Photo above by Sean Galbraith

Photo courtesy of Ontario Place

Image above: Rendering of Stellar Spactra by Dionisios Vriniotis and Rob Shostak (MArch 2010)

4. Explore Winter Stations at Woodbine Beach. Colourful, interactive installations will bring crowds to the beach again this winter starting in February. Be sure to check out Cavalcade, by Master of Architecture students John Nguyen, Anton Skorishchenko, Abubakr Bajaman, and Stephen Baik, and Assistant Peofessor Victor Perez-Amado, The installations will be revealed on February 13th and remain on display until April 1st, 2019.

For more information, visit Winter Stations website. 

Image above: Rendering of Cavalcade by John Nguyen, Anton Skorishchenko, Abubakr Bajaman, and Stephen Baik and Assistant Peofessor Victor Perez-Amado

Image above by Bob Gundu

A pair of Daniels Faculty alumni recently received an honorable mention from Eleven Magazine’s “Shaking Up Havana’s Malecon” design competition.

The competition posed a unique challenge: to re-imagine Cuba’s iconic Malecon esplanade road, which runs alongside Havana for five miles, serving as both a key piece of traffic infrastructure and vital defense against flooding.

Participants were required to consider the following priorities in their proposals: “protection in the form of a renewed sea defence, engagement in the form of new cultural social spaces along the Malecon, and identity in the form of resurrecting an old icon back to life and defining a new beginning for Havana in the 21st century.”

Master of Landscape Architecture graduates Xiru Chen (MLA 2012) and Stella Yuan Lin (MLA 2014) received an honourable mention for their submission “Malecon Rhapsody”.

The team explains their innovative and naturalistic approach to the challenge in the project summary: The MALECÓN RHAPSODY addresses Havana’s vulnerability to coastal flooding with a protective ribbon along Malecón. The 8 km-long landscape infrastructure incorporates public space with the storm and wave surge defense systems. This also creates architectural elements, amenities, energy generation stations, and food production hubs that provide the locally needed cultural, recreational, and socio-economic benefits.

Xiru Chen says that their interest in the project resulted from a meaningful trip to visit Cuba. “We were both fascinated by the colorful landscape, passionate culture and complex history of Cuba,” she explains. “The scope of the competition, to create a renewed sea defence, and act as new cultural social spaces, is also very attractive to us.”

She further explains that the process of working on the project helped them to recall the broader thinking learned during their time at Daniels. “This process reminded us of the days when we spent late nights in school working on studio projects,” says Chen. “We both graduated years ago, and the fast pace of real practices rarely allows for deep design thinking. Working on the competition has reminded us of the essentiality of critical thinking in the design process. This award encourages us to remain curious and keep learning.”

Upon learning he was shortlisted for an Ontario Association of Art Galleries (OAAG) Award, Henry Heng Lu (MVS 2017) said he felt happy just to be nominated — he did not expect that he would actually win. After all, it is rare for a student-curated exhibition to receive Exhibition of the Year (Budget under $20,000 - Thematic).

“When it was announced that I won, I thought, ‘This is happening?’” he said. “I was so thrilled. The award is a great encouragement.”

Held last year at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Lu’s now award-winning exhibition Far and Near: the Distance(s) between Us was his final project in the Master of Visual Studies, Curatorial Studies program at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. It is also the first student-curated exhibition at the Art Museum to receive an OAAG Exhibition of the Year Award. The show — which included a video screening, artist-talks with Karen Tam and Chih-Chien Wang, a public lecture with Ken Lum, and off-site projects at U of T’s John M. Kelly and E.J. Pratt Libraries — explored the work of Canadian artists of Chinese descent and narratives of Chinese Canadian culture.

“We are exceptionally proud of Henry Heng Lu and his well-deserved win at the OAAG Awards. The exhibition, Far and Near: the Distance(s) between Us, represents Henry’s Graduating Project for the MVS degree in Curatorial Studies and is an example of the extraordinary work that students are producing at the Art Museum. The award is wonderful acknowledgement of Henry’s passionate curatorial commitments to connect artists and communities across generations and diasporic backgrounds,” said Barbara Fischer, Director of the Daniels Faculty's Master of Visual Studies program in Curatorial Studies and Chief Curator of the Art Museum.

Lu says U of T’s Art Museum — one of the largest gallery spaces for art exhibitions and programming in Toronto — is a valuable resource for students.

“I owe a lot of thanks to my advisor Barbara Fischer for giving me the opportunity to do the show at the Art Museum and guiding me through the planning and execution processes for this project,” says Lu. “The rest of the Art Museum team was also pleasant to work with. I felt very supported.”

