Joseph Storey

Joseph William Storey (July 5, 1923 – August 12, 1975) was an internationally renowned architect based in Chatham, Ontario, Canada. He graduated from the University of Toronto School of Architecture in 1947. He designed hundreds of unique homes, stores, offices, and public buildings, and many of his designs from the 1950s and 1960s are still strikingly modern today. His working career spanned three decades, in which time he was also a member of Chatham city council. His dedication to his community made the profession of architecture synonymous with that of civic leadership and public service. Storey died suddenly on his way to work in 1975 at the age of 52. The Joseph Storey Architectural Conservancy celebrates his many contributions to his home town every summer with a walking tour of homes he designed.

Building a career After graduation from the University of Toronto in 1946, (CBC News article he returned to his hometown of Chatham, and at the age of twenty-four he established the practice of Joseph W.) Storey, Architect in the fall of 1947. The reputation of the office was quickly established by Storey’s skilled translation of the functional clarity, simplicity, and elegant forms of modernism to the urban form of the then small town of Chatham.

As Chatham doubled in size over the next twenty-five years, many of its new buildings found their origins in the office of Joe Storey. Kent County Municipal Building (1967), This idea and the search for investors carried over a number of years, but the search was unsuccessful and the silos were destroyed after Storey’s death.

Ursuline College Chapel

The Ursuline Convent project began when Storey was thirty-two years old. It encompassed the designs for a major chapel, motherhouse, elementary and high school classrooms, and nursery school. Storey established a model here of translating the language of modernism to the traditional public and urban landscape of the small town. The architecture of the convent, known as The Pines integrated major works of art into the siting, the building, and their expressions. Storey maintained an excellent working relationship with the sisters of the Ursuline convent who were encouraging and adventurous clients, and subsequently recommended him highly to become the architect for a similar project for the Ursuline Religious Order in Lima, Peru. and pioneered innovative photographic techniques in presentation and design stages of his work that is commonplace today.

Death and descendants Joseph Storey died suddenly on his way in to work from his summer cottage in Rondeau Provincial Park in 1975 at the age of 52. His career, although filled with uncountable achievements, was only in its middle stage, and the most mature years of his work were yet to come. The sudden loss of his professional skills and civic leadership was felt keenly. Joe Storey was married to Marjorie Sunnen Storey of Chatham (d. 2004) and is survived by his sons Tom Storey, principal of the planning firm of Storey Samways Planning Ltd., of Chatham, and Mark Storey, an environmental engineer in Vancouver, B.C., and daughters Charlotte Storey DuChene, a magazine editor and writer in the Kingston area, and architect Kim Storey, a partner in Brown and Storey Architects (Toronto) since 1981.