Congratulations to Daniels faculty and alumni whose firms have been listed among the finalists for the OAA Design Excellence Awards. A total of 20 projects were shortlisted for the awards.

“The 2018 finalists have set a new standard for excellence in architecture and represent a dynamic range of bold and cutting-edge thinking that architects in our province are fast becoming renowned for. The projects demonstrate exciting new approaches to functionality that enhance the lives of Ontarians, Canadians and global citizens,” said OAA President, John Stephenson. “Once again, I’m pleased that through the OAA Awards we can celebrate the world-class design and vision of architects based in Ontario that are creating and inspiring powerful contributions for our future.”

The finalists were selected from 111 submissions based on the following criteria: creativity, context, sustainability, good design/good business and legacy. Over the month of March, each finalist will be featured on the OAA blOAAg.

Below is a list of the shortlisted projects by faculty and alumni firms. (Listed in same order as the photos in the gallery above.)

Bahá’í Temple of South America
Santiago, Chile
By Hariri Pontarini Architects, the firm of David Pontarini (Barch 1983) and Siamak Hariri

House on Ancaster Creek
Ancaster, ON
By Williamson Williamson Inc., the firm of Associate Professor Shane Williamson, director of the Faculty's Master of Architecture program, and Betsy Williamson

Collaborative Greenhouse Technology Centre
Vineland, ON
By Baird Sampson Neuert Architects Inc., the firm of Professor Emeritus George Baird and Professor Barry Sampson

Alta Chalet
Town of the Blue Mountains, ON
By Atelier Kastelic Buffey Inc., the firm of Kelly Buffy (MArch 2007) and Robert Kastelic

Casey House
Toronto, ON
By Hariri Pontarini Architects

Environmental Science and Chemistry Building, University of Toronto, Scarborough
Scarborough, ON
By Diamond and Schmitt Architects Incorporated, the firm of Donald Schmitt (Barch 1977) and A. J. Diamond

National Arts Centre Rejuvenation
Ottawa, ON
Diamond and Schmitt Architects Incorporated

Julis Romo Rabinowitz Building & Louis A. Simpson International Building, Princeton University
Princeton, NJ, USA
By KPMB Architects, the firm of Bruce Kuwabara (Barch 1972), Shirley Blumberg (Barch 1975), and Marianne McKenna

Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University
Evanston, IL, USA
By KPMB Architects

Remai Modern
Saskatoon, SK
By KPMB Architects (Design Architect) and Architecture49 Inc. (Architect of Record)

McEwen School of Architecture/ École d’architecture McEwen
Sudbury, ON
By LGA Architectural Partners Ltd., the firm of Janna Levitt (BArch 1986) and Dean Goodman (BArch 1983)

Visit the OAA website for a complete list of the shortlisted projects.

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In other OAA news, John Stephenson (Barch 1978) has been elected to serve as OAA President for a second one-year term.

From the OAA press release:

Stephenson is one of the founding partners of FORM Architecture Engineering, the largest architectural practice in Northwestern Ontario, established in 1986 as Kuch Stephenson Architects. After receiving his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Architecture, he worked as an intern architect in Toronto, before relocating to Northwestern Ontario in 1980, where he continued his internship with Graham Bacon Welter Architects & Consulting Engineers prior to beginning his practice in Thunder Bay.
 
As OAA president, Stephenson is committed to building a strong profession that is valued and empowered to serve the public interest through excellence in design and professional practice.
 
“In addition to design excellence, the key to achieving this goal is recognizing that effective project and risk management is central to the architect’s role today,” he says.
 
Stephenson joined OAA Council in 2013. He had originally served a term in the early 1990s, continuing to volunteer with the Association afterward. Since then, he has participated in several committees, task forces and executive roles, serving as Senior Vice President and Treasurer for the two years prior to becoming President.
During his time on Council, Stephenson has taken part in several new and ambitious initiatives, many of which remain in progress, including the OAA Headquarters Renew + Refresh project, re-imagining the OAA Honours and Awards program, a new media content creation and communication strategy and, in collaboration with ARIDO, considering ways in which the practice of interior design could be regulated under the Architects Act.
Stephenson is particularly passionate about promoting continued public engagement and advocacy by architects on topics such as procurement, housing affordability and the role of the architectural profession in reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
 
During his first year as President, Stephenson led the profession in a vigorous campaign refusing to participate in procurement processes that require architects to contract out of their professional obligations. He has also been a vocal advocate for more enlightened employment practices by architects and for the creation of a National Architecture Policy to guide the procurement of architectural services and the creation of a safe, healthy and uplifting built environment for all Canadians.
 

Congratulations to Stephenson on his election!

On February 27, students in the Daniels Faculty's Master of Landscape Architecture program met with professionals working in the field to learn more about life after graduation and gather tips on developing their future careers. This year's event, generously supported by the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OALA), was well attended, with 15 professionals, many of them Daniels Faculty alumni, joining students at One Spadina. Students rotated from table to table to meet with everyone who generously donated their time to provide insight and advice.
 
So what did they learn? We surveyed some of the students afterwards and collected 8 tips for Master of Landscape Architecture students about to start their career.

1. Not all firms are alike
Every firm is different. As a result, each has different criteria for the type of people they're looking to hire. Niloufar Eesfarjani learned about the importance of determining what makes each firm unique, so that you can "tailor your cover letter or resume to address what they are looking for."
 
2. Your dream job is out there! Find the firm that's right for you
"One of the professionals told me: don't be afraid to quit if you aren't having fun at work," said Carlos Portillo. "There will be something that is right for you," so don't waste your time at a place that isn't a good fit.

 
3. Career paths can vary
"There were so many differences in what people had done beforehand," noted Blake Creamer after meeting with the professionals. "Landscape architecture is so varied that you can find what you are really interested in and go for that, which is really nice."
 
4. Highlight what will make you stand out in the crowd
Many of the students who attended the event sought advice on how to create an eye-catching portfolio. But, as Cornell Campbell learned, firms receive so many, they can't look at them all. One piece of advice he received is to "create info sheets about your work and projects — a couple pages that they can easily browse through to get a sense of you and your work." You can show them your full portfolio when they invite you in.
 
Reesha Morar was interested to learn how similar many portfolios can be, given that recent graduates often include student work stemming from the same assignments. "Diversity is very good; they want to see different styles," she said. "Someone said they want to see sketch models, which a lot of us find are very messy or rough. A lot of elements that we don't realize are valuable, they see as valuable."

5. It's not just the skills you have but how you use them
Most of us know how to use photoshop and other programs, said Irene Wong, so listing these skills on your resume is not going to set you apart. It's how you put those skills to use that matters. Like Morar, she learned that showing your creative process can be helpful: "A lot of the professionals said that the wanted to see hand drawings and rough models."
 
6. Being a good salesperson leads to more creative work
Working in a firm often means having to please a client who may value the bottom line above all else. Alyssa Lagana learned that "you have to convince people of the value of your designs." Once you are able to do this, you can begin to make small changes to the project that match your creative vision.
 
7. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want
"One thing I learned last year and this year is to be really forward. There are a ton of people here and you have to make yourself known in some way," said Emily McKenna, who landed a summer job last year thanks to a connection she made at this event. "Last year when I got my job, I just asked for it. I had a really lovely conversation with someone and felt really compelled by the work she was doing. So I just asked, and she happened to have a spot."

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Thanks to all the professionals who joined us for this event, including: Elyse Parker, City of Toronto; Claude Cormier, Claude Cormier + Associates; Bryce Miranda, DTAH; Doris Chee, Hydro One Networks Inc.; Caroline Cosco, Ontario Ministry of the Environment; Brett Hoornaert, The Planning Partnership; Scott A Torrance, Scott Torrance Landscape Architecture Inc; Shadi Gilani, Terraplan Landscape Architects; Lina Al-Dajani, The MBTW Group; Jane Welsh, City of Toronto Environmental Planning; Ken McGowan, Bioroof Systems; Darcie McIsaac, Terraplan Landscape Architects; Jana Joyce, The MBTW Group; Michael Cullen, Terraplan Landscape Architects; Kiran Chhiba, Dillon Consulting Limited.

On Friday, February 23, at 2:00pm, Elise Hunchuck (MLA 2016) presents a public lecture at the Architectural Association (33 Bedford Square, First Floor Front) in London, UK. Titled "An Incomplete Atlas of Stones," her talk is based on her book of the same title.

From the event description:

In the wake of the 869 Jogan tsunami along the Pacific coast of Japan, communities began to erect stone tablets called tsunami stones. These stones performed a dual function; they were warnings – markers of the edges of inundation, they indicate where to build and where to flee when oceans rise; and, they are memorials, erected as part of a ritual that memorializes geologic events and those lost.

In 1743, on the coast of Sweden along the Bottenhavet (Bothnian Sea), Anders Celsius marked changing elevations of the water in an attempt to measure, and thereby understand, the apparent sea-level decrease of the Bothnian. The marks on these rocks were later visited by Charles Lyell in 1834, and he, in turn, made new marks on the same rocks. Finding the marks of Celsius to be far above the mean water level, Lyell and his new measurements would be part of the developing Scandinavian paradox, and later still, the geological concept of eustasy.

What, we might ask, is the epistemological status of these markers? What kind of knowledge do they produce? Elise Hunchuck will talk about landscape architecture – and its attendant
research and design practices – as deeply political. And, through an exploration between stones on two coastlines – in Japan and Sweden – will develop a framework that insists on illuminating the complexity of the political ecologies of landscapes while drawing attention to newly forming questions as landscape becomes no longer framed as a technology of territories of ownership but of risk.
 

Hunchuck is a researcher, designer, and editor based in Berlin. She is a co-editor of Scapegoat: SCAPEGOAT: Architecture | Landscape | Political Economy. A University Olmsted Scholar, Hunchuck was recently a finalist for the 2017 Maeder-York Landscape Fellowship at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Cambridge, US) and a research fellow with the Landscape Architecture Foundation (Washington DC, US). She has taught at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto and is currently working on research, design, and editorial projects in Canada, Germany, and the US. Her work has been exhibited in Berlin, Toronto, and Venice.

On Tuesday, February 27, students in the Daniels Faculty's Master of Landscape Architecture program will come together with alumni working at some of the top landscape architecture firms in Toronto for the MLA Student-Professionals Networking Event. The annual event gives students the opportunity to ask questions of professionals and gather advice on what to expect after graduation. Sandra Cook (MLA 2017) participated in last year's event as a student, and now works for FORREC, one of the firms that was in attendance.  We asked her about her experience at the Networking event and making the transition to her role as Junior Designer with the firm.
 
Tell me about your experience at last year's Networking event.
The networking session was useful as a means of exposure to all the different directions a career in Landscape Architecture can go. Getting to ask questions to such a diverse spectrum of professional landscape architects was valuable to help plan my career path.
 
Do you remember some of the useful advice you received?
I received this advice was from an early career professional: She said, don’t lose the sense of curiosity and freedom in design that you have developed at school. When you start working, you’ll be bogged down by what’s buildable and affordable, and that’s reality, but keep researching and exposing yourself to cutting edge design and keep working on your passion projects outside of work.
 
Now that you have spent a year in the profession, what advice do you have for students who will soon graduate?
Do your research on the type of work new graduates are doing at the firms you apply to. Since graduating, I’ve realized the work entrusted to new graduates varies widely from firm to firm. In my case, I wanted a job where I would be involved in a project from concept to construction. Gaining construction drawing and administration experience was my priority so I chose a firm that was building projects around southern Ontario.
 
What do you do now at FORREC?
I work as part of the Landscape Studio’s local project team. My first big project at FORREC was helping to project manage FORREC’s entry into the Pier 8 Park competition in Hamilton. During the competition, I got to participate in brainstorming and design pin-ups with senior designers from Landscape, Architecture, Creative and Graphics. We won the competition, and now I’m part of the team working on the construction drawings and administration. I’m really excited to see the park built, although I’ve gotten a sneak-peek using VR thanks to our Creative department— so, so cool!

