Even the Ashtrays

As the creator of iconic landmarks, such as Massey College in Toronto and much of Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, and many remarkable houses, Ron Thom endures as one of Canada’s most distinctive architectural talents. He was a high-profile participant in the creative world during the 1960s and ’70s, that vibrant and optimistic period of ours. For over twenty years, his houses in Toronto and Vancouver regularly appeared in shelter magazines and were aspirational for the cool kids of his generation — like Murray and Barbara Frum. Thom had a charismatic personality, especially evident when he was talking about design or making a home materialize for a client on napkin sketches over cocktails. Although he became a difficult personality as he aged, his magnetism engendered great loyalty from his friends and clients alike. This sounds like a happy story, but it’s not.

As Adele Weder’s Ron Thom, Architect chronicles, this “creative modernist” had no easy...