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. 

Ja Architecture Studio, the Toronto-based practice co-founded by Daniels Faculty assistant professor Behnaz Assadi with architect and alumnus Nima Javidi, has been singled out as one of 2022’s top Emerging Voices by The Architectural League of New York. Every year a jury assembled by the League chooses eight emerging practices as winners of its by-invitation Emerging Voices competition. Landscape architect Assadi co-founded Ja with Javidi, a former professor at Daniels Faculty, a decade ago. Their work was cited by the League for representing “the best of its kind,” addressing “larger issues in architecture, landscape and the built environment.” 

“We are extremely honoured to have been named one of the eight 2022 Emerging Voices by The Architectural League of New York,” says Assadi. “No other recognition could have given more meaning to the past decade of our practice or make us look forward to the next.” 

The Emerging Voices award spotlights North American firms and individuals “with distinct design voices and the potential to influence the disciplines of architecture, landscape design and urbanism.” The jury reviews significant bodies of realized work and considers accomplishments within the design and academic communities as well as the public realm. Among the illustrious practitioners recognized by the League as Emerging Voices in the past are Steven Holl (in 1982), Toshiko Mori (1992), Jeanne Gang (2006) and Tatiana Bilbao (2010). 

This year the selection process involved a two-stage review of work from approximately 50 entrants invited to submit their portfolios. Paul Lewis, a jury member and the president of The Architectural League, was struck by the breadth of the submissions. 

“Rather than indicating a fracturing of our discipline,” Lewis noted, “this year’s winners were united in how they each clarified new types of agency and new notions of value motivated by an optimism about what an architect could and should do.”  

Assadi and Javidi’s work, which explores “how iconographic, geometric, formal and tectonic pursuits relate to broader contexts such as politics, construction, landscape, and urbanism,” ranges from creatively executed residential and commercial projects on tight city plots to ambitious international competitions that draw on the collective repertoire of their multidisciplinary firm. 

Ja Architecture Studio's 2015 design for the Bauhaus Museum in Germany came in fourth out of hundreds of submissions.

Over the past several years, Assadi has been teaching and coordinating two of the foundational core studios in the Daniels Faculty’s MLA program, as well as a number of graduate and undergraduate courses in both the architecture and landscape architecture departments. Former Daniels Faculty member Javidi is currently the Gwathmey Professor of Design at Cooper Union in New York City.

As part of the Emerging Voices program, winners are invited to present their work through a series of lectures. Assadi and Javidi are to join fellow winner Tsz Yan Ng of Michigan to discuss their projects in a moderated Zoom discussion on March 17.  

Revitalizing streetscapes is a Ja specialty. The cafe/bakery at left is housed in a former mechanic shop on Toronto's Queen Street West.

Among the other practices recognized by the League this year are Estudio MMX of Mexico City, Borderless Studio in Chicago and Felecia Davis Studio in State College, Pennsylvania. 

For details on the Emerging Voices award and lectures, visit archleague.org. To learn more about Ja’s work and principals, visit jastudioinc.com. 

Banner image: For a residence on a quiet Toronto sidestreet, Ja proposed a sinuous yet sensitive brick addition. The work of co-founders Javidi and Assadi (pictured) combines "the rootedness of a local architecture firm with the broad interests of an international design studio."

A team of Daniels Faculty architecture students has begun construction on an installation titled Introspection, selected as one of six projects to be featured in the upcoming Winter Stations 2022 exhibition. The winners were announced on January 17.

“We are very proud to be representing the Daniels Faculty at this year’s Winter Stations,” says Christopher Hardy, a second-year student in the Master of Architecture program and team lead for Introspection. “This project is an opportunity for us to not only showcase our design talents and creativity but also to reconnect with our fellow peers after almost two years of remote learning.”

Illustrations of Introspection’s floor plan and interior rendering.

Launched in 2014, Winter Stations is a yearly exhibition of outdoor installations that invite the public to reenvision and interact with spaces and objects usually avoided in winter. Erected along the shoreline of Toronto’s east-end beaches, the projects are selected through a single-stage international design competition and stay up for six weeks. To date, the Winter Stations competition has received entries from more than 90 countries.

