Arcop (also ARCOP) was an architectural firm based in Montreal, renowned for designing many major projects in Canada including Place Bonaventure, Place Ville-Marie and Maison Alcan. The firm was originally formed as a partnership under the name Affleck, Desbarats, Lebensold, Michaud & Sise between Ray Affleck, Guy Desbarats, Jean Michaud, Fred Lebensold and Hazen Sise, all graduates and/or professors at the McGill School of Architecture. In 1959, after the departure of Michaud and the addition of Dimitri Dimakopoulos, another McGill Architecture graduate, the firm was renamed Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold, Sise which it maintained for a decade afterward. The company did not adopt the name Arcop, which stands for "Architects in Co-Partnership", until 1970.
The concept of the firm was to pool together knowledge from multiple individual architects and was based upon the principles of The Architects' Collaborative, founded in 1945 by eight architects in Cambridge, Massachusetts, including Walter Gropius. During the 1960s, Arcop was the largest architecture firm in Canada and at its peak in 1966, it employed over 150 people.[1][2]
In 1970, Ray Affleck, Fred Lebensold and Arthur Boyd Nichol, an associate at the firm for over a decade, founded Arcop Associates, which continued to thrive for decades later until 2014, when the firm merged with five other architecture firms to form one national firm, Architecture49.[3]
History
Arcop began as the architectural office of Affleck, Desbarats, Lebensold, Hasen & Sise in Montreal, Quebec in 1953 when a partnership was formed between three graduates from the School of Architecture at McGill University, Ray Affleck, Guy Desbarats and Jean Michaud, and two McGill architecture professors, Fred Lebensold and Hazen Sise, who joined in 1954.
The earliest examples of projects from the firm's founding members include the Post Office in Town of Mount Royal by Affleck and Michaud from 1953–1955, Pre-cut Housing for Beaugrand-Champagne in Montreal by Affleck, Michaud and Desbarats in 1954 and the Beaver Lake Pavilion on Mount Royal in Montreal by Sise and Desbarats from 1955–1958. The first project that all members of the firm worked on together was an entry for a national competition to design the Vancouver Civic Auditorium in 1954, for which they won first place. This building was subsequently known as the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver and was constructed from 1958–1962.
In 1954, Dimitri Dimakopoulos (1929–1995), another McGill School of Architecture graduate, joined the firm, and after becoming a full partner three years later, the architects consolidated as Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold, Michaud & Sise, and in 1959, with the departure of Jean Michaud, the firm became Affleck, Desbarats, Dimakopoulos, Lebensold, Sise and remained so for a full decade.
In 1959, Eva Vecsei, who would later become one of the most prominent female architects in Canada, joined the firm and continued to work there until 1971, when she left to join Dimitri Dimakopoulos' practice and in 1973, opened her own practice, Eva H. Vecsei Architect, in Montreal.
The firm's prospectus around 1960 stated "The aim was to establish an organization that could carry out large and complex building projects; maintain a high level professional and technical competence; and above all develop to the utmost the social and aesthetic values that represent the highest contribution of architecture to our civilization".[4] At this point, the firm had approximately 70 employees and was the largest architecture firm in Canada. Major projects in Montreal included Place Ville-Marie, where the firm partnered with I.M. Pei from 1958–1964 as well as Place des Arts from 1962–1965. Other major buildings followed, including Place Bonaventure (1964–1968), two Theme Pavilions for Expo 67 (1964–1967) and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa (1965–1968).
During this period the firm also designed churches, government buildings, exhibition pavilions, residential and cultural buildings, commercial and industrial buildings and educational buildings including the Georges-Vanier Library for Loyola College (now Concordia University) (1962–1964) and the Stephen Leacock Building (1962–1964) and University Centre (Student Union Centre) (1963–1966) at McGill University.
In 1968, Hazen Sise retired, Guy Desbarats departed and Dimitri Dimakopoulos left to open his own office, and in 1970, Ray Affleck, Fred Lebensold and Arthur Boyd Nichol (who had been an associate in the firm since 1956) founded Arcop Associates.
In 2011, Senior architect Robert La Pierre was recognized by his peers of the RAIC and introduce into the Royal College of Fellow.
In 2011, Arcop and Montreal-based engineering consulting firm Genivar announced a strategic alliance.[5]
In 2014, Arcop merged with five other architecture firms, namely AE Consultants, North 46, PBK, Smith Carter and WHW Architects to form one national firm, Architecture49.[3]
^Gooch, Bryan N.S. "Queen Elizabeth Theatre". The Canadian Encyclopedia. The Historica Dominion Institute. Archived from the original on September 3, 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
