Desbarats, Guy, 1925-2003

Guy Desbarats, a Canadian architect was born on July 30, 1925, in Montreal, Quebec. He studied engineering at McGill University before turning to architecture. He graduated in 1948 and started to work at the firm of architects James William Abra, James Watson Balharrie, and David Shore in Ottawa until 1952. Then he returned to McGill University as a research fellow of the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation (Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) to conduct research on duplexes in Montreal.

In 1953, he founded one of Canada's most prestigious architectural firms, ARCOP (Architects in Co-partnership). As an associate architect, he collaborated on several of the firm's major projects, including the thematic pavilions L'Homme à l'oeuvre and L'Homme interroge l'Univers for Expo 67, the Beaver Lake pavilion on Mount Royal (1955-1958), the National Arts Centre (1969) in Ottawa, Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier (1963), and Place Bonaventure (1967). After the agency's dissolution in 1970, Desbarats held a few positions in the public service, notably with the Department of Public Works Canada. He was Assistant Deputy Minister of Design in 1975 and Assistant Deputy Minister of Design and Construction from 1976 to 1985. He returned to private practice in 1985 and founded Canadian Construction Information Services Limited.

Committed to the training of the next generation, Desbarats became a lecturer at McGill University in 1953 and he also set up an internship program at the Centre des métiers de la construction. In 1964, he became the first director of the new School of Architecture at Université de Montréal. In 1968, through the merger of the School and the Institut d'urbanisme, he formed the Faculté de l'aménagement and became its dean until 1975.

In 1952, he married Aileen Anne Cobban. He died on August 30, 2003, in Sherbrooke, Quebec.