As an undergraduate student, Lu majored in Studio and Arts Management at U of T’s Scarborough campus. It was at that time, as an international student and newcomer to Canada, that he started exploring work created by Canadian artists of Chinese descent, questioning how Chinese art is defined, and wondering why it is usually presented in “cultural clusters.”

“Later on, I got very interested in what being Chinese means in Canada and how ‘Chinese’ identities are configured and fabricated and started my investigation,” he says. “Canadians of Chinese descent have been gradually taking up a bigger role in Canadian cultural dynamics but it seemed to me that artistic practitioners from this population didn’t often get themselves heard. I wanted to learn more about their experiences.”

The exhibition featured works by Alvis Choi aka Alvis Parsley, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Gu Xiong, Will Kwan, Ho Tam, Ken Lum, Morris Lum, Ho Tam, Karen Tam, Chih-Chien Wang, Paul Wong, and Winnie Wu.

Lu is currently Artistic Director at the Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre in Kingston, Ontario, as well as an independent curator and artist, whose projects were most recently presented at Trinity Square Video and Nuit Blanche Toronto. Together with Yanjing Winnie Wu (HBA 2016) he cofounded Call Again, an initiative “committed to creating space for contemporary diasporic artistic practices and to expanding the notion of Asian art in the context of North America and beyond.”

The annual OAAG Awards recognize exhibitions, publications, and programming in Ontario’s public art galleries. Art Museum Curator, Sarah Robayo Sheridan was also shortlisted for a 2018 OAAG Award for Short Text (Under 2,000 words) for Figures of Sleep. And though his was the first student-curated show at the Art Museum to win Exhibition of the Year at the OAAG Awards, Lu was not the first student to have his exhibition recognized by the Association: in 2015, Liora Bedford’s, MVS exhibition Image Coming Soon #1 received an honourable mention for Exhibition of the Year (Budget under $10,000).

“We are delighted for our colleagues in the Art Museum, and also for Henry,” said John Monahan, Warden of Hart House, where the Art Museum’s Justina M. Barnicke Gallery is located. “The fact that he won his award for his graduating exhibition in the Master of Curatorial Studies program at the Daniels Faculty only makes his success that much sweeter, for it reminds us, yet again, that the work of the Art Museum and Hart House makes an essential contribution to both the artistic and the academic life of this university.”

Lu says he was very fortunate to be a part of a cohort of amazing artists and curators at U of T. “The sense of community among us was very important to me,” he said recognizing Sandra Brewster (MVS 2017) among those who helped him figure out how to integrate his grad school experience with the broader art world. In addition to Fischer, he said Daniels Faculty instructors Lisa Steele, Kim Tomczak, Ed Pien, and Will Kwan also played an important role in helping him shape his work. “Looking back, the best part of my degree was when my ideas were challenged, and I had to actively brainstorm ways to respond and defend them.”

About the Art Museum at the University of Toronto
Comprised of the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery and the University of Toronto Art Centre, which are located just a few steps apart, the Art Museum at the University of Toronto is one of the largest gallery spaces for visual art exhibitions and programming in Toronto. Building on the two galleries’ distinguished histories, the Art Museum organizes and presents a year-round program of in-house and off-site exhibitions, as well as intensive curricular and educational events. Learn more at artmuseum.utoronto.ca

About the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design
The University of Toronto's John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design provides interdisciplinary training and research in architecture, art, landscape architecture, and urban design. Located in the heart of Toronto, the Daniels Faculty fosters a prominent community of students, scholars, and art and design professionals committed to initiating new modes of research and practice tuned to a changing planet and the evolving needs of society. Its mission is to educate students, prepare professionals, and cultivate scholars who will play a leading role in creating more culturally engaged, ecologically sustainable, socially just, and artfully conceived environments.

Scapegoat, a journal that "examines the relationship between capitalism and the built environment" launches Issue 11 on November 30, from 7:30 - 8:30pm at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Toronto.

The launch will include a discussion with the journal's editors and contributors, including Daniels Faculty Lecturer Matthew Allen, recent Master of Visual Studies graduates Noah Scheinman and Rouzbeh Akhbari, and Master of Landscape Architecture alumnus Adam Bobbette (MLA 2011).

Scapegoat is edited by:

Marcin Kedzior (Sessional Instructor, Daniels Faculty)
Jane Hutton (MLA 2004)
Adrian Blackwell
Elise Hunchuck (MLA 2016))
Seth Denizen
Christie Pearson
Gardi Emmelhainz

SCAPEGOAT: Architecture | Landscape | Political Economy is an independent, not-for-profit, bi-annual journal designed to create a context for research and development regarding design practice, historical investigation, and theoretical inquiry.

