Professor Emeritus Larry Wayne Richards, former dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design (1997-2004), reflects on the importance of visiting appointments and 19 years of the Frank Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architectural Design.  

When I became dean of the Faculty in 1997, the notion of establishing an international visiting chair in architecture came to me naturally. Several decades before, as a graduate student at Yale University, I was privileged to study with the acclaimed British architect James Frazer Stirling, who held the position of William B. and Charlotte Shepherd Davenport Visiting Professor of Architectural Design. Established in 1966, and first held by Robert Venturi, the Davenport is one of more than 10 visiting professorships at Yale’s School of Architecture. Those positions enable students to learn first-hand from the world’s leading architects.  

Precedents such as this were on my mind when colleagues and I embarked on expanding the Faculty’s international outlook and comprehensively restructuring its academic programs. Fortuitously, the University of Toronto had launched its Great Minds Campaign in 1995, which prioritized the establishment of endowed academic chairs by private donation. Assisted by Maude McCarty, the Faculty's director of development, I formed a small working group that included Bruce Kuwabara, Daniels Faculty alumnus and founding partner of KPMB Architects. He, too, was excited by the idea of creating a visiting chair. In his words, “The experience of working with significant international architects gives students invaluable interaction, insight, and inspiration in their development.” 

The project gained momentum when I approached the distinguished architect and Toronto native Frank Owen Gehry, seeking to honor him by having his name grace the chair. Frank agreed, and it was a major turning point for the initiative. Bruce, Maude, and others worked closely with me, securing gifts from enthusiastic donors. But we were moving slowly towards the goal of raising $1 million as required to receive the university’s matching funding and thereby achieve the $2-million endowment. Happily, Heather Reisman, founder, chair, and CEO of Indigo, came forward with a generous lead gift. This led to more contributions – 43 in all – sending us well beyond our $1-million goal in private donations. The university provided a match of $1 million, and the Frank Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architectural Design –– the Faculty’s first endowed chair –– was realized in 2002.   

Image caption: Architect Daniel Libeskind was the first appointment in 2002, and Frank Gehry participated in one of Professor Libeskind’s studio reviews.   

(The following year, in 2003, the Daniels Faculty’s Michael Hough/OALA Visiting Critic in Landscape Architecture position was established with support from the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects and named in honour of Michael Hough [1928-2013]. Professor Hough was a Toronto urban ecologist and founder of the landscape architecture program at the University of Toronto. Landscape architect and urbanist Walter Hood [Oakland, California] will be the Hough/OALA Visiting Critic for 2021. More information on the 2021 Michael Hough/OALA lecture is forthcoming.) 

The terms establishing the Gehry Chair, as approved by the university and funded annually by a portion of the endowment investment income, are to “appoint at least one highly recognized international architect for a period of approximately four months, annually.” Typically, the chair holder presents a public lecture and conducts an advanced graduate studio with about 12 students.  

To date, the Faculty has attracted 18 international architects to the Gehry Chair: 

2002-03 Daniel Libeskind, New York  

2003-04 Preston Scott Cohen, Cambridge, Massachusetts  

2004-05 Merrill Elam, Atlanta  

2005-06 Diane Lewis, New York  

2006-07 Will Bruder, Phoenix  

2007-08 Jürgen Mayer H, Berlin  

2008-09 Wes Jones, Los Angeles  

2009-10 Mitchell Joachim, New York  

2010-11 Nader Tehrani, Boston  

2011-12 Hrvoje Njiric, Zagreb, Croatia 

2013-14 Josemaría de Churtichaga, Madrid  

2016-17 Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, Los Angeles  

2017-18 Amale Andraos and Dan Wood, New York  

2019-20 Aljoša Dekleva and Tina Gregorič, Ljubljana, Slovenia  

2020-21 Douglas Cardinal, Ottawa 

Image caption: Studio reviews with Josemaría de Churtichaga (2013-14 Gehry Chair).

Each Gehry Chair holder arrives with an impressive list of professional achievements and awards. To cite one example, when Phoenix-based Will Bruder came to teach in the Faculty in 2006, his resume included more than 60 state, national, and international awards, including the American Academy Rome Prize, the Chrysler Design Award, the Architectural Record Award of Excellence for Design, and the Educator of the Year Award from the Arizona chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Professor Emeritus George Baird, former dean of the Daniels Faculty (2004-2009), invited Bruder and adds: “It was a huge benefit to be able to bring prominent architects from other parts of the world to the school for a term, especially after my positive experience of so many enriching visiting professorships at Harvard, where I taught for several years before becoming dean at U of T.” 

Occasionally, architect-partners are appointed to the Gehry Chair. Student Phat Le recalls his experience studying with Aljoša Dekleva and Tina Gregorič in 2019: “It was fantastic to study with them. The research phase included a trip to Venice, Ljubljana, and Vienna to tour examples of affordable housing and methods of collective housing practices. Then Aljoša and Tina focused our studio project on Toronto’s ‘missing middle’ in the ‘yellowbelt’ – that area constituting about 70 per cent of Toronto’s residential areas zoned for detached and semi-detached housing. They trusted the students, combining our experiences in Toronto with their knowledge of housing practices in their home base of Slovenia. This created a unique dialogue. The Gehry Chair studio was a huge catalyst for my master’s thesis, wherein I’m examining aspects of collectivity, ownership, and community power in Toronto’s downtown Chinatown.” 

Richard Sommer, former dean of the Daniels Faculty (2009-2020), made seven Gehry Chair appointments. He sees international visiting appointments as key to challenging the status quo, allowing dynamic individuals from practice to bring their thinking into a school, cutting across the grain of established pedagogy and curricula. Professor Sommer says, “The impact of the Gehry Chair visitors on our school reflects the changing role and influence of the practitioner/teacher. In this light, we can see how our visitors over the past two decades have confronted shifting interests and curiosities during a period when the field of architecture and our school were rapidly changing." 

Image caption: Public lecture with Amale Andraos and Dan Wood (2017-18 Gehry Chairs). 

Indeed, this kind of healthy confrontation has come forward boldly from Douglas Cardinal, the renowned Canadian architect who holds the 2020-2021 Gehry Chair. Celebrated for his pioneering use of computers in architectural practice, advocacy for the rights and dignity of indigenous peoples, and inspiring building designs, the appointment of Cardinal is momentous.  

Given the current global pandemic and resulting remote learning, Cardinal is presenting a series of four online lectures and conversations, reaching an expanded student audience, as well as the public. The third event, Douglas Cardinal: Talks with Students, on February 25, will be led by James Bird, an Indigenous student at the Daniels Faculty. The conversation will focus on the teaching of architecture. In the final session, on March 25, Cardinal will narrate a video tour of the Canadian Museum of History in Hull, Quebec — an energetic, curvaceous structure with integral landscapes that he designed during 1984-89. The museum exemplifies the kind of “spiritual organicism” for which Cardinal has become known internationally. 

Image caption: Douglas Cardinal (2020-21 Gehry Chair) hosts an online public lecture on January 14, 2021. One of his seminal works, St. Mary's Church in Red Deer, Alberta, is shown on screen. 

Over the past 19 years, hundreds of students have been inspired through the instruction of Gehry Chair visitors –– a unique experience that has helped shape their personal and professional development. Endowed in perpetuity, the Frank Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architectural Design will continue to bring distinctive visitors with diverse viewpoints to our Faculty and its extended communities. We can look forward to the future opportunities and surprises that the 20th year of the Gehry Chair will bring in 2022.

In the Daniels Faculty's Integrated Urbanism Studio, students from the Master of Architecture, Master of Landscape Architecture, and Master of Urban Design programs spend a semester working together on shared, large-scale projects.

The studio is one of the most complex in the Daniels Faculty's curriculum and is a staple of its interdisciplinary design pedagogy. Now, it has a web presence to match its importance. The new Integrated Urbanism Studio website launched last semester, and will be the studio’s permanent online home.

