Urban Shocker
Doyenne
I had supper with Mrs. Prii and two journalist friends earlier this week, over at the RCYC. She's nearly 84 now, and hanging in there pretty well. A very gracious lady, who reads Spacing and is in touch with contemporary Toronto. She and Uno chose to live here and never regretted it, coming from post-war Europe after enduring some terrible times. They were avid sailors, but she sold the boat a year after he died, and goes over to the yacht club several times a week during the summer. Uno wasn't part of the "in crowd" of the architectural establishment, and frankly couldn't have cared less about being so. He also painted and sculpted, and architecture was just one of the things he did. The Prii's did know just about everyone, however - including Peter Dickinson, who I tried to find out more about but wasn't able to. I told her that 77 Elm and the Jane Exbury towers were my favourite examples of his designs.