The Daniels Mural Project team is launching a week-long series of programming for Treaties Recognition Week from November 1  to 5. Treaties Recognition Week helps to honour the importance of treaties and increase awareness about treaty rights and treaty relationships. Please see the list of events below.

Graphic by Mariah Meawasige (@Makoose)

Monday, November 1

Treaties Recognition Week: Opening Ceremony 
7:44 a.m. Stantec Architecture Courtyard

Join us at 7:44 a.m. outside at the north façade patio of the Daniels Building (Stantec Architecture Courtyard) as we commence the start of Treaties Recognition Week with a sunrise ceremony led by Elder Whabagoon and a Jingledance by Robin Rice. 

Registration is not required 

Treaties Recognition Week: First Story Toronto Story Walk of University of Toronto St. George with Jon Johnson and Jill Carter 
1:00 p.m. online via Zoom

Much of the contemporary and historic relationships, injustices, and struggles related to Indigenous nations in Canada is rooted in treaties. Join Dr. Jon Johnson and Dr. Jill Carter, and others from First Story Toronto for a virtual walk and interactive discussion of places and stories that exemplify some of the historic and contemporary treaties of the Toronto area. Stories will focus on injustice, Indigenous resistance and resilience, and our collective ongoing treaty responsibilities with First Nations communities. 

Register 

Treaties Recognition Week: Canada By Treaty  
6:30 p.m. online via Zoom

Join James Bird and Dr. Heidi Bohaker and Nathan Tidridge as they discuss their travelling exhibition "Canada by Treaty," which explains Canada's history of treaty-making with Indigenous peoples. 

Register 

Tuesday, November 2

Treaties Recognition Week: Artist Talk with Que Rock 
6:30 p.m. online via Zoom

Join artist Que Rock for a discussion on his work, process, influences and mural at the Daniels Faculty and a Q&A with Carolyn Taylor, Project Manager at StreetARToronto at the City of Toronto.

Register

Wednesday, November 3   

Treaties Recognition Week: 'Anishinaabe 101' (including Treaties) with Perry McLeod-Shabogesic 
12:00 p.m. online via Zoom

Learn more about Anishinabe culture and traditions, including Treaties, with Perry McLeod-Shabogesic of the Crane Clan from N’biising First Nation. Truth before Reconciliation.

Registration is not required. Access via the link here.

Treaties Recognition Week: Film Screening “Trick or Treaty” by Alanis Obomsawin 
5:30 p.m. In-person screening

Join us for an in-person screening at the Daniels Faculty of Alanis Obomsawin’s seminal work “Trick or Treaty?” Co-presented with StreetART Toronto. 

Location:
1 Spadina Crescent
Main Hall - Section C (DA170)

Register

Friday, November 5

Treaties Recognition Week: Workshop with John Croutch “Reconciliation: Walking the Path of Indigenous Allyship”  
1:00 p.m. online via Zoom

What does it mean to be an ally to Indigenous peoples? And is it even possible to call yourself an ally or is it more correct to say that one can only aspire to be an ally as allyship is a continuous process of self-reflexivity, learning and acting in a way that decenters whiteness. These are some of the questions and issues that will be explored in this hour and a half presentation, Reconciliation: Walking the Path of Indigenous Allyship. 

Workshop space is limited. Please RSVP at events@daniels.utoronto.ca

Treaties Recognition Week: Closing Ceremony 
3:00 p.m. Stantec Architecture Courtyard

When you open a circle, you must come full circle and close the circle. This closing ceremony led by Elder Whabagoon concludes the our Treaties Recognition Week programming. Additional workshops and events will come throughout the month of November. Join us in saying Milgwetch to all.

Registration is not required.

Generously supported by Postsecondary Education Fund for Aboriginal Learners and StreetARToronto

Resources for the Daniels Faculty community 

We Are All Treaty People - Indigenous Education (utoronto.ca)  

About Treaties (Government of Ontario) 

Anishinabek Nation Educational Resources 

Toronto Area Treaties - The Indigenous History of Tkaronto - Research guides at University of Toronto 

Community Organizations 

LANDBACK is a movement that has existed for generations with a long legacy of organizing and sacrifice to get Indigenous Lands back into Indigenous hands. Currently, there are LANDBACK battles being fought all across Turtle Island, to the north and the South. 

