Eberhard Zeidler

Eberhard’s mother and brother were living in Braunsdorf, Germany with extended family at the time of his birth while his father was completing his postgraduate degree at the University of Berlin.[5] When Eberhard was two years old, his family moved to Liegnitz, Silesia where he spent the majority of his childhood.[6] It was common for families to live in apartments at that time, however, years later his family built a home of their own. Photographs were of great value during his childhood and Eberhard would create photo albums as young as the age of five, where he would decorate the pages with quick sketches and text.[6] Eberhard had a passion for music as a child and played the violin in his family’s orchestra. He wanted to quit and learn how to paint but his violin teacher at the time convinced him otherwise.[7] Eberhard enjoyed taking part in activities that were typical for boys at the time, such as joining athletic teams and going on hikes through the mountains. However, he also had a fascination with buildings from a very young age and spent much of his childhood sketching and making models. At the age of thirteen, he knew he wanted to become an architect.[8]

Eberhard never enjoyed his earlier years at school and was bored with the idea of learning Latin and French when he knew he wanted to explore the world of architecture.[8] He wanted to learn more about building specifically and wanted to pursue being a bricklayer, because he believed those were the people designing monumental cathedrals. His parents approved this idea. Eberhard's father suggested that instead of dropping out of school, he should work on a construction site during his summers in order to gain a better understanding of what the field was truly like. That same summer, Eberhard began working for his father’s friend who owned a construction company. He slowly began to realize that this job was not what he imagined it to be, as he spent his summer mixing mortar as well as buying coffee and chewing tobacco from the corner store. He had no qualms about returning to school once the summer was over.[8] He continued to pursue his curiosity with building through taking on different jobs during his summer holidays. One summer, he experienced a near-fatal situation where he came close to falling off a high-rise steel tower. Eberhard was suspended from a steel brace that was not bolted properly. Thankfully, his ankle got caught in the ladder and he was left hanging upside down—two hundred feet from the ground.[8] Eberhard's brother attended the University of Berlin where Eberhard would skip his high school classes to attend lectures on architecture.[8] The arrival of the war caused Eberhard to drift off his architectural journey when he volunteered for the navy. The war ended when he was nineteen and he was left in a state of despair, knowing many of his friends died and not knowing the whereabouts of his family.[9]

In 1945, Eberhard and his friend attempted to travel to the USA after they heard a rumor that the American army was hiring former navy officers. Eberhard became very ill on the trip and eventually stopped in Hamburg, Germany to rest at the residence of the Wendts, a family that his friend knew. [9] Eberhard lived with them even after his recovery, and worked as a construction worker until he could pursue architecture again. Eberhard eventually traveled over the border into the Russian zone to find his mother and father in Bernburg.[1] Eberhard realized that he needed to get back into architecture. Professors that were removed from the Bauhaus by Hitler moved to Weimar where they began to rebuild the design school. Eberhard immediately applied and was accepted. He remained at the university for three years until he ran into trouble with the police for helping one of his professors escape arrest. This period was filled with freedom of expression as designers came up with innovative post-war ideas. Eberhard finished his architecture training at the Technical University in Karlsruhe and immediately upon graduation was finally living his dream. He was offered a position to work with one of his architectural heros, Egon Eiermann. He also worked for a former professor from Weimar, Emanuel Lindner, who also moved west and had an abundance of projects he needed assistance with.[1] In 1951, Eberhard visited his former university, the Technical University in Karlsruhe, where he heard a professor from Montreal giving a speech announcing that Canada needed architects and that there were far more architects in Germany. What he failed to mention was that in Germany, not even a small structure could be constructed without an architect’s stamp of approval. This was a stark contrast to Canada, where the scope of work for architects was more limited.[10]

Eberhard's friends finally convinced him to travel to Canada for a short trip, which ended up turning into a lifetime.[1] He filled out a residency application, which he actually forgot about until he received a letter of approval and his first job offer working for a little-known firm in Peterborough, Ontario.[10] Eberhard left his job working for his former professor when he embarked on his journey to Canada, where he imagined a life of bustling projects and commissions. His former boss told him he would regret his decision and would be back in Germany within the next year.[11] He arrived in Quebec City in August 1951 and traveled by train to Peterborough.[2] He was taken to the office of what was formerly known as Blackwell & Craig, where Eberhard was going to meet founder, Jim Craig. Eberhard describes the office as looking like the United Nations, filled with people of different ethnicities and backgrounds. This was a stark contrast to everything he knew back in Germany.[11] Months later, Eberhard traveled to the firm’s Toronto location which needed additional assistance. He arrived in Toronto in a state of shock, perceiving the emptiness of Union Station. At the time, there were relatively few residences in the city and most people went to their cottages on the weekends. During his first year in Canada, Eberhard contemplated his decision of leaving Germany, since he was only a draftsman and the pay wasn’t as high as he expected. But he persevered with his decision to remain in Canada.[12]

