Monday, April 11 to Friday, April 27
Daniels Faculty Building,
1 Spadina Crescent, Toronto, Ontario

Throughout April, students in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design and forestry will present final projects to their instructors. Students of the Daniels Faculty will also present to guest critics from both academia and the professional community in attendance.

Please note: As we continue to maintain a safe and healthy environment in compliance with public health guidelines and University of Toronto policies, winter reviews will only be open to members of the University of Toronto community and not to the general public at this time.

U of T requires all those coming to campus to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and provide proof of vaccination via UCheck.

Follow the Daniels Faculty @UofTDaniels on Twitter and Instagram, and join the conversation using the hashtag #DanielsReviews.

Monday, April 11 | Undergraduate

Design Studio I
JAV101H1S
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructors: Jay Pooley (coordinator), Kearon Roy Taylor, Danielle Whitley, Nova Tayona, Sonia Ramundi, Katy Chey, Batoul Faour, Chloe Town, Jeffrey Garcia, Jennifer Kudlats, Gregory Beck Rubin, Luke Duross, Scott Sorli, Jordan Prosser, Reza Nik and Anamarija Korolj
Rooms: Principal Hall (170), 215, 230, 240, 330

Tuesday, April 12 | Undergraduate

Design Studio II
ARC201H1S
9 a.m.–1 p.m. ET
Instructors: Fiona Lim Tung (coordinator), Daniel Briker, Anne Ma, Maria Denegri, Shane Williamson, Jamie Lipson, Kara Verbeek, Nicolas Barrette, Nova Tayona and Sonja Vangieli
Rooms: 209, 215, 230, 240, 242, 330, 1st floor hallway, 2nd floor hallway

Technology Studio IV
ARC381Y1S
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructors: Andrew Bako (coordinator) and Kfir Gluzberg
Room: Principal Hall (170)

Wednesday, April 13 | Undergraduate

Architecture Studio IV
ARC362Y1S
10 a.m.–4 p.m. ET
Instructors: Jon Cummings (coordinator), Lukas Pauer and David Verbeek
Rooms: Principal Hall (170), 230

Landscape Architecture Studio IV
ARC364Y1S
12 p.m.–5 p.m. ET
Instructor: Pete North
Room: 330

Thursday, April 14 | Graduate & Undergraduate

Drawing & Representation II
ARC200H1S
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructors: Michael Piper (Coordinator), Jon Cummings, Francesco Valente-Gorjup, Phat Le, Scott Norsworthy, Kiana Mozayyan and David Verbeek
Rooms: Principal Hall (170), 209, 230, 240, 2nd floor hallway

Design Studio 2
LAN1012YS
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructors: Liat Margolis (Coordinator) and Terence Radford
Room: 330

Urban Design Studio Options
URD1012YS
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructor: Simon Rabyniuk
Room: 215

Monday, April 18 | Graduate & Undergraduate

Design + Engineering I
ARC112H1S
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructors: Jay Pooley (coordinator) and Jennifer Davis
Room: 200

Design Studio 2
ARC1012YS
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructors: Adrian Phiffer (coordinator), Chloe Town, Anya Moryousef, Julia Di Castri, Matthew Hickey, Tom Ngo and Behnaz Assadi
Rooms: Principal Hall (170), 230, 330

Tuesday, April 19 | Graduate

Design Studio 4
ARC2014YS
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructors: Samuel Dufaux (coordinator), Brigitte Shim, Steven Fong, Chris Cornecelli, Aleris Rodgers, Maria Denegri, Carol Phillips, Eiri Ota and Greg Neudorf
Rooms: 215, 230, 240, 330

Wednesday, April 20 | Graduate

MArch Post-professional Thesis
ALA4022YS
10 a.m.–4 p.m. ET
Instructors: Roberto Damiani (coordinator), Alstan Jakubiec, Erica Allen Kim, Alex Lukachko, Michael Piper and Stephen Verderber
Room: 200

Design Studio 4
ARC2014YS
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructors: Samuel Dufaux (coordinator), Brigitte Shim, Steven Fong, Chris Cornecelli, Aleris Rodgers, Maria Denegri, Carol Phillips, Eiri Ota and Greg Neudorf
Rooms: 215, 230, 240