The Ogimaa Mikana Project is an effort to restore Anishinaabemowin place-names to the streets, avenues, roads, paths, and trails of Gichi Kiiwenging (Toronto) - transforming a landscape that often obscures or makes invisible the presence of Indigenous peoples. Starting with a small section of Queen St., re-naming it Ogimaa Mikana (Leader's Trail) in tribute to all the strong women leaders of the Idle No More movement, the project hopes to expand throughout downtown and beyond. 

Claude Cormier, celebrated Canadian landscape architect and designer and founding principal of Claude Cormier et Associés has made a $500,000 commitment to his alma mater, the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto to support remarkable Masters in Landscape Architecture (MLA) students, and to bolster recognition for the importance of the landscape architecture profession.

The Claude Cormier Award in Landscape Architecture will annually cover the domestic tuition fees of a talented MLA student, in their third and final year, who shows promise to pursue creative and pioneering forms or approaches to practice.

The scholarship builds on gifts that Cormier has made to the school since 2000, and is the largest private gift designated to U of T’s landscape architecture program to date.

“This is an important moment for landscape architecture,” says Cormier. “There is growing recognition that landscape architecture is not about selecting plants to adorn a building, but rather that landscape is integral to making meaningful places. Landscape architecture is about drawing connections between people and buildings, connecting natural ecosystems with urban environments, and positively steering the health of ourselves and our planet. We need to support the next generation of landscape architects to discover new ways of designing for our built environment.”

Cormier first studied agronomy at the University of Guelph before graduating from the University of Toronto’s Bachelor of Landscape Architecture professional program in 1986. He went on to complete his Masters in History and Theory of Design at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. After working for several esteemed Québec design practices, he formed his eponymous studio in 1995.

Blue Stick Garden (Claude Cormier et Associés)

His breakout moment was in 2000 at the Métis Garden Festival in northern Québec with the installation Blue Stick Garden (Jardin de Batons Bleus). Recognizing the limited time for the festival installations’ planting and growth, Cormier used an intensive arrangement of painted wooden sticks in lieu of plant material. Cormier’s abstracted perennial garden delighted visitors and quicky established his reputation for subversive designs that extended the perception and definition of landscape architecture. In Montréal, the summer installation, Pink Balls – a kilometre-long canopy of pink plastic balls swaying over St. Catherine Street – conceived as a landmark for a pedestrian-only district during Pride season that was later reinstalled in rainbow hues as 18 Shades of Gay. With an optimized modest budget, the installation has established an iconic image for its neighbourhood (the Gay Village), attracting international media, more visits by locals and tourists (local and international), and an overall improvement in the reputation of the neighbourhood.

18 Shades of Gay, Montréal (Our American Dream).

With Sugar Beach in 2010, Cormier wowed Torontonians with a permanent installation of pink umbrellas and a soft sand beach just south of the Business District. The park demonstrated that contemporary public spaces could add value and fun in equal measure. More recently, the design for Berczy Park in Toronto features a huge three-tier, 19th century-style fountain with 27 cast-iron dogs, a large bone, and a cat. The unusual installation establishes a welcoming environment and prompts conversation amongst strangers.

Berczy Park, Toronto (Industryous Photography).

“As I am getting older, I am grateful to those who supported my trajectory, and for the life I have been able to enjoy designing spaces that bring surprise and delight to people irrespective of their demographic or background,” says Cormier. “The notion of legacy has become very important to me, and with that is a great desire to uplift to others. I am proud to support the Daniels Faculty, its students, and the University of Toronto because it is both my alma mater and such a progressive and cosmopolitan school.”

Associate Professor Liat Margolis, director of the landscape architecture program, says, “Claude is not only an inspiration to our students, he is also a ‘joyful giver.’ His extreme generosity and joie de vivre elevates both our program and the art and profession of landscape architecture. He inspires our students with his designs, through their unconventional materiality, and their ability to address serious concerns with good humour. With this award our students will be forever reminded of his remarkable career.”

Agata Mrozowski, third-year MLA student and the 2021 recipient of the Claude Cormier Award in Landscape Architecture remarked, “It has taken a village to make this experience of graduate school at U of T in the Master of Landscape Architecture program possible for me. To receive this gift means a sense of relief, for there were times I was not sure I would have the means and capacity to complete my studies.”

Mrozowski’s connection to Cormier’s work began during her first year of the MLA program when she focused on Sugar Beach as a precedent study for her visual communications course. “I spent a lot of time there and learned that what is an aesthetically playful and whimsical design, was deeply rooted in the historical context of the site and in direct conversation with the Redpath Sugar Plant directly across the harbour,” says Mrozowski. “I appreciate that his work does not romanticize or idealize notions of nature yet works within urban constraints in creative and thoughtful ways to produce public spaces.”

Sugar Beach, Toronto (Nicola Betts).

The scholarship was established in 2020 and is now being announced publicly as the Daniels Faculty has returned to in-person learning.

Portrait of Claude Cormier (Image Credit: Annie Ethier).

Anishnaabe painter Que Rock has been selected as the artist for the Daniels Mural Project by the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design for its inaugural Indigenous installation. The selection was announced on Sept. 30, 2021 during an event commemorating Orange Shirt Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation at the Daniels Buildings' Stantec Architecture Courtyard, located at 1 Spadina Ave.. 

The temporary mural by Que Rock, who is a member of Nipissing First Nation, will honour the 215 children discovered at a residential school in Kamloops, B.C., and the unmarked graves that continue to be discovered across Turtle Island. Using the Daniels Building’s north façade as a canvas, the work depicts a sun on its left — representing the Seven Grandfather Teachings of humility, courage, honesty, wisdom, truth, respect and love — while its right features Grandmother Moon, representing the connection to Turtle Island, the water nation and Mother Earth. At the mural’s centre, children are carried by eagles to the spirit world; the eagles carry fish for the healing journey. 

“My goal is to portray the teachings of my ancestors, sacred geometry and Laws of Nature in all my art forms,” says Que Rock. The goal, for the Daniels Mural Project, “is a visual healing experience.” 

Que Rock describes his street art-inspired style as “making the woodlands dance.” In his large-scale art projects and canvas work — which include mural projects with StreetARTToronto (StART), a visual land acknowledgement at the St. Lawrence Centre of Arts and a medicine wheel-inspired work for the Toronto Transit Commission’s Ride Guide — the artist incorporates Anishnaabe teachings with a unique style that blends abstract forms with realism and expressionism.  

“The mural project is an important step in our continuous process towards collectively answering the calls of Truth and Reconciliation as a University, a Faculty and as individuals,” says Professor Juan Du, Dean of Daniels Faculty. “Que Rock’s artwork will be a visible reminder that every child matters, and that there is much work to be done in the path to healing. The Daniels Faculty seeks to promote dialogue and to generate better understanding of previously overlooked histories and cultures. We look forward to using the north façade of the Daniels Building as a platform for further education and programming this year.” 

The Daniels Mural Project is part of U of T’s response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report, Answering the Call: Wecheehetowin, responding specifically to Call to Action no. 2, a strategy for the funding and placement of more Indigenous public art across all three campuses in close consultation with local Indigenous communities. It will be produced in partnership with the University of Toronto Post-Secondary Fund for Aboriginal Learners.

Proposals were received from an open call issued by the Daniels Faculty in collaboration with the Daniels Art Directive, a student-led art collective, and Elder Whabagoon, the First Peoples Leadership Advisor to the Dean. The submissions were reviewed by the Indigenous Advisory Panel — comprised of a group of Indigenous Daniels community members including James Bird, Melissa Deleary, Jaime Kearns, Robin Rice and Brenda Wastasecoot. 

“Indigenous artists do the hard work of bringing our stories to life to be shown and seen by the world,” says the Indigenous Advisory Panel’s Brenda Wastasecoot. “They tell our histories, our truths and speak to our wisdom and strength.” 

