A reader reached out to Sudbury.com recently to ask about the omission, arguing that architect John Bernard Sutton<\/a> deserves recognition.<\/p>\n Sudbury.com sought to fill this gap in public awareness with the help of Greater Sudbury Public Library local history librarian Kristen Bertrand, who provided us with archival newspaper clippings from The Sudbury Star.<\/p>\n A memorial story on Sutton published March 25, 1968, notes he was born in Schomberg, north of Toronto, attended schools in York county and graduated with honours from the University of Toronto in 1929.<\/p>\n Sutton relocated to Sudbury in 1934 to work for Peter James O\u2019Gorman<\/a> as an architect. He later worked for the Copper Cliff Engineering Dept. of Inco as staff architect before starting his own office in 1945, first on Larch Street and then on Lorne Street. He \u201cwas highly esteemed by others in the profession for his designs,\u201d according to the memorial story.<\/p>\n In addition to the Sudbury Community Arena, he designed the Salvation Army Men\u2019s Social Centre on Larch Street, the Salvation Army Citadel on Lorne Street, the Sudbury YMCA and several other buildings. He died at Sudbury Memorial Hospital in 1968 after a brief illness.<\/p>\n Sutton\u2019s work on the Sudbury Community Arena<\/p>\n The Civic Auditorium Planning Committee met in November 1946 to go over draft plans with Sutton, who was unanimously chosen to handle the project alongside consulting engineer H.H. Angus of Toronto.<\/p>\n It was decided that hiring a local architect would make it easier for the committee to work in co-operation with him, chairman William Edge Mason<\/a> explained at the time.<\/p>\n The building was presented to the committee and eventually constructed, saw the ice surface built below street level, which Mason credited as being a first in Canada but had proven successful elsewhere, including at arenas in the United States.<\/p>\n On this front, the building in general was to \u201cinclude the most modern up-to-date structure with every available type of facility to serve the general public.\u201d<\/p>\n Two years later, in 1948, Sutton had created a scale model of the proposed civic centre, which The Sudbury Star described as \u201ca work of art.\u201d<\/p>\n Hill-Clark-Francis Limited was selected as the builder, which Sutton recommended to city council due to the company\u2019s experience.<\/p>\n Sutton participated in a sod-turning ceremony on May 18, 1950, alongside other dignitaries, at which Mayor William Beaton credited the building as \u201cthe most outstanding civic project in the history of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n By December 1950, the roof was under construction.<\/p>\n Made up of two-by-fours, the roof structure used \u201cthe type of construction which possesses considerable inherent strength,\u201d according The Sudbury Daily Star\u2019s Dec. 12 coverage. Sutton told the reporter at the time that workers had been handicapped by cold weather.<\/p>\n The project took a few forms during its planning stages, with a council-approved debenture of $700,000 proving inadequate against its ultimate $1.25 million cost, which would have been even greater if the city hadn’t scaled back its scope. The lobby shrank in size and a community hall was cancelled.<\/p>\n A March 25, 1950 article unveiled various changes from its initial design, including the removal of various \u201cfrills,\u201d such as front-entrance steps to bring it to street level, which modern accessibility standards would consider a positive change.<\/p>\n Although its opening was delayed for several weeks while more than 1,000 leaks were found in the arena\u2019s ice-making apparatus, prompting welders to work in 16-hour shifts \u201cin a frantic attempt to control the leaks\u201d along eight miles of piping (according to a newspaper article of the day), it opened in late 1951.<\/p>\n Its first historic event was a game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Sudbury Wolves on Jan. 9, 1952, after which a new concrete floor was built alongside a new cooling system.<\/p>\n Despite setbacks with the cooling system, the arena has held up in subsequent decades.<\/p>\n In 2022, city arenas manager Jody Cameron told Sudbury.com the arena was \u201cholding up quite well<\/a>,\u201d though millions of dollars in repairs would be needed.