Conceived by a team of 10 Daniels students, Introspection joins a number of previous Faculty projects that have been presented at the exhibition: Midwinter Fire in 2017, I See You Ashiyu in 2017 and Calvacade in 2019.

In response to the pandemic and how people have adapted to it, the exhibition’s theme this year is “resilience.” With that in mind, the Introspection team members designed a red pavilion – plywood sheets covered with wooden slats – surrounding a lifeguard tower. The pavilion’s inner walls will be lined with mirrors. “We chose to base our design on the emotions felt throughout the past two years’ worth of quarantine and isolation,” the project description reads. It goes on to explain:
 

“Playing with the idea of reflection, we utilize mirrored walls to cast the visitors as the subjects of our bright red pavilion. While the trellis roof allows the sun to illuminate the interior and its visitors, the red lifeguard tower stands unyielding in the centre of the pavilion, reminding us of the inherent stability within us.”
 

Dean Juan Du looks forward to visiting Introspection and the rest of the installations when Winter Stations opens in late February. “This pavilion is a timely and creative expression of a theme we’ve all had to navigate intimately,” she says. “Our faculty, students and staff have come together and risen to incredible challenges these last couple of years. Both Introspection and the larger exhibition invite people to reflect on our vulnerabilities and strengths, on what it means to be resilient both individually and collectively.”

On a separate but related note, the Dean will also be hosting a symposium on April 2 titled Design for Resilient Communities. Details of the event will be available closer to the date.

Hardy and his team hope to start installing Introspection at Woodbine Beach during the week of February 7. The exhibition runs from February 21 to March 3.

“We invite Daniels community members to check out our pavilion,” he says. “It’s a space that hopefully will inspire people to not only think about what we’ve been through, but also what we’re capable of.”

The Introspection team is comprised of the following members:

Christopher Hardy - Master of Architecture
Tomasz Weinberger - Bachelor of Arts, Architectural Studies
Clement Sung - Master of Architecture
Jason Wu - Master of Architecture
Jacob Henriquez - Master of Architecture
Christopher Law - Bachelor of Arts, Architectural Studies
Anthony Mattacchione - Master of Architecture
George Wang - Master of Architecture
Maggie MacPhie - Master of Architecture
Zoey Chao - Master of Architecture

Fiona Lim Tung, Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, serves as project sponsor and supervisor.

For more information about Winter Stations 2022, please click here.

Introspection project members assemble the pavilion at the Daniels Faculty on January 22, 2022. (Photos by Christopher Law)

On January 22, members of the Daniels group Black Students in Design (BSD) launched a new initiative to support young Black students interested in the architecture and design fields. The mentorship program, called Building Black Success through Design (BBSD), is the first of its kind at the Daniels Faculty.

“We are incredibly excited to kick off Building Black Success through Design,” says Clara James, founder and president of BSD. “Through a lot of work and collaboration between BSD members and the Daniels Outreach Office, we were able to develop a mentorship program dedicated to building interpersonal relationships between Black university and high school students.”

The program’s inaugural cohort includes six high school students from across the Greater Toronto Area and one from Calgary. Centred around a design competition, the program guides mentees through each step of the design process as they work toward creating individual submission packages. They will be mentored over the next two months by six BSD members, including James.

Among the exercises that the high schoolers will take part in are design and technical workshops with other student groups (such as Applied Architecture & Landscape Design), lectures by Daniels faculty members, and sessions with Black design professionals. Participants will present their final projects at a showcase with prizes the week following March Break.

Dean Juan Du has warmly welcomed the launch of the program, noting its significance both within the Faculty and beyond. “This program is an important demonstration of our commitment at the school to acknowledging the existence of anti-Black racism and to building a more supportive and inclusive Daniels Faculty,” she says. “I congratulate and thank the tireless members of Black Students in Design for leading this initiative. I wish the participants all the best and look forward to seeing the showcase later this year.”

The mentorship program is just one of the many initiatives organized by BSD, which was founded in 2021 to “create a community for Black students to de-stress, to talk about racial issues in the design industry, and to connect with Black design professionals and with each other,” as James describes it. “It’s created by Black students for Black students.”