Image, top, by Sandra Cook for her 2017 MLA Thesis project Wet Land

The Daniels Faculty would like to congratulate Master of Visual Studies student Sam Cotter & alumna Elisa Julia Gilmour (MVS 2016). Both have been longlisted for the inaugural New Generation Photography Award, presented by the Canadian Photography Institute of the National Gallery of Canada and Scotiabank.

Artists on the longlist for the photography award were selected by a panel of 15 nominators comprised of photography experts from arts universities and colleges across Canada.

Three winners will be selected from the longlist and announced in March 2018. Each will receive a cash prize of $10,000 and be featured in a group exhibition at the Canadian Photography Institute PhotoLab located at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa in April 2018 as well as an exhibition at OCAD's Onsite Gallery during the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival in May 2018.

Cotter and Gilmour are both Toronto-based artists. Cotter regularly employs photography, film, and installation to examine issues of visual representation and artifice, while Gilmour works with still and moving images that explore cultural, familial and gender identities.

For more information on the inaugural New Generation Photography Award longlist, visit the Scotiabank website.

Photos above from Elisa Julia Gilmour's Master of Visual Studies thesis Éperdument (Madly) - film stills and installation view from the thesis exhibition at U of T's Art Museum.

Master of Landscape Architecture student Vincent Javet published a Q & A with Pierre Bélanger (BLA 1996) and Lucy Lippard in the Winter 2017 issue of Ground, the magazine of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects.

The discussion considered the roles that globalization, colonialism, and increasing urbanization play in the field of landscape architecture, and explored how landscape architects can work to challenge the exploitation and degradation of the land on which we depend.

"Our ongoing rapid urbanization and the commodification of the world at large has resulted in complex and multilayered socio-economic and environmental issues for the landscape architecture profession to address," writes Javet. "The profession must begin to question its role in the unmaking, formalization, privatization, and sterilization of land at scales ranging from the city to the territory."

Visit Ground magazine's website to read the full Q & A and other articles from the Winter 2017 issue.

Bélanger was the Daniels Faculty's 2016-2017 Michael Hough/OALA Visiting Critic. In January 2016, he presented a public lecture with Jessica F. Green. Titled "What is the Geography of Energy?" the talk explored how landscapes of energy govern the planet, and influence how we conceptualize relationships between human intervention and the natural environment. The full lecture is available on the Daniels Faculty's YouTube channel.

Photo, top: Diavik Diamond Mine, which opened in 2003 in the Northwest Territories excabates deep into the sub-Arctic tundra landscape, via Ground magazine.

Master of Visual Studies alumnus, Brendan George Ko (MVS 2014), has a solo exhibition at CONTACT Gallery (80 Spadina Avenue, Suite 205). Titled Moemoeā, it explores through photograph and video the re-emergence of the Polynesian voyaging canoe in contemporary Hawai'i and how it has revitalized Hawaiian culture and created a community that brings together elders, youth, natives, and non-natives. The exhibition opened January 11 and runs until March 10, 2018.

Ko was the recipient of the 2017 Portfolio Reviews Exhibition Award which recognizes outstanding work presented at CONTACT’s annual Reviews.

From the exhibition description:

In 1973, the Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) was formed to reconcile differing beliefs about the settlement of the Polynesian islands. Was Hawai’i discovered by aimless seafarers unintentionally, as the Western narrative maintained? Or was it found as the result of organized voyages at the hands of ancient explorers as early mythology indicates? The PVS built its first ancestral canoe, and in 1976 the Hōkūleʻa with its crew members travelled from Hawai’i to Tahiti and back, navigating by the stars and proving the skills of their ancestors. Since this inaugural journey, the canoe and its crew have voyaged extensively, most recently concluding a three-year, worldwide journey that included stops in Sydney, Cape Town, and New York City. It was during this voyage that the Hōkūleʻa traversed the St. Lawrence River to Kahnawá:ke Mohawk Territory in Quebec. Amongst the crew on this leg of the journey were educators from Pūnana Leo, a Hawaiian language school which was influenced by the Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke's model of indigenous language education since the early 1980’s.

