Passing of Etienne Gaboury

[dik]

Etienne Gaboury has passed away. He was a well know archtect in Winnipeg that was involved with notable projects. I've attached one of the that was constructed while I was an engineering student.

http://hiddenarchitecture.net/precious-blood-roman-catholic-church/

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[TLHS]

Who was the engineer on that? I can't even imagine doing that math predominantly by hand. I'm sure there's a simplifying approximation in there somewhere that can help, but I can't see it immediately.

 

[dik]

I'm not sure, but I will try to find out. The anecdote I heard from Ron Lazar, he was a local 'notorious' engineer that when the shop drawings came in, due to the complexity they couldn't be processed. The contractor suggested they send out 'sticks' and he would fit them on site. There was a model made of the structure and it was kept on site (as part of the project?). They often did models, back then. Every so often the contractor would run back to the trailer, lift the top part of the model off, take a look at it, and then run back to the site. I'm not sure if if was trying to determine how it went together. I don't know if this is true, but will try to determine who the EOR was. I've seen the structure, just shortly after construction... about 50+ years back. I think Gaboury did the Mint structure, in Winnipeg, too.

It predated common use of computers and even hand calculators. My first exposure to calculators/computers, other than University (IBM 360), was an Olivetti Underwood Programma 101 which was a desktop sized calculator that you could write and store programs on magnetic cards. It was the time of sliderules. (SRE probably remembers) That was't common calculating equipment for consultants. Gaboury was also a 'shirt tailed relative' of another local notable, Louis Riel an earlier 'freedom fighter' and I think he did a structure/monument to Riel.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Etienne+Gaboury+and+louis+riel&t=brave&ia=web

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[Pelotoner2]

Impressive! And we think Architects push the limits now... at least with FEM I can *mostly* sleep at night.

 

[dik]

I've got an eMail in to the association to see if they can provide the name of the EOR... was likely designed by sliderule.

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik

 

[TLHS]

Yeah, that was around the era my grandfather was doing P-Delta analysis via punch card. I wish I had a set of those, I'm sure I could emulate whatever he was using at this point.

 

[dik]

Back in the time of sliderules... I got a little 6" one to replace the larger Hemmi I had because I could manipulate it faster... Crosier's office was the only one in the city that had a large 'calculator', the one above. Other firms, occasionally had 'time share' access to one of the computer firms in the city... and we could always rent time on the UofM's IBM 360. My calculator has a MOtorola 68000 processor which was a real processor back then. Times change. I'm waiting to hear back from the association for the EOR.

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik