McMillan Long Architects

The innovative architectural firm of McMillan Long was established in 1964 in Calgary. The firm, spearheaded by Jack Long and Hugh McMillan, was known for creating postmodern designs, which shaped a distinct Albertan-style of architecture. Despite their collective vision of creating late modern (also known as postmodern) architecture, both Hugh McMillan and Jack Long came from different educational backgrounds. Long, for example, was educated at Pennsylvania State University – not far from his hometown of Johnstown, Pennsylvania – where he graduated with a bachelor of architecture in 1950. Long began his career working on various urban renewal projects in bustling American cities including New York, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. In 1960 he uprooted and moved to Calgary, and by 1964 he and McMillan went into partnership together. McMillan, on the other hand, studied in Canada where as a student he had the opportunity to train with Rule Wynn and Rule. He subsequently became an associate member of J.A. Cawston and Associates before partnering with Long.

The firm of McMillan Long primarily created designs for institutional buildings including the Calgary Separate School Board (1966) and the Calgary Remand Centre and Provincial Judges Court (1969). Most notable, however, is their work on the Calgary Planetarium (1967). As a part of a lengthy competition involving two other firms, Long and McMillan’s design was chosen to build this centennial project that would grace Calgary’s cityscape. Like other brutalist architecture (which is a kind of postmodern design), the building boasts exposed concrete poured into sculptural-like organic forms.

After a short but successful tenure, the firm was renamed Hugh McMillan Architects in 1969 when Jack Long retired from the company.