Early Years

Barton Myers was born in 1934 in Norfolk, Virginia, a place that has maintained a hold on his imagination and where he has deep roots. His ancestors on his father’s side were prosperous merchants and the Moses Myers house, a Federal-style brick structure built in 1791, is the oldest Jewish home open to the public as a museum.

Myers attended the U.S.Naval Academy at Annapolis (class of 1956) and served as a pilot stationed in the U.S. and in England. Critics have attributed Myers’ sensitivity to urbanism and context to the broad perspectives available to him from the air but this was his training at the University of Pennsylvania, where the architect, planner, and dean, G. Holmes Perkins (1904-2004) modernized the famous beaux-arts-based program established by Paul Phillippe Cret (1876-1945). Beginning in 1950 Perkins developed one of the first urban design programs with a talented team of architects, planners, and landscape architects. Myers entered Penn in 1961 and studied under Edmond Bacon, Ian McHarg, and Louis Kahn, among others. After graduating in 1964 he worked in Kahn’s office on the National Assembly Building in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Myers has described the influence of the Philadelphia School: “To this day those of us who were at Penn in the early 1960s are still inspired by the experience and are committed urbanists.”

In 1967 Myers moved to Toronto and in 1968 entered a partnership with his former classmate and co-worker in Kahn’s office, A. J. Diamond. The firm A. J. Diamond and Barton Myers quickly became known for radical and innovative architecture and urban design. Myers first house for his family is an example of the urban infill projects the firm championed.

Social and cultural changes during the sixties combined with a diverse population to make Toronto an exciting place to rethink the city. Small commercial buildings, like the Ontario Medical Association Office, and low-rise urban infill projects in older neighborhoods, such as the York Square retail complex in Yorkville and Myers’ first house for himself, catapulted the firm to recognition.