Visit the journal's website for more details.

Avi Odenheimer always wanted to find a way to thank John and Myrna Daniels for making it possible for him to complete his education. On November 12, he had an opportunity to express his gratitude in person at the John and Myrna Daniels Scholars Luncheon hosted by the Daniels Faculty.

After enjoying a warm lunch and remarks from fellow students, Dean Richard Sommer, and David Palmer, Vice President, Advancement, Odenheimer presented Mr. and Mrs. Daniels with a watercolour painting he created of the Daniels Building — “the building they worked so hard to make possible,” he says, crediting the historic gifts Mr. and Mrs. Daniels made towards the revitalization of the Faculty’s new home at One Spadina Crescent.

Avi Odenheimer presents his drawing of the Daniels Building to John H. Daniels | Photo by John Hyrnyk

With his wife completing her PhD at the University of Toronto, Odenheimer says it would not have been possible for him to study at the Daniels Faculty without Mr. and Mrs. Daniels’ support. The third year Master of Architecture student is one of 81 talented students who, since 2008, have received John and Myrna Daniels Scholars Awards, established 10 years ago thanks to a $5-million gift from the couple to create an endowment that provides financial aid to high achieving graduate students in need.

Current John and Myrna Daniels Scholar Bahia Marks, who spoke at the luncheon, said the award is supporting her goal to better understand the role that architecture can play in addressing inequality through community-led design of the built environment. During her childhood in Apartheid and Post-Apartheid South Africa, Marks says she witnessed extreme wealth and poverty at a young age.

Bahia Marks makes remarks at the John and Myrna Daniels Scholars Luncheon

“What struck me most at the age of 10 was how the quality of housing was related to economic status and race,” she said. “I was really looking for a school that would allow me to learn the skills, attitudes, and qualities of an architect; the role of housing in society; and how to empower youth to contribute to the betterment of their neighborhoods.”

Though only in her first semester of studies, Marks has already connected with a youth program based in Toronto’s St. James Town and Regent Park neighbourhoods, where she hopes to empower a younger generation to be active community builders. At the same time, she is throwing herself into studio work, learning from her colleagues and professors.

John and Myrna Daniels Scholars with John and Myrna Daniels; Dean Richard Sommer; and former Scholar David Freedman, associate, Foster + Parners

The establishment of The John and Myrna Daniels Scholars Awards is but one part of Mr. and Mrs. Daniels legacy of support. In 2008, they made a historic gift of $14-million — $5 million of which went towards graduate student awards, and $9 million of which was a key catalyst in the expansion of the Faculty’s new home. It was in recognition of this gift that the name of the Faculty was changed to the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. In 2013, Mr. and Mrs. Daniels made an additional gift of $10-million towards the Faculty’s capital campaign to revitalize One Spadina Crescent, an award-winning building where both graduate and undergraduate students at the Daniels Faculty study today. They joined by Toronto architects, alumni, and business leaders who have also generously supported the capital campaign.

Front row, left to right: David Palmer, Vice President, Advancement; John H. Daniels; Myrna Daniels; Dean Richard Sommer
Back row, left to right: Jacqueline Raaflaub, Director of Advancement, Daniels Faculty;  Tom Dutton, The Daniels Corporation; Jim Aird and Christine Mattear, John and Myrna Daniels Foundation

At the luncheon on November 12, a new gift announcement was made: an additional $6-mllion from the John and Myrna Daniels Foundation to establish the John and Myrna Daniels Foundation Opportunity Awards, which benefit both graduate and undergraduate students studying architecture, landscape architecture, visual studies, and urban design at the Daniels Faculty.

This latest gift brings Mr. and Mrs. Daniels total support to a remarkable $30 million.

For Odenheimer the award does more than provide valuable financial assistance. It also inspires his work.

“Knowing that someone has invested in my degree has pushed me to work much harder than I would normally,” he says. “It has provided an added purpose and meaning to my studies. I know that I will continue in the spirit of Mr. and Mrs. Daniels and their foundation. I perceive this scholarship not as a donation but as an investment, which I plan to return back to the community in the form of my future architectural work.”

All photos by John Hryniuk

On November 19, the Ontario Associate of Art Galleries (OAAG) will host the OAAG Awards, an event that “celebrates and recognizes the exhibitions, publications, and programming of Ontario’s public art galleries over the past year.”