Visible day and night, the mural encourages community members to engage with the history of the land and Indigenous teachings. “We're thankful to connect with the stories and cultural knowledge shared by Que Rock, the Advisory Panel, Elder Whabagoon, and many more Indigenous community members,” says the Daniels Art Directive’s Michelle Ng. “As this project grows, we further commit to truth and reconciliation.” 

Press inquiries: sara.elhawash@daniels.utoronto.ca

On Sept. 30, the Daniels Faculty will hold an event to commemorate the survivors of residential schools and their families. The commemoration will have in-person and online components; as it coincides with Orange Shirt Day and the newly created National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (NDTR), we encourage all community members to wear an orange shirt in honour of Stswecem'c Xgat'tem First Nation member Phyllis Webstad’s story. 

In the spirit of reconciliation and healing, we have also prepared resources that urge our community to support the ongoing process of reconciliation — and to acknowledge that every child matters. Here’s how the Daniels Faculty will commemorate Orange Shirt Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in 2021. 

The Daniels Faculty’s event for Orange Shirt Day and NDTR 

If you’re on campus on Sept. 30, an Orange Shirt Day item will be distributed at the east and west doors of the Daniels Building starting at 8:30 a.m. These will be available until the start of the event at 2 p.m. 

At that time, community members, led by Dean Juan Du and First Peoples Leadership Advisor to the Dean Elder Whabagoon, will congregate at the Stantec Architecture Courtyard — outside the Daniels Building at the north façade patio — for brief remarks. Next, a moment of silence will be observed at 2:15 p.m. in memory of the 215 bodies found at a residential school in Kamloops, B.C., and the discoveries that continue to be made across Turtle Island. 

The event will conclude with the announcement of the artist for the Daniels Mural Project, as selected by the Faculty’s Indigenous Advisory Panel. A new vision for north façade will be unveiled as part of the Daniels Faculty’s response to the U of T Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action; particularly, it responds to Call to Action No. 2, a strategy for the funding and placement of more Indigenous public art across all three campuses in close consultation with local Indigenous communities. 

Observing a moment of silence 

For those unable to join us in person, we encourage you to take a moment of silence at 2:15 p.m. with your class or by yourself to honour the healing journey of the residential school survivors, their families and their communities. 

The Daniels Faculty’s virtual background for Orange Shirt Day and NDTR 

If you’re learning or working remotely, we have developed a virtual background that can be used on Zoom or Microsoft Teams. When using these backgrounds on either app, please uncheck “mirror my video.” Click the thumbnail below for a full-sized image.

 

Resources for the Daniels Faculty community 

For more information on Orange Shirt Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, please see the following resources. The National Residential Schools Crisis Line can be accessed at 1-866-925-4419. 

Digital resources 

• Assembly of First Nations Toolkit 

• Indigenous U of T 

• Hart House Events 

• About Orange Shirt Day 

• Canadian Residential School History 

• Residential School Timeline 

• U of T’s Truth & Reconciliation Calls to Action 

Book and print resources 

• The Orange Shirt Story by Phyllis Webstad 

• Fatty Legs: A True Story by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton 

• Speaking Our Truth: A Journey of Reconciation by Monique Gray Smith 

• Broken Circle: The Dark Legacy of Indian Residential Schools by Theodore Fontaine 

• 7 Generations: A Plains Cree Saga by David Alexander Robertson 

• Pathways of Reconciliation: Indigenous and Settler Approaches to Implementing the TRC's Calls to Action by Aimée Craft and Paulette Regan 

Video and films 

• You Are on Indian Land (Michael Kanentakeron, 1969) 

• Mother of Many Children (Alanis Obomsawin, 1977) 

• Sisters & Brothers (Kent Monkman, 2015) 

The John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design is excited to present its public programming for fall 2021.  

Through a series of book talks, panel discussions and lectures, our aim is to foster a meaningful dialogue on the important social, political and environmental challenges that confront our world today. How might we create new knowledge and leverage it as a tool for critical reflection and, ultimately, collective change? Our programs, and the difficult questions that motivate them, address a range of topics that are central to what we do: the relationship between the built and natural environment, land and sovereignty, the city and social justice, technology and building practice and resiliency and climate change, among others.  