In addition to BBSD, the group will be hosting In Conversation with Black Students in Design: Building Black Spaces, an upcoming panel featuring Toronto writer and scholar Rinaldo Walcott, U.S. academic Rashad Shabazz, and Dr. Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall, the Dean of Design at OCAD University. The event is part of the Daniels Faculty’s 2022 winter programming and is scheduled to take place on February 3.

“It can feel a bit overwhelming sometimes keeping up with BSD work, our studies and just life in general,” says James. She feels, however, that the group is only getting started. “I am beyond excited to see how the program and our group will evolve in the coming years.”

Over the past several years, Daniels Faculty graduate student James Bird has worked tirelessly toward reconciling Canada-First Nations relations, liaising with top government officials and disseminating Indigenous teachings. And he has done it all while working toward his Master of Architecture degree, which he achieved earlier this month.

In December and January, the residential-school survivor and knowledge keeper from the Nehiyawak and Dene Nations was recognized not once but twice for his ongoing efforts, receiving both a prestigious Challenge Coin from the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and a 2022 Clarkson Laureateship from Massey College, where Bird is a junior fellow.

Named after Adrienne Clarkson, Canada’s 26th Governor General, “the Clarkson Laureateships in Public Service are the highest honour that the College awards annually,” Bird explains. “This award dates back to 2004, during the final year of Madame Clarkson’s term. The Laureateships honour her many years of service to Canada by recognizing members of the Massey College community who also contribute to the public good.”

At Massey, Bird is one of three tobacco keepers of the college’s Chapel Royal, which was given that status by the Queen in 2017 and is known in Anishinaabek as Gi-Chi Twaa Gimaa Kwe Mississauga Anishinaabek AName Amik (The Queen’s Anishinaabek Sacred Place). A tobacco garden sits outside the Chapel Royal, the crop being a “sacred” resource long central to Crown-Indigenous relations. 

In June, Bird had co-hosted a luncheon and tour of the garden for the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor.  About a month before Bird accepted his Clarkson Laureateship during a virtual ceremony on January 14, he was at Queen’s Park, receiving his Challenge Coin from Dowdeswell in her office on December 10.

The Challenge Coin, a medallion bestowed annually to a select few, is a more personal honour, given by the Lieutenant Governor as a token of appreciation for supporting her office over the years of her term. 

In addition to hosting Dowdeswell at Massey College, Bird had also joined her for a July 1 Sunrise Ceremony, where he delivered the opening prayer. Such ceremonies are “a time to welcome goodness into the world and to move our collective intentions to kindness,” Bird said at the time. “As we move into these difficult times, let us all remember our collective humanity and move gently on Mother Earth.”

True to form, Bird will not be resting on his steadily growing laurels. Academically, a Doctorate of Philosophy in Architecture, Landscape, and Design will be next on his radar, while his work as a member of the University of Toronto’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission steering committee continues.  

“Although I am grateful for these [honours],” he says, “there is still so much more to be done, and I will continue to work on these issues that plague so many First Nations peoples in Canada.” 

Image Credits: First image: James Bird holds the Challenge Coin given to him by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario as a token of appreciation for supporting her office during her term. Second image: Bird receives the Challenge Coin from the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell at Queen’s Park on December 10. (Photos courtesy of the Office of the Lieutenant Governor)

The John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto is excited to present its Winter 2022 public program. Through a series of book talks, panel discussions, lectures and symposia, 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: design and social justice, building technology and climate change, urban development and real estate, community resiliency, among others.  
 
All events are free and open to the public. Register in advance and check the calendar for up-to-date details: daniels.utoronto.ca/events.  

Winter 2022 

January 18, 12 p.m. ET 
Forest For the Trees: The Tree Planters 
Rita Leistner (Author and Photographer) 
Moderated by Sandy Smith (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 

January 27, 6:30 p.m. ET 
Black Bodies, White Gold: Art, Cotton, and Commerce in the Atlantic World 
Anna Arabindan-Kesson (Author; Princeton University, Department of Art and Archaeology) 
Moderated by Jason Nguyen (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 

February 3, 6:30 p.m. ET 
In Conversation with Black Students in Design: Building Black Spaces  
Rashad Shabazz (Arizona State University, School of Social Transformation) 
Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall (OCAD University, Faculty of Design) 
Rinaldo Walcott (University of Toronto, Department of Sociology and Equity Studies) 
Moderated by Black Students in Design (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 

