FISET, Edouard (1910-1994), architect and urban planner of Quebec City, was born in Rimouski, Que. on 7 September 1910 and studied architecture at the Ecole-des-Beaux-Arts in Quebec City, and later at the Ecole Superieur des Beaux-Arts in Paris where he graduated in 1940. He was interned in 1940 by the Vichy regime in France as an "enemy alien'" and not freed until 1944, and after the end of WWII he remained in France to advise on the reconstruction of the historic city of Caen before returning to Canada in late 1945. He assisted Jacques Greber with the preparation of the Master Plan for the National Capital of Ottawa (pub. 1949), and in the 1950's he travelled extensively in Canada lecturing on town planning and preparing new town plans for Labrieville, Que. (1954), for Baie Como, Que. (1959-60), for Port Cartier, Que. (1972), and for Churchill Falls in Labrador.
In 1945, both he and Adrien Dufresne prepared a visionary design for a United Nations Peace Centre on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City. Conceived before the final decision to locate the United Nations Building in New York City, their elaborate Beaux-Arts plan was illustrated and described in the Montreal Daily Star, 9 June 1945, 21, but would subsequently be set aside in favour of the American plan for the site in New York. In 1947 he received the commission to prepare the Master Plan for the new suburban campus of Laval University in Ste. Foy, outside Quebec City. Based on Beaux-Arts planning principles of axial composition and formal symmetry, Fiset arranged the development sites for various faculty buildings and later prepared modernist designs for three of the pavilions on the campus. He formed a partnership with Paul Deschamps in Quebec City in 1951 (later renamed as Fiset, Deschamps & Papanek).
His most important contribution to Canadian architecture began in 1964 when he was appointed Chief Architect for EXPO '67 at Montreal, the World's Fair staged for the 100th anniversary of Canadian confederation. Fiset's master plan for the site was based on his idea of "volumetric equilibrium" where the largest and most important pavilions were placed around the perimeter of the island sites surrounded by the St. Lawrence River. In addition to developing the master plan for the fair, he designed several pavilions including the theme pavilions on Ste. Helene's Island and on Notre Dame Island, and supervised the design work of leading architects from around the world including Sir Basil Spence (England), Buckminster Fuller (USA), Frei Otto (Germany), and pavilion designs from Canadian architects Arthur Erickson, John Andrews, Moshe Safdie and Macy Dubois. Fiset was later elected to the Order of Canada for his achievements at the EXPO '67 site. He died in Montreal on 27 January 1994 (death notice Gazette [Montreal], 31 Jan. 1994, B4; obituary Globe & Mail [Toronto], 5 Feb. 1994, A16; biog. R.A.I.C. Journal, xxv, Oct. 1948, 395; Canadian Who's Who, 1967-68, 350; port. and biog. Who's Who in Canada, 1969-70, 909-10; biog. Luc Noppen et al, Quebec Monumental 1890-1990, 1990, 180)
E. FISET
(with Adrien Dufresne) QUEBEC CITY, QUE., United Nations Peace Centre, on the Plains of Abraham, 1945 (Montreal Daily Star, 9 June 1945, 21, illus. & descrip., but not built)
QUEBEC CITY, QUE., master plan for the new campus of Laval University, Ste. Cyrille Boulevard, Ste. Foy, 1948 (Architecture Batiment Construction, ii, March 1947, 32; R.A.I.C. Journal, xxx, Oct. 1953, 283-5, illus. & descrip.)
LABRIEVILLE, QUE., Roman Catholic Church, 1953-54; housing complex, 1953-54 (Architecture Batiment Construction, ix, Sept. 1954, 50-3, illus.)
QUEBEC CITY, QUE., CFCM Television Station, 1954-55 (Architecture Batiment Construction ix, Dec. 1954, 24-5, illus.; Batiment, xxxiii, May 1958, 28-9, illus.)
BAIE COMEAU, QUE., Housing Complex for the Canadian British Aluminum Co., 1957-58; Town Hall, 1959-60 (Architecture Batiment Construction, xiv, May 1959, 152-55, illus.; Batiment, xxxvi, Oct. 1960, 57, illus.)
FISET & DESCHAMPS
QUEBEC CITY, QUE., Laval University, Ste. Foy Campus, Maurice Pollack Building, 1957-58; Biermans-Moraud House, 1957-58; Science & Humanities Building, 1964-65 (Architecture Batiment Construction, xiv, June 1959, 184-93, illus. & descrip.; Canadian Architect, xi, May 1966, 70)
QUEBEC CITY, QUE., Laurentian Mutual Assurance Co. Tower, office building, 1962-63 (Architecture Batiment Construction, xix, May 1964, 22-7, illus.)
QUEBEC CITY, QUE., Complex G Office Tower, for the Provincial Government, 1970-72 (Architecture Concept, xxviii, Oct. 1973, 34-8, 45, illus.)