Founded in 1988 by Gilles Saucier and André Perrotte, Saucier + Perrotte architectes is a multidisciplinary practice internationally renowned for its institutional, cultural, and residential projects. The firm represented Canada at the Architecture Biennale of Venice in 2004, and has been honoured with numerous awards, including 7 Governor General’s Medals and Awards in Architecture and two International Architecture Awards. Saucier + Perrotte’s highly acclaimed buildings have been published the world over, reflecting the office's status as one of Canada's premier design firms. While continuing to add to its significant body of built work in Canada, the firm is expanding its international portfolio of work in Japan, China, and the Middle East and Africa. In 2009, Saucier + Perrotte received the RAIC Award of Excellence for Best Architectural Firm in Canada.
The firm believes that the architectural process can touch all aspects of design intervention — from master planning and redevelopment to single family homes, from sustainably-designed dwelling complexes to museums and theatres, from interiors to object design. Since its inception, Saucier + Perrotte has integrally linked its architecture to geology and the landscape, stressing the physical and symbolic importance of the site and reflecting the firm’s understanding of architecture’s role in shaping the contemporary city and the rural landscape.
Located in the heart of Montreal's ‘Little Italy,' Saucier + Perrotte architectes occupies a 60-year-old industrial building converted by the firm. The partners are proud to be part of the renewal of this area of the city.
S+P projects that have garnered top awards include Scandinave les Bains Vieux Montréal, the Private Residence and Guest House in the Laurentian Mountains, the Communication, Culture and Technology Building (University of Toronto at Mississauga), the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (Waterloo, Ontario), and the First Nations Exhibition Pavilion in Montreal, all of which have received, among others, Governor General Medals and Awards in Architecture; the new Schulich School of Music Building (McGill University); the New College Student Residence (University of Toronto); the School of Architecture and Design for University of Montreal; Gerald-Godin College in Ste-Genevieve; the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi; Michel Brisson_ men’s store in Old Montreal; and the Philippe Dubuc stores in Montreal and Quebec.
Ongoing major projects include River City, a 1000-unit, 3.8 acre LEED Gold master plan in Toronto’s industrial West Don Lands; the new Faculty of Pharmacy for University of British Columbia, the Science and Technology Building for John Abbott College in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue; the Thompson Residences on King Street, a mixed use residential project in downtown Toronto; the National Mountain Centre Museum and Climbing Facility in Canmore, Alberta; and the Centre de Villégiature Montcalm, a 70-room hotel in Quebec’s Lanaudière region.
Throughout the firm's history, Gilles Saucier and André Perrotte have been involved in lecturing and teaching locally and abroad. Recently, Gilles has lectured at the AIA Seattle and San Francisco as well as for the Séminaire international Phyllis Lambert at University of Montreal, and André spoke in July 2008 at the Annual Conference of the Society of College and University Planning. Past lecture series for S+P have included talks at several universities, the New York Architectural League, and “Architecture Rampant” at the Royal Ontario Museum. Notably, Gilles was one of three architects in Canada invited to accompany the Governor General team to promote Canadian culture through a series of state visits to Finland and Iceland. In addition to the 2004 Architecture Biennale in Venice, Saucier + Perrotte has previously been part of three important exhibitions: “Les lieux de la couleur”, presented at the CCA in 2000, “Childhood Landscapes / Topographical Unfoldings” presented in Montréal, Toronto, Ottawa, and Buffalo (USA) between 2002 and 2004, and more recently “Substance Over Spectacle” in Vancouver (2005). In 2002, the Canadian Centre for Architecture began archiving architectural drawings and models by Saucier + Perrotte, and in 2007, the CCA selected the firm to design its exhibition on the Oil Crisis of the 1970’s, entitled “1973: Sorry, Out of Gas.”
Saucier + Perrotte is regularly invited to participate in major international competitions and has been a finalist in several in recent years. The firm was short-listed for the Cantos National Music Centre in Calgary, the St-Laurent Sports Centre, the New Montreal Concert Hall, the new Montreal Planetarium, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Grande Bibliothèque du Québec, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, and the AIST African Institute of Science and Technology International Competition in Nigeria, and notably the office won the prestigious competition for the Bank Street Building on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.