Design Studio 4
LAN2014YS
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructors: Alissa North (coordinator), Todd Douglas and Rui Felix
Room: 330

Thursday, April 21 | Graduate & Undergraduate

Senior Seminar in History & Theory (Thesis)
ARC457Y1S
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructor: Simon Rabyniuk
Rooms: Principal Hall (170), 209, 215, 230, 240

Senior Seminar in Design (Thesis)
ARC462Y1S
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructor: Laura Miller
Rooms: Principal Hall (170), 209, 215, 230, 240

Senior Seminar in Technology (Thesis)
ARC487Y1S
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructor: Nicholas Hoban
Rooms: Principal Hall (170), 209, 215, 230, 240

Design Studio Thesis
LAN3017YS
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructors: Liat Margolis (coordinator), Behnaz Assadi, Fadi Masoud, Pete North, Alissa North, Matthew Perotto and Aisling O’Carroll
Rooms: 242, 330

Friday, April 22 | Graduate & Undergraduate

Senior Seminar in History & Theory (Thesis)
ARC457Y1S
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructor: Simon Rabyniuk
Rooms: Principal Hall (170), 209, 215, 230, 240

Senior Seminar in Design (Thesis)
ARC462Y1S
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructor: Laura Miller
Rooms: Principal Hall (170), 209, 215, 230, 240

Senior Seminar in Technology (Thesis)
ARC487Y1S
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructor: Nicholas Hoban
Rooms: Principal Hall (170), 209, 215, 230, 240

Design Studio Thesis
LAN3017YS
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructors: Liat Margolis (coordinator), Behnaz Assadi, Fadi Masoud, Pete North, Alissa North, Matthew Perotto and Aisling O’Carroll
Rooms: 330

Urban Design Studio Thesis
URD2015YS
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructors: Otto Ojo and Michael Piper
Rooms: 242, 215

Monday, April 25 | Graduate

Architectural Design Studio: Research 2
ARC3021YS / ARC4018YS
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructors: Lina Ghotmeh, Shane Williamson, Stephen Verderber, Mason White, Miles Gertler, Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg
Rooms: 215, 230, 240, 242, 330, main east entrance, Library

Tuesday, April 26 | Graduate

Architectural Design Studio: Research 2
ARC3021YS / ARC4018YS
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructors: Petros Babaskias, Kelly Doran, George Baird and John Shnier
Rooms: Principal Hall (170), 209, 230, 240, 242, 330, main hall mezzanine, Gallery entrance, Library, bottom of main staircase

Wednesday, April 27 | Graduate

Architectural Design Studio: Research 2
ARC3021YS / ARC4018YS
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructors: Laura Miller, Brady Peters and Brian Boigon
Rooms: 230, 240, 330

Architectural Design Studio 7: Thesis
ARC4018YS
9 a.m.–6 p.m. ET
Instructors: Michael Piper, Reza Nik and Miles Gertler
Rooms: 209, 242

Banner photo by Harry Choi.

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.”

After a Covid-engendered false start in the summer of 2020, the inaugural Design Research Internship Project (DRIP) will finally be launched this summer by Associate Professor Pina Petricone in partnership with 15 local design firms.  

The unique initiative will provide senior BAAS students with the opportunity to apply their critical drawing, modelling and research skills to real projects under the direction of a local practitioner. The internship is designed to not only bridge academic research with professional practice, but also to expose students to models of design research that advance lessons from design studios and course work into multivalent and sometimes interdisciplinary design research problems.  

The deadline for submitting an application is end of day on Monday, April 4. Apply online here.

Two years ago, restrictions imposed by the pandemic postponed the launch of DRIP to this year, although a kind of Design Research Internship Pilot was offered by Prof. Petricone last summer through her firm Giannone Petricone Architects. Last year, 12 senior Architectural Studies students were selected to participate in the intensive internship and undertake group and individual work that collectively contributed to a document called the Atlas of Light Operations, a compendium that traces various custom light fixtures, built and under construction for a range of Giannone Petricone projects.  