February 4, 10 a.m. ET 
Sea Machines 
Keller Easterling (Yale University, School of Architecture) 
Larrie Ferreiro (George Mason University, Department of History and Art History) 
Carola Hein (Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment) 
Niklas Maak (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) 
Meredith Martin (New York University, Department of Art History) 
Prita Meier (New York University, Department of Art History) 
Sara Rich (Coastal Carolina University, HTC Honors College) 
Margaret Schotte (York University, Department of History) 
Elliott Sturtevant (Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation)
Gillian Weiss (Case Western Reserve University, Department of History) 
Co-moderated by Jason Nguyen and Christy Anderson (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 

February 10, 12 p.m. ET 
Thinking Like a Mountain 
Stephanie Carlisle (University of Washington, Carbon Leadership Forum) 
Rosetta Elkin (McGill University, Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture) 
Joseph Grima (Space Caviar) 
Scott McAulay (Anthropocene Architecture School)  
Co-moderated by Kelly Doran, Sam Dufaux and Douglas Robb (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 

February 15, 12 p.m. ET 
Wigs and Women: Korean and Black Migrations and the American Street 
Min Kyung Lee (Bryn Mawr College, Department of Growth and Structure of Cities) 
Moderated by Jason Nguyen and Erica Allen-Kim (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 

February 17, 6:30 p.m. ET 
Tower Renewal and Overcoming Canada’s Retrofit Crisis: Research / Advocacy / Practice 
Graeme Stewart (ERA Architects), presenting research undertaken with Ya’el Santopinto (ERA Architects) 
The George Baird Lecture 
Introductions by Dean Juan Du and Professor George Baird (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 

March 3, 6:30 p.m. ET 
A Place for Life – An Archeology of the Future 
Lina Ghotmeh (2021-2022 Frank O. Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architectural Design) 
Moderated by Juan Du (Dean and Professor, University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty)  

March 29, 12 p.m. ET 
After Concrete 
Lucia Allais (Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation) 
Forrest Meggers (Princeton University, School of Architecture) 
Moderated by Mary Lou Lobsinger (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty)  

March 31, 6:30 p.m. ET 
Urban Urgencies 
Marion Weiss (Partner, Weiss/Manfredi Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism; Professor of Practice, University of Pennsylvania, Stuart Weitzman School of Design)
Michael Manfredi (Partner, Weiss/Manfredi Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism; Senior Urban Design Critic, Harvard University Graduate School Of Design)
Moderated by Juan Du (Dean and Professor, University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 

April 5, 6:30 p.m. ET 
Little Jamaica 
Elizabeth Antczak (Open Architecture Collaborative Canada) 
Romain Baker (Black Urbanism TO) 
Cheryll Case (CP Planning) 
Tura Cousins Wilson (Studio of Contemporary Architecture)
Co-moderated by Otto Ojo and Michael Piper with Black Students in Design (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 

April 7, 6:30 p.m. ET 
Reimagining ChinaTOwn: Speculative Fiction Stories from Toronto's Chinatown(s) in 2050 
Linda Zhang (Organizer and Facilitator; X University, School of Interior Design) 
Biko Mandela Gray (Facilitator; Syracuse University, African American Religion) 
Michael Chong (Author) 
Amelia Gan (Author) 
Eveline Lam (Author) 
Amy Yan (Author and Illustrator) 
Moderated and facilitated by Erica Allen-Kim (University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 

April 8, 10 a.m. ET
Design for Resilient Communities International Symposium 
In association with UIA Word Congress 2023: Sustainable Futures - Leave No One Behind
Convenors: 
Juan Du (Dean and Professor, University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty) 
Anna Rubbo (Senior Scholar, Columbia University, Center for Sustainable Urban Development, The Earth Institute) 

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. 

Miles Gertler (Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream) and his design practice Common Accounts recently presented Parade of All the Feels at Greater Toronto Art 2021, the Museum of Contemporary Art’s (MOCA) inaugural triennial exhibition.