The new site, designed under the direction of studio coordinators Fadi Masoud, Michael Piper, and Mason White, is a clearing house of information. “It is a repository of the incredible research and design work produced by over 100 graduate students across 11 teaching sections," Masoud says. "It is our hope that we can continue to build on the rich work presented here year after year."

Visitors to the website can view an interactive map of the city of Toronto, browse through an extensive catalogue of urban precedents, and view project proposals.

In the first week of the studio, students mapped the locations of various social, environmental, demographic, and infrastructural policies as well as a wide list of geospatial conditions. By combining various research and mapping layers, students identified a series of “design action zones” — areas of the city that are especially vulnerable to environmental, economic, and social pressures, and are therefore particularly ripe for design intervention.

These design action zones became sites of urban transformations. Students imagined projects that followed prompts from the international Green New Deal Superstudio to create designs that bring new, equitable, and environmentally sustainable forms of housing, mobility, and social services to their study areas.

All of the studio's final projects from the fall 2020 semester are available for viewing online.

Take me to the Integrated Urbanism Studio website

Yi Ran Weng and Felix Chun Lam, both 2020 Master of Architecture graduates, formed their own design practice, naïvepeopledesign, while they were still students at the Daniels Faculty. They immediately began entering competitions together.

Now, all that extracurricular work is starting to pay off. A project Weng and Lam created in collaboration with another 2020 Daniels Faculty alumnus, Abubakr Bajaman, and Mariya Krasteva, a graduate of the Bartlett School of Architecture, has earned them a precious spot at the upcoming 2021 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism.

Clockwise from top right: Yi Ran Weng, Felix Chun Lam, Mariya Krasteva, and Abubakr Bajaman.

The biennale, which will take place in the South Korean capital in September (it's unclear, at this point, whether COVID restrictions will allow the event to happen as planned), is a major international showcase for the latest innovations in architecture and urban design. Designers from around the world compete for a limited number of invitations to build official pavilions for the event.

The title of the 2021 biennale will be "Crossroads: Building the Resilient City." When Weng, Lam, Bajaman, and Krasteva began thinking about ways to address that theme, it occurred to them that cities are often only as resilient as their smallest businesses. "Small businesses are often owned by people of colour, or people who don't necessarily have a lot of money to run a store — or even people who have money, but who have been greatly affected by COVID," Weng says.

They knew their design intervention, whatever it was, would have to be applicable in cities around the world. They needed to base their project on something universal — something that could be found just as easily in Canada as in Bulgaria or Hong Kong. That's when it hit them: parking spots.

Renderings of the group's vending stall, installed curbside. Click to view a larger version.

The group designed a new type of mobile, curbside vending stall that could be deposited in a street parking spot, where it would act as a temporary home for a small business. From the outside, the structure looks a bit like a repurposed shipping container. Inside is a bare-bones counter where a vendor could store a few items for sale. Rows of windows provide easy access to customers on the sidewalk or the street. A ladder on the side allows customers to climb onto the roof, where a set of minimalist benches and loungers make it possible to wait for service in relative comfort. The designers called the project "Secret Societies," a nod to the informal social networks that coalesce around small businesses in urban areas.

But their work wasn't done. "We really wanted to use the biennale as not just a place to show beautiful drawings," Weng says. "We wanted to use the platform to provide an answer to how to be resilient. We believe that resiliency comes from the people. If people can find their own resiliency, cities will become much more resilient."

An image of the group's app design. Click to view a larger version.

To show how these miniature curbside stalls could make small businesses more resilient, the group designed an interface for a smartphone app. The app — which is only a mockup, not a usable product — would be a tool for both small business owners and their customers. Owners would use the app to book vending stalls, and customers would use the app to request the presence of particular businesses at vending stalls located in parking spots near their homes.

