COURCHESNE, Edgar (1903-1979) was one of the leading inheritors of the legacy of Father Paul Bellot (1876-1944), a French monk and architect who visited Montreal in 1934 to give a series of influential lectures on art and architecture. Courchesne was the author of an article praising Bellot (R.A.I.C. Journal, xi, Feb. 1934, 29-30, illus.) and later designed several notable ecclesiastical works that employed the distinctive modernist elements such a repeating parabolic arches and polychromatic brickwork which had been used by Bellot in some of his European commissions.
Born in Upton, Que. on 12 September 1903 Courchesne was educated at the Seminary in Sherbrooke from 1916 to 1924 and articled with Louis N. Audet, the leading ecclesiastical architect in the Eastern Townships, in 1924-26. He moved to Quebec City to work for Lacroix & Drouin in 1926-27, then returned to Sherbrooke to again assist in the office of L.N. Audet until 1930. Courchesne went to Paris in 1930 and attended the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs (in 1930-32), and studied at the Abbey at Wisques under the direction of Father Bellot for a year before returning to Canada. He joined the P.Q.A.A. in 1933 and received his first major commission to design the Benedictine Abbey near St. Eustache, Que. in 1936 while he was living in Ottawa and working for the Dept. of Public Works. From 1938 to 1946 he was employed by Radio Canada as a staff architect responsible for radio studio designs in Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax, Quebec and Toronto. In 1946 he returned to Montreal and opened his own office, and planned several projects for the Roman Catholic Diocese in the Bellot style until 1957 when his approach to design shifted to a more modernist stance. He died at Brossard, Que. on 19 October 1979 (death notice La Presse [Montreal], 22 Oct. 1979, D13; biog. and port. Biographies Francaises d'Amerique, 1950, 809; inf. Province of Quebec Assoc. of Architects). An essay on the career of Courchesne prepared by Nicole Tardif-Painchaud was published in 1978 in the work entitled Dom Bellot et l'architecture religieuse au Quebec, 82-99, with list of works, 263)
SHERBROOKE, QUE., crypt at St. Charles Borromee Seminary, 1933 (N. Tardif-Painchaud, list)
SHERBROOKE, QUE.,major addition to the Hotel Dieu, Bowen Street South, 1934 (C.R., xlviii, 9 May 1934, 31)
STE. MARTHE-SUR-LE-LAC, QUE., Ste. Marie Benedictine Abbey des Deux Montagnes, 1936-46 (La Presse [Montreal], 9 Aug. 1941, illus.; Architecture Batiment Construction, ii, Nov. 1947, 50, illus.)
ST. EPIPHANE, QUE., reconstruction of the Roman Catholic Church, 1947 (C.R., lx, May 1947, 130)
AMQUI, QUE., Normal School and residence for Ursuline Sisters, 1948 (C.R., lxi, March 1948, 172)
EDMUNSTON, N.B., St. Louis Roman Catholic College for the Eudiste Fathers, Martin Street, 1948 (C.R., lxi, April 1948, 140; Tim Morawetz, Art Deco Architecture Across Canada, 2017, 105, illus. & descrip.)
RIMOUSKI, QUE., Eglise Ste. Blandine, 1948 (N. Tardif-Painchaud, list)
MONTREAL, QUE., Eglise Ste. Madeleine-Sophie, Gouin Boulevard, 1948 (N. Tardif-Painchaud, list)
LA SARRE, QUE., commercial block with Bank of Commerce, 1949 (R.A.I.C. Journal, xxvii, June 1950, 41, illus. in advert.)
(with Father Claude Cote) GRANBY, QUE., Eglise St. Benoit, 1949-50 (C.R., lxii, April 1949, 152, t.c.)