Fall 2021 marks a period of new beginnings for the Daniels Faculty. As we embark on this academic year, we also reflect on our role as an institution for learning and knowledge creation. To this, we are supplementing our events with exhibitions that similarly probe at the boundaries of our various disciplines. Whether in the Architecture and Design Gallery, our corridors, or the north façade of the Daniels Building, the work on view this year asks: how do we engage with the world as it is at this moment?  

All events are free and open to the public. Register in advance and check the calendar for up-to-date details on hybrid events that offer a virtual and in-person experience: daniels.utoronto.ca/events.  

Fall 2021  

October 7, 6:30 p.m. 
How...?: Ten Questions on the Future of Education and Engagement
Dean’s Opening Dialogue  

Juan Du (Daniels Faculty Dean and Professor, University of Toronto), in conversation with: 
Shashi Kant (Forestry 1996; Professor of Forest Economics and Sustainability, University of Toronto)   
Kaari Kitawi (Landscape Architecture 2015; Urban Designer, City of Toronto)  
Bruce Kuwabara (Architecture 1972; Architect and Founder, KPMB Architects)  
Yan Wu (Visual Studies 2015; Public Art Curator, City of Markham) 
 
How...? Ten Questions on the Future of Advocacy and Change 
Exhibition – Thesis Projects in Architecture, Forestry, Landscape Architecture, Urbanism and Visual Studies 

Oct. 14, 12 p.m.  
Natural Architecture — An Archeology of the Future 
Lina Ghotmeh, 2021-2022 Frank O. Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architectural Design 

Oct. 21, 6:30 p.m. 
Robots as Companions 
Sougwen Chung (Artist, New York) 
Madeline Gannon (Artist, Researcher, Pittsburgh)  
Moderated by Maria Yablonina (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 

Oct. 25, 1 p.m.  
Shared Space, Shared Vision, Shared Power: Advancing Racial Justice in American Cities 
Stephen Gray (Harvard University, Graduate School of Design) 
Co-moderated by Fadi Masoud and Michael Piper (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 

Oct. 26, 6:30 p.m. 
Book Talk: Barry Sampson: Teaching + Practice  
Editors:  
Annette LeCuyer (University of Buffalo, School of Architecture and Planning) 
Brian Carter (University of Buffalo, School of Architecture and Planning) 
 
Contributors: 
George Baird (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty)
Bruce Kuwabara (KPMB Architects) 
Jon Neuert (Baird Sampson Neuert Architects) 
Pina Petricone (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 
Brigitte Shim (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty)   
Nader Tehrani (The Cooper Union, The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture) 
 
Speakers: 
Stephen Bauer (Reigo & Bauer)   
Geoffrey Turnbull (KPMB Architects)   
Novka Cosovic (Bau & Cos Studio) 

Nov. 2, 6:30 p.m.  
Artist Talk with Que Rock 
Que Rock (Artist) 

Nov. 15, 12 p.m.  
Revisiting the Commons 
Kofi Boone (North Carolina State University, College of Design) 
Co-moderated by Liat Margolis and Fadi Masoud (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 

Nov. 18, 6:30 p.m.  
Book Talk: Terra-Sorta-Firma  
Editor: Fadi Masoud (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 
Contributors:
Luna Khirfan (University of Waterloo, School of Planning)  
Xiaoxuan Lu (The University of Hong Kong, Division of Landscape Architecture)  
Ben Mendelsohn (Portland State University, Film and Digital Culture)  
Michael T. Wilson (RAND Corporation) 
Moderated by Brent D. Ryan (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)  

Nov. 30, 12 p.m.  
Book Talk: Landscape Citizenships  
Editors: 
Dr. Tim Waterman (The Bartlett School of Architecture, Faculty of the Built Environment) 
Jane Wolff (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 
Dr. Ed Wall (University of Greenwich, Landscape Architecture and Urbanism) 

Learn more about News and Events and Exhibitions, follow along with the Faculty on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and sign-up for This Week @ Daniels to receive current information on upcoming events. 

Welcome and acknowledgment

Welcome to the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto! I wish to acknowledge this land on which the University of Toronto operates. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.