This app-based booking system would allow small businesses to operate with little or no overhead, wherever their customers happen to be, for however long those customers happen to be there. The designers theorize that this would help these businesses cope with COVID-like economic shocks. The resilience of the business owners would increase, and so would the resilience of the communities that depend on them.

For their pavilion at the biennale, the designers plan to build a full-scale vending stall. They also intend to develop a demonstration version of their smartphone app for attendees to download onto their phones.

To find out more about the Seoul Biennale, visit the event's website.

With phase three of the revitalization of Regent Park continuing under the experienced stewardship of The Daniels Corporation, the Toronto Community Housing Corporation recently announced its decision to partner with another developer on the final two phases of the revitalization of the downtown neighbourhood.

In an open letter, published as an advertisement in Saturday's Toronto Star, Daniels Corporation president and CEO Mitchell Cohen remarked upon his company's intensive 15-year investment in the transformation of the challenged downtown neighbourhood, since recognized as a model of inclusive urbanism and city-building worldwide, before going on to address TCH’s change in developer partner for the final two stages of the project.

"Although we are deeply disappointed, we wish TCH and their new partner well," Cohen wrote. "We also want to reassure local residents of our long-term commitment to the Regent Park community. Our work has never been just about sewers, roads, buildings or district energy systems. It has been about building community."

To read the rest of Cohen's letter, visit the Daniels Corporation website.

In addition to their work in Regent Park, The Daniels Corporation's leadership team has mentored first-generation university students and acted as campaign volunteers and generous benefactors, both at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design and at the University of Toronto.

Starting on Thursday, for the second time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Daniels Faculty will be holding its thesis reviews online. Students from the Master of Architecture program will be logging into Zoom to present projects that represent the culmination of their time and studies at the school.

Those presentations will be open to the public (click here to find out how to join) — but, with 62 students presenting, it's not going to be possible for anyone to attend all of them.

That's where the Fall 2020 Thesis Booklet, the latest edition of our biannual thesis guidebook, comes in. The booklet contains a short description of every student thesis project being presented this semester. Because we can't hand out copies in person, we've put it online.

Flip through it above, or download a copy to browse offline.

Kohn Shnier Architects, which was co-founded by associate professor John Shnier, has been named a recipient of a 2020 Best of Canada Award for Wrap House, a home renovation project the firm completed in 2019.

The Best of Canada Awards recognize excellence in Canadian interior design projects of any size or budget, anywhere in the country. The awards are given annually by Canadian Interiors magazine.

The Wrap House project consisted of a total modernization of a mid-century home, located in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke. Kohn Shnier Architects created a new front addition, clad in blackened wood, that wraps (hence the name) around the existing structure. Using the home's existing side-split typology, the designers totally revamped the interior volumes and added a new master suite. The new living spaces are characterized by material surfaces that reflect and energize the idea of a special family dwelling.

"Anticipation, reflection, and glimpsed views make for a home that is at once open yet discreet," Kohn Shnier writes in its description of the project. "This, coupled with the the cross-flow energies introduced through entry make an environment that is alive, yet calm."

To learn more about Wrap House and the other winners of the 2020 Best of Canada awards, visit the Canadian Interiors website.

Top image: Wrap House.

Noor Alkhalili, a third-year Master of Architecture student at the Daniels Faculty, was singled out for a rare honour late last month. The Ontario Building Envelope Council named her as the recipient of its 2020 OBEC Graduate Research Scholarship.

OBEC, a group that connects professionals from architecture, engineering, construction, and related fields, awards the $1,000 scholarship annually to one graduate student. Recipients must have a record of academic achievement, and they also need to be pursuing research related to building science.

Alkhalili was presented with a framed certificate at a socially distanced award ceremony in November. She says the scholarship is both a personal honour and a reminder that the discipline of building science is becoming more important at Daniels. "I was really happy to have received this scholarship, especially considering that building science is still an emerging topic," she says. "It's not recognized as much as it needs to be, but it is a very important topic in architecture."

