In a fitting tribute coinciding with Asian Heritage Month, Architecture Professor Brigitte Shim has been recognized by the Association of Chinese Canadian Entrepreneurs (ACCE) with its 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award. 

A not-for-profit organization, the ACCE was incorporated in 1994 to encourage Chinese Canadian entrepreneurship and to enhance the global competitiveness of Chinese Canadian business. It established its Lifetime Achievement Award, among other honours, to recognize outstanding citizens who have made significant contributions to Chinese Canadian business as well to local communities. 

“Receiving this lifetime achievement award from the Association of Chinese Canadian Entrepreneurs is truly an honour,” Prof. Shim says. “The previous recipients, including architect Bing Thom, former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and [businessman and philanthropist] Raymond Chang, have been an enormous source of inspiration to me personally.” 

Born in the Jamaican capital, Kingston, to Hakka emigrants from southern China, Prof. Shim started teaching at the Daniels Faculty in 1988, overseeing core design studios, advanced design studios, thesis studios and courses in the history and theory of landscape architecture.  

In 1994, she and her partner, A. Howard Sutcliffe, founded the architectural design practice Shim-Sutcliffe Architects, which has won 16 Governor General’s Medals and Awards for architecture as well as an American Institute of Architects National Honor Award. Among the firm’s projects are the widely esteemed Integral House in Toronto and the soon-to-open Ace Hotel Toronto in the city’s Entertainment District.  

In 2013, the pair were made members of the Order of Canada. Eight years later, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada awarded them its 2021 Gold Medal, the country’s highest architectural honour. 

Prof. Shim is the 16th recipient of the ACCE Lifetime Achievement Award, which this year was sponsored by RBC. The Association presented its 2022 program in association with the Centre of Entrepreneurship at Centennial College, Ming Pao Daily News, PwC Canada, and the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.  

Daniels Faculty members past and present are among the recipients of this year’s Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) Awards.  

Announced in April, the 2022 recipients were honoured during a May 12 ceremony for invited guests at the Toronto Event Centre. Called a “Celebration of Excellence” by the OAA, it was also streamed live on the organization’s YouTube channel. 

A double winner this year is Kohn Shnier Architects, the practice co-founded by Associate Architecture Professor John Shnier, which has been awarded two Design Excellence Awards for a pair of Toronto projects: a striking residential design known as Tile House in the city’s midtown area and the revitalization of University College, undertaken with E.R.A. Architects, at U of T. 

Located in midtown Toronto, Tile House by Kohn Shnier Architects has been recognized with a 2022 Design Excellence Award by the Ontario Association of Architects. “The exaggerated shadows and minimal material palette of the clay tile,” said the OAA in its citation, “ensure this house is distinct without being abstentious or trendy.” (Photo by Michael van Leur)

“Every effort was made to approach the existing fabric deftly,” said the OAA of the UC project, “to ensure the requirements for access and program modernization did not overwhelm or compromise the qualities of the building the community holds so dear.” 

“Every new element,” it added, “was carefully considered in its relationship to the historic fabric, but also in how it could service the requirements of contemporary education, both now and [in] the future.” 

Also representing the Daniels Faculty on this year’s awards roster is Adjunct Lecturer Diarmuid Nash, winner of a Service Award for Lifetime Design Achievement.  

A partner at Moriyama and Teshima Architects since 1998, Adjunct Lecturer Diarmuid Nash is the recipient of this year’s OAA Award for Lifetime Design Achievement.

A partner at Moriyama & Teshima Architects since 1998, Nash was described by the OAA “as an architect with a career-long commitment to the promotion and achievement of architectural design excellence.” 

Nash is a pillar of the architectural community in Ontario and Canada. In addition to instructing future architects on matters of professional practice for more than two decades at the Faculty, he has also served as president of both the OAA and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. 

Finally, the OAA has also posthumously added Eberhard Zeidler to its Honour Roll, which recognizes prominent deceased members of the architectural profession. The late architect, who passed away at the age of 95 in January, designed such iconic Canadian structures as the Eaton Centre and Ontario Place in Toronto and Canada Place for Expo 86 in Vancouver. 

The late Eberhard Zeidler, who had a long professional and philanthropic relationship with the Daniels Faculty, was added posthumously to the OAA’s Honour Roll. (Photo courtesy of Zeidler Architecture)

After serving as a visiting lecturer and critic, Zeidler was an adjunct professor at the Faculty from 1983 to 1995. Starting in 1999, when the Eberhard Zeidler Scholarship was established, he and his wife Jane also became long-standing benefactors of the school, their generosity culminating in the 37,000-volume Eberhard Zeidler Library in the revitalized Daniels Building at One Spadina Crescent. 

