Étienne Gaboury

• Name — Étienne Gaboury • Born — 24 April 1930 • Birthplace — Bruxelles, Manitoba, Canada • Died — 14 October 2022 • Awards — Order of Canada (2010)

Gaboury was born in Bruxelles, Manitoba, on April 24, 1930. His parents, Napoléon and Valentine Gaboury, were French-Canadian farmers. He was the youngest of 11 children, and was a distant relative of Louis Riel. Gaboury studied architecture and Latin at St. Boniface College in the University of Manitoba, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1953. He then obtained a Bachelor of Architecture from the same institution five years later. While studying at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris from 1958 to 1959, he was greatly influenced by the designs of Le Corbusier.

• Illustration — Gaboury's Royal Canadian Mint (Winnipeg) After returning from Paris, Gaboury settled in Winnipeg, where he established an architectural partnership with Denis Lussier and Frank Sigurdson. He eventually became its sole principal in 1976. Gaboury was known for his regional prairie designs that incorporated elements of the physical, emotional, and spiritual, and characterized himself as a "plains architect". He ultimately completed more than 300 projects, both in Canada and internationally, throughout his almost five-decade-long career. • Illustration — The Canadian Embassy in Mexico City (1982) Notable projects by Gaboury include the new Saint Boniface Cathedral (1972), the Royal Canadian Mint building (1978), and the Esplanade Riel (2003), all in Winnipeg. The tipi-style Precious Blood Church – completed in 1968 in St. Boniface, Manitoba – featured eleven interior wood beams which form a smokeholelike skylight thirty metres above the altar. Gaboury later revealed that the project nearly fell through, with five earlier proposals being rejected before the final design was agreed to. His work in Manitoba extended beyond Winnipeg, as he was the architect for the Helen Betty Osborne Ininew Education Resource Centre (HBOIERC) in Norway House, Manitoba. The Canadian Embassy in Mexico (1982) was arguably his most well-known overseas project. Costing C$7.5 million and taking two years to build, the building's Mexican-inspired exterior and Canadian interior represented a dramatic departure from Gaboury usual style. He initially envisioned utilizing different tones of marble to differentiate the levels of the courtyard floor, but ultimately settled on a single tone due to the scarcity of the former when it came time to build. It was inaugurated by prime minister Pierre Trudeau in January 1982.

Gaboury's wife was a ceramist. Their daughter, Lise Gaboury-Diallo, was an author and professor of literature at the University of St. Boniface. Grandfather of Anna Binta Diallo, multidisciplinary visual artist Gaboury died on October 14, 2022, at the age of 92.

Winnipeg Mint is dated 1975. Étienne Gaboury is recorded as having received Member of the Order of Canada, Order of Manitoba and Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. Identity and origins. Étienne Gaboury was recorded at birth as Étienne-Joseph Gaboury. The authorities additionally record the headings Etienne J. Gaboury, Etienne-Joseph Gaboury and Etienne Gaboury. His recorded language was French.