Alkhalili has spent her entire graduate career performing building science research. In her first year at Daniels, she worked with professor Ted Kesik on a conference paper about metrics for visual privacy in buildings. She has continued that work, and is now preparing to co-publish a journal article on the topic with Kesik and Terri Peters, an assistant professor at Ryerson University.

In 2019, Alkhalili and fellow MArch student Jing Li co-founded the Daniels Faculty's OBEC student chapter. And Alkhalili has been a TA in several building science courses at Daniels.

"Noor is a gifted student, a dedicated teaching assistant, and a tireless research assistant," Kesik says. "Soon she will graduate and become a valued colleague. Her journey at Daniels is a testament to the dreams that become reality when the hard work of our students is generously sponsored by scholarships and bursaries."

Top image: Noor Alkhalili.

Barry Sampson (BArch 1972) OAA, FRAIC, professor emeritus at the Daniels Faculty, and principal at Baird Sampson Neuert Architects, passed away over the weekend at age 72 after a valiant battle with cancer.  

Barry Sampson’s contributions to architecture and architectural education in Canada were many. He was deeply committed to architecture as a professional calling and pedagogical project. Everyone who worked with Barry, including several generations of teachers, students, and interns at his firm Baird Samson Neuert, benefitted from the generous way in which he shared his knowledge of and passion for architecture, particularly his deeply ethical commitment towards the integration of all aspects of design and sustainability. Long before it was a fashionable perspective, Barry advocated for a holistic approach to building design and sustainability. Furthermore, he was particularly beloved for the way in which he shared his thoughts and counsel with such humility, oftentimes leavening his frank thoughts and advice with a self-deprecating humour. 

At the Faculty, Barry’s impact was immense. His colleagues came to depend on the ethical and wise perspective he brought to the most important and challenging questions that the school has faced. He developed the Master of Architecture program’s Comprehensive Studio, an essential and technically demanding course of study in whole-building design that has influenced the educational approach of not only the Daniels Faculty, but other architecture schools across Canada. 

Barry was also a steward of Daniels’ facilities, overseeing many improvements to its old home at 230 College Street, and later, as special advisor to the Dean to help plan and construct the new Daniels Building at One Spadina. Barry was instrumental in organizing the new building’s program, and in pushing for innovative aspects of the architecture that are not immediately visible, such as its energy and environmental performance, its natural daylighting and its acoustics. He stayed at the Faculty well past the time he had planned to retire, in order to help ensure that the project was seen through. He took great pleasure — and pride — in what was ultimately achieved. As a teacher, he shared with the next generation of practitioners how good architecture is born from consideration of every element, uniting craft and technological innovation, including energy-efficient, bioclimatic design. 

 Barry Sampson leaves behind an impressive built legacy — a result of his four-decade association with Baird Sampson Neuert Architects (formerly Baird Sampson Architects). His family cottage renovation served as his living laboratory from which he could share experiences and ideas with colleagues and students. The building was originally hand-built by his father in the 1940s. Instead of razing the cottage as would have been expected, he and his family worked together to transform it into a prototype for others with older cottages. They maintained the original building, while transforming it into a high-performance, all-season building that could meet the needs of multiple generations.  

Earlier this year, his Niagara Falls Butterfly Conservatory received the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's Prix du XXe siècle, one of Canada's highest architectural honours. The complex of glass buildings, dedicated to publicly displaying the lifecycle of live butterflies, has been internationally praised for its ability to establish a tropical environment within Ontario’s northern climate, characterized by extreme hot and cold temperatures. According to the jury: It is a project that may not have been at the height of architectural fashion when it was completed in 1996, but with the benefit of hindsight, we see a building that has stood the test of time and was a forerunner in what we now understand as sustainable design. The conservatory design is based on careful problem solving, the use of natural, durable and repairable materials and poetic engagement with the landscape. These elements alone make this project stand out and offer guidance to contemporary architects. 

The Daniels Faculty extends heartfelt condolences to Barry’s Family — wife Judi Coburn and his sons Ben and Martin — and to the many colleagues, students, and friends that were touched by his intelligence and generosity.  