Far and Near: the Distance(s) between Us — curated by Henry Heng Lu (MVS 2017) as part of his Master of Visual Studies degree — is on the short list for Exhibition of the Year (Budget Under $20,000 Thematic). Lu’s exhibition ran last year from September 6 to October 9 at the University of Toronto’s Art Museum.

Far and Near: the Distance(s) between Us offered different perspectives on the Chinese Canadian community’s historical and cultural evolutions by “exploring notions of distancing and being distanced in relation to race, identity, sexuality and their relation with Chinese Canadian history.”

Writes Lu:

The idea of distance unfolds in multiple layers: in the geographic sense, as in going through a distance from point A to point B, like the construction process of the Canadian Pacific Railway; in the cultural sense, through the mainstream’s imposition of stereotypes, as in how the Chinese Canadian community has been culturally differentiated and essentialized; and in the context of the Chinese community itself, as in who is “Us”, and the distances between different groups of ethnic Chinese.
 

The exhibition featured works by Alvis Choi aka Alvis Parsley, Chun Hua Catherine Dong, Gu Xiong, Will Kwan, Ho Tam, Ken Lum, Morris Lum, Karen Tam, Chih-Chien Wang, Paul Wong, and Winnie Wu.

The Art Museum, comprising two galleries located just steps apart — the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at Hart House, and the University of Toronto Art Centre at University College — is one of the largest gallery spaces for visual art exhibitions and programming in Toronto and a vital cultural resource and destination for arts and academic communities world wide.

The 41st OAAG Awards Gala takes place at the Harbourfront Centre on Monday, November 19, at 6pm. Winners will be announced live during the ceremony.

For more information, visit the OAAG website.

Last week, graduate students in the Architecture and Urban Design programs at the Daniels Faculty got a chance to connect with principals and professionals from the architecture and design community, who generously volunteered to share their insight and advice.

With 32 professionals and alumni attending the event, students had an opportunity to share their concerns, ask questions, and receive valuable tips on how to advance their studies and skills to land on their desired career path.
 
“I was really worried about the future and what to expect after graduation,” said Master of Architecture Student Zoha Nekouian. “I asked what firms expect from students and the answers were really relieving.”
 
Students who attended the event agreed that it was a positive and helpful experience.
 
In his conversation with Alex Josephson, Master of Urban Design student Saif Malhas learned that there is no perfect candidate and that your skills will always have room to grow.
 
Master of Architecture student, Weixin Zhao, who is completing her thesis this year, learned to not be afraid of approaching the designers themselves and applying to them directly when looking for jobs. 
 
The one-on-one conversations provided the students with a more in-depth and direct exchange of knowledge and guidance.
 
 "It was nice to have people show interest in what you wanted to do and keep the conversation going," said Master of Architecture student Sky Ece Ulosoy.
 
The Daniels Faculty would like to extend its gratitude to all the professionals, most of whom are alumni, who participated in this event with our students.

The autumn issue of U of T Magazine asks, "How can we make our neighbourhoods more affordable, more sustainable — and more fun?" In addition to articles that highlight how U of T experts and alumni are addressing affordable housing, accessibility, and sustainability, the issue includes a profile of Daniels alumnus Claude Cormier (BLA 1986), one of Canada's best known landscape architects.

Writes Jason McBride:

His firm, Claude Cormier et Associés, is as celebrated for the originality and whimsy of its work as it is for its resourcefulness. That work, ranging from pocket parks to innovative installations, is spread across Ontario and Quebec and, more recently, Chicago and Houston: places such as Sugar Beach, with its bubblegum-pink umbrellas, and the surprisingly lush gardens of Evergreen Brick Works. In some cases, these creations are subtle; others are as pleasantly in-your-face as a wedding cake. A graduate of U of T and Guelph and Harvard universities, Cormier opened his Montreal-based firm in 1995 and currently has 50 different projects on the go.
 

Cormier has designed many of Toronto's most engaging, most talked about, and perhaps most instagrammed public spaces, including Berczy Park in St. Lawrence Market, where he is pictured, above.

"Cities are for living in, but they're also for having fun and shedding the stress of our daily lives," he tells McBride. "I dare you to walk by this park without being drawn in with a smile on your face."

Cormier received a Bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the Daniels Faculty in 1986 and went on to receive a Master’s degree in History and Theory of Design from Harvard in 1994. Since establishing Claude Cormier + Associés, he has received numerous awards, including the Knight of the Ordre National du Quebec, and Emerging Voices award from the Architectural League of New York and the Médaille de l’Université de Montreal. Claude was listed among 14 international designers advancing the design field by Fast Company magazine in 2007 and last year, he was invited by Phaidon Press to be featured in a publication as one of the top 30 Landscape architects in the world.

