Kryton, John, 1910-2002 : John Kryton, was a Roumanian-born Canadian architect whose career ultimately spanned six decades and two continents. Born Jean Krakauer in Bucharest in 1910, he received architect's training in that city's Academia de Arhitectura from which he graduated in 1934 with honours. He attended post-graduate studies at the Sorbonne in Paris.
He practised as an architect in Roumania but war and his jewish origins prompted him to leave his country. He joined the British Army in 1943 and he served with the Royal Engineers on the Mediterranean front until the end of the War. He remained on active service until 1947. Upon his release from the service, he emigrated to Great Britain where one of his uncles lived. He obtained a change of name in January 1949.
He joined a London architectural firm by the name of Lewis & Hickey where he worked on commercial projects. He soon emigrated to Canada in and settled in Montreal. Upon his arrival, in 1952, he joined Barrot, Marshal, Montgomery and Merritte, a firm he left in 1953 to join Lawson & Betts Architects. In 1954, he joined Greenspoon, Freedlander & Dunne, Architects where he mainly collaborated on residential, commercial, religious, educational and industrial projects. He became a partner of that firm in 1957. He retired from the firm in 1980 and established a practice to his own name.
After retiring from active practice, he moved to Victoria, B.C. where he passed away on Friday, September 13, 2002.
Most of John Kryton's active career was spent in Montreal with the firm know as Greenspoon, Freedhandler & Dunne architects when he joined it. The high quality of his work was recognized by four local and national awards. In 1964 he received from the National Design Council, an award of Design Excellence for the C.I.L. building in Montreal, a landmark skyscraper in the downtown core area of the city. In 1967, he received the Massey Medal for the design of Place Victoria. In 1967, again, he received the Design Canada Concrete Award for the same building. In 1970, he won a second Massey Medal, this time for the Design of Westmount Square, a building also closely associated with world-renowned architect Mies van de Rohe. He also designed many high and low-rise residential and commercial complexes, essentially in the Montreal area.