The work began with a review and analysis of the collection of custom-designed light fixtures through drawings, shop drawings and construction photos, alongside an accelerated design project for the graphic representation of the final Atlas. Students were guided by presentations of models for design research and its systems of representation as well as individual and group feedback.  

The internship culminated in a comprehensive visual document in the form of a collection — an atlas that traces critical parts and contexts for the series. Although each fixture is unique, tailored to its host space, the design research ultimately expressed each custom-designed piece as inseparable from its cultural context, material and otherwise.  

“As a local practitioner myself, I can appreciate first-hand the value that research internships can bring to the general rigour of experimentation for real-world design projects,” says Prof. Petricone. “This work is often considered a luxury within the timeline of a project; however, this research internship can afford local offices additional resources in order to linger productively on questions of design, context, morphology, history and impact for any given design project.” 

A range of accomplished local practitioners will be participating in this summer’s inaugural internship project. Visit this page for a list of them, along with a brief description of their internship offerings.

Proposed research internships range from historical, theoretical, contextual, cultural, morphological and formal analysis/documentation designed to support the practitioner-defined design project.  

The design project can range from a document or object to an installation, exhibition, building or neighbourhood. 

Below are images from the Atlas of Light Operations created at Giannone Petricone Architects during the Design Research Internship Pilot:

Atlas of Light Operations – Excerpt, for Giannone Petricone Architects. Left: Drum by Jiachen Du. Right: Mushroom by Lhanzi Gyaltsan

Atlas of Light Operations – Composite, Giannone Petricone Architects. Left: Monza fabrication. Right: Monza in situ, Los Angeles.

Atlas of Light Operations – Excerpt, for Giannone Petricone Architects. Left: Cascade by Kathryna Cuizon. Right: Imola by Janet Ma.

Atlas of Light Operations – Composite, Giannone Petricone Architects. Left: Mushroom under construction. Right: Imola fabrication.

Atlas of Light Operations – Excerpt, for Giannone Petricone Architects. Left: Globe by Maya Freeman. Right: Loom by Sally Chiu

Banner Image: Atlas of Light Operations – Contents, for Giannone Petricone Architects. Participating Interns: Sally Chiu, Kathryna Cuizon, Jiachen Du, Maya Freeman, Lhanzi Gyaltsan, Sarah Janelle, Christopher Law, Christina Lin, Janet Ma, Negar Mashoof, Danah Owaida, Megan So. 

“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)

John Andrews, the Australian-born architect who chaired the University of Toronto’s Department of Architecture in the late 1960s and was responsible for some of Canada’s and U of T’s most iconic structures, has passed away at the age of 88. He died in Sydney, his city of birth, on March 24. 

It was a stroke of luck — and brilliance — that first brought Andrews to Canada. While he and American classmate Macy DuBois were still students in the post-professional program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, the young pair beat out hundreds of contenders to become one of the eight final teams vying to design Toronto’s New City Hall.  

Their proposal — a low-slung, waffle-textured building with a circular pool in the front and an undulating roof on top — ultimately lost out to Viljo Revell’s, but “it was considered an impressive performance,” recalls Professor Emeritus George Baird, former Dean of the Daniels Faculty (and one of Andrews’s later hires in the Architecture Department).  

The 1958 submission by then-students John H. Andrews and Macy DuBois for Toronto’s New City Hall featured an undulating roof and circular reflecting pool. (Photo by Panda Associates/City of Toronto Archives, Series 843, File 135)

On the strength of their performance, both Andrews and DuBois decided to stay on in Toronto, with the former eventually working on New City Hall as a staffer at John B. Parkin Associates, the local architects for the project. In the early 1960s, Andrews also joined U of T’s School of Architecture as a faculty member, teaching there for much of the rest of the decade.  

In 1967, when the School became a full-fledged Faculty comprising three departments (Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban and Regional Planning), Andrews became the Department of Architecture’s first chairman under the new structure. As his own practice grew, however, his ability to provide “full-time political and design leadership to the school,” as Baird recalls, became limited, so he eventually stepped down in 1969. 

