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Modern architects are using a
range of historic materials and
records to help inform their work,
as Sean Dudley discovers
L
egend has it that
when the Canadian
National Railway saw
Stanley Thompson’s work
at Banff Springs, developed
by the company’s major
rival – the Canadian Pacific
Railway – in 1929, they
ordered him to immediately
overhaul the bunkering at the
Jasper Park Lodge
course they
had opened four years earlier.
This version of events suggests
it was Banff Springs where
Thompson first developed his
bold and distinctive approach to
bunkering that has influenced
many designers throughout
Canada and beyond. However,
when Ian Andrew, ASGCA,
embarked upon detailed
research into the history of
Jasper Park Lodge in advance of
a recent project, an alternative
truth emerged.
As Andrew explains: “There’s
a quote from Dr. Alister
MacKenzie in September
1928 which reads: ‘In Jasper
Park Lodge Golf Course,
Canada has taken the lead in
golf course architecture and
has produced 18 holes that
within the whole scope of my
experience and knowledge are
not surpassed.’ I thought to
myself, could the bunker work
have happened earlier?”
Andrew’s examination of
historic materials unearthed
more detail. “Thompson was
kept on a yearly retainer and
Historic materials
|
Sean Dudley
Historic photographs of the course at Jasper Park Lodge in Alberta,
Canada set Ian Andrew, ASGCA, on a journey to discover more about
the evolution of architect Stanley Thompson’s distinctive bunkering