Details will be forthcoming regarding a Celebration of Life, which will be organized jointly between the Faculty and Baird Sampson Neuert Architects. 

Alumni, professional colleagues and friends wishing to enhance the Barry W. Sampson Scholarship, established earlier this year to recognize Barry’s many contributions to the profession, can do so via the Daniels Faculty, University of Toronto.

Charitable donations can be made online uoft.me/barrysampson; by cheque ‘payable to University of Toronto’; or by telephone. Questions about the scholarship fund and telephone donations can be directed to the Faculty’s advancement staff at 416-428-0462.  

Those who would like to share their remembrances are encouraged to do so in the comments on our social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) or to send an email to hannah.brokenshire@daniels.utoronto.ca and we will post them below. 

“Barry Sampson was a mentor, colleague, master architect, and an exceptional teacher in this Faculty. He taught students the fundamental relationship between design and building and educated over five generations of professional architects. Barry was the very definition of a decent, compassionate, and empathetic human being. He gave us all so much, and he has left a legacy of lifetime learning, teaching, significant buildings and dedication to his profession. Our thoughts and sincere condolences are with Barry's family, friends, students, and colleagues.”  

– Robert Wright, Interim Dean of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design 

“Barry was a professional colleague for nearly 40 years, and a friend for nearly 50 years. He began to work for me immediately upon graduation and then, some 16 or 17 years later, became a partner in my firm. In the period when he was an employee, he was a key contributor to a number of my more important projects, one notable example being the reconstruction of the Dunbarton-Fairport United Church. Later, as my partner, he was instrumental in delivering our designs for Cloud Gardens Park and the Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory. 

Later on still, I withdrew from the practice when I took on the deanship at Daniels in 2004. After that, Barry operated altogether independently of me. Two projects from that later period that I think are significant are the McEwen Building for the Schulich School of Business at York University, a relatively recent project of a very high level of environmental ambition, and one of which Barry was very personally proud. And then of course, he was effectively the go-to client representative for the Daniels Building itself, in his role as advisor to the then-dean Richard Sommer. Barry was always very fully committed to social issues. Later in his career, his social commitment turned into a strong environmental commitment, which is reflected both in his work for Daniels and in his work for York University. He was an utterly straight shooter. 

In the latter part of his career, he also played a role as a kind of intermediary between architectural educators in Canada and the architectural profession of Canada. He served on a number of accreditation committees at different schools across the country. I think one of the reasons he was frequently invited to do that was that he was seen as a trusted intermediary between the educators and the profession itself. I hadn't anticipated the intensity of the messages I've been getting from other faculty about Barry. Even though I knew he was well liked, I didn't fully appreciate the extent to which that was so.” 

– George Baird, former Dean of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design (2004-2009) and principal at Baird Sampson Neuert Architects 

 

“I remember meeting with Barry soon after I arrived to take on the dean’s role. He told me he wanted to retire from teaching to spend more time with his family and concentrate on his practice and other work. My first thought was, "Oh no!" He was still in his prime, and we really needed someone of his calibre and experience at the school. He was a gifted teacher who was able to translate his ideas from practice, which is a rare quality. 

So, I asked him to put off his decision. When, sometime after that, I proposed creating a new home for the Faculty at One Spadina, Barry was highly skeptical. He had invested so much in improving the Daniels Faculty's previous building, at 230 College Street. He thought a new, bigger project was unlikely to succeed. But I knew that having the support of someone with Barry’s experience and expertise would be key to undertaking the project successfully. In a not-uncommon example of his fairness and generosity, after working though the scenarios with me, Barry overcame his doubts and became an essential advisor and advocate for One Spadina. He worked with colleagues, our design team, and the university’s notoriously difficult capital projects division. Together, we battled for six years to make that project happen, and I learned a lot from Barry. 