The architect had established his practice, John Andrews Associates, around the same time that he had joined U of T. The firm came to specialize in academic buildings, realizing well-regarded structures for the University of Guelph, Brock University and the University of Western Ontario. It also took on the task of developing the master plan for U of T’s new campus in Scarborough (with planner Michael Hugo-Brunt and landscape architect Michael Hough) and of designing its very first building.

A 1966 image of Scarborough College, described by Professor Emeritus Larry Wayne Richards as “one of Canada’s most important modern buildings.” (Photo courtesy University of Toronto Archives)

That building — UTSC’s sprawling Humanities and Science Wings, aka the Andrews or Scarborough College Building — was recognized as special almost immediately. When it was first opened to students in 1966, it wasn’t hailed by all, but it was championed by many critics and featured on magazine covers. It is now regarded as an exemplar of brutalist construction. 

The design, wrote Professor Emeritus Larry Wayne Richards, former Dean of the Daniels Faculty, in his 2019 Campus Guide to the University of Toronto: An Architectural Walking Tour, is “an astonishing essay in form, space and light.” Its importance, he added, is indisputable. 

“The fact remains that Scarborough College is one of Canada’s most important modern buildings, and it propelled Andrews into national and international spotlights,” wrote Richards. “Indeed, it can be argued that Scarborough College, along with Moshe Safdie’s Habitat structure for Expo 67 in Montreal, is one of the two iconic works of 20th-century Canadian architecture that continues to resonate internationally.” 

A few years after Scarborough College was completed, Andrews was enlisted to design what would become another Canadian landmark: the 553.3-metre-tall CN Tower, which remained the world’s tallest freestanding structure until 2007 and continues to dominate the Toronto skyline.  

Another career highlight saw Andrews return to his alma mater, the GSU at Harvard, to create much-acclaimed Gund Hall, completed in 1970. 

In his native land, to which Andrews eventually returned, he was remembered this week as “a giant of the Australian architectural fraternity and one of our first internationally recognized architects,” in the words of Tony Giannone, national president of the Australian Institute of Architects.  

That recognition, as Baird notes, first came in Toronto and especially at U of T, then translated into projects throughout North America. 

“It was a substantial career,” Prof. Baird says. “And his legacy at U of T is still being felt.” 

Banner image: Architect John Andrews, flanked by planner Michael Hugo-Brunt (on left) and landscape architect Michael Hough (at right), survey a model of their master plan for the University of Toronto’s then-new Scarborough campus. Andrews’s design of the campus’ first building — the sprawling Humanities and Science Wings — would come to be regarded as a brutalist masterpiece. (Photo by Jack Marshall Photography/University of Toronto Archives)  

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)

Award-winning architect and designer Omer Arbel is scheduled to speak at the Daniels Faculty on Wednesday, March 30. 

Based in Vancouver, Arbel will be presenting his latest studio and architectural work to undergraduate students in the ARC302 course (Exploring Design Practices) at 12:30 p.m. ET in the Main Hall of the Daniels Building at 1 Spadina Crescent. 

In the past, course instructors have opened in-class lunchtime lectures such as this one to other Daniels students and faculty. This will be the case with Arbel’s appearance, with attendance limited to members of the Daniels community only. 

An architect, artist, educator and experimenter, Arbel is known for his multidisciplinary approach to design, realizing projects of varying scale and across a wide spectrum of contexts. In 2005, Arbel co-founded Bocci, the design and manufacturing company that produces his acclaimed range of sculptural lighting, among other products. Last year, Phaidon published a monograph of his work. 

ARC302, which is taught by Sessional Lecturer Jeffrey Garcia, aims to engage students through a series of presentations and conversations with a variety of interdisciplinary and specialized practitioners.  

Experts enlisted have come from the fields of architecture, interior design, industrial design, digital environments, narrative and representation. 

The Daniels Faculty and the University of Toronto are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Anuradha (Anu) Mathur. The esteemed landscape architect and professor passed away on February 26 in Philadelphia. She was 62 years old.

As Professor Emeritus in the Landscape Architecture Department at the University of Pennsylvania, Mathur’s work focused on the scarcity and excess of water in landscapes, especially how those conditions are affected through its visualization and engagement across design, policy and research.

