Toronto
Where did Alexandra Biriukova live after Feb 1929?
Alexandra Biriukova Alexandra Biriukova ( July 10 , 1895 - February 10 , 1967 ) was a Canadian architect and nurse . She is known for being the first woman in the Ontario Association of Architects and for her design of Lawren Harriss residence . She was the second woman to register as an architect in Canada . Biography . Biriukova was born in Vladivostok , Russia . Her father was Dimiti Biriukoff , who was the chief civil engineer on the first trans-Siberian railway . In 1911 , Biriukova studied architecture and received a degree from the School of Architecture in Petrograd . In 1914 , during the Russian Revolution , she and her family left the country and moved to Rome . In 1925 , in Rome , she received a post-graduate degree in architecture from the Royal Superior School of Architecture . Between 1924 and 1929 , she worked in Rome for architect Arnoldo Foschini . In 1929 she moved again to Toronto where her sister , Yulia Biriukova , an artist , lived . She registered with the Ontario Association of Architects ( OAA ) in 1931 . Work . In Toronto , her first commission is believed to be an interior design for a Russian Orthodox Church . However , Biriukovas most recognized work is the Lawren Harris residence , which was designed in the Art Deco style and is one of the few homes to be built in Toronto along avant garde lines . Construction on the home , located at 2 Ava Crescent in Forest Hill , began in 1931 . The house is symmetrical , smooth and made up of almost austere two- and three-storey masses . While the designs for the house had initially been prepared by Douglas Kertland , she reworked the designs at Harriss request and she is credited for all of the final design work . Biriukovas design was considered radical for the time . At first , the Harris home received a negative critical reception from contemporaries . However , today , the building continues to be recognized : the OAA named it one of the top ten Art Deco Buildings in Toronto . Biriukova has not been well recognized in art history due to architectural historians who have tried to diminish the role she played in the design of Harriss well-known house . Even though she was named as architect on the contract drawings , some historians have questioned how much credit Biriukova should receive for this elegant and iconic house . Geoffrey Simmins , an art historian from the University of Calgary , asserted , with little evidence , that Harris instead may have influenced most of the homes design , saying , Certainly the houses geometric plan and clear , axial sequence of spaces...accord with Harriss own interests . Cynthia Hammond calls such readings of Biriukovas work troubling narratives which are loaded with gendered assumptions . It seems likely that Biriukova , coming from Europe , would have already been aware of the avant-garde , pre-revolution Russian architects and the modernist designs coming from the Bauhaus School , and her design reflected the emerging early international style emanating from Europe . Harris had been to Europe prior to building his house and had consciously sought European precedents for the design of his home . After her work on Harriss house , she received no further commissions . Other architectural historians , like Ayla Lepine , have wondered if Modernism was too much for conservative Canadians , or if the Depression dried up opportunities for architects , or if it was because she was a Russian woman . The Depression most likely created a dearth of work . Later life . In 1934 , Biriukova registered as a nurse and never practiced as an architect again . Instead , she worked at the Free Toronto Hospital for the Consumptive Poor until she retired in the 1960s . Biriukova died in Toronto in 1967 . External links . - Image of Harris house