Common Accounts created a scale architectural model of a parade float installed on the ground floor of MOCA, shown next to pieces by Ghazaleh Avarzamani, Tom Chung, Walter Scott and Julia Dault. The triennial spans all three of the museum’s floors.

“Parade of All the Feels is an architectural expression of the concern for the contemporary phenomenon of feelings-as-facts and ‘emotional geo-spoofing’,” Gertler explains. “It considers the niche ecosystems that form a society of radically independent pluralities and positions ceremonies like parades as pragmatic tools for city-building.”

Photo by Tori Hadkenscheid.

Encased in an acrylic dome equipped with miniature video screens and lights, Parade of All the Feels is drawn from of a more extensive series of floats recently developed by Common Accounts, including a Parade of Healthy Oceans, a Parade of Social Anxiety, a Parade of Cancelled Personalities, and a Parade of Uncomfortable Memes, which will be released in the forthcoming issue of Perspecta (The Yale Architectural Journal).

“This piece builds on our ambition to offer a glimpse both five seconds into the future and into the rear-view mirror of the immediate past,” Gertler says. “It is a meditation on the current moment – on the prioritization, valuation, and organization of emotional information as a political tool and as cultural medium.”

The piece is interactive, with two digital filters that project animated events around the installation, developed in collaboration with Mingus New.

An animated, digital version of some of the parts of the Parade, along with other digital artworks produced by other participants in the show, can be found in MOCA’s GTA360: a virtual environment developed by Daniels Sessional Lecturer, Andy Bako and Master of Architecture graduate student Niko Dellic. Visitors there can interact with each other in real-time, engage in conversations around the hosted works, and the role of digital tools within contemporary art and design practices.

Learn more about Common Accounts.

Photos by Common Accounts.

“Eb Zeidler was a humanist, seeing design in terms of service to the community. His work was innovative and in many cases iconic, but ultimately he wanted to create places for people, not monuments.”

So notes urban designer Ken Greenberg of celebrated architect Eberhard Zeidler, who passed away on January 7 at the age of 95.

In addition to creating some of Canada’s most recognizable structures, from Ontario Place and the Eaton Centre in Toronto to Canada Place for Expo 86 in Vancouver, the German-born architect had a sustained relationship with the Daniels Faculty, culminating in the establishment of the Eberhard Zeidler Library in the revitalized Daniels Building, to which he and his wife Jane (MA Art History, 1989, U of T) generously contributed.

“Eberhard Zeidler leaves important architectural and civic legacies to the city and to the Daniels Faculty at the University of Toronto,” said Dean Juan Du upon learning of his death. “We at the school are deeply saddened by the loss.”

“The name Eberhard Zeidler,” former dean Richard Sommer noted during the 2019 dedication of the Eberhard Zeidler Library and Zeidler Family Reading Room, “is firmly ensconced in the school’s history as one that continues to inspire and shape the architecture education of many faculty, alumni and current students.”

The 37,000-volume library, which also contains a trove of maps, drawings and manuscripts as well as copious digital resources, is only the most prominent of Eberhard and Jane’s contributions to the University. Having established his own practice, now known as Zeidler, in the 1960s, Eberhard was a visiting lecturer and critic at the Faculty before serving as an adjunct professor from 1983 to 1995.

He and Jane were also pleased to invest in and recognize the next generation of architectural talent by establishing the Eberhard Zeidler Scholarship in 1999. Last bestowed this fall, it’s awarded on the basis of academic achievement to a student concluding his or her first year of the Master of Architecture program.

“He was very passionate about the teaching of architecture,” Dr. Zeidler’s son Robert tweeted this weekend. Both Eb and Jane passed on their civic-mindedness to their four children: Margie, Robert, Kate and Christina.

Dr. Eberhard Zeidler and Mrs. Jane Zeidler with their children, from top left, Christina, Kate, Margie and Robert. (Photo by John Hryniuk)

Filmmaker and artist Christina has become a well-known preservationist, transforming neglected historic gems such as the Gladstone Hotel, while alumna Margie (BArch, 1987, U of T) is 401 Richmond’s president and creator; these two projects are now thriving cultural hubs in Toronto. Robert, meanwhile, developed the Cotton Factory project in Hamilton, Ontario, while Kate is a leading interior designer, with more than 25 years in the business.

