03.09.14 - Letter from the Dean | Fall 2014
Dear Friends,
I am looking forward to another outstanding year at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.
The 2014-2015 academic year marks my sixth year as Dean. Last fall I had the honour to participate in the ceremony to install the University of Toronto’s new President, Professor Meric Gertler. President Gertler is a city planner and noted urban scholar who is making urban research and city building a major focus at U of T. This focus on cities is creating critical opportunities for our Faculty at the University.
I also was appointed to a consecutive term and couldn’t be more pleased or excited to lead the Daniels Faculty through this time of prodigious growth and change. I am very fortunate to have a great team to undertake this work with. I would like to thank everyone — alumni, friends, faculty, and staff alike — for their role in elevating the quality of education, research, public programming, and outreach at the Daniels Faculty.
In 2015, we will celebrate an important milestone: the 125th anniversary of the establishment of the architecture program at the University of Toronto. As we make plans to mark this significant event, I’d like to take this opportunity to share our achievements over this past year — as well as our vision for the year ahead.
Circle marks the spot
As you read this, crews are hard at work rehabilitating the historic building at One Spadina Crescent, which will soon be (part of) the Daniels Faculty’s new home. (In case you missed it, please be sure to view — and share! — our video on One Spadina and why it is critical to our ambitions.)
The renewal of the iconic Gothic Revival building at One Spadina — the first phase of the project — is on schedule for completion this spring. By this time next year, work should be well underway on the new contemporary addition to the north of the site, and the corresponding transformation of the crescent landscape and public realm. We are planning to be fully moved into the completed complex in 2016. Note that with Visual Studies, the Daniels Faculty also occupies the Borden Building: the other iconic building on the circle. We have hired Peter MacCallum, photographer par excellence, to document the entire transformation. To view the work underway, please visit: danielsdev.site/news/one-spadina
Since the launch of our capital campaign in the spring of 2013, when we first unveiled the design for the One Spadina complex, the project has received incredible support from the professions, surrounding neighbourhood, and the City, with much critical acclaim.
Toronto’s Director of Urban Design, Harold Madi, wrote the following to the Toronto Preservation Board, in formally approving the One Spadina project:
“The proposed new addition and exterior restoration provide a fantastic opportunity for on-site awareness of heritage conservation, design and practice for the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design…The University of Toronto, NADAAA, and ERA Architects Inc. are to be commended for achieving something that is very difficult: designing a bold, modern addition to a landmark heritage building with subtlety and elegance.”
Our growing Faculty
The new facilities for the Faculty are only one part of the story. We would not need the spaces we are building without the growing and changing student and faculty population. Our cohort of students has tripled in the past three years with the move of the Honours Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies program in 2012 and, in 2013, U of T’s Visual Studies programs from the Faculty of Arts & Science. With growth in these new areas, the size of our professional programs in architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design remains unchanged (by design). We are always concentrating on increasing the quality and selectivity of our programs. The reputation of our school is now stronger than ever: this year, applications to our graduate programs increased by a surprising 25% (given the experience of peer schools, we would have been happy with 5% growth). The Daniels Faculty now competes with the top schools in North America for the very best students.
We have also been successful in recruiting many new professors, adjunct practicing faculty, and prominent visiting designers and scholars. All of our new academic appointments are part of our commitment to further strengthen the quality of our programs and both the depth and breadth of our research.
Some of our most recent hires and administrative appointments, include:
The appointment of Professor Stephen Verderber, PhD, an internationally recognized expert on architecture, cities, and health, and the author of over ten books on related subjects. Verderber holds a cross-appointment with U of T’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. He is also taking on the role of Associate Dean of Research starting this fall. With his expertise in architecture, design-therapeutics, and health, Professor Verderber will play a key role in founding a new Institute of Architecture and Health at One Spadina, as well as the establishment of a specialization in health design in the curriculum in the coming years.
The appointment of Assistant Professor Benjamin Dillenburger, an expert in building fabrication and parametric design. Dillenburger recently completed, with his partners, the world’s first 3-D printed room, entitled “Digital Grotesque”, work which stems from his recent PhD studies at ETH, Zurich. For more information, visit the Daniels YouTube channel to watch Professor Dillenburger’s #5Q4 interview about his work.
The appointment of Assistant Professor Brady Peters, leader of the international Smart Geometry Group and alumnus of Foster & Associates. Peters recently completed a PhD focusing on the modeling of acoustical performance in architecture from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.