“Anu’s work has had a profound impact on our discipline,” says Prof. Jane Wolff of the Daniels Faculty. “Her understanding of water — at once poetic and practical — changed the way we thought about land.”

Along with Dilip da Cunha, her work and life partner, Mathur undertook projects across a wide span of cultural milieus, in places such as Mumbai, Jerusalem, the Western Ghats of India, Sundarbans, coastal Virginia and, most recently, the U.S.–Mexico border.

Together, Mathur and da Cunha co-authored a number of highly influential books, including Mississippi Floods: Designing a Shifting Landscape (2001), Deccan Traverses: The Making of Bangalore’s Terrain (2006) and Soak: Mumbai in an Estuary (2009). They also co-edited Design in the Terrain of Water (2014).

“Anu had such a brilliant and talented mind,” says Prof. Alissa North. “I continue to point out her and Dilip’s work to students, and am always amazed at how relevant the early work remains. I feel very fortunate that I was able to learn from her incredible thinking when I took a class she taught as a guest professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She will be greatly missed in the academic community.”

As pioneers in their fields, Mathur and da Cunha received numerous awards and were frequently invited to speak in academic and professional forums around the world. Among the venues at which they’ve presented their work are the IFLA Conference in Bangkok and GIDEST Seminar at the New School in New York. They have also created forums for others to present work, including the 2011–2012 international symposium titled In the Terrain of Water, held at Penn Design.

In 2017, they were awarded a Pew Fellowship Grant.

“Anu was a generous colleague and educator, a fierce critic, and an intellectual force that changed the landscape and design disciplines,” says Prof. Fadi Masoud. “She taught us new ways of seeing, understanding and communicating the dynamism and complexity of the world around us. Her teachings will stay with us for a long time to come.” 

Mathur and da Cunha were scheduled to deliver the 2022 Hough Critic lecture at the Daniels Faculty on March 22. This event has been cancelled.

“On behalf of the Daniels Faculty MLA Program, I would like to express my deep sadness for Anu Mathur’s tragic passing and for her family’s loss,” says Liat Margolis, MLA Program Director. “She will be terribly missed, but her grace, generosity and intellectual influence will live on. Mathur and da Cunha will still be named as our 2022 Hough Critic honorees, and we hope to pay tribute to their work in the coming year.”

Observed every year on March 8, International Women’s Day has been marked for well over a century now, ever since the first IWD gathering was held in 1911. Intended to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, the day has also become a call to action for accelerating female equality. This year’s theme, Break the Bias, invokes a gender-equal world “free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination,” where “difference is valued and celebrated.” 

“International Women’s Day acts as a reminder,” says Dean Juan Du, “on how far we have progressed, and how much more we still need to achieve, toward the basic human right of equality in all genders. Misogyny and discrimination against women still exist in creative, scientific and professional fields, but today and every day is an opportunity to #BreakTheBias, both within our communities and around the world. With Daniels Faculty’s diverse community, we continue to contribute by educating future scientists, artists, architects, designers, city builders and world changers, while celebrating the individual uniqueness of various genders and identifications.” 

In honour of the occasion, four groundbreaking faculty members from the Daniels Faculty’s diverse divisions took the time to share what IWD means to them — and what more can be done to further women’s progress. 

Fiona Lim Tung 

Designer and educator Fiona Lim Tung received her Master of Architecture degree at Daniels Faculty, where she is now in her fourth year as Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream. Earlier this year, Lim Tung served as project supervisor for the Faculty’s winning contribution to Winter Stations 2022: a bright red student-designed pavilion conceived as a meditation on pandemic-era insularity. Her own research practice deals with issues of representation and feminism, while her design work focuses on the potentials that exist in the overlap between high- and low-tech fabrication methods in contemporary craft. Lim Tung’s projects have been widely featured in magazines, books and galleries. 

What have been some of your professional highlights this year? 

Winter Stations was a highlight. Working closely with the students to see them bring their design from sketch to built form, then seeing the public laughing and enjoying the pavilion, was a great and fulfilling experience. The entire team was amazing, but I would like to give a special acknowledgment on IWD to the female team members who overcame stereotypes that women don’t take part in construction. 