Banner image: Kohn Shnier Architects’ University College Revitalization, undertaken in association with E.R.A. Architects, is one of two projects by the firm of Associate Architecture Professor John Shnier to garner a 2022 Design Excellence Award from the OAA. (Photo by doublespace photography)

A project designed by a trio of Daniels Faculty students that aims to serve the unhoused and precariously housed populations of Toronto has won a National Urban Design Award, presented annually by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC).

Michelle Li, Yongmin (Laura) Ye and Edward Minar Widjaja — all of whom are second-year Master of Architecture students — submitted their project, Mobile Support as Shelter Support Infrastructure, as part of their work for the Integrated Urbanism Studio program.

“We are extremely grateful and honoured by this recognition,” says Ye, co-lead of the project. “Working on this project encouraged us to consider the politics and ethics of designing housing and public spaces, which we will carry into our future design practices.”

Ye and her co-leads received the RAIC award in the category of Student Projects. The award winners were formally announced on March 11.

The three Daniels Faculty students converged on the school from different parts of the world. Michelle Li (1) was born and raised in Toronto; Yongmin (Laura) Ye (2) was born in Tokyo and grew up in Macau; Edward Minar Widjaja (3) hails from Jakarta, Indonesia. (Photos provided by the students)

“Michelle, Laura and Edward took on a challenging and nuanced topic with a rigour that enabled them to question conventions,” says Drew Adams, their instructor, “and to imagine pragmatic and inspired possibilities about empowerment and placemaking in the built environment.”

Here, the students share their thoughts on their project, what they learned, and how they will carry it forward in their careers.

How did Mobile Support as Shelter Support Infrastructure come about?

We chose to focus on shelter support infrastructure as part of the Integrated Urbanism Studio.

Through our research, we discovered that the city has been designing stationary, “brick-and-mortar” solutions (e.g. warming stations, respite sites, shelters, etc.) for unhoused people who are typically mobile. This led us to consider a flexible and temporal system that adapts to a population who is transient.

Why did you focus your project on helping the unhoused and precariously housed of Toronto?

During our research, we realized that unhoused populations have been neglected in most city planning and urban master planning, especially with regards to housing in Toronto. There is a very negative, negligent perception towards people who are unhoused, which is compounded by city bylaws to the point where poverty is criminalized. Designing shelter support infrastructure changes the way services can be provided and how public spaces can be designed to benefit both unhoused people and the local community.

Remember, there is a thin line between having a roof over your head and sleeping on the streets.

Were there other projects that helped serve as templates or inspiration for your submission?

We looked at shelter support networks rather than built projects — organizations such as Encampment Support Network, Toronto Tiny Shelters and Meals on Wheels, which serve those who are precariously housed or unhoused. For precedents on designing transitional and supportive housing, we referred to The SIX by Brooks + Scarpa, which provides supportive housing units for veterans in Los Angeles. We also looked at Eva’s Phoenix by LGA, which provides youth transitional housing in Toronto.

What are your future plans?

Working on this project encouraged us to consider the politics and ethics of designing housing and public spaces, which we will carry into our future design practices — considerations such as how to design an apartment for someone who has experienced trauma, or building welcoming and accessible public spaces for people of all income levels. In studio, we typically do not consider urban policies or the social implications of our designs. However, we see a real possibility of having discussions with people from the community about compassionate design, and bringing in lecturers who are involved in social work or social housing.

Beyond this project, there is the potential of volunteering with a shelter support organization or speaking with social workers who directly engage with vulnerable groups on a frequent basis. In our thesis research, one of us is looking at modular construction, which has the possibility of being adapted for mobile support infrastructure as an extension of this project. We want to address the question: Could designers advocate for housing rights through architecture and urban design?

What kind of guidance did you get during your design process?

We would like to express our deep gratitude to our instructor, Drew Adams, who continuously guided and supported us throughout our research and design process. We wish to thank him for his encouragement and offering his insight on designing shelters for the unhoused and precariously housed. We would also like to thank Steve Hilditch from Hilditch Architect for our conversation on transitional and supportive housing, and Robert Raynor who spoke with us about Toronto Tiny Shelters.