Such creative acumen owes a debt to Dr. Zeidler’s example. “Eb Zeidler began the transformation of a rather conservative Toronto in the late ’70s by reinterpreting classical architecture spaces in surprising new ways,” says Marianne McKenna, a founding partner at KPMB Architects.

“He cleverly jump-started today’s contemporary Toronto with modern materials and fresh architectural forms. His genius was in creating new public spaces that people actually love to be in. He was an architect who put our spatial experience first.”

Over the years, Dr. Zeidler had been acknowledged with gratitude by the country, city and institutions to which he devoted his talents. In 1989, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Architecture by the University of Toronto. He was also made an Officer of the Order of Canada and received a gold medal from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.

According to those who knew him best, however, his real rewards were in the creation and improvement of spaces we collectively use and enjoy.

“He was an exemplary Torontonian [who] involved himself throughout his career in the issues of the day, taking positions when others in the profession did not,” recalls Greenberg.

“At the time of the Central Area Plan [in the 1970s], Toronto’s reform Council wanted to bring people to live in the city’s core, which was rapidly becoming an office monoculture. Eb and a few others stepped up to challenge the development industry of the time by showing how mixed-use could be done.”

For Greenberg, Dr. Zeidler’s work with Michael Hough on Ontario Place is “one of the great demonstrations of a powerful fusion of architecture and landscape.” It is also reflective of his overall approach to architecture and life.

“He was,” says the urban designer, “a great collaborator.”

To learn more about Dr. Zeidler’s life and legacies, visit this website.

Banner image: Dr. and Mrs. Zeidler sign the guestbook at the Zeidler Family Reading Room in 2019. (Photo by John Hryniuk)

This December, students in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design and forestry will present their final projects in-person at the Daniels Building on One Spadina Crescent, to their instructors. Students of the Daniels Faculty will also present to guest critics from both academia and the professional community in attendance.  

IMPORTANT UPDATE: The University of Toronto will not be holding in-person exams or reviews effective 8 a.m. on Thursday, December 16, 2021. Instructors will contact individual students. Please see the latest University of Toronto COVID-19 planning update.

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

Thursday, Dec 9 | Graduate

Design Studio 1 
ARC1011Y 
9 a.m. - 6 p.m. 
 
Instructors: Vivian Lee (Coordinator), Fiona Lim Tung, Miles Gertler, Sam Ghantous, Aleris Rodgers, Julia DiCastri, Maria Denegri 
Rooms: 215, 230, 240, Gallery, DA170-Raked Seating 
 
Design Studio 1 
LAN1011Y  
9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. 
 
Instructors: Behanz Assadi (Coordinator), Peter North  
Room: 330 
 

Friday, December 10 | Undergraduate

Drawing and Representation 1 
ARC100H1 
9 a.m. - 6 p.m. 
 
Instructors: Vivian Lee (Coordinator), Brandon Bergem, Matthew DeSantis, Daniel Briker, Chloe Town, Danielle Whitley, David Verbeek, Jamie Lipson, Anamarija Korolj, Andrew Lee, Luke Duross, Anne Ma, Angela Cho, Kara Verbeek, Andrea Rodriguez Fos, Nicholas Barrette 
Rooms: 215, 230, 240, 330, 2nd Floor Hallway, Gallery  
 

Monday, December 13 | Graduate & Undergraduate 

Integrated Urbanism 
ARC2013Y, LAN2013Y, URD1011Y 
9 a.m. - 6 p.m. 
 
Instructors: Roberto Damiani (Coordinator), Fadi Masoud (Coordinator), Michael Piper (Coordinator), Christos Marcopoulos, Pina Petricone, Mariana Leguia, Lukas Pauer, Delnaz Yekrangian, Laurence Holland, Jon Cummings, Drew Adams, Robert Wright, Megan Esopenko 
Rooms: 209, 215, 230, 240, 330 

Design Studio II 
ARC201H1 
9 a.m. - 6 p.m. 
 
