Ron%20Thom%20at%20Trent

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Ron Thom at Trent

• Iconic Modernism

By Bernadine Dodge
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The Modern Movement in architecture and design is
a statement of the social aims of the age. ...By
asserting itself against subjectivity and
equivocation, it discloses a universal,
purposeful order and clarity in what appears to
be a mental wilderness. Berthold Lubetkin. 1947.
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Time magazine, July 18, 1969

• Toronto architect Ronald Thoms buildings are
  scaled naturally to the landscape. None rises
  more than four storeys and their shifting
  perspectives at one moment recall a walled
  medieval town, at the next a sculpted fortress.

The Master Plan sets a height limit of four
stories. This is set because it approximates the
height of the predominant natural feature of the
valley, the elm trees. R.J. Thom
Photo Credit Andy Turnbull
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Site of Trent University1960
Photo Credit Professor Robert Stairs
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Champlain College

• The corner stone for Champlain College was laid
  in 1965 and the College finally opened in 1967.

Photo Credit Parks Studio
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Champlain College
Photographed from under Faryon Bridge
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• The buildings designed by Ron Thom for Trent
  University represent a tension between the
  naturalistic aspects of Prairie architecture and
  the Brutalist elements of machine aesthetics.

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Champlain College Inner Court Yard
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Champlain Interior
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Champlain College The Great Hall
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Faryon Bridge under construction 1967
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Faryon BridgeDesigned by associates from Thoms
office and Morden Yolles, Structural Engineer
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Faryon Bridge looking across the Otonabee River
to the east bank.
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Science Complex under construction 1967
Photograph by Roy Nicholls
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Science Building
Photograph by Roy Nicolls
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Bata Library under construction 1968
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Ron Thom Trent University Master Plan, 1964
The library is considered to be the central
building of the campus, the one building used by
all members of the University. It has therefore
been placed at the confluence of all pedestrian
traffic, making it the proper hub of the
University. Everyone has to pass it in his normal
to and fro.
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Bata Library
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Bata Library viewed from the river
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Ron Thom Trent University Master Plan, 1964

• The main academic square, which is paved and
  of a size to accommodate assemblies, convocations
  and outdoor gatherings of all sorts, is at the
  front door of this main building Bata Library
  and will become the gathering point of the
  campusIt not only falls in the approximate
  geographical centre of the plan, but also on the
  main topographical prominence of the river.

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Bata Library

• Opened October 1969

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Bata Library through the Faryon Bridge
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Bata Library, 2004
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Lady Eaton College under construction 1968
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Lady Eaton College
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Ron Thoms Trent, 1969
Science Complex
Bata Library
Champlain College
Lady Eaton College
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Ron Thom, Letter, 1963

• The physical character of a university must
  reflect its philosophical idea. This must find
  first expression in the plan because the plan is
  the underlying framework and it will qualify the
  patterns of activity on the campus forever.
• Buildings superimposed on this framework can
  contradict the idea, or merely reflect it, or,
  ideally, extend and expand it. Buildings not
  only grow out of the plan, they are a part of it,
  one and the same thing. They are the physical
  reality of the plan.

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Thoms design of Trent University extended to
furniture, draperies and fittings. He chose
chairs by designers such as Jacobsen, Aalto,
Wegner, Mathsson, Saarinen, Bertoia, and Eames
for his buildings.
Hans Wegner
Arne Jacobsen
Alvar Aalto
Bruno Mathsson
Kaare Klint ?
Harry Bertoia
Eero Saarinen
All photographs by Bernadine Dodge 1989
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3.
1.
2.
1. Arne Jacobsen 2. Arne Jacobsen 3. Hans
Wegner 4. Hans Wegner
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Chairs assembled by Trent University Archives for
a display at Peterborough Centennial Museum and
Archives, 1989