Developing Mobile Support as Shelter Support Infrastructure as part of their Integrated Urbanism Studio challenged the trio “to think about decarbonization, climate resilience, employment, equity and social justice, and to envision new forms of housing, open spaces, infrastructure and social services in the 21st-century city,” according to their instructor Drew Adams. (Illustrations provided by the students)

In 2020, the Daniels Faculty hosted an exhibition on the innovative housing of Toronto-born architect Jerome Markson, called A Quite Individual Course: Jerome Markson, Architect. It was designed and curated by Associate Professor of Architecture Laura Miller, who also wrote a book examining Markson’s architectural and urban work in the context of Toronto’s postwar development. Toronto’s Inclusive Modernity | The Architecture of Jerome Markson (2020) was published by Figure 1.

On April 1, 2022, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) awarded Markson, who graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Toronto in 1953, its 2022 Gold Medal, the highest honour that the Institute can bestow “in recognition of a significant and lasting contribution to Canadian architecture.”

“Markson’s work,” the RAIC jury said in its statement announcing the award, “reveals his lifelong commitment to humanism, inclusivity and generosity, teaching us valuable lessons about urban housing and its critical relationship to city building.”

Here, Prof. Miller offers an appreciation – excerpted from her contribution to the RAIC announcement – of Markson’s work, which involved a range of building typologies and project scales. Selected quotes from nominators and Gold Medal jury members are included, also drawn from the RAIC announcement.

Jerome Markson’s architectural and urban works span the gamut of building types and programs that are possible within architectural practice. He is well-known for his finely crafted and spatially inventive private houses, such as the Moses House in Hamilton, Ontario, but also for many other kinds of buildings, including his thoughtful, materially rich urban housing (see the David B. Archer Co-operative in downtown Toronto), his innovative housing for the aged (Toronto’s True Davidson Metro Home for the Aged), his groundbreaking medical buildings (the Group Health Centre in Sault Ste. Marie) and his numerous cultural and community buildings (such as the Frederick Horseman Varley Art Gallery of Markham).

The longevity of Markson’s practice is a testament not only to his extraordinary commitment, dedication and achievements in architecture over many years, but also speaks to the continued relevance of his work to quite diverse audiences during times of great change – and over time.

“Jerome has contributed at every stage of his long career to the architectural design community,” writes Bruce Kuwabara, founding partner of KPMB Architects. “He has mentored many architects who have contributed to the quality and character of the built environment. Through his thoughtful and determined work, he has made Toronto a better city, a more worldly, cosmopolitan place that expresses conviviality through architecture.”

Markson began studying architecture in 1948, as part of a new generation of Jewish-Canadian architects educated at the University of Toronto after World War II. He joined a class that lived and worked at U of T’s campus in Ajax, Ontario, in a former bomb-making facility that had been converted to classrooms to accommodate the rush of postwar students. His propensity to see architecture as an inherent part of the larger city was evident even in his student days, when he proposed a collaborative thesis project with four other classmates for the design of a new Civic Centre for Toronto.

Markson opened his practice, Jerome Markson Architect, in 1955, during a postwar era of profound social, economic and physical transformation in Canada. Urban planner Macklin Hancock succinctly described the ambition of that time: “Canada suddenly flowered, it wanted to be modern, it didn’t want to be ancient…”

Jerome Markson’s body of work includes a variety of building types and scales, from private residences such as the Moses House in Hamilton (1, 2) and condominium complexes like Toronto’s Market Square (3, 4) to large-scale community and cultural projects such as the Group Health Centre in Sault Ste. Marie (5) and Cedarvale Community Centre in Toronto (6). (Photos by Morely Markson [1, 2], Fiona Smith [3,4] and Roger Jowett [5]).

Markson’s architecture stands among the most important and distinguished records of this critical period in the country’s becoming. His buildings are harbingers of important shifts in sociopolitical attitudes, urban policies, and modes of architectural production as these evolved during second half of the 20th century, and into the 21st, in Canada and across North America.

Imbued with a masterful level of architectural craft and character, his architecture reflects his decades-long pursuit of a more open and inclusive expression of modernity.

“By recognizing Jerome Markson, the RAIC…dignif[ies] the architectural calling of city building and confirm[s] the award is for the totality of a lifelong practice,” writes architecture critic Trevor Boddy. “With his personal and public modesty, his commitment to serving diverse strata of society and to improving our cities thoughtfully, Jerome Markson exemplifies the best of Canadian values.”