What are you working on personally? 

In my own work, I am presenting at a number of conferences about drawing as an act of resistance. It has been great to spend my days looking at images and thinking about how the way we draw can help to build a more equitable future. 

What does International Women’s Day mean to you? 

International Women’s Day is so important, especially in a profession that has been historically male-dominated. The women who taught me, particularly those who were also BIPOC, were inspirational, opening the doors of what I thought possible. I hope to encourage the next generation in the same way. 

Jane Wolff 

Associate Professor Jane Wolff was educated as a documentary filmmaker and landscape architect at Harvard University. Her activist scholarship uses writing and drawing to decipher the web of relationships, processes and stories that shape today’s landscapes. Last year she had not one but two books published: Bay Lexicon (a field guide to the San Francisco Bay Area’s shoreline) and Landscape Citizenships (a 14-chapter survey, co-edited with Tim Waterman and Ed Wall, of “the growing body of thought and research in landscape democracy and landscape justice”). Currently on research leave, Wolf teaches in both the BAAS and MLA programs at Daniels Faculty. 

You published two books last year. What’s next on your research agenda? 

I was awarded an SSHRC Connection grant to fund the installation Toronto Landscape Observatory, co-curated by Susan Schwartzenberg, at the 2022 Toronto Biennial. I am now working toward the project’s opening on May 1. 

What do you like most about teaching? 

My favourite thing about teaching is that it’s a chance to keep learning. 

What does International Women’s Day mean to you?  

In my calendar, every day is Women’s Day! 

Sally Krigstin 

Assistant Professor Sally Krigstin teaches in the Faculty’s various Forestry programs, and is the Coordinator of the Master in Forest Conservation program. Over the past several years, the wood and biomass materials expert has been instrumental in resurrecting one of U of T’s most unique academic troves: its so-called Empire Collection, an extensive collection of woods from across the former British Empire. “When the Faculty of Forestry moved from its longtime home at 45 St. George Street to the new Earth Sciences Building back in the 1990s,” she says, “the 3,000-plus-piece wood-sample collection was packed up in boxes and remained dormant for more than 25 years. With the help of a number of students, the collection has been organized and catalogued, and is now being actively used to teach students about the diversity and qualities of wood from around the world.” 

What does International Women’s Day mean to you? 

To me, International Women’s Day supports women’s endeavours to be recognized as unique individuals whose contributions, large or small, are valued on their unique merits.   

Have you had to overcome stereotypes as a woman in your field? What are some of the best ways to combat them? 

Before joining the University, I worked in the pulp and paper industry, which has been and remains a male-dominated industry. During a performance review by a supervisor at my first job, he said to me, “Don’t ever let the industry or others change who you are.” In other words, don’t be tempted to take on the characteristics of your male counterparts; continue instead to think differently and behave differently. It was the best piece of career advice I received. 

What do you like most about teaching? 

Witnessing your students’ positive impacts on the world is your reward for being a teacher. 

Sukaina Kubba 

Sukaina Kubba is a new Sessional Lecturer in Visual Studies at Daniels Faculty, currently teaching undergraduate painting and printmaking. From 2013 to 2018, she was a lecturer and curator at the Glasgow School of Art, and is presently working on at least three art and research projects, including a multimedia study of Iranian rugs called an An Ancillary Travelogue. “I am interested in feminist theory and practice that comes from the experience and motivations of women in indigenous, colonial and queer contexts, as opposed to feminism imposed or applied from without,” she says. “Women’s liberation cannot be extricated from injustices of colonialism, capitalism and occupation.” 

What does International Women’s Day mean to you?  

This year, it is important to state solidarity with trans women and trans men who are facing new legal and academic challenges from powerful reactionary groups, especially in the U.K. and the U.S. 

Have you had to overcome stereotypes as a woman in your field? What are some of the best ways to combat them? 

I don’t believe there are many stereotypes per se for women to overcome in terms of practicing, studying or teaching in visual arts, but there are definitely class issues. As an educator, I wish to advocate for secondary and higher education in the arts to become much more accessible to students (of all genders) from less privileged backgrounds in terms of class and ethnicity.   