When I told Katie Faulkner, the project architect for One Spadina, that we had lost Barry, she shared a telling story. At a particularly fraught moment during the construction of One Spadina, I broke my foot and was unable to attend meetings for a period of time. The university’s capital projects division decided it wanted to cut costs (AGAIN) in ways that would ruin the project and not ultimately save any money. In my absence, they sent their head henchpersons to meet with Barry and Katie to try and have their way. Barry said to them, with a smile: “Well, I see we smell blood in the water.” 

But he wasn’t going to let them get away with anything. Everyone involved came to understand Barry’s unrelenting standards, and his commitment to doing the right thing.  Barry was an example of how we can be ambitious and stay true to our values and yet still remain open, kind — and, most of all, generous of spirit. I think this is why, even knowing how sometimes brutal and even disappointing the practice of architecture can be, he was able to love architecture and being an architect, to the end. I am really going to miss him, but his faith is something I will keep, and try to share.”  

– Richard Sommer, former Dean of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design (2009–2020) 

"Barry was a superb teacher and consummate professional. Among his achievements, the renovation and expansion of the attic in the Lassonde Mining Building at the University of Toronto is a favourite of mine. Like this project, Barry was modest on the outside but bold and spirited deep down.

Barry consistently displayed dignity, humour, and most of all, humility. I will miss him as a faithful friend and valued colleague."

– Larry Wayne Richards, former Dean of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design (1997 – 2004)

“I feel privileged to have had Barry as my principal, mentor, colleague and friend; a relationship that evolved over the years. Barry always did the right thing, no matter the extra effort required and without ever seeking out praise. A talented architect and generous teacher, he always sought to create collegial spaces in both built and spiritual form. His legacy lives on through his work, teachings and his keen humour. He will truly be missed by all who were lucky enough to know him.”  

– Nene Brode, Daniels Faculty 

 

“Barry will be immensely missed, but I feel so fortunate to have traveled within the same sphere as him these past 15 years, since I arrived in Toronto. I remember a sense of intimidation when I first met him (his reputation as a wise master of the art of building preceded him) and then relief that he was so welcoming and patient. He was a joy and inspiration to have as a teaching colleague over many years, and he served as a mentor to many of us at the Daniels Faculty.

Although he was primarily known as a guru in the comprehensive sequence, Barry was well read and broadly versed on virtually any subject. If you were fortunate enough to bump into him in a chance encounter in the hallways, you could catch up on some of his latest ruminations on theory, history, or urbanism. Having the chance to sit on a review with Barry was an opportunity to gain a wide-ranging understanding of architecture’s impact and relevance at all scales.

Always greeting others with a smile, Barry was kind, humble, and patiently willing to share his knowledge and observations. I learned so much from Barry about architecture, teaching, and the creative life. We are all his students.” 

– Mason White, Daniels Faculty 

 

"Barry Sampson was a dear friend, colleague, and mentor. He introduced me to practice and taught me about teaching. I certainly was not alone in this privilege, but Barry often made me feel like I was. His talent went beyond the studio and the classroom and showed itself in his tremendous sense of humour and his compassion. Heavy situations never diminished the joy he took in making the world a better place through architecture. 

At the Daniels Faculty, Barry was an immeasurable asset. As founding architect of the comprehensive building studio, he led us in the promotion of integrated design as a multivalent, creative exercise. Barry’s approach to sustainable practices in architecture and urban design as generative — even seminal — design strategies, rather than as inventories of evenly distributed must-have “features,” was central to his teaching innovation. We all witnessed how far his strategy goes in introducing students to the reaches of design, and in dispelling the notion that conceptual rigour is limited to the stages of formal investigation. He lived by this approach in practice, and it is recognizable in his most exemplary and accomplished projects. 

It's still difficult to imagine the full impact of Barry’s absence, on so many fronts. At the same time, he is leaving us with so much, and it will be our duty to pass his legacy on to those who didn’t have the chance to know him. He will be remembered. And we will be retelling Barry’s jokes for a long time. "

– Pina Petricone, Daniels Faculty

 

"From the first time that I met Barