When Darren Jacknisky and Shelley Robertson bought the house they now call home, in 2005, they had already been looking to move for some time. The couple and their young daughter had outgrown a 900-square-foot condo, but the search wasn’t going well. They saw a series of houses that weren’t right — in some cases not making it past the curb. Finally, their realtor brought them to a mid-century home in Westbrook Estates built by the architectural duo Wallbridge and Imrie, Canada’s first female-operated architecture firm. The split-level house proved to be exactly what they were looking for. Even though there were no street-facing windows, and the front entrance held an unassuming look, there was a refined aesthetic to the exterior that hinted at something bold hidden inside.
I visited the house on a warm Thursday morning and immediately understood what Jacknisky and Robertson had seen 20 years earlier. The clean lines that define the exterior continue into the front entrance, where sets of stairs can take you up into a rustic den, or downstairs into the main living space. Both floors look out on a green blanket of trees.
This emphasis on nature is a defining detail of Wallbridge and Imrie homes. In addition to modern finishes, like kerfed windows, the duo also designed houses that favoured backyard views. Looking out the window into Jacknisky and Robertson’s backyard, you feel as if you are in a forest retreat rather than a city neighbourhood.
When it came time to renovate, the couple added new flooring and other changes consistent with the home’s character. The house was built to feel open and free; they didn’t want to change that. They removed one wall between the kitchen and the living room, and they stripped out some carpet on the upper level. They remodelled built-in cabinetry with bamboo that complemented the mid-century design. Decades later, the architecture has also been complemented by the couple’s eclectic collection of paintings, prints, carvings and ceramics.
“You want to surround yourself with beautiful things,” Robertson told me.
Some of the art comes from people Jacknisky, a nationally renowned photographer, has met during his career (including a sketch Alex Janvier made of Jacknisky’s camera during a portrait sitting), but Robertson gets credit for sourcing most of the pieces. “I never go out looking for something in particular, but the good things seem to find me,” she said. The same could be said of their home.
In the mid-twentieth century, Edmonton-based architects Jean Wallbridge and Mary Imrie became trailblazers in a field dominated by men. The pair studied architecture separately, becoming the third (Wallbridge) and fifth (Imrie) women to register with the Alberta Association of Architects. When they opened their own firm in 1950, they were the first all-female architectural partnership in Canada.
Like many female architects of their era, much of the work they completed was domestic (larger, more lucrative projects typically went to male-run firms). Imrie and Wallbridge excelled at working with residential clients, both because they took pleasure in their work and because they listened to their clients, building homes that suited their needs.
Their projects were often defined by signature details — clean lines, open spaces and elegant and unassuming finishes. The pair also created homes that prioritized the rear of the house, emphasizing natural spaces rather than street views.
In their time, their legacy was critically overlooked, but Quiet Modernism, a new book by Sarah Bonnemaison, an architecture and planning professor at Dalhousie University, hopes to change that.
According to Bonnemaison’s research, part of their story was kept hidden during their lifetimes out of necessity. In addition to their professional partnership, Wallbridge and Imrie were romantic partners — a fact they kept secret from many in their lives. The pair worked at a time when queer sexuality was illegal; they had to be careful with whom they were open.
As architects, Wallbridge and Imrie designed for ease of movement. They had successful careers and travelled frequently, and one can’t help but wonder if openness was of interest in part because it was something they were denied in their personal lives — if the necessity of secrecy led them to create freedom and openness in each home they built.
This article appears in the July/August 2025 issue of Edify