The vision for our Faculty

The Daniels Faculty is diverse and dynamic, hosting nearly 20 academic programs, and home to 2,000 students, staff and faculty members from around the world. With the recent joining of U of T’s forestry programs, we continue to advance innovations in teaching and learning by bridging the studies of the built and natural environment. We ask, what happens when we position our design and research by approaching the world as it is, as one environment? More importantly, how could we generate new knowledge and leverage it as a tool for critical reflection, and ultimately, societal change?

I look forward to fostering thoughtful dialogues both on and off campus, as we seek the common ground that is fundamental to addressing urgent social, political and environmental challenges. There is exciting potential for further interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaborations across the University — as well as with communities in Toronto and around the world. As we embark on a new academic year, there is no better time to reflect on our role as an institution for learning, discovery and knowledge creation.

The evolution of our school

The University began as a royal chartered King's College in 1827. Seeking secularization and independence, it became the nondenominational University of Toronto in 1850. The study of the built and natural environments are well-established fields of academic inquiries within the University. In fact, the Daniels Faculty hosts both Canada’s first architecture program, established in 1890, and the country’s first forestry faculty in 1907 — both early programs across North America as well.

Today, the University of Toronto has evolved into one of the world’s top research-intensive universities. And the Daniels Faculty is now an unparalleled centre for learning and research, with graduate programs in architecture, forestry, landscape architecture, urban design and visual studies — as well as unique undergraduate programs that use architectural studies and visual studies as a lens through which students may pursue a broad, liberal arts-based education.

The purpose of our institution

The University and our Faculty have evolved, but it is worth remembering that they have always aspired to both intellectual and societal pursuits. I would like to share a statement of purpose published by the University’s Governing Council in 1992, for I found it to be deeply inspirational and acutely relevant as we move forward within a world with ever-increasing complexity. It reinforces the fundamental principles of our teaching, learning, research and services.

Within the unique university context, the most crucial of all human rights are the rights of freedom of speech, academic freedom and freedom of research. And we affirm that these rights are meaningless unless they entail the right to raise deeply disturbing questions and provocative challenges to the cherished beliefs of society at large and of the university itself. It is this human right to radical, critical teaching and research with which the University has a duty above all to be concerned; for there is no one else, no other institution and no other office, in our modern liberal democracy, which is the custodian of this most precious and vulnerable right of the liberated human spirit.

An invitation to participate

This statement is a reminder to our community of the responsibilities we share. Today, critical teaching and research must confront pressing social and environmental problems — issues that, in our globalizing world, impact everyone. Those problems, and the necessary solutions, transcend disciplinary and national borders. We are also reminded to cherish our individual uniqueness — cultural, political, social, racial, gender — and to recognize our common pursuit of human purpose in a shared global environment.

We invite you to join us in this humanist pursuit, through learning in classrooms, researching in labs, participating in our online and in-person public programs and working together in our communities at home and abroad.

Juan Du (she/her)
Dean and Professor
John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design

Excerpt from the “Statement of Institutional Purpose,” University of Toronto Governing Council, Oct. 15, 1992. 

The Call for Proposals is now open for the inaugural Indigenous mural project at the Daniels Building.  All interested artists are invited to complete the online form or fillable PDF by Friday August 13, 11:59 pm (EDT).  If you are submitting the PDF, please email: danielsartdirective@gmail.com. 

The collaborative process to create the mural is being organized by the Daniels Art Directive (DAD), a student-led art collective, with guidance from Elder Whabagoon, the First Peoples Leadership Advisor to the Dean, and supported by the Daniels Faculty’s Office of External Relations and Outreach. An Indigenous Advisory Panel will select the artist and guide the project team. Read the mural announcement here.

Interested and want to know more? Join the Informational Session on Tuesday, July 20, 1-2 pm. The meeting will be recorded and shared on the Daniels Mural Project webpage following the session.

Register for the Information Session on Tuesday, July 20

Learn more about the Daniels Mural Project: 
daniels.utoronto.ca/outreach/daniels-mural-project

Daniels Faculty community,

It has been the greatest privilege of my career to work for you as dean during this time of immense change within the Daniels Faculty and around the world.

