ALLAN, Wilkie J. (fl. 1905-10) of Vancouver, B.C. advertised himself as “Architect & Engineer” and was a ‘designer of Structural Steel Framed Buildings, Re-enforced [sic] Concrete and every type of Buildings”. He boasted of his prize-winning designs for a ”lofty steel framed buildings in Cape Town, South Africa“, and he is almost certainly the same “Wilkie J. Allan, Architect” who appears to be active in Johannesburg (The Architects’ & Surveyors’ Directory [London], 1907, 187, list of architects in South Africa). He was a competent delineator and draftsman, evident from his signed drawing published in 1909 showing his impressive proposal for a large apartment block on Alberni Street in Vancouver. That same year he also presented an Edwardian design for an new block on the site of the old Cosmopolitan Hotel on Cordova Street. No information has been found on his activity after 1910.
VANCOUVER, B.C., a 4 storey retail and office complex at Cordova Street at Abbott Street, on the site of the old Cosmopolitan Hotel, 1909 (Vancouver Daily World, 17 April 1909, 27, illus.)
VANCOUVER, B.C., large apartment block for an unnamed owner, Alberni Street, extending from Broughton Street to Nicola Street, 1909 (Vancouver Daily World, 24 April 1909, 25, illus. & descrip.)