Over the course of his career, Markson’s important contributions to the field of architecture, to architectural education and to the arts have been recognized with numerous awards, including the Toronto Society of Architects’ da Vinci Award, the University of Toronto Arbor Award, and the Ontario Association of Architects Lifetime Design Achievement Award.

A Fellow of the RAIC, he has also served on prestigious juries and awards committees, such as the jury for Mississauga City Hall, and has led professional organizations such as the Toronto Society of Architects.

“His work,” the RAIC jury noted, “epitomizes a deep caring towards those who will use and enjoy his projects as well as the communities in which they exist. Many architects will offer praise by referring to colleagues as an ‘architect’s architect.’ Jerome Markson is certainly deserving of the title ‘planner’s architect,’ quite possibly a more difficult and exceptional achievement within the profession.”

An examination of the architect’s work in the context of Toronto’s postwar development, Professor Laura J. Miller’s book on progressive modernist Jerome Markson was published in 2020 by Figure 1.

Associate Professor Robert M. Wright is the 2022 recipient of the Vivek Goel Faculty Citizenship Award, one of the University of Toronto’s annual Awards of Excellence recognizing outstanding faculty, staff and students.

While those who have known Prof. Wright personally won’t be surprised to learn that he has been singled out for his academic dedication and professional intrepidness, a list of just a few of his titles and accomplishments over his past 35 years at U of T should give even the uninitiated some idea of his hands-on m.o.

At Daniels Faculty alone, he has served as the inaugural associate dean for research (from 2010 to 2014), as the Dean’s representative when it came to Site Plan and Landscape Architectural Implementation during the epochal redesign of 1 Spadina (from 2016 to 2018) and as the interim dean of the Faculty itself (in 2020–21).

In previous years and elsewhere at the University, Prof. Wright drafted the Master of Urban Design proposal for Graduate Studies (in 1995–96), was among the founding members of an innovative pre-Internet learning hub called the Knowledge Media Design Institute (which he directed from 1998 to 2003) and played a role in “envisioning and advancing” what will be the tallest wood structure in North America (slated to go up, at 315 Bloor Street West, sometime this summer).

Most significantly, he often undertook these leadership and guidance roles under challenging circumstances from which many others would have shied away.

While he was serving as the founding director of the Centre for Landscape Research, for instance, Prof. Wright also began a two-year term as the last dean of the Faculty of Forestry, successfully overseeing its long-brewing 2017 transitioning into the John H. Daniels Faculty. When he stepped into the role of interim dean, the Covid pandemic was at its peak and addressing racial injustices became an urgent issue.

“Rob has provided strong, successful leadership for a remarkably long list of programs, schools and faculties at the University of Toronto,” Larry Wayne Richards, professor emeritus and former dean of the Daniels Faculty, said in the nomination package for the Vivek Goel Award. “[He’s] an exemplary citizen, to say the least.”

The University of Toronto Alumni Association, which supports and oversees the Awards of Excellence, agreed.

The Vivek Goel Faculty Citizenship Award, created to mark the 2008 departure of its namesake from his role as U of T’s vice-president and provost, recognizes a faculty member who has served the University “with distinction in multiple leadership capacities in diverse spheres.”

The winner is typically “a senior member of the faculty,” and “an exemplary university citizen” over many years. Indeed, recipients are very often individuals with a “sustained” history of service.

Highlighting that long track record, Professor Eric Miller, of the Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering, wrote in the nomination package: “[Prof. Wright] combines a very realistic, pragmatic view of the world and its many challenges — grounded in decades of professional and academic experience — with an amazingly positive and upbeat approach to problem-solving, policy-setting and decision-making, whether it be the design of a new academic program or sorting out thorny interdepartmental relations.”

“This is not an easy task,” Professor Mark Fox of Industrial Engineering and Computer Science added, citing the restructuring of Forestry when it joined the Daniels Faculty, “as the views and needs of faculty and the disappointment of alumni have to be balanced with the long-term goals of the University. To do this with a minimal amount of friction while displaying an unusual level of equanimity [as Prof. Wright did] never ceased to amaze me.”

In her testimonial, Professor Liat Margolis, Prof. Wright’s successor as associate dean of research at the Daniels Faculty, summed up: “He is generous with his time, critical reflections and insights, an excellent listener, and an engaging colleague. His energy and contribution as a citizen of the University and an active leader in the design community are important, but his support for students and their needs are even greater.”