After a year of loss and uncomfortable (and necessary) conversations, we are now emerging into an uncertain future. The challenges that we face today: climate change, inequity, racial injustice, mental health, and the impacts of the pandemic — are not going away.

Yet, during a time when we could have felt stagnant or immobilized, the Daniels community demonstrated great resilience. And you seized the opportunity to enact positive change.

Students, alumni, faculty, and staff called on our institutions and professions to transform, adapt, and evolve — not only to meet a changing world, but to be a part of the solutions ahead.

We went “on air” for final reviews and hosted more than 60 public events with global leaders in our fields. We grew our faculty by welcoming new colleagues in building science, visual art, and forestry – and maintained enrolment numbers across our programs. Faculty and students navigated time zones, oceans of distance, and new ways of learning together. Not only adapting to the circumstances but producing some of the highest-quality work I have ever seen during my 35 years at the Faculty (some of which you can explore in our virtual end-of-year show).

My goal as your interim dean was to engage in a process of self-examination to develop new approaches to professional education that will lead to long-term change. Addressing representation and inclusion at all levels was, and will continue to be, a critical part of this change.

One of the highlights of my time as dean was to welcome Elder Whabagoon as the inaugural First Peoples Leadership Advisor to the Dean. With Elder Whabagoon's guidance, we will find new ways to introduce Indigenous values, knowledge, and languages to our programs and reach out and support Indigenous communities. We also established the position of Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. This critical new role will sit jointly between the Daniels Faculty and U of T’s Division of Human Resources and Equity. The search for this position will recommence under Dean Du’s leadership.

At the beginning of my term, I shared my belief that it is our shared responsibility to create the future that we want. The successes of this past year are a reflection of the collective efforts of students, staff, and faculty. To continue this work we need transparency, dialogue, collegiality, and mutual respect. With these values as our foundation, I know that we can tackle the challenges ahead.

And now it is my pleasure to pass the torch to Dean Du. Her demonstrated skill at research and administration, her extensive professional and academic experience, along with a strong socially conscious design approach, make her the ideal person to lead our school into the future.

Thank you all for pushing me, and the Daniels Faculty, forward. I am proud of what we accomplished together and I look forward to our future.

Stay safe this summer, and I hope to see you all on campus this fall.

Robert Wright
Interim Dean

Photographs by Thai Go. Follow Thai on Instagram @gothaigo.

Ambika Pharma, a 2020 graduate of the Daniels Faculty’s Master of Landscape Architecture program, has been awarded a 2021 World Landscape Architecture (WLA) Student Award of Excellence in the Concept-Design category for her MLA thesis project: On Thin Ice. 

The project is a sweeping response to increased maritime traffic through the Bering Strait, which has emerged as a vulnerable ecosystem and a chokepoint for shipping traffic as Arctic Sea ice melts. On Thin Ice sees a “reinvention of nautical systems that wraps economy, trade, and ecology around a new formulation of logistical landscapes and time.” The project proposes different scales of intervention on the Diomede Islands, creating both maritime infrastructure and a proposed bioreserve, “imagined as a device for political and ecological innovation in this tenuous region.”

Pharma’s project was selected from more than 400 other entries for the WLA Student Awards, submitted from landscape architecture faculties around the world. On Thin Ice was also recognized with the Heather M. Reisman Gold Medal in Design, presented by the Daniels Faculty in 2020.

“I was interested in the spatial planning of major maritime chokepoints - natural and manmade straits and canals that bottleneck maritime trade, but also marine ecosystems and migration paths,” said Pharma.

“With the thaw of the Arctic, the Bering Strait is slated to become one of these locations and part of a new Transpolar Sea Route that would change this relatively untouched passage to a high-risk, high-traffic zone surrounding sensitive ecosystems. The project still proposes that the TSR transverses this Strait but creates a new hierarchy where nautical systems prioritize the protection of marine ecologies over logistical efficiency, separating primary production zones, nesting areas and migration routes from vessel access.”

Images: Megastructure; Maritime Chokepoints; Bio Reserve.