Eberhard received a call from his friend Frank offering him a new job at nearly double the salary at an engineering firm called Timber Structures. The work he completed for Timber Structures was not only interesting, but also fostered his love for architecture.[13] In 1953, he received an offer from Jim Craig asking if he would like to return to Blackwell & Craig as a Chief Designer and partner, which he immediately accepted.[2] His first design in this capacity was an addition of a Sunday School Hall to St. John the Baptist, an Anglican church in the village of Lakefield. He treated this project as his first child, as he constantly frequented the construction site and monitored its progress.[13] His church designs set a precedent and Eberhard was commissioned to design over thirty churches in the following few years at Blackwell & Craig.[14] This history of designing churches also made it difficult for Eberhard to receive projects of different occupancies. New schools were constantly being built but Eberhard would be outbid by bigger firms who had more experience in educational facilities. At an interview with three other architects for a four-room school in Marmora, he told the jury he felt these types of interviews do not evaluate how well he can design. If they were having surgery, they wouldn’t call four doctors in and ask them to explain the procedure. This response shocked the jury and led him to getting his first school project.[15] In 1960, Eberhard was asked to be the head architect for Adam Scott High School alongside Barnett & Rieder, a firm more experienced in high school design.[16]

Peterborough Memorial Centre, Peterborough, Ontario (1956)

In 1956, following an extensive legal battle with the former contractor from the Adam Scott High School, Eberhard embarked on his largest project to date – the Peterborough Memorial Centre.[17] At the same time, Eberhard had to find a new place to stay upon learning that his landlord's daughters needed their bedroom back. He was offered a coach house next to a mansion of a wealthy lady named Mrs. Strickland. She offered him the property under the condition that he would renovate it. Eberhard was excited for this endeavor and embraced renovating his first home.[17] Eberhard’s work was gaining attention outside of Peterborough and he was commissioned to design, in 1955, the Georgian Manor Home for the Aged along Georgian Bay and, in 1957, designed the Fairhaven Home for the Aged in Peterborough.[18]

At the request of Mrs. Strickland, Eberhard attended a baptism to accompany the godmother, a young lady from Peterborough who was living in Toronto at the time. Eberhard was struck by her beauty. Jane Abbott became the love of his life. He proposed to her after their first date and spent the next four years of his life convincing her they were meant to be together.[19] In combination with meeting Jane, who was living in Toronto at the time, and feeling a lack of mental stimulation with his projects in Peterborough, Eberhard decided to apply to teach at the University of Toronto.[19] Eberhard was now working an eighty hour work week—commuting from Peterborough where he was continuing his practice and teaching the third-year design studio at University of Toronto. He spent his first summer in which he was off back in Germany with his family, while Jane was waiting for him in Toronto ready to commit to their relationship.[20] They later got married and Jim Craig was his best man.[21] Eberhard and Jane spent their early married years living in the renovated coach house in Peterborough.[22] In 1957, they purchased a run-down farmhouse that Eberhard redesigned to be more spacious and suitable for their future family. The house along with one hundred acres cost $12,000. During the renovation, Jane became pregnant with their first daughter, Margie so the pressure was heightened to complete the home before her arrival. Margie arrived with time to spare and the couple enjoyed living on their newly renovated farm together.[23]

In 1957, the firm began to look for more work within the city with the West Ellesmere United Church as their first substantial project.[24] Eberhard was still struggling with his architectural style and was experimenting with curved elements in this project. Church budgets were often small and Eberhard would often build certain elements for free in order to portray his vision.[24] By 1964, the firm was booming and had almost too many projects to handle. This included the Grant Sine Public School, Ajax Municipal Centre, Pickering Municipal Building, Peterborough Memorial Office and Ross Memorial Hospital, and Sault Ste. Marie High School.[25] Jane gave birth to their second child, Robert, in November 1959 and their third child, Kate, in the spring of 1961. Jane expressed that she wanted to move to Toronto now that they had three children and she could not get much help living on the farm.[26] Eberhard was open to the idea, as he spent more than half of his time in the city anyways, and had just lost the design of Trent University to Ron Thom—so he wanted a fresh start.[27]

Eberhard and Jane had a budget of about $25,000 for their new home in the city. Jane wanted to live in Lawrence Park near her sister, but their real estate agent advised them they could only afford to live in Rosedale. This is quite ironic given that Rosedale has become one of the most expensive areas in the city. They decided on a home along Glen Road which needed some repairs before they could move in.[26] It was the perfect size for their growing family of five and they lived at the home for six years.[28] Eberhard's firm opened their first Toronto office in the second storey of a building along Yonge Street.[28] As they earned more projects and especially with the design of the Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School, they eventually opened a second location in a warehouse on the west side of Yonge Street. They later decided to combine the two offices and purchased a much larger historical home along Madison Avenue that they also renovated. Jim Craig decided to retire and without Jim in the office, Eberhard and Bill's partnership crumbled. Bill left the firm and took the former manager of the Peterborough office, Don Voisy, with him.[28] Eberhard bought out Jim and Bill's shares and continued working on his projects with most of the staff that remained.[29] Some of his major projects at the time included the following: Peterborough County Courthouse; Mont Ste-Marie Ski Resort in Quebec; and 315 Queen Street West, which became Eberhard's new office in 1981.[30] Upon moving into the office, Office Manager Alf Roberts and Junior Partner Ian Grinnell had an altercation, resulting in Alf leaving the office.[31] This posed financial problems for Eberhard and was problematic because he had changed the name of the firm from Zeidler Partnership to Zeidler Roberts Partnership just a few months earlier. Eberhard decided to keep the name for nearly twenty years after Alf left. However, now there was just three of them—he was a senior partner alongside Ian Grinnell and Peter Wakayama as Junior Partners.[31]

Eberhard's architectural style caters to ordinary people that live ordinary lives. His focus is to design for the real subject of the project, which is not the architectural object itself but rather the people that will inhabit the space. His design philosophy makes an effort to understand the occupants who will inhabit the architecture.[3] He treats architecture as a service that is not solely stylistic or fulfills a short-term trend. The spaces he creates are to assist people and solve challenges in their everyday lives. His projects are revealed as pieces of art that are applied to the real world. This real world has a slew of market demands, costs, site limitations, contracts and various sizes of budgets. Eberhard often explores public spaces for people to gather that can either remain empty or be fully occupied. Large gathering spaces are often his solution to larger architectural problems.[32]

Eberhard has been involved in the complete design and/or renovation of over 2,940 projects up until 2013.[33]

• St. John's Church wing, Lakefield (1952)
• Grace United Church, Peterborough (1953)
• St. Giles Presbyterian Church, Peterborough (1953)

• Peterborough Memorial Centre, Peterborough (1954)

• Georgian Manor Home for the Aged, Penetanguishene (1955)
• Unemployment Insurance Commission Building, Peterborough (1955)

• St. Margaret's United Church renovation, Kingston (1956)
• West Ellesmere United Church, Scarborough (1956)
• St. Jame's United Church addition, Peterborough (1956)
• St. John's Anglican Church renovation, Peterborough (1956)

• Fairhaven Home for the Aged, Peterborough (1957)
• Smith farmhouse renovation for the Zeidler family, Peterborough (1957)
• Guelph Home for the Aged (1957)
• Peterborough Home for the Aged (1957)

• Adam Scott Vocational Institute, Peterborough (1958)
• Kaufman Residence, Kitchener (1958)
• Peterborough Golf and Country Club (1958)
• St. Paul's Presbyterian Church (1958)

Toronto Eaton Centre (1969)

• McMaster University Healthy Sciences Centre, Hamilton (started in 1966 and completed in 1972)

• Beaumont House for the Zeidler family, Toronto (1968)
• Ontario Place, Toronto (1968)
• Thomas A. Stewart and Auburn Vocational Schools, Peterborough (1968)

• Toronto Eaton Centre (1969)
• Cadillac Fairview Tower, Toronto (1969)
• Fanshawe College, London, Ontario (1969)
• Harbour City Place, Toronto (1969)

• 98 Queen Street East, Toronto, Zeidler Roberts Partnership office (1970)

• Mont Sainte-Marie Resort, Quebec (1973)
• Walter C. Mackenzie Health Sciences Centre, Edmonton, Alberta (1975)

• Young People's Theatre, Toronto (1976)

• Queen's Quay Terminal, Toronto (1979)

North York Centre for the Performing Arts (1994) now known as the Meridian Arts Centre (2019)

• The Gallery at Harborplace, Balitimore, Maryland (1981)
• Harbourfront Theatre, Toronto
• Canada Place, Vancouver, British Columbia (1982)
• The Atrium for the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto (1983)
• St. Joseph's Health Centre, Toronto (1984)
• Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, West Palm Beach, Florida (1985)

• MediaPark, Cologne, Germany (1990)
• Living Arts Centre, Mississauga, Canada (1992)
• North York Performing Arts Centre (1993)

• Toronto Centre for the Arts (2001)
• 315 Queen Street West, Zeidler architects' offices, Toronto (2006)

Thomsen, Christian (1992). Eberhard Zeidler: In Search of Human Space. Ernst & Sohn. ISBN 3433023131.

Vitta, Maurizio (1999). Zeidler Roberts Partnership: Ethics and Architecture. Milan: l'Arca Edizioni. ISBN 8878380318.

Zeidler, Eberhard (2013). Buildings Cities Life: An Autobiography in Architecture Volume I. Toronto: Dundurn Press. ISBN 9781459706491.

Zeidler, Eberhard (2013). Buildings Cities Life: An Autobiography in Architecture Volume II. Toronto: Dundurn Press. ISBN 9781459706507.