Extended! On view until Friday, December 5, 2025
Weekdays, 9:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Larry Wayne Richards Gallery

Panel Discussion: Tuesday, November 11, 2025
1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
KPMB Seminar Room: DA230
Register for the panel talk

An exhibit at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design is celebrating the impact of the Howarth-Wright Graduate Fellowship since it was established 25 years ago

A bequest made by Professor and Dean Emeritus Thomas Howarth (1914-2000) has since enabled 16 master of architecture students to pursue in-course research related to the celebrated American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959). 

Fellows immerse themselves in Wright’s work and thought by undertaking independent study at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, AZ, Wright’s home, studio and school, and at other buildings designed by Wright. The value of each award is approximately $20,000. 

“The Howarth-Wright Fellowship has given Daniels architecture students an invaluable opportunity to study the work of this remarkable figure—often neglected in architectural education—and to demonstrate their own capacity,” says Professor Robert Levit, acting dean of the Daniels faculty.

The Howarth-Wright at 25 is on display in the Larry Wayne Richards Gallery within the Daniels Building at 1 Spadina Crescent until December 5. The exhibit includes a detailed history of the fellowship, its benefactor and as well as artifacts, stories and critiques from past fellows. 

Joy Charbonneau (MArch 2006) spent a year at Taliesin as a 2003/04 fellow. 

“Part of the education at Taliesin allows students to design and build their own desert shelter to live in. I decided to take the opportunity and build a home for future visiting U of T architecture students,” she says. 

Charbonneau, a senior architect with Diamond Schmitt in Toronto, designed a space conducive to researching and to reflective thinking in the desert environment, considering time, temperature and location.

“The main interior space is surrounded by gabion walls that contextually reference the desert masonry at Taliesin. These porous masses allow air to filtrate through while shielding heat. The birch ply interior adds material warmth, and its western orientation allows the evening sun to radiate inside for the cold nights. Two large windows open at one end and present a view of the city of Scottsdale below." 

For her design, Charbonneau says she didn’t want to disturb the natural landscape or buy rocks from a landscaping supplier. She was pointed to a nearby construction site, where she dug rocks and loaded them into five-gallon buckets.

“I designed and built this physical, tangible architecture with my own hands,” says Charbonneau, who estimates she collected and hauled over 300 buckets of rock. “I remember the confidence it gave me to continue my path in architecture.” 

Jimenez Lai (MArch 2007) received the 2005/06 fellowship. While at Taliesin, Lai began writing a graphic novel based on Wright’s suburban development concept, Broadacre City. 

“For my [fellowship] research, I proposed to send Broadacre City into space as a spaceship, traveling at the speed of light to another habitable planet for 10,000 years. Without gravity, every surface became occupiable — all orthographic projections became plans, elevations, and ceiling plans at the same time.” 

His short story was published by archinect in 2005. It became the starting point for Citizens of No Place: An Architectural Graphic Novel, published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2012.

“I created a graphic novel to expand on life within the spaceship. The relationship with gravity became my first installation, Phalanstery Module in 2008, which led to my MoMA-collected project, White Elephant in 2014,” he says. 

Lai has since received many accolades for his work, including the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects, the Debut Award at the Lisbon Triennale and the Designer of the Future at Art Basel. Lai's work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern in New York City, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

As the founder of Bureau Spectacular in Los Angeles, CA, Lai works at the intersection of art, architecture, cultural theory and fiction writing and is an adjunct associate professor at the University of Southern California (USC) School of Architecture. This year, he has returned to Taliesin’s The School of Architecture as a visiting professor. 

“The Howarth-Wright continues to be part of my day-to-day life and my career at large.”