CaDCR staff writer

Roderick (“Rod”) Robbie, the architect who designed the Skydome (Rogers Centre) and the Canadian Pavillion at Expo 67 has died.

Robbie was chairman emeritus of Robbie Young + Wright/IBI Group Architects and was partner-in-charge on most of the firm’s largest and most complex projects. He achieved recognition as a result of his role as Architect of the Toronto SkyDome Rogers Centre. He had expertise in programming and systems architecture combined with a detailed technical and practical understanding of high performance industrial and laboratory facilities.

In 2003, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada as “an architect known for his innovation. In 1989, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. In 2001, he was awarded an honorary degree from Dalhousie University.

Trained as an architect and planner in post-war England, Robbie began his professional career with British Rail in 1951. When he emigrated to Canada five years later he worked initially with the firms of Belcourt & Blair, then as an associate at Peter Dickinson Associates and later designed the Canadian Pavilion at Expo ’67, as a partner in Ashworth, Robbie, Vaughan and Williams Architects and Planners with future city councillor and broadcaster Colin Vaughan.

Robbie served his National Service in the British Army, 42nd Survey Engineer Regiment of the Royal Engineers from 1947 to 1949 in the UK and Egypt.

Roderick and Enid (née Wheeler) Robbie participated during the period of 1956 to 1983 actively in the movements to ban the use of atomic weapons (1950s); the setting-up of the New Party Club, constituency work for the New Democratic Party in Ottawa (1960s); constituency work for the Liberal Party (1970s and 1980s) in Toronto. Since the early 1980s they were politically inactive and concentrated on scholarship. Enid died on their 49th wedding anniversary, December 20, 2001. They had three daughters (Karen, Nicola, and Caroline), a son (Angus), and four grandchildren.

Robbie died on January 4, 2012. He was admitted to St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto on December 25, 2011 for treatment of gastrointestinal illness. The cause of death was the restriction of blood flow to his small intestine.[2]

Robbie was a founding member of the Construction Industry Development Council of the Government of Canada and spent many years as a member and chairing committees of the Canadian Standards Association on Systems and Industrialised Building and other professional and technical organisations.