Sperry, Henry Drew

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Sperry, Henry Drew

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1942-2012

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Drew Sperry was an architect based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, known for his early adherence to a landscape approach to architecture, fitting the building to the land, rather than the other way around. Born in Halifax on January 4, 1942, he was educated at Le Marchant Elementary, Gorsebrook Junior and Queen Elizabeth High School before starting an engineering degree at Dalhousie University in 1960. After hearing the Dean of the new School of Architecture at the Nova Scotia Technical College speak to his second-year engineering class, Sperry decided that architecture was better suited to his creativity as well as his problem-solving skills. He enrolled in the BArch program in 1962 and graduated in 1966, having been awarded the school's first Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Gold Medal for Design.

Following graduation Sperry worked for Robert J. Flinn Design Group as well as collaborating with land planner Harold Verge, with whom he designed the Debrissy Museum in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, and the Paper Mill Village Housing Project in Hammonds Plains, which won an award for environmental sensitivity. In 1972 he started his own company, H. Drew Sperry MRAIC, which was initially run out of the family home he'd designed and built with his wife and business partner, Sheila, on Cranston Avenue in Dartmouth. Over time the firm took on projects across the Maritimes, opening partnership offices in Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Cape Breton and Toronto, and developed an expertise in recreational facilities and housing as well as University land planning.

Drew Sperry died in 2012.

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