The appointment of Assistant Professor Charles Stankievech, an acclaimed artist, author and curator working across the fields of architecture, landscape, and cultural geography. Stankievech’s innovative, interdisciplinary approach will be key to our effort to elevate visual literacy, design thinking, and the study of material culture at the University of Toronto, and to inspire new modes of creative practice among our students.
Associate Professor Alissa North has been appointed Director of the Landscape Architecture program. North succeeds Associate Professor Robert Wright, who is spending next year on sabbatical. Her combined experience in teaching, research, and professional practice make her ideal for this leadership role, and we are looking forward to working with her as Director over the coming year and beyond.
Associate Professor Robert Levit, Director of the Master of Architecture program, will also be taking on the role of Associate Dean, Academic. We are in the process of making other important appointments, in the areas of building science and urban design, with more to come.
Critical acclaim
Amidst this renewal and change, Daniels’ exceptional faculty continue to receive significant awards and recognition for their research and professional work.
In September of last year, prominent urbanists and city leaders from around the world joined Professor Patricia McCarney to celebrate the official launch of the Global Cities Institute (GCI). This new, pre-eminent institute at the Daniels Faculty has assembled a global network of academics, organizations, foundations, and industry innovators dedicated to securing a better future for cities.
Arctic Adaptations: Nunavut at 15, the Canadian exhibition at the Venice Biennale’s 14th International Architecture Exhibition — curated by Associate Professor Mason White and his firm Lateral Office — was honoured with a “Special Mention” (one of only 3 such awards, out of over 55 national pavilion entries) for its in-depth study of how modernity adapts to a unique climatic condition in the indigenous cultures of the Canadian North.
On the research front, this past spring, the Daniels Faculty’s Green Roof Innovation Testing Laboratory (GRIT Lab) installed new solar panels at 230 College Street to test whether green roofs and solar panels can enhance each other’s performance. In the fall of 2013, the GRIT Lab received an Award of Excellence from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) for its inventive research.
Boundless support
New programs and increasing enrolment have resulted in a more advantageous financial outlook for the Faculty than it has had in decades. While this is of immense benefit to the school’s operations going forward, the generosity of our alumni and the wider philanthropic community is essential to our capital expansion project at One Spadina.
Last year we announced a $50 million fundraising campaign as part of the University of Toronto’s Boundless initiative, and we are proud to report that we have made considerable progress towards reaching this goal to date. Our fundraising has exceeded any period in the Faculty’s history, but given the scale of our ambitions, we still have a long way to go. In total, $20 million in private support remains to be raised.
Our Campaign Cabinet has been generously giving of their time, their networks, and their own capital to the One Spadina project. If you are interested in learning more about the campaign and how you might contribute, please don’t hesitate to be in touch with my office or our director of advancement, Jacqueline Raaflaub (416-978-1473; jacqueline.raaflaub@daniels.utoronto.ca).
Though the expansion of the Faculty is our major fundraising priority, alumni and friends continue to provide annual gifts in support of student scholarships, awards, lectures, programs, and library collections. All of these gifts make a major and tangible difference to the quality of education and opportunities that we can provide to our students. Giving both time and resources, alumni have been very generous to the Faculty over the years, and I am deeply grateful for this support.
How to stay in touch
There are many ways for you to remain engaged with the Daniels Faculty in the coming year.
First, I hope you will join us at one or more of our public lectures, which include the Daniels Fora; bulthaup lectures; the new Daniels Sessions lecture series; Building, Ecology, Science, and Technology (B.E.S.T.) lectures; and symposia. I also invite you to view exhibitions hosted throughout the year at the Eric Arthur Gallery and Larry Wayne Richards Gallery.
Last year, we welcomed graduates of the classes of 1954, 1959, and 1964 back to the University to celebrate their 60th, 55th, and 50th anniversaries, respectively. We look forward to meeting more graduates at U of T’s official Spring Reunion celebrations in 2015.
To stay informed of all news and events from the Daniels Faculty, I encourage you to visit our website at danielsdev.site, which is updated regularly. Please make special note of our new alumni page, which provides convenient links to help you update your address, send us news, or subscribe to our newsletter.
You can also keep up-to-date on the latest news from our Faculty through our social media sites, which include Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest. Our development coordinator Misha Rahardja is also happy to hear from you anytime at 416-978-4340.
Our ongoing success would not be possible without you. One of the great pleasures of the deanship is getting to know the alumni community and learning about the directions your degree from the Faculty has taken you in.
I would like to meet even more of you and hear from you throughout the year, leading up to our 125th anniversary celebrations in the spring of 2015. Please don’t hesitate to contact me — or my staff — anytime.
Gratefully yours,
Richard M. Sommer
Dean,
Professor of Architecture and Urbanism
John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design