Award

Kelowna Yacht Club, Kelowna, B.C.; BC SPCA Maple Ridge, B.C.; Beeline Web, Lake Country, B.C. AUGUST 2016 | 9 Meiklejohn Architects Inc. PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY MEIKLEJOHN ARCHITECTS INC. that this provided their youngest son Jim (one of four boys, three of whom are archi- tects and one, the eldest, a musician) with an invaluable life lesson about putting all your eggs in one basket: "I decided then I would never over-specialize," explains Jim Meiklejohn. After graduating in 1986, and with B.C. still in the midst of a recession, Jim Meiklejohn joined Jim Strasman Architects in Toronto, a former colleague of Arthur Erikson. But after a few years the pull from B.C. was too strong and Jim Meiklejohn moved to Vancouver to join Howard Yamo (now Bingham Hill Architects), where he worked for three years. Life was about to change quite dramatically for Jim Meiklejohn and take him down a path that perhaps one could argue he was always destined for. "My father was about to turn 70 and announced to me that he was going to close the office if nobody took over. I looked at myself in the mirror and knew what I had to do. Within two weeks I had moved back to the Okanagan. Emotionally there was the heart strings of keeping it open and I also saw an opportunity. Coming back to open up a firm in Penticton I followed my heart and felt it was the right risk to take," he says. And he was right. Within a few years Jim's brother Cal Meiklejohn, who has a Bachelor of Environmental Studies degree from the University of Manitoba and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of British Columbia, came onboard and two years later, in 1996, Jim's wife and Singaporean native Shirley Ng joined the firm. It was time to put the Meiklejohn name firmly back on the map. "It wasn't easy at first. We decided it made sense to open up another office in Kelowna, the business heart of the Interior, and we ended up taking any and every job that came our way. We knew from experience we needed to diversify to succeed." It was in 2003, just after the Okanagan Mountain Park fire that destroyed 238 homes, 25,900 hectares and forced the evacuation of more than 33,000 people that Meiklejohn Architects Inc. began to gain momentum. Having established itself as part of the community, the firm was able to grow and feed off the energy of the rebuilding and strengthening economy, and started working on offices, retail and First Nations projects, as well as supportive and retirement housing, and market- oriented multi-family housing. While its history is indeed fascinating, it is the visions and insights that make Meiklejohn Architects Inc. a truly local firm (with the added benefits of national and international experience). However, the region remains at the heart of what they do. When asked if the Okanagan influences the designs and focus of the firm, Jim Meiklejohn says: "One value is a general frugality that permeates a lot of our work; a frugality that is inherent in the orchardists and vintners of the region. The firm believes in developing a sensibility in our work that feels appropriate and specifi- cally Okanagan, grounded in simple and natural materials such as wood, stone and concrete, and with detailing that creates outdoor spaces and play of light, as well as shade for hot and dry summers that we see here."

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