PARANT, Louis (1890-1958), active in Montreal, Que., at first as City Architect, and from 1922 as an architect in partnership with Donat A. Gascon. Born in Montreal on 16 June 1890, he was educated and trained there, and in 1913, at the young age of 23 years, he was appointed as City Architect of Montreal, and he held this post for the next nine years, overseeing the design and construction of all city-owned buildings during this period. Parant joined the Province of Quebec Assoc. of Architects in 1915.
When the Montreal City Hall was gutted by fire in March 1922, an Advisory Board of leading Montreal architects was appointed to oversee the reconstruction. The committee included Jean O. Marchand, Louis A. Amos, Ernest Cormier, and D.J. Spence. Parant saw a unique opportunity to take on this project, so he resigned from his post as City Architect in August 1922 to take up the practise of architecture in the private secctor in partnership with Donat A. Gascon (see list of works under Gascon & Parant). His successor to the post of City Architect was J.L.D. Lafreniere.
In collaboration with the new City Architect, it was Parant who prepared the plans for the reconstruction of the City Hall. Drawing inspiration from the French Renaissance style of the City Hall in Paris, and from the design of the City Hall in Tours, France, Parant, working with Lafreniere, completed the job in four years, and the building officially re-opened on 15 February 1926. Parant continued in a successful business partnershp with Gascon for the next 35 years; by 1930 they had two offices, one in Montreal, and another in Trois Rivieres, Quebec. After 1950 the firm was renamed Gascon, Parant & Auger. Parant died in Montreal on 10 June 1958 (obituary La Presse [Montreal], 11 June 1958, 59; inf. from Ontario Assoc. of Architects).
MONTREAL CITY HALL, Notre Dame Street East at Gosford Street, reconstruction of the building after a fire in March 1922, with addition of two floors, and new roof and tower, designed in collaboration with J.L.D. Lafreniere, 1922-24 (C.R., xxxviii, 28 May 1924, 532-33, illus. & descrip.; 23 July 1924, 62; Montreal Daily Star, 17 April 1925, 33, detailed descrip.; City of Montreal, Les Edifices Publics, 1981, 110-15, illus.)