According to Prof. Margolis, Prof. Wright has a mantra that encapsulates his engaged, proactive philosophy. It is: “...the most important thing you can do as a faculty member or as a student of the Daniels Faculty is to leave the building.”

And, she added, “he has done just that.”

The Daniels Faculty’s Barbara Fischer, associate professor (teaching stream) in the Master of Visual Studies program in Curatorial Studies, has been awarded a 2022 President’s Impact Award.

Given out annually, the awards recognize and celebrate University of Toronto faculty members whose research has led to significant impact beyond academia.

Prof. Fischer, who is also the executive director and chief curator of the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, has been cited for her “exceptional contributions to curatorial theory, history and practice, enabling Canadian and international audiences to better understand and learn from contemporary art and artists.”

“I am so honoured to be a recipient of this award,” Prof. Fischer said this week. “It really belongs to the many who are part of the curatorial endeavour: my many amazing colleagues inside the Art Museum, and inside and out of the University, who I’ve had the pleasure to work with and learn from, and who have shaped this unique field of inquiry, research and form of knowledge-sharing; the students whose curiosity and spirited questioning matters ever more, and inspires me; and above all the artists who continue to challenge, guide and exact better from this ever-evolving field of curatorial work.”

Having joined the University in 1999, Prof. Fischer was initially the curator of the Blackwood Gallery at UTM before moving on to her roles at the Daniels Faculty and at the Art Museum at U of T. Outside of the University, she has twice curated Canada’s contribution to the Venice Biennale (in 2009 and most recently as part of a curatorial team in 2019) and overseen such major art exhibitions as the 2003 retrospective of Toronto collective General Idea (which travelled to 18 venues worldwide) and the 2017 project with Cree artist Kent Monkman entitled Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience (which looked at Canada’s history through the lens of Indigenous resilience and attracted massive crowds across the country).

“She stands out among the many impressive Daniels faculty members for how her research – on curatorial practice, and on conceptual, projection-based, counter-historical, feminist and Indigenous art – has made a difference to local and global audiences,” Dean Juan Du wrote of Prof. Fischer in her nomination letter for the President’s Impact Award. “Uniquely, her research is hybridized with curatorial practice, and each exhibition she has organized has integrated her findings with visual and spatial forms of presentation. She ‘makes knowledge visible.’”

Elizabeth Smith, formerly the executive director of curatorial affairs at the Art Gallery of Ontario and currently the executive director of the Frankenthaler Foundation in New York, was quoted in the same letter as saying: “Fischer has buil[t] knowledge of Canadian art in an international context, with consequential import to art history and understanding of cultural relevance of the visual arts… whilst sustaining and garnering a wide-ranging popular audience.”

As a recipient of the President's Impact Award, Prof. Fischer will receive an open grant in the amount of $10,000 per year for five years, for a total of $50,000, to be used toward her research and impact activities. She will also be designated by the University as a member of the President’s Impact Academy for a minimum five-year period, at the end of which she can elect to continue her participation in the Academy.

The President’s Impact Academy meets regularly to discuss matters relevant to research impact and to offer advice to the vice-president, Research and Innovation and Strategic Initiatives. Members also function as advocates for sustained excellence in research and innovation impact within and outside U of T.

“Professionally, I have to digest this a little more,” Prof. Fischer said when asked how she might make use of the award funds. “I am very excited about being able to strengthen the MVS Curatorial Studies stream through an annual Curatorial Collaboratory Initiative set up between the Art Museum and the academic programs with which we have ongoing relations, with focused workshops and exchanges between local and international curatorial and artist voices. I also hope to expand the library of books on exhibition and curatorial history, theory and practice, and to make it accessible of course.

“And then,” she added, “there are a couple of research projects that I am working on for which this support will go a long way and that I hope to be able to share in exhibition form, but they still need incubation time.”

Banner image: Photo by Gelek Badheytsang

“Black. Black. Black.”

Clara James could barely contain her smile as she heard her mentor Jay Pitter utter those words inside a packed gallery space in downtown Toronto. James and Pitter were at Collision Gallery to celebrate the conclusion of the inaugural cohort of the Building Black Success Through Design (BBSD) mentorship program.

Held on March 26, the BBSD showcase event featured young Black talent in architecture and design. It also pointed to the systemic and institutional barriers, across generations, that spurred the creation of the mentorship program in the first place.

