Rod Robbie

Rod Robbie

Roderick "Rod" George Robbie, OC (September 15, 1928 – January 4, 2012) was a Canadian architect and planner. He was known for his design of the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 67 and Toronto's Rogers Centre (SkyDome).

Born in Poole, England, Robbie was the Chairman Emeritus of Robbie Young + Wright / IBI Group Architects and was Partner-in-Charge on many of the firm’s largest and most complex projects. He achieved recognition as a result of his role as Architect of the Toronto SkyDome, now known as the Rogers Centre. He had expertise in programming and systems architecture combined with a detailed technical and practical understanding of high performance industrial and laboratory facilities. Educational facilities were a key component of his career with approximately 600 projects included in his extensive portfolio.

In 1989, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.

In 2001, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Dalhousie University.

In 2003, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada as "an architect known for his innovation."

After studying architecture and town planning at Regent Street Polytechnic School in London (now known as the University of Westminster) in post-war England, Robbie began his professional career with British Rail in 1951. When he emigrated to Ottawa, Canada in 1956 with his wife and infant daughter he worked initially for the Federal Government at Public Works. He left public service just weeks after arrival to enter the private sector with the firm of Belcourt & Blair. In 1959 he became an associate at Peter Dickinson Associates leading such projects as the New Town at Frobisher Bay (now Iqaluit).

In the mid 1960s he collaborated in the design of the Canadian Government Pavilion at Expo '67 in Montreal. The distinctive main building in the complex was in the form of a large inverted pyramid called the Katimavik. It was designed by Robbie and future Toronto politician and broadcaster Colin Vaughan of the firm Ashworth, Robbie, Vaughan and Williams Architects and Planners, Paul Schoeler of Schoeler, Barkham and Heaton Architects and Planning Consultants, and Matt Stankiewicz of Z. Matthew Stankiewicz Architect, with consulting architects Evans St. Gelais and Arthur Erickson.

Expo chief architect Édouard Fiset had initially insisted the Canadian Pavilion be much smaller, confined to a single acre. Robbie felt strongly that Canada's pavilion had to have the largest site on the fair, demanding 11.5 acres. His vision was ultimately successful thanks to the support of federal minister Mitchell Sharp as well as Canadian Pavilion commissioner H. Leslie Brown.

In the early 1980s Robbie teamed with structural engineer Michael Allen of the firm Adjeleian, Allen Rubeli Ltd. and Bill Neish of NORR Architects and Planners to compete for the Ontario Stadium Project – which would later become known as SkyDome. Robbie and Allen’s patented winning design established the viability of multi-use retractable roofed stadiums worldwide and lead to a renaissance of the idea of the downtown stadium across North America. Now known as the Rogers Centre, the stadium continues to be an icon of the Toronto landscape hosting hundreds of events per year. Their retractable roof design has continued to function as designed, opening and closing under computer control in 20 minutes.

Later prominent projects included the Seymour Schulich Building at York University (opened in 2003). The building was designed by Siamak Hariri and Robbie/Young & Wright Architects Inc. and was awarded the Governor General's Medal in Architecture in 2006. In 2004 work was completed on the Sharp Centre for Design at OCAD University, designed by architect Will Alsop, and Robbie/Young + Wright Architects Inc. The striking expansion and redevelopment has received numerous awards, including the first-ever Royal Institute of British Architects Worldwide Award, the award of excellence in the "Building in Context" category at the Toronto Architecture and Urban Design Awards, and was deemed the most outstanding technical project overall in the 2005 Canadian Consulting Engineering Awards.

Robbie was a founding member of the Construction Industry Development Council of the Government of Canada and spent many years as a member and chairing committees of the Canadian Standards Association on Systems and Industrialised Building and other professional and technical organisations.

Robbie served his UK National Service in the British Army, 42nd Survey Engineer Regiment of the Royal Engineers from 1947 to 1949 in the UK and Egypt.

Roderick and Enid Robbie (née Wheeler) participated during the period of 1956 to 1983 actively in the movements to ban the use of atomic weapons (1950s); the setting-up of the New Party Club, constituency work for the New Democratic Party in Ottawa (1960s); constituency work for the Liberal Party (1970s and 1980s) in Toronto. Since the early 1980s they were politically inactive and concentrated on scholarship. Enid died on their 49th wedding anniversary, December 20, 2001. They had three daughters (Karen, Nicola, and Caroline), a son (Angus), and four grandchildren.

Rod Robbie died on January 4, 2012. He was admitted to St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto on December 25, 2011 for treatment of gastrointestinal illness. The cause of death was ischemic colitis (the restriction of blood flow to his small intestine).