MAINGUY, Maurice (1910-1979), active in Quebec City, P.Q. from 1935 until 1979. Born there on 14 December 1910, he attended high school and later studied architecture at the local Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Quebec City from 1929 until 1933. No information has been found on his training after graduation, but in June 1935 he joined the Province of Quebec Association of Architects and then worked as an assistant in other local architectural offices until 1948 when he opened an office under his own name. His early works were small commissions for commercial and educational buildings, but the largest and most significant project carried out during his career was the refined modernist design for the Government of Canada Postal Terminal Building, St. Paul Street, Quebec City (1959-62), a major commission which he designed in collaboration with Leo Turcotte (1911-1985). The tightly disciplined steel and glass curtain wall, rising above the black granite base, was intended to echo the new design standard established for Federal post office facilities being built in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal at this time.
Mainguy died in Quebec City on 12 October 1979 (biog. in Luc Noppen et al, Quebec Monumental 1890-1990, pub. 1990, 182; inf. from Province of Quebec Assoc. of Architects, Montreal). A photographic portrait of Mainguy is held at the P.Q.A.A office in Montreal. The Archives Nationales du Quebec on the campus of Laval University at Sainte Foy in Quebec City holds an extensive collection of drawings prepared by Maurice Mainguy (ANQ P 663). This collection contains more than 5,000 drawings documenting over 200 commercial, industrial, ecclesiastical, institutional and residential buildings designed by Mainguy between 1936 and 1970. The work of Maurice Mainguy should not be confused with that of Lucien Mainguy, another architect who worked in Quebec City during the same period, and with whom he does not appear to be related.
(works in Quebec City unless noted)
LA DAME BLANCHE, Orleans Boulevard, retail store, 1950 (Architecture Batiment Construction, v, June 1950, 35, illus.)
ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOL, street location not named, 1950 (C.R., lxiii, Aug. 1950, 240, contract awarded for construction)
GIGUERE GARAGE, 1956 (Architecture Batiment Construction, xi, Nov. 1956, 42-45, illus. & descrip.)
CHARNY, QUE., St. Louis de France Roman Catholic Convent, 1957 (Architecture Batiment Construction, xii, Oct. 1957, 48-50, illus.)
TURCOTTE & LETOURNEAU INC., reconstruction of the main façade of the building, 1958 (Canadian Building [Toronto], viii, Jan. 1958, 26-7, illus.)
(with Leo Turcotte) FEDERAL POSTAL TERMINAL BUILDING, St. Paul Street at Abraham Martin Street, 1959-62; now occupied by Telus Ltd. (Luc Noppen et al, Quebec Monumental 1890-1990, pub. 1990, 94, illus. & descrip.)
QUEBEC PROVINCIAL REVENUE BUILDING, 1967 (Batiment, xlii, Oct. 1967, 7, illus)