“I know that the people most impacted by poor design are people who don’t have access to design professions,” Pitter, the international urbanist and author, said in her remarks to the audience. “So, the work that is happening here tonight is radical and liberatory.”

Attended by BBSD participants, organizers, supporters from the Faculty, and community members, the showcase was a culmination of an initiative started over a year ago by James and her Black Students in Design (BSD) team members. It was a collective endeavour that required “a village,” as James put it, of advocates and advisors from within Daniels Faculty and beyond.

Daniels Faculty Dean Juan Du (left) with BBSD mentee Christine Pizzoferrato, whose final design submission was awarded the Impact Award. (Photo by Harry Choi)

“Having the BBSD showcase solidified everything that we’d been working towards at Daniels Faculty,” says James, a few days after the event. “It was really exciting and gratifying to see it come to fruition in the way that it did that night.”

Jalyne James (no relation to Clara James) was one of the high school students who participated in the 10-week mentorship program. It was the first program of its kind that he had ever participated in.

“I thought it would be good for my portfolio heading into university,” James said at the event. He had already been taking a couple of architecture classes in Cawthra Park Secondary School, one of the two regional art schools in the Peel District School Board.

James was initially unsure about how the program would unfold because of the pandemic but ended up finding the experience “extremely inspiring and rewarding” because of the connections he made, the design skills he acquired, and the new aspects of architecture that he learned. “As a Black LGBTQ youth, meeting all kinds of Black students and design professionals was incredibly enlightening and uplifting,” he said.

His mentor, Tamilore Ayeye, attested to the flexibility and enthusiasm that the mentees demonstrated over the course of a program that was conducted entirely online. “The past 10 weeks have been a really great learning experience for both the mentees and the mentors,” he said. “Seeing the mentees trying to find their way through the design and architecture world reminded me of when I first got into the field, and also taught me a lot about my own journey right now.”

An undergraduate student in the Architectural Studies program, Ayeye plans on continuing to support the BBSD program in the future and hopes to build something similar in his hometown of Lagos, Nigeria, if the opportunity arises. “Clara and the BSD executive team have laid a solid template for me to start a program like the BBSD for youth back home,” he said.

Architectural Studies student Tamilore Ayeye (left) met his mentee Jalyne James in person for the first at the showcase. James was awarded the Creative Award for his final submission. (Photo by Harry Choi)

The mentors met their mentees on a regular basis, helping the high school youth develop and refine their design projects. The mentees also attended workshops and lectures, some of which were delivered by Daniels Faculty members Erica Allen-Kim and Reza Nik.

“Bringing together high school and undergraduate students, practitioners and professionals under one roof is the type of mentorship we need more of in architecture,” says Nik, who helped arrange the Collision Gallery space for the showcase. “BBSD is an important step toward expanding the role and the responsibility of the University to the wider fields, of playing a more proactive role in taking anti-racist thoughts and critiques into practice.”

Jalyne James and the rest of his cohort (seven in total) were all awarded individual prizes by a jury panel featuring Pitter, Kathryn Lawrence and Daniels Faculty sessional lecturer Otto Ojo. From drafting to creativity and community, the awards recognized specific skills among the mentees and highlighted unique attributes within each of the final submissions.

“The quality of their work, as high school students, really stuck out to me,” said Lawrence, an interior designer at Perkins+Will and founder of the Ubuntu Creative Arts Project based in Kingston, Jamaica. “It’s amazing that they were able to learn programs like SketchUp, look at sites, ideate spaces, plan, and everything else in the span of 10 weeks.”

Kathryn Lawrence (centre) with her colleagues from the design firm Perkins+Will. Lawrence was one of the three members of the jury panel that reviewed the BBSD showcase final submissions. (Photo by Harry Choi)

Aidan Cowling, part of the Daniels Faculty Outreach team and a key supporter of both the BSD and BBSD initiatives, reflected on the sense of community that Clara James and her peers inculcated in the school. Cowling had been at the gallery since the morning, helping put together the showcase. “Supporting the BBSD program reminded me that the communal aspect of building something together makes it so much stronger and fun,” he says. “The process of building something like this mentorship program for Black youth – the values, the ideas, inclusion – is as important as the final product itself.”

Clara James echoed this sentiment as she reflected on the showcase and her future plans. The days leading up to the event and the showcase itself had been a whirlwind of emotions for the Daniels Faculty alumna, who currently works as a studio assistant on campus. Seeing the mentees and their supporters experience the showcase more than made up for the exhaustion and nervousness she felt.

