Happy 85th birthday!
Please join us in wishing, Michael Zuberec, Architect , a happy 85th birthday!
Below are a few things that you may not know about Mike...
- Born in Montreal in 1930, he moved to Ontario with his parents in 1941
- Attended Elementary and High School in St. Catharines – graduating from the St. Catharines Collegiate in 1949. After which he studied architecture at the University of Toronto. He graduated with honours in 1954 and shared the Goulstone Travelling Fellowship with a classmate.
- Following a years’ working experience with Robert Ian Macbeth, a prominent local Architect, he took advantage of the travelling fellowing – sailing to London, England where he worked for 2 years with Rosenberg, Yorke, and Mardall, a large architectural firm. In the spring of 1957, on his return to St. Catharines, architect Thomas R. Wiley employed him until Wiley’s untimely death in 1959. The Wiley practice was purchased with Norman Macdonald and continued for 47 years as Macdonald and Zuberec Architects. Norman retired in 2006, unfortunately, he died shortly after, in 2007.
- He has been a member of the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) since 1958. In 1984 he was elected to the RAIC College of Fellows.
- Locally, he is a charter member of the Niagara Society of Architects (NSOA), originally in 1961, the Niagara chapter – of which he was Secretary Treasurer for 10 years and President for one.
- He married his wife, Mary, in 1960 moved to Montebello Place in 1961 – where they raised 3 sons and a daughter in a 150 year old house. He continues to walk home for lunch from his office (to his wife’s chagrin) virtually every day.
See one of Mike's single family residence designs from 1966 ...
The feature image was taken on Mike's sailboat, near the mouth of the Niagara River.
The image of Mike and Norm, to the right, was taken during their celebration of Canada's Centennial - 1967
The "M&Z" logo was designed by graphic designer, Allan Fleming, in 1960 - the designer of the Canadian National Railway logo that we all know so well.