University of Toronto's annual Friends of Planning Spring Social is fast approaching. The Planning Alumni Committee is pleased to announce that Bruce Kuwabara will be the featured speaker for this year's event.

The University of Toronto's 13th Annual Friends of Planning Spring Social will be held from 6-9 PM on Thursday, April 16 in the Great Hall, Hart House, 7 Hart House Circle.   Kuwabara’s keynote address will be at 6:15 PM with reception to follow.  This is a major networking event and more than 300 professionals from the public, private and not-for-profit sectors are expected to attend.

Bruce Kuwabara is a founding partner of the Toronto-based firm of Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects and the 2006 RAIC Gold Medalist.  Kuwabara’s work in Toronto includes Canada’s National Ballet School, the Gardiner Museum and the Bell Lightbox for the Toronto International Film Festival.  His projects have been recognized in Canada with eight Governor General's Awards for Architecture, and internationally by the American Institute of Architects, the Chicago Athenaeum, and the Royal Institute of British Architects.  He helped establish the Frank Gehry International Design Chair at the University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design.  Currently Kuwabara chairs the design review panel for Waterfront Toronto, and sits on the board of the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA).

Kuwabara’s commitment to making architecture that ensures the vitality of cultural, educational and social institutions has also contributed to raising the international profile of Canadian architecture. As a practitioner and a critic, Kuwabara has contributed to the national discourse on city building in the 21st century.  On April 16 Kuwabara will share his thoughts with Spring Social attendees in his keynote address – Is Toronto Ourtopia?  "Ourtopia" represents an evolving thesis that Toronto has the potential to become a viable and sustainable urban model that is directly a reflection of that uniquely Canadian condition: openness. Kuwabara will discuss how simultaneous urban developments are shaping the city: the cultural renaissance, the waterfront revitalization, major urban precincts such as the University of Toronto, Ryerson University, CAMH, among others. Against this framework he will identify the specific conditions that must be cultivated in order achieve a sustainable and civil urbanism.

In lieu of an admission fee, a minimum $45 donation to the University of Toronto's Friends of Planning Fund is suggested. Tax receipts will be provided.  All are welcome, but please reserve your place by April 1.  Further information on this event can be found in OPPI’s Events-on-Line.

Interested in participating in the Spring Social’s corporate sponsorship program? Contact Carly Bowman or 416-849-6001 for a 2009 sponsorship package.