"Ambassadors for Canadian architecture"​: 2018 RAIC Gold Medal awarded to Saucier + Perrotte Architectes

Gilles Saucier and André Perrotte, founding partners of Montreal firm Saucier + Perrotte Architectes, are the recipients of the 2018 RAIC Gold Medal. 

Awarded annually, the prize is the highest honor the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada can bestow to individuals in honor of lasting and significant contributions to Canadian architecture. 

"They have built and maintained a high quality of work for decades," remarked the five-member selection jury. "They are one of the few firms that are recognized both nationally and internationally. The work is always innovative and interesting. It's timeless, consistently elegant, beautifully detailed. They integrate nature beautifully. They are ambassadors for Canadian architecture."

Founded in 1988, the firm has established an impressive body of award-winning work, represented Canada at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2004, and also received the RAIC Architectural Firm Award in 2009.

Both '82 graduates of the Laval University school of architecture in Quebec City, Gilles Saucier is the firm's design partner while André Perrotte is the project architect in charge of coordinating the design and construction process. 

The firm's work spans a wide spectrum of architectural tasks, including theaters (Usine C and Cinémathèque Québécoise in Montreal); commercial spaces, (the Michel Brisson boutiques and Scandinave Les Bains Vieux Montreal); garden pavilions (First Nations Pavilion at the Botanical Garden in Montreal), and the Canadian embassy in Abu Dhabi.

University projects by Saucier + Perrotte include the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo and the UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences (with Hughes Condon Marler Architects) in Vancouver. 

Sports facilities such as the new Stade de Soccer de Montréal (with HCMA Architecture + Design) and the Complexe Sportif Saint-Laurent in Montreal, as well as private residences, exhibitions and art centers round off the roster of high profile projects. 

The firm is currently involved in the River City project, a 1,000-unit LEED Gold master plan in Toronto.

The 2018 Gold Medal jury was comprised of Peter Busby, FRAIC, partner, Perkins + Will, Vancouver, BC; Andrew Batay-Csorba, MRAIC, partner, Batay-Csorba Architects, Toronto, ON; Johanna Hurme, FRAIC, partner, 5468796 architecture Winnipeg, MB; Renée Mailhot, MIRAC, founder, la SHED architecture, Montreal, QC; and Diogo Burnay, director, Dalhousie University School of Architecture, Halifax, NS.

Previous laureates include Roger du Toit, the Aga Khan, Peter Cardew, Bing Thom, Jane Jacobs, Phyllis Lambert, Moshe Safdie, John and Patricia Patkau, Raymond Moriyama, Brian MacKay-Lyons, and others.