Rickson Outhet
Biography
Outhet is one of the first Canadian-born landscape architects. In 1908, he was retained by the Province of Quebec Association of Architects (PQAA) to develop proposals for civic improvements in Montreal. Previously Outhet had trained with the Olmsteds and had worked on the McMillan Plan for Washington, D.C. This prior work had given him experience with transportation networks and the creation of monumental thoroughfares, preparing him for the Montreal assignment.
After this early work, Outhet established a thriving practice in Canada. According to Nancy Pollock-Ellwand, writing in Planning Perspectives, Outhet “went on to play formative roles in the establishment of Canada's landscape architectural and town planning traditions.” However, it is notable that Outhet did not become the heir to the Olmsteds’ work in Montreal – instead landscape architect Frederick Todd became known in that regard. (Unlike Outhet, Todd was born and educated in the United States, preserving Outhet’s status as among the very first Canadian-born landscape architects.) Indeed, Todd revised Outhet’s original “flawed residential design for Winnipeg's elite Tuxedo Park – the so-called ‘Suburb Beautiful.” Among other changes, Todd removed Outhet’s “restrictive diagonal boulevards” before the plan for this suburban development was finalized.
The writes of the Canadian Encyclopedia admit that little information is available about Outhet: “Although Todd and H.B. Dunington-Grubb were the best-known Canadian practitioners during the first half of the 20th century, others merit further research. C. Ernest Woolverton of Grimsby, Ont., and Rickson A. Outhet of Montréal appear to have been the first Canadian-born landscape architects.” Despite this charge for further research, they have little more information to provide.
Sources/Further Information:
1. Jeanne Wolfe and Peter Jacobs, “The Architecture of Edwards and W.S. Maxwell: City Planning and Urban Beautification,” http://cac.mcgill.ca/maxwells/essay/06.htm
2. Nancy D. Pollock-Ellwand, "The Olmsted firm in Canada: a correction of the record," Planning Perspectives. Vol. 21 (July 2006), p. 288.
3. The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Frederick Gage Todd,” http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/
4. L. D. McCann, “Planning and building the corporate suburb of Mount Royal, 1910-1925,” Planning Perspectives. Vol. 11, no. 3, p. 270.
Ibid.
5.
The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Landscape Architecture: 1900-1920s,”