What do you like most about teaching? 

I value conversations with students about their motivations and ideas. Studio practice also allows a space for student collaboration and for forming a creative community.   

Their work co-designing a groundbreaking Indigenous wellness centre in the Northwest Territories has garnered Daniels Faculty architecture professor Mason White and lecturer and alumnus Kearon Roy Taylor a prestigious 2022 Architectural Education Award, which they share with Lola Sheppard of the University of Waterloo. 

White, who directs the Master of Architecture Post-Professional program at Daniels Faculty, is a co-founder with Sheppard of the Toronto design practice Lateral Office, where Roy Taylor is an associate partner.  

The collaborators have won a Faculty Design Award, one of the various Architectural Education Awards handed out annually by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) in partnership with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS). It is for their work on the Arctic Indigenous Wellness Centre — a soon-to-be-constructed wellness and cultural facility for Indigenous people in Canada’s North — that they’re being recognized. 

Earmarked for a prominent perch of Canadian Shield adjacent to Frame Lake in Yellowknife, the project as envisioned now began as a research studio at Daniels Faculty, where White first led efforts to define its program, siting and form. At the time, he met and talked extensively with Elders leading the initiative, visited possible locations for the centre, and developed an understanding of the key cultural priorities behind it.

The resulting design is a “de-institutionalized,” camp-like facility organized into three distinct yet unified glulam-spruce volumes “closely tuned to the environment, climate and ground conditions” of the setting. In accordance with the wishes of the Elders, no rock will be blasted or excavated to construct the complex, which will also include an outdoor fire circle, site-wide medicine gardens, and multiple connection points to surrounding trails and landmarks. 

Gallery: Construction of the award-winning Arctic Indigenous Wellness Centre, comprising three site-sensitive glulam-spruce volumes in a lakeside network of trails, gardens and amenities, is scheduled to begin in Yellowknife this year.

Fittingly, the Lateral Office team won the Faculty Design Award (which acknowledges work that, among other things, “centres the human experience”) in the Excellence in Community/Research category. All of the 2022 Architectural Education Award winners will be celebrated, on March 18 and 19, at a ceremony in Los Angeles.

The ACSA award isn’t the first prize bestowed on the project. This past fall, the Arctic Indigenous Wellness Centre was also recognized with a 2020-2021 Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction, taking Silver for the North America region at a ceremony in Venice, Italy. 

At the same presentation, held during the International Architecture Biennale, a team led by associate professor Aziza Chaouni of the Daniels Faculty won a Global Holcim Award, taking Bronze for a proposed music school and ecotourism centre in Morocco.

Called Joudour Sahara, the project prioritizes environmental and social sustainability through the programmatic overlapping of the music school, an eco-lodge and an anti-desertification testing ground. Among the complex’s defining features are courtyards that promote passive cooling and user collaboration, outdoor reed canopies that enable active use of the site during North Africa’s hot summers, and multi-use spaces (such as shared administrative facilities and an outdoor auditorium) that reduce the built footprint and maximize resources. 

Gallery: Prioritizing social and environmental sustainability, Morocco's Joudour Sahara Cultural Centre by Aziza Chaouni Projects is a music school, eco-lodge and anti-desertification testing ground in one.

Chaouni was born in Morocco and is the founder of Aziza Chaouni Projects, her multidisciplinary design firm based in Toronto and Fez. At Daniels Faculty, Chaouni leads the collaborative research platform Designing Ecological Tourism (DET), which investigates the challenges faced by ecotourism in the developing world.

Her win in Venice marks the second Global Holcim Award for Chaouni, whose practice won Gold in 2009. The 2020-2021 Bronze comes with $50,000 (U.S.), as does Lateral Office’s regional Silver. 

Banner images: From left to right in the first image, Daniels Faculty architecture professor Mason White poses with Holcim Foundation board member Kate Ascher and Jean Erasmus of the Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation during the presentation of the 2020-2021 Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction in Venice, Italy. Recipient of a Global Bronze, Daniels Faculty assistant professor Aziza Chaouni (left in the second image) talks with jury member Meisa Batayneh Maani after her win.