Those who haven't received a copy of the magazine can find the issue on U of T Magazine's website.

Also featured in the Autumn issue:

Drew Sinclair (March 2007) is included in an article on affordable housing ("The cities we need are affordable," page 19 - 21) for his work on a project based in Hamilton that will make it possible for condo units to be expanded to accommodate a growing family or downsized as an owner's needs change over time.

The Daniels Faculty's Green Roof Innovation Testing Laboratory (GRIT Lab) is featured in an article about sustainability ("The cities we need are sustainable," page 30- 37) among other projects at U of T that are researching how cities can better respond and adapt to climate change.

Photos, top, by Jaime Hogge

For the past three years, Daniels Faculty alumnus Andrew Choptiany (March 2014) has been working in the studio of the London-based firm Carmody Groarke, where he has had the opportunity to contribute to projects such as the Dorset County Museum, Paddington Hotel, the Temporary Museum for Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Hill House, House and Studio Lambeth, and the Victoria & Albert Members’ room. This past summer the practice, founded in 2006 by Kevin Carmody and Andy Groarke, was the subject of the Spanish monograph publication El Croquis. We caught up with Choptiany to ask about life after graduation and how his time at the Daniels Faculty helped prepare him for this role.

What is it like to work in London, England?
London is a very fast paced city, and to paraphrase David Chipperfield from the conversation between him, Kevin and Andy in the El Croquis, the architecture here is mercantile in the way that it requires a keen sense of tightly honed design as well as a kind of nimble positioning within a competitive environment. The part I like the most about working in London is that there is a common culture of design. There are lectures and events to attend every night but more than that, good design permeates all levels of culture and can be found anywhere you look. Working at Carmody Groarke in particular has opened up the horizons and possibilities of design. The community that has been fostered there is one in which every team member is striving for the highest quality in architecture and often results in passionate debates arguing the comparative value of material decisions. The atmosphere is a mixture of university atelier mixed with the attention to detail and professional business acumen required to realising buildings.

How did your education at the Daniels Faculty prepare you for your current role?
The U of T program has a high-level strategic focus that has been crucial to understanding the way a complex city like London operates. Additionally, the history and theory streams gave a foundation from which it was possible to develop an understanding of the architectural environment that underlies practicing architecture today.
 
What advice do you have for new students starting the Master of Architecture program in the Fall?  
The most important advice I can give is to be aware of the design discussion that is going on at a global level at the same time as absorbing as much as possible of that which makes the Canadian milieu unique and vibrant.

Images top, courtesy of Carmondy Groarke

Assistant Professor Fadi Masoud (MLA 2010) was appointed to Waterfront Toronto's Design Review Panel this past summer.

Formed in 2001, by the federal, provincial, and municipal governments, "Waterfront Toronto has a 25-year mandate to transform 800 hectares (2,000 acres) of brownfield lands on the waterfront into beautiful, sustainable mixed-use communities and dynamic public spaces."  Comprised of leaders in architecture, landscape design, engineering, and planning, its Design Review Panel is responsible for setting design standards across the waterfront and helping Toronto achieve worldwide recognition as a centre of creativity and design.

Masoud, who teaches in the Daniels Faculty's landscape architecture program, joins faculty members Professor Brigitte Shim, Professor Emeritus George Baird, and Sessional Lecturer Pat Hanson as well as Alumni Claude Cormier (Barch 1986) and Janna Levitt (MArch 1986) who are also part of the panel.

Masoud’s research and design work engages the landscape and its underlying systems as operational forces in shaping urbanism. His current work focuses on establishing relationships between these dynamic large-scale environmental systems, design, and the instrumentality of planning frameworks, policies, and codes.

Prior to joining the University of Toronto, Masoud was a Lecturer in Landscape Architecture and Urban Design at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and an affiliated faculty with the MIT Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism, where he co-led research and design projects on coastal urbanism, urban codes, and the Future of Suburbia.

Masoud is currently working on a graphic-rich atlas and an interactive web-platform that charts the evolution, potentials, and impending vulnerabilities of urban districts built on reclaimed land. He also co-leads a multi-year research project for the development of a climate adaptive planning and design tool titled flux.land for Broward County, Florida. His 2018 Option Studio "Coding Flux: In Pursuit of Resilient Urbanism in South Florida" recently received the Sloan Award, a Studio Prize from Architect magazine.