Instructors: Miles Gertler (Coordinator), Chris Cornecelli, Jennifer Kudlats, Luke Duross, T. Jeffrey Garcia 
Rooms: 242, DA-170-Raked seating, 1st Floor Hallway, 2nd Floor Hallway, Gallery 

Tuesday, December 14 | Graduate

Integrated Urbanism 
ARC2013Y, LAN2013Y, URD1011Y 
9 a.m. - 6 p.m. 
 
Instructors: Roberto Damiani (Coordinator), Fadi Masoud (Coordinator), Michael Piper (Coordinator), Christos Marcopoulos, Pina Petricone, Mariana Leguia, Lukas Pauer, Delnaz Yekrangian, Laurence Holland, Jon Cummings, Drew Adams, Robert Wright, Megan Esopenko 
Rooms: 209, 215, 230, 240, 330 
 

Research Studios / Option Studios 

Landscape Design Studio Research   
Slow Landscape: to a new expression of place 
LAN3016Y  
9 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

Instructor: Victoria Taylor 
Room: Gallery 

Urban Design Studio Options 
URD2013Y  
9 a.m. - 6 p.m. 
 
Instructor: Angus Laurie 
Room: DA-170 Raked Seating 

Capstone Project Presentations in Forest Conservation 
FOR3008H 
9 a.m. - 6 p.m. 
 
See detailed agenda and zoom links here 
 

Wednesday, December 15 | Graduate

Capstone Project Presentations in Forest Conservation 
FOR3008H  
9 a.m. - 6 p.m. 
 
Capstone Project Presentations 
See detailed agenda and zoom links here 

Research Studios / Option Studios 

Mediated Alps: Reconstructing mountain archives and futures 
LAN3016Y 
9:00am - 1:00pm, 2:00pm - 6:00pm 
 
Instructor: Aisling O’Carroll  
Room: 330 
 
Reconceptualizing a 1960’s urban renewal project in downtown Hamilton, Ontario: The Jackson Square Shopping Mall 
ARC3020Y F 
12:00pm - 6:00pm 
 
Instructor: George Baird 
Room: 209 

Framing, Looping & Projecting Quantum Architecture 
ARC3016Y S 
9:00am - 1:00pm 

Instructor: Brian Boigon 
Room: 209 & 242 

Half Studio 
ARC3020Y F 
9:00am - 1:00pm, 2:00pm - 6:00pm 

Instructor: Kelly Alvarez Doran  
Room: 230 

BROWSE, the Gathering 
ARC3020Y F 
9:00am - 1:00pm, 2:00pm - 6:00pm 

Instructor: Lara Lesmes, Fredrik Hellberg 
Room: TBA (Online) 
 

Thursday, December 16 | Graduate

Technology Studio III 
ARC380Y1 
9 a.m. - 6 p.m. 
 
Instructor: Nicholas Hoban (Coordinator), Nathan Bishop 
Online 

 
Research Studios / Option Studios 

Meuble Immeuble 
ARC3020Y F 
9:00am - 1:00pm, 2:00pm - 6:00pm 
 
Instructor: An Te Liu 
Online 

STUFF 
ARC3020Y F 
9:00am - 1:00pm, 2:00pm - 6:00pm 

Instructor: Laura Miller 
Online

Interstellar Architecture: Designing and prototyping a home beyond Earth 
ARC3020Y F 
9:00am - 1:00pm, 2:00pm - 6:00pm 

Instructor: Brady Peters 
Online

Reappraising the Design of Long-Term Care Residential Environments in the Context of COVID-19 
ARC3020Y F 
9:00am - 1:00pm, 2:00pm - 6:00pm 

Instructor: Stephen Verderber 
Online
 

Friday, December 17 | Undergraduate

Post Professional Thesis 1 
ALA4021Y 
10a.m. - 2 p.m. 

Instructor: Roberto Damiani, Coordinator 
Online

Architectural Design Studio 7: Thesis 
ARC4018Y 
12 p.m. - 5 p.m. 

