Rohe.

The public was so eager to see the winning bid realized that the Monarch Life Assurance Company even commissioned a nearly six-foot model of the building-to-be and installed it in front of the construction site. Additionally, bleachers were installed so that the public could sit and watch the building be erected.⁶ Donahue’s design did not disappoint. The Monarch Life Assurance Company Building is “acknowledged and celebrated as one of Western Canada’s finest modernist buildings.⁷” In fact, the Monarch Life Assurance Company’s building became so central to the firm’s image that for a time they used sketches of 333 Broadway as their emblem in newspaper advertisements - the building was literally iconic!⁸

Appreciation for Donahue’s design did not begin and end in the mid-century. In 1999, Monarch Life Assurance moved out of the building and the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba took ownership, however they did not alter the building. Renovations were eventually needed and took place between 2011 and 2013, with such care taken to preserve Donahue’s original design that the building was awarded a Conservation Award from Heritage Winnipeg.[footnotes] The original materials cladding the exterior were removed, cleaned, repaired, and reinstalled.⁹ In 2021, 333 Broadway received a municipal historic building designation.¹⁰

Other Projects by Donahue

Kennedy Residence, 13802 Ravine Drive NW, Edmonton, 1950
Niakwa Country Club (Renovation), Winnipeg, 1952
Berman Residence, 664 Ash Street, Winnipeg, 1955
Proposed Design for Winnipeg Civic Centre (Bid Failed), Winnipeg, 1959
Ferguson Residence, 78 Thatcher Drive, Winnipeg, 1960
Cottage, 402 4th Avenue, Victoria Beach, Manitoba, 1961
Confederation Building, Prince Edward Island, 1961
Maritime Pavilion for Expo ‘67, Montreal, 1967
O’Brian Hall Residence, Halifax, 1970
Police Station, Halifax, 1975
TUNS School of Architecture Building, Halifax, 1976
Nova Scotia Archives, Halifax, 1977
TUNS Design Center, Halifax, 1985-89
HMCS Sackville Theatre, Halifax, 1991
Three refurbished and one purpose-built home in Chester, Nova Scotia, 1970s-1990s