April 16, 2026
“Tales of a Journeyman Architect”
Public Lecture by Richard Doucette: Thursday, April 16th, 2026, at 7:00 p.m.
Presented by the South Shore Network of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. This is a free event, no registration required.
Richard Doucette will discuss lessons learned over 40 years of a somewhat out-of-the-box practice, drawing on representative projects for your viewing and listening pleasure, with a pretty decent slideshow and talk. He will touch on:
- Confluences that make for successful projects or not.
- The pleasure of geometry, design, and seeing your project built.
- Architect-led design-build.
- Being your own client.
- Pro bono offerings.
- Spontaneous thoughts on work and life.
Doucette is looking forward to spending an evening with you in Lunenburg.
Richard Doucette, NSAA, RAIC was born in the wilds of northern Cape Breton and raised in a very large Catholic family. Doucette entered Cape Breton University, where he earned a degree in Community Studies. He went on to complete his studies in architecture at TUNS (now Dalhousie University), graduating in 1986.
After a couple of years working (starving) in Nova Scotia, Doucette went “down the road” to work in southern Ontario for a few months. He returned 20 years later. He worked for a number of architectural practices before joining JHAL Architects and Engineers in 1993. He soon rose to become chief architect and managing partner. He eventually bought the firm from his 3 partners.
In 2001, he joined the Toronto office of Public Works Government Services Canada. Doucette returned to Nova Scotia in 2008, happy to be home, and continued to work for PWGSC as a senior architect. In 2019, Doucette left the public service to reinvigorate his architectural practice, undertaking many projects in the residential, commercial, institutional, community and design-build sectors.
Mr. Doucette works collaboratively with teams of stakeholders, clients and consultants to find creative solutions through architecture. He develops his expertise through experience, training and volunteer work. He has undertaken a wide variety of projects, studies, planning and design-build assignments. He has sat on several Boards. Through this spectrum of assignments, Mr. Doucette continues to learn and to grow while offering excellent architectural service to clients.
