Eb Zeidler designed some of Canada’s most iconic buildings, from the Toronto Eaton Centre and Ontario Place, to SickKids Hospital and Vancouver Place.
Emigrating from Germany in 1951, he practiced with Peterborough, Ontario practice Blackwell and Craig, which relocated to Toronto in 1963 and became Craig, Zeidler & Strong. The firm became an international operation, with projects ranging from the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach to Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco and Media Park in Cologne. The firm currently continues under the name Zeidler Architecture.
Zeidler’s design for McMaster University’s Health Sciences Centre opened in 1972 transformed the design of hospitals by acknowledging that medicine changes over time, and thus medical buildings have to change their forms and uses as they’re being used. The World Hospital Congress called the McMaster facility “obsolescence-proof.”
In recognition of his excellence, Zeidler was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, received a gold medal from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Architecture by the University of Toronto also.