“Ambika demonstrated remarkable talent and creativity throughout her time at Daniels, and her capstone thesis project was no exception,” said Fadi Masoud, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism at the Daniels Faculty, and Pharma’s supervisor for her thesis.

“Her thesis imagined a not-so-distant future world in which economic, social, and ecological pressures converge in one of the earth’s most fragile and contested regions – the arctic. She expanded the agency of landscape architecture to envision the future of post-carbon arctic maritime logistical landscapes and an arctic wildlife sanctuary park nestled in between the Diomede Islands in the Bering Strait. Her proposal bends the international dateline around the park to create a space outside of our understanding of normative time and nation states.”

Images: Bowhead; Pond Cell; Geothermal Greenhouse.

Pharma was also recently recognized for a winning design called Moonlight Orgies in the LA+ Creature competition (designed in collaboration with Niko Dellic, while completing his Master of Architecture thesis at the Daniels Faculty). That competition acted as a design exercise that imagined an animal as the client for a design team. Pharma and Dellic’s entry imagined a moody recovery and breeding area for mangrove horseshoe crabs, whose blood is incredibly valuable for use in pharmaceuticals. The project’s proposed design was fully aware of the complex trade off between providing habitat, and treating the animal as resource. Their proposal was similarly connected with the sea, proposed as a facility built on a barge.

“I like ports,” said Pharma. “I’ve always been captivated by activities around maritime infrastructures, their history of major earthworks, and the movement of ships. So, throughout various projects I began studying their roles as critical international passages against their potential as productive landscapes.”

Pharma now works as a designer at celebrated landscape architecture firm Reed Hilderbrand in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In recognition of National Indigenous Peoples Day, the Daniels Faculty is excited to announce an upcoming mural for the north façade of the Daniels Building that will be created by an Indigenous artist. 

“Today is National Indigenous Peoples Day – a day for all Canadians to celebrate the heritage and outstanding contributions of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. However, to truly celebrate Indigenous communities we must commit ourselves to Truth and Reconciliation,” said Interim Dean Robert Wright. “These are not just words but our obligation and direct calls to action. First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples have shown us a path, and it is one that we must walk together.” 

This inaugural Indigenous installation at the Daniels Building is intended to address Indigenous Spaces within the University’s response to the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC Steering Committee’s Report, Answering the Call. Wecheehetowin) specifically, Call to Action #2: A strategy for the funding and placement of more Indigenous public art across all three campuses should be developed, in close consultation with local Indigenous communities.

“It is important for our Daniels community to come together as one and expand our listening to the land and to all our relations,” said Elder Whabagoon, the First Peoples Leadership Advisor to the Dean. “As we walk this path together, we are gathering new voices to learn new ways of knowing. I am grateful to have the opportunity to share my knowledge and teachings with the Faculty and students.” 

The collaborative process to create the mural is being organized by the Daniels Art Directive (DAD), a student-led art collective, with guidance from Elder Whabagoon, the First Peoples Leadership Advisor to the Dean, and supported by the Daniels Faculty’s Office of External Relations and Outreach. An advisory panel of Indigenous members will create the call-for-proposals and then select the artist.

Located at 1 Spadina Crescent, the site is part of the historic Ishpadinaa – one of two historic Indigenous trails in Toronto that were recently recognized with Anishinaabemowin signs. Ishpadinaa is an Ojibwe word that means “a place on a hill.”

This project follows the first installation of a mural on the Daniels Building: the ‘Support Black Designers.’ mural curated by DAD, in collaboration with designers and Daniels alumnae Ashita Parekh and Tolu Alabi, was on view from October 2020 to May 2021.

"The north façade is a window into the Daniels Faculty. As students at this school, we are honoured to support all artists and the messages they want to share," said Michelle Ng on behalf of DAD. "Through community-driven art, we hope to decolonize spaces and create opportunities that will lead to concrete changes for an intersectional, inclusive future."

The call-for-proposals will be announced at the end of June and an information session is scheduled for Tuesday, July 13, 1-2 pm. Mural installation is slated to begin late August – early September 2021.

Indigenous Mural Project logo design by Mariah Meawasige (Makoose).