<\/p>\n Underfunding persisted, putting the arena en route for a slip to poor condition<\/a> by last year and \u201cvery poor\u201d condition by 2030.<\/p>\n An extensive 2024 report pointed to various issues, including roof leakage and various points of deterioration due to age. Although considered modern when it opened in the 1950s, various modern building code and accessibility standards are not being met<\/a>.<\/p>\n Despite its deteriorating status, the Sudbury Community Arena has lasted for 75 years, which far exceeds the 50-year average lifespan<\/a> for single-pad indoor ice arenas among urban Canadian municipalities (or 40 years for performance\/spectator indoor ice arenas).<\/p>\n Sutton\u2019s legacy<\/p>\n While some structures Sutton designed remain standing, others have been torn down over the years.<\/p>\n His largest and most-visited local building, the Sudbury Community Arena, is still in operation but has its days numbered as a municipal centre.<\/p>\n It will cease functioning as a municipal arena when the new downtown event centre opens across the street in 2028.<\/p>\n Unless a private investor comes forward with a plan to repurpose the building, it will be torn down<\/a> when the new event centre opens. As it stands, Mayor Paul Lefebvre said there\u2019s no municipal interest in the city retaining the building as either an arena or alternative purpose.<\/p>\n Tearing down the old arena is estimated to cost approximately $5 million, which will be a decision of whatever incarnation of city council is elected during the Oct. 26 civic election.<\/p>\n One of Sutton\u2019s last<\/a> designs was for the modernist Copper Cliff Library<\/a>, which opened a year before his death and is still in operation and appears pretty much as it did almost 60 years ago.<\/p>\n In addition to building designs, his 1968 obituary notes that he left behind a wife, Margaret (Marchant, married in 1936) and a son, William, and three daughters; Dr. Marilyn Sutton and Mrs. R.D. Simcoe of Toronto and Mrs. Wayne Thertell (women were defined by their husbands in newspapers of the day).<\/p>\n Local Sutton buildings you can still visit<\/p>\n While Sutton\u2019s most visible and famous designs, Sudbury Arena, will soon be demolished to make way for a new event centre, other local buildings designed by Sutton are still in use today.<\/p>\n According to the Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Canada<\/a>, a\u00a0striking local building he designed is the INCO Employee\u2019s Club on Frood Road<\/a>. The large, white art deco structure now houses various offices but was once the hub of activity for families in the Sudbury of yesteryear.<\/p>\n Sutton also designed the Jackson and Barnard Funeral Home at the corner of Larch and Paris streets, and seems to have designed part of a high school on College Street that would eventually become Sudbury Secondary. He is also the man behind the design of the Sudbury-Algoma Sanatorium, which is still in operation today as Kirkwood Place, the regional health centre located on the shores of Ramsey Lake at the end of Ramsey Lake Road.<\/p>\n Farther afield, Sutton is also the architect behind a public school in Massey and the fire hall on Ferguson Street.<\/p>\n Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sudbury architect died in 1968, leaving a legacy via various local buildings, some of which are still…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75,171598,171597,171596],"class_list":["post-407297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-john-bernard-sutton","tag-sudbury-architectsudbury-community-arena-designer","tag-sudbury-arenasudbury-community-arena-historicsudbury-arena-historysudbury-arena-75th-anniversaryjohn-bernard-sutton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"120523_tc_arena_history-2\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/120523_tc_arena_history-2.JPG;w=960.jpeg\"\/)
\nA sign at the entrance to the Sudbury Community Arena notes its grand opening date of 1951 and the words, \u201cThis building erected for the welfare of humanity.\u201d . Tyler Clarke\/Sudbury.com
<\/p>\n![\"120126_tc_arena_architect2\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/120126_tc_arena_architect2.jpg;w=960.jpeg\"\/)
\nLocal architect John Bernard Sutton\u2019s early design for the Sudbury Community Arena, pictured in 1948. The arena was subsequently scaled back due to budget constraints. Image: The Sudbury Star
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