The Face of Architecture: Jim Meiklejohn, Shirley Ng, Stoke Tonne & Collin Crabbe

Meiklejohn Architects have been integral in shaping Kelowna’s design sense and skyline.

The firm has designed landmark buildings, including the Kelowna Yacht Club and Kelowna Visitor’s Centre on Okanagan Lake, as well as Central Green and the Kelowna Innovation Centre. The firm’s deep expertise in academic architecture continues with the recently completed Westbank First Nation and Aberdeen Hall high school expansions and numerous minor capital projects at UBC Okanagan and Okanagan College.

Under-construction is Landmark 7, which, at 23 storeys, will become the highest office tower between Calgary and Vancouver, and ‘in-design’ is the new Centre for Excellence for KF Aerospace at Kelowna International Airport.

Meiklejohn Architects has two new, young and keen co-owners and partners to help it further refine its prowess in regionally influenced modern design. “Stoke Tonne and Collin Crabbe are talented architects that bring both expertise and depth to our firm,” says firm principal Jim Meiklejohn, who with his wife Shirley Ng, an architectural technologist, have operated the Kelowna office since 2000.

Jim and Stoke met in 2008 while the firm had teamed up with Stantec’s Vancouver office for the new Reichwald Health Sciences building at UBC Okanagan campus.

Stoke moved to Kelowna in 2011 and joined Meiklejohn Architects while continuing on the project. His first project at the office was the Kelowna Yacht Club building, which the firm won by way of an AIBC sanctioned design competition.

Since then, he has led the design of the Kelowna Innovation Centre, Aberdeen Hall high school and JoeAnna’s House. Stoke has a passion for healthy buildings and he works to weave natural materials together with light and air in innovative and aesthetically pleasing ways on all his projects.

Collin joined the firm in 2013 and studied mechanical engineering prior to completing his architecture degree. Collin is also a Building Envelope Professional and in 2017 became a certified Passive House Designer, focusing on high performance building sustainability, building envelope design and the BC Step Code for energy efficiency.

Increased energy efficiency is being applied across the board now in all projects Meiklejohn designs and will continue to increase to meet provincial mandates.

Collin led the design of Westbank First Nation’s recently expanded Sensisyusten school and has worked on a number of educational projects in Canada and overseas. Collin has also become somewhat of a local winery expert working on numerous high-profile winery projects throughout the Okanagan.

Jim’s architect parents, Roy and Carol, founded the firm in 1953 in Penticton and designed that city’s library and museum complex and the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre, which was the first ‘stand-alone’ convention centre in Canada. In 1992, Jim and his architect brother, Cal, took over the firm and Jim opened a Kelowna office in 2000 as they were deep into the design of the new Kelowna Secondary School campus on Raymer Avenue.

The Kelowna and Penticton offices have now become separate firms as part of bringing in the new partners and, while the firms rarely work on projects together now, they continue to share office support and resources and the brothers talk almost daily. “We have a passion for clean, modern design and one that is regionally influenced by climate, location and ‘regional’ material such as wood, timber, stone, concrete and glass….and we are always responsive to our clients,” says Jim.