SISE, Hazen Edward (1906-1974) is best known for the important role he played in the post-1950 period of architectural development in Montreal as partner in the prolific firm of Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold & Sise, formed in 1959. Sise was born in Montreal on 23 July 1906 and educated at Bishop's College School in Lennoxville, at Royal Military College, Kingston, at McGill University, Montreal, and the Massachusetts Inst. of Technology in Boston where he graduated in 1930. He gained much of his practical experience working for some of the leading firms in Montreal including Barott & Blackader, Nobbs & Hyde, A. Galt Durnford, and Perry & Luke, then moved to Paris in 1930 to work as assistant to Le Corbusier, the world renowned modernist. He spent six months with the master, then moved to New York to join Howe & Lescaze, who had just won the commission for the new P.S.F.S. Building in Philadelphia. In 1933 he went to London to join the firm of Adamson, Thompson & E. Maxwell Fry as a designer, and became a member of the M.A.R.S. Group. He was one of few Canadian architects to be invited to attend the C.I.A.M meetings in Europe [Congres International d'Architecture Moderne].
With such impeccable architectural credentials and training, it is uncertain why so few works can be credited to him after his return to Canada in 1938. He spent two years with the National Film Board and wrote numerous articles on the subject of art, architecture and town planning. His appraisal of the state of modern architecture in Canada appeared in the journal Canadian Art, ii, Feb./March 1945, 111-14. Only after 1954 did his career as an architect start to flourish, as he took a particular interest in theatre design and helped develop plans for Place des Arts in Montreal and for the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver. Sise died in Ottawa on 17 February 1974 (obit. and port. Gazette [Montreal], 21 Feb. 1974, 28; inf. Province of Quebec Assoc. of Architects). A biography and photographic portrait of Sise was published in the City of Vancouver document called A Competition for a Civic Auditorium for Vancouver: Report of the Board of Assessors, 1954.
COMPETITIONS
VANCOUVER, B.C., Civic Auditorium, 1954-55. The Montreal firm of Lebensold, Desbarats, Affleck, Michaud & Sise were one of 67 firms who submitted a design in this national competition. Their entry, marked No. 197, received First Prize and a cash award of $5.000, and was published in the City of Vancouver document called A Competition for a Civic Auditorium for Vancouver: Report of the Board of Assessors, 1954, illus.