Charles Baillairgé: Architect and Engineer

By Christina Cameron

A fourth-generation member of a Quebec City family of artists and architects, Charles Baillarg was encouraged by his family in both artistic and intellectual pursuits. He was proficient not only as an architect but also as a surveyor, engineer, mathematician, and inventor, publishing over 250 books and pamphlets on his many interests.

During his career as an architect, he designed major public buildings such as the Quebec Music Hall, Laval University, Sainte-Marie de Beauce church, and Dufferin Terrace, and was supervising architect for the first Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. He was responsible for introducing Gothic and Greek Revival styles to Quebec city and fostered the use of contemporary materials in residential and commercial structures.

Christina Cameron's biography of this remarkable man includes an analysis of innovations in architectural design and construction technology in Quebec City during the middle of the nineteenth century, and includes a discussion of the radical change in the role of the architect from the architect/artisan of the previous century to the professional man who no longer took any part in the actual construction.

In this first full-scale study of Baillairg , Cameron has provided a fascinating picture not only of the life of an important architect but of developments in Canadian architecture during this period.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0773506381
• ISBN13: 9780773506381
• Release Date: July 1988
• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Length: 236 Pages