We are deeply saddened by the the passing of Barry V. Downs on July 19, 2022. Barry helped us to craft the mission statement for the Canadian Art Preservation Foundation and encouraged us to think big, by collecting to protect excellent art work from oblivion, and to find a way to keep alive the work of BC’s and Canada’s artists.
As an adventurous architect from the 1950s onward, Barry was part of the avant-garde West Coast Modernism movement, incorporating ideas from the European Bauhaus movement, Frank Lloyd Wright’s vision and California Modernist style of melding structures into a rugged landscape. Barry’s deep respect for nature and landscape in his architectural design is apparent in the West Vancouver house that he designed in 1979 and lived in for more than forty years (as profiled in Eve Lazarus’ Sensational Vancouver). The home blurs the distinction between indoors and outdoors in its stunning setting on a cliff overlooking the sea.
One of his major contributions to local architecture was the Vancouver Convention Centre. He also worked with Eberhard Zeidler on the Sails of Canada Place and with Moshe Safdie on the design of Library Square in Vancouver. In 2014 Canada honoured his lifetime commitment to architecture by awarding him the Order of Canada and a few years later Simon Fraser University bestowed an honorary doctors degree on him.
In addition to his architectural achievements, Barry will be remembered for his modesty, his kindness and his easy-going nature.