Instructors: Vivian Lee, Mary Lou Lobsinger, Adrian Phiffer, Mauricio Quiros Pacheco, Mason White 
Online

Research Studios / Option Studios 

Bridging the Divide: An Architecture of Demographic Transition 
ARC3020Y F 
9:00am - 1:00pm, 2:00pm - 6:00pm 

Instructor: Shane Williamson 
Online 

Potent Voids 
ARC3020Y F 
9:00am - 1:00pm, 2:00pm - 6:00pm 

Instructor: Lina Ghotmeh 
Online

ARCHIPELAGO, 3.0: Storytelling, Activism, Re-Building 
ARC3020Y F 
9:00am - 1:00pm, 2:00pm - 6:00pm 
 
Instructor: Petros Babasikas 
Online 
 

Monday, December 20 | Undergraduate

Architecture Studio III 
ARC361Y1 
9 a.m. - 6 p.m. 
 
Instructors: Adrian Phiffer (Coordinator), Nova Tayona, Shane Williamson 
Online

Landscape Architecture Studio III 
ARC363Y1 
9 a.m. - 6 p.m. 
 
Instructor: Behnaz Assadi 
Online

Digital Twinning 
ARC465H1 
9 a.m. - 5 p.m. 

Instructor: Jay Pooley 
Online
 

Tuesday, December 21 | Undergraduate

Drawing and Representation II 
ARC200H1 
9 a.m. - 1 p.m. 
 
Instructors: Michael Piper (Coordinator), Sonai Ramundi, Reza Nik, Mohammed Soroor, Sam Ghantous, Katy Chey, Sam Dufaux, Scott Norsworthy, Kfir Gluzberg, J. Alejandro Lopez 
Online

Undergraduate Thesis I 
ARC456H1/ARC461H1/ARC486H1 
10 a.m. - 4 p.m. 
 
Instructors: Laura Miller, Nicholas Hoban, Simon Rabyniuk 
Online

Christopher Hardy, Master of Architecture student, and Tomasz Weinberger, second-year undergraduate student, have received first place and a $3,000 award out of 81 entries from student teams around the world in the Canadian Academy of Architecture for Justice (CAAJ) competition: Breaking the Cycle Student Design for their project Black Creek Community Corridor. 
 
The CAAJ invited architecture students to design a new Community Justice Centre, an informal community setting that challenges the present justice system and the issues faced by communities. As CAAJ shares “the long waits for trials, high rates of recidivism, harsh sentences for minor infractions, failure to rehabilitate offenders, and the overrepresentation of certain racial groups is one of these institutions being challenged in the context of social unrest, systematic racism and discrimination, and violent protests.” The design was evaluated by a jury of justice experts, architects and industry professionals.   

Black Creek Community Corridor - Christopher Hardy and Tomasz Weinberger

Located within an underutilized hydro-corridor at Jane and Finch, the Black Creek Community Corridor aims to provide the residents of an underserved neighbourhood with a mix of recreational and judicial services. The site was selected based on its proximity to a popular community garden, a recreational trail, and its multiple access points to different modes of public transport.  

The cut-outs within the rammed earth walls separate community and justice programming to facilitate an ease of wayfinding between the provided social, legal and recreational services. The motive was to create a striking and welcoming multi-program floor plan that can address all the needs of the Jane and Finch area. As a way to destigmatize the surrounding community, the project names its public amenities after notable citizens from the neighbourhood, such as Anthony Bennet, Jessie Reyez, and Paul Nguyen. The intent was to highlight their contributions to society in an effort to celebrate the community’s achievements and to inspire the youth to fight against stigma and adversity. They abolished the linearity, darkness and hierarchical seating of the Ontarian court.  
 
Hardy and Weinberger share: “We’re very thankful to have been given the opportunity to explore how architecture can act as a tool for social change in disadvantaged communities. Through our ethnographic study of the neighbourhood of Black Creek, we devised a scheme that would restore the connections between the community and justice system through the integration of key social services and much-needed public amenities.” 

They recently presented their winning competition entry at the AIA Academy of Architecture for Justice (AAJ) Fall 2021 Conference discussing the topic of the emerging typology of Community Justice Centre with fellow panelists David Clusiau (NORR Architects, CAAJ Chair), Jacob Kummer (Montgomery Sisam Architects, CAAJ Communications & Competition Co-chair), Julian Jaffary (Justice Architecture Specialist, AIA Liaison & Competition Co-chair), and Julius Lang (Community Justice Expert, former Sr. Advisor at Center for Court Innovation). 
 

Learn more about the CAAJ competition