Eberhard Zeidler (1926)

• Eberhard Zeidler Sold at Auction

Eberhard Zeidler Biography

(b Braunsdorf, 11 Jan 1926). Canadian architect of German birth. He studied at the Staatliche Bauhaus, Weimar (1948), and graduated in engineering and architecture from the Technische Hochschule, University of Karlsruhe, in 1949. He began his career as a designer for the architectural firm of Eiermann & Lindner, Karlsruhe. In 1951 Zeidler emigrated to Canada and worked for Blackwell & Craig of Peterborough, Ontario, becoming a partner in the firm in 1954. He taught modern architectural design at the University of Toronto (1953–5; Adjunct Professor from 1984). He became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1956. In 1962 Zeidler moved the practice from Peterborough to Toronto, where it evolved as Craig, Zeidler & Strong (1963–75), and later as the Zeidler Partnership/Architects (1975–80). In 1980, when Zeidler joined with new partner Alfred C. Roberts (b 1931), the name was changed again to the Zeidler Roberts Partnership/Architects. Zeidler was best known for designing such megastructures as the McMaster Health Sciences Centre in Hamilton (completed 1972), and for the Eaton Centre (1977), a shopping complex in the then current High Tech style covering five city blocks in downtown Toronto. He was noted also for Ontario Place (1970), a leisure centre made up of linked, tent-like pods on stilts, set over water in Toronto’s lake-front harbour. In size, scale and style Zeidler equated such projects to planning an ocean liner—an idea underscored by his frequent use of nautical references, like linear passageways, exposed ductwork, sloping skylights, welded-steel tubular handrails and accents of brightly coloured paint. He won many awards and wrote books and innumerable articles for both English- and German-language magazines on architecture.

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