“Having everybody come up to me and say ‘thank you for this opportunity and for this experience’ really made my heart explode,” she says. “That’s the reason I do what I do.”

James hopes to continue building on this momentum. She would like the mentorship program to run year-round, in more post-secondary spaces across Canada. Eventually, her dream is to make BBSD a national program, one that she could actually work in, full-time.

These aspirations that James holds are guided by what Jay Pitter referred to as “servant leadership” in her remarks at the start of the event. James had personally invited her mentor to attend the showcase. This is the latter half of the speech that Pitter delivered:

What I want to underscore is that those of us who work in these professions are not afforded the luxury of simply building our careers. The work that we do is ancestral work. We are descended from people who’ve been displaced and devalued for five hundred years. So the work that we do as Black land-use professionals – it is not just about designing sleek spaces, it is not just about beauty – it is about redressing centuries of spatialized anti-Blackness. We are not afforded the privilege to simply earn an education or build our portfolios. We have to bring our communities, our families with us. Clara is a servant leader. She is our ancestors’ wildest dreams. And I couldn’t be more proud to introduce her to you this evening.

The BSD executive team, formed in 2020, started work on the BBSD mentorship program a year ago. Clara James (third from left, wearing a green top) is the founder and president of the group. (Photo by Harry Choi)

The BBSD showcase at Collision Gallery concluded on April 1. It will be placed as an installation at the Daniels Faculty Building at 1 Spadina Crescent at some point later this year.

The design awards and the recipients are as follows:

Writing Award: Chioma Obi
Drafting Award: Nityanand Baldeo
Creative Award: Jalyne James
Above and Beyond Award: Tee Alabi
Site Award: Kyle Clahar
Community Award: Audrina Stewart
Impact Award: Christine Pizzoferrato

Click here to learn more about Black Students in Design.

The March 26 showcase featured final submissions that the seven BBSD mentees developed in the span of 10 weeks. Project descriptions, photos and scale models were put on display in Collision Gallery by Clara James and a team of organizers. (Photos by Harry Choi)

Banner image: Members of the BSD executive team and BBSD participants pose for a group shot before the formal start of the showcase event. Clockwise from top-left: Vienna Holdip (BSD), Tee Alabi (mentee), Nityanand Baldeo (mentee), Kyle Clahar (mentee), Christine Pizzoferrato (mentee), Tamilore Ayeye (mentor), Jalyne James (mentee), Audrina Stewart (mentee), Tomi Bamigbade (BSD), Clara James (BSD), Renée Powell-Hines (BSD) and Rayah Flash (BSD). (Photo by Harry Choi)

Master of Forest Conservation alumnus Thomas McCay has been named one of 2021’s “Top 10 Under 40” by Canadian Forest Industries, distinguishing him as an emerging leader in his field.

The annual list, now in its 10th year, identifies those who “exemplify the best of our sector, from outstanding log haulers to sawmillers, foresters and others,” according to CFI, the forest and wood-processing sector’s leading magazine. Candidates, it adds, come from across the country.

McCay, who completed his MFC studies at Daniels Faculty in 2014, says he was surprised when he was first informed of the selection last year. “I often struggle with imposter syndrome, so it is nice,” he says, “to have some outsiders think that what we are doing here is remarkable.”

McCay currently works at Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve Ltd., where he also completed his MFC internship. As its chief forester, he is entrusted with sustainably managing the privately owned, 100,000-acre Ontario reserve, which includes three operating sawmills, 100 lakes, millions of trees and a large amount of wildlife.

“I think that the broad-based and multiple-perspective approach to forestry education at Daniels set me up well for Haliburton, whose unofficial motto is ‘We don't have it all figured out,’” says McCay, who lives in the Township of Algonquin Highlands with his wife and two children. “A true pursuit of adaptive management and continuous improvement is what I think sets us apart at both Haliburton and the Daniels Faculty.”

Some of McCay’s notable achievements since graduation include creating a private land consulting practice called Stewardship Services, forming the Haliburton Forest Research Institute, and launching the hardwood sawmill Almaguin Forest.

A love of the outdoors was the genesis behind McCay’s early interest and subsequent career in forestry. “I like the practical challenges, and the diversity of work and skills of the job,” he told the publication County Life last year. “I’m also a true believer in forest products as the best renewable resource we have available to us.”

