John M. Lyle

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John M. Lyle (1872-1945) was a Canadian architect in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century Toronto.

Lyle was born in Connor, County Antrim, Ireland on November 13, 1872. He came to Canada as a young child, in 1878. and grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, where his father, Rev. Dr. Samuel Lyle, was minister of Central Presbyterian Church. He attended the Hamilton School of Art. He trained as an architect at Yale University, enrolling in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, in Paris, France, in 1894. Following his graduation, he found work in 1896 with the New York architectural partnership of Howard & Cauldwell. He subsequently became an associate with the New York firm of Carrere and Hastings - with which he was involved in the design of the New York Public Library (Fifth Avenue at 42nd St., 1897) - and became a member of the Society of Beaux-arts Architects.

Lyle returned to Canada in 1905 to begin work on the Royal Alexandra Theatre, in Toronto. In 1906, he established his own company, Atelier Lyle, in Toronto.

During the 1920s, Lyle strove to develop a uniquely Canadian architectural style, incorporating traditional designs from the English and French colonial periods and stone, metal, plaster, fresco, glass and mosaic floral and faunal motifs inspired by the Canadian post-impressionist painters known as the Group of Seven (artists).

In 1926 the Ontario Association of Architects awarded Lyle its Gold Medal of Honour for his design of the Thornton-Smith Building (Yonge Street, Toronto, 1922). Two years later, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. From 1941 to 1944, he served as president of the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Lyle died in Toronto the 20th of December, 1945.

Lyle's best-known contribution is Royal Alexandra Theatre, completed in 1907 in the Beaux-Arts style. It was renovated in 1963 and remains one of the city's valued arts venues.

Other projects:


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