Back cover testimonials

Art Deco Architecture Across Canada: Stories of the country’s buildings between the two World Wars

  • "If every picture is indeed worth a thousand words, then each building in Tim Morawetz's fabulous study on Art Deco architecture deserves its own book. The stories of these buildings are often as fascinating and compelling as their appearance. They have character writ large and are, in their own unique way, significant Canadian historical personalities."

    Roy MacGregor Author: Canadians: A Portrait of a Country and its People
  • "Tim Morawetz's brilliant and thorough documentation of the expression of Art Deco architecture and craftsmanship in Canadian cities sheds a new light on how pervasive and distinguished this style was in our country between the two World Wars. His rigorously researched descriptions and beautiful colour photographs bring to light the excellent quality, variety and complexity of Canadian Deco. Architectural features endemic to Art Deco: the zigzag motifs, the strong vertical forms and lavish ornamentation are shown to be ubiquitous. Unique Canadian decorative elements such as First Nations motifs and a delightful stylized roaring waterfall for a hydro building illustrate elements specific to Canada. The whole is a celebration of distinguished Deco buildings, their decorative details and the architects and artists who designed them. All of Canada should celebrate Morawetz's fine scholarship and try to preserve this formerly undocumented chapter in Canadian architectural history."

    Eberhard Zeidler Officer of the Order of Canada; Order of Ontario; Fellow, Royal Architecture Institute of Canada; Founder, Zeidler Partnership Architects
  • "Tim Morawetz has created a compelling, cross-country digest that documents extraordinary works of architecture, and connects these buildings to people, history and country. Art Deco Architecture across Canada is an essential resource for heritage advocates, and a captivating jewel box of images and stories about places that matter."

    Natalie Bull Executive Director, National Trust for Canada
  • "In this extraordinary publication, Tim Morawetz provides an encyclopedic review of the Art Deco style of architecture in its multitude of interpretations right across Canada. Included is the entire gamut of building types that were conceived and constructed during the interwar years and into the early 1950s. The book features countless examples of bas-relief carvings and decorative panels – including those by architect John M. Lyle and artist Charles Comfort – that present uniquely Canadian examples of flora and fauna, and in Comfort's case, industry and daily life. This eloquently written and elegantly designed book convincingly demonstrates that Canada's Art Deco architectural legacy is on par with that found in other countries around the world."

    Alastair Duncan Author, Art Deco Complete; Art Deco Sculpture; American Art Deco