Banner image: Thomas McCay, 32, credits the broad and multiple-perspective approach to forestry education he received at Daniels Faculty for enabling him to grow and thrive in his career. (Image from CFI)

How can data science, artificial intelligence (AI), design and architecture work together to help mitigate the effects of climate change on residential buildings in disadvantaged communities? This is the key question driving an interdisciplinary research project that was awarded the Data Sciences Institute’s (DSI’s) Catalyst Grant in February.

The project, titled Using Geometric Data to Construct More Equitable Living Spaces, is a collaborative undertaking between two University of Toronto faculties. Alec Jacobson, assistant professor of computer science, leads the project as principal investigator; assistant professors Maria Yablonina and Brady Peters from the architecture program at Daniels Faculty serve as co-principal investigators. Together, they represent one of the 17 proposals that received a DSI Catalyst Grant in 2022.

“Ever since Maria and Brady gave invited lectures to my computer graphics research group, my students and I have been eager to think of ways we can collaborate,” says Jacobson. “The DSI Catalyst grant was a perfect opportunity given its mandate for interdisciplinarity, and its social and equity themes which resonated with all of us.”

Their project, to be conducted over two years, was awarded the maximum grant amount of $100,000 for its first year. It will be based on two main, parallel research tracks:

1. Researching techniques to simulate and visualize the thermal properties, manufacturing costs and maintenance requirements of the elements which compose residential buildings and structures.
2. Building a comprehensive dataset from these studies to train the next generation of AI-driven design tools.

Funded PhD students from computer science and architecture will be recruited to work collaboratively on both research tracks. The students will appear as co-authors on publications and be able to present findings with the principal investigators at major academic and research venues.

The research project will include a week-long collaborative retreat in the summer of its first year. The retreat will feature a hackathon event, and training workshops on core topics and software tools.

“While thermal simulations in architecture have been considered in the past, our [team of principal investigators] brings a fresh combined perspective with expertise in geometry processing, computer graphics, architecture and robotics,” the research proposal states. “A key to our success will be translating the domain-specific problems in architecture into optimization, simulation and machine learning problems for which tools in geometry processing and computer graphics can be readily and effectively applied.”

The group plans to curate and present their findings in a format that is accessible to the wider AI and machine learning communities.

The Data Sciences Institute Catalyst Grants are supported by the University of Toronto Institutional Strategic Initiatives and external funding partners, with two of the 2022 Catalyst Grants co-funded by Medicine by Design directed to finding solutions to challenges in regenerative medicine.

Banner image: Using Geometric Data to Construct More Equitable Living Spaces is a collaborative research project between the Faculty of Arts & Science’s computer science PhD program and the Daniels Faculty’s architecture PhD program. (Image provided by Qingnan Zhou and Alec Jacobson)

Two Daniels Faculty members are among the recipients of this year’s Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation (LACF) grants, given out every year in support of landscape-related research, communication and scholarship.

MLA Professor Alissa North has been awarded the Northern Research Bursary and a grant of $10,000, while Sessional Lecturer Kaari Kitawi receives the Gunter Schoch Bursary and a grant of $8,650.

North was recognized in relation to the upcoming book Innate Terrain: Canadian Landscape Architecture, of which she is editor.

Featuring essays by Canadian scholars and practitioners as well as some 150 colour illustrations, the work centres on the argument that Canadian landscape architecture is distinct because of the unique qualities of Canada’s terrain and the particular relationship between Canadians and their natural surroundings.

Innate Terrain is slated be published by University of Toronto Press in hardcover, paperback and e-book form in August.

Kitawi, meanwhile, was recognized for her digital outreach project using videos of Black professionals to expose BIPOC high schoolers to the fields of design and planning.

Over the past two years, Kitawi has been giving career talks to that end at schools in her neighbourhood and abroad. To reach a wider audience, however, she recently started producing videos featuring interviews with Black professionals from around the world about their career journeys. They’re disseminated through a YouTube channel that Kitawi created, called Careers Unboxed with Kaari.

The intention, she says, is to have young BIPOC viewers see themselves reflected in these professionals and to encourage them to explore such careers for themselves.

“It is important for us to tell our stories in order to change the narrative,” Kitawi says, adding that the LACF grant “will further this work by developing a special series focused on Black professionals in architecture, landscape architecture and planning in Canada.”

For more information on the LACF grant program and other 2022 recipients, click here.