The exhibition title, Moemoeā (a vision found in dreams), was chosen by the artist to acknowledge the dream shared by the voyaging communities throughout the islands. Articulated through his dual perspectives as a non-Hawaiian and a crew member, Ko’s work foregrounds the idea of the canoe as a tool for change and empowerment. The exhibition includes portraits of the Hōkūleʻa and its navigators, builders, and crew members—known as the ohana wa’a or “family of the canoe.” Accompanying Ko’s photographs made in Kahnawá:ke is a Mohawk pledge to sovereignty, drawing a parallel to the shared vision of indigenous people around the world. His photographs collapse concepts of the ancient and the modern, depicting elements such as a mo’ai statue draped in ti leaves, a petroglyph of a double-hulled canoe, and a watermelon occupying a captain’s seat. A short, large-format video frames the canoe against the motion of the water and the vast landscape. Ambient sounds are punctuated by Hawaiian prayers and stories.

The voyaging canoe’s rebirth in the late 1970s coincided with a growing movement to reclaim native Hawaiian traditions and values, including the craft of the male hula, the playing of the steel guitar, and preservation of the Kānaka Maoli language, which had been outlawed in schools for much of the 20th century. With over fifty vessels now active throughout the Pacific Ocean, the canoe is a platform for teaching traditional knowledge that reaffirms and redefines identity and place for many. Ko’s work is a thoughtful and personal look at a unique part of Hawaiian culture, encompassing images of his own voyaging experiences and of the people he has shared them with.
 

For more information on Moemoeā, visit the Contact photography Festival website.

Image, top: Brendan George Ko, Hokule'a On Her Way Home, 2017

Design Workshop Architects, including Principal Michael Donaldson (MArch 2005), have an installation at the Interior Design Show (IDS), January 18-21.  Titled How Bright is Our Future?, the installation, designed by Donaldson, explores impact of new technologies and whether they inspire hope or fear.

From the project description:

IDS visitors will enter a dark enclosure to encounter a forest of tree-like fixtures. Each of these “trees” offers the viewer a tactile surface printed on the skin of the tree that responds to the viewers touch. They will be asked to react to the most promising and terrifying changes that will inform our future, and record how they view that topic: either as one of hope or one of fear.

Data gathered from all the inputs contributes to an illuminated meter that displays where each individual, as well as the collective result, puts us on that spectrum of fear and hope. The results will also be projected onto a screen where each participant sees how they influence the future – but they must confront the reality that we will all create this future together.

This immersive installation aims to start a dialogue about recognizing change, and get people thinking about what’s next in the future of design.
 

For more details, visit the project's website. More information on the Interior Design Show, held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, can be found here.

On November 17, the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design celebrated the official opening of its new home — the Daniels Building — at historic One Spadina Crescent.

During the day, University of Toronto President, Professor Meric Gertler; Dean of the Daniels Faculty, Professor Richard Sommer; and Chair of the Governing Council at the University of Toronto, Claire Kennedy welcomed donors, alumni, faculty, students, and other esteemed guests to commemorate the Daniels Faculty’s new home.

In the evening, all students and alumni were invited to a party to celebrate. Photographer Harry Choi captured the event, which included dancing, eating, and tours of the new building. Thanks to all who joined us to mark this milestone in our Faculty's history.

More photos are available on the Daniels Faculty's Flickr page.

Alumnus Kelly Doran (MArch 2008), Senior Director - East Africa Programs at the firm MASS, was recently profiled in The Globe and Mail.

"Mr. Doran joined MASS in 2014, in his mid-thirties, after a rise through the profession," writes The Globe's architecture critic Alex Bozikovic. That rise included  receiving the Prix de Rome in Architecture for Emerging Practitioners from the Canada Council for the Arts in 2009, and working for Toronto firms Williamson Williamson Inc. and regionalArchitects.

He is now working from Kigali in Rwanda, "designing an entire campus for an agricultural university, as well as a pair of hospitals in Rwanda and a library for another university in Uganda – among other things."

Yet, as Bozikovic writes:

The past few years have posed questions: How do you design a building in a place where you can't afford to import building materials? How do you build a cancer hospital in a country with no cancer hospitals? And, most important, how do you design a place that will make society better? "That's broadly our mission," Mr. Doran says. "To take the enormous amount of money that is involved in building and make it more equitable."

Visit The Globe and Mail to read the full article.