Cormier, Ernest

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Cormier, Ernest (1885–1980). Perhaps the most versatile of architects working in Canada in the first half of C20. Not only an accomplished planner, he was a master of joining disparate masses, creating impressive spaces, and incorporating beautiful ornament within his designs. His Art Deco building for the University of Montréal (1928–35) is probably his greatest work, planned on Beaux-Arts principles, but his Supreme Court Building, Ottawa (1938–50), draws on stripped Classicism and French C17 precedents, notably in its steeply pitched roofs. Cormier's own house in Montréal (1930–1) was influenced by contemporary European Modernism, with Art Deco-inspired interiors, while his National Printing Bureau, Hull, Québec (1950–8), incorporated technical innovations such as the curtain-wall.

Bibliography

Kalman (1994)