Maxwell Kalman
| Maxwell M. Kalman | |
|---|---|
Kalman in 1935
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| Born |
May 30, 1906 Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Died | November 27, 2009 (aged 103) Montreal, Quebec |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Known for | Norgate shopping centre |
Maxwell Myron Kalman (May 30, 1906 – November 27, 2009) was a Canadian architect, real estate developer, and philanthropist. He designed over 1,100 commercial, residential, and institutional projects in Quebec before and after World War II. He was noted as the architect of Canada's first shopping centre, the Norgate shopping centre, which opened in Montreal, Quebec in 1949.
Maxwell Kalman was the fourth child of Romanian immigrants to Montreal. His father, Ozias Kalman, worked as a general contractor. From a young age, Maxwell was enamored by the idea of becoming an architect. He graduated from the Baron Byng High School in 1923 and moved to New York City to take architecture courses at Columbia University by night while doing temporary jobs by day. Returning to Montreal, he enrolled at the McGill University School of Architecture in 1927 and graduated in 1931, one of the first Jewish graduates of McGill’s architecture school.
During his term at McGill, he interned at the major architectural firm of Ross and Macdonald. Although they promised to hire him upon graduation, the company was hard hit by the Great Depression and Kalman was forced to start working on his own, beginning in residential construction and renovations. By the mid-1930s he had developed a reputation for efficiency in design space and budget, and was tapped to draw up plans for many commercial, residential, institutional, and community projects. During World War II he converted a foundry in Joliette into a facility for manufacturing components for "training aircraft and merchant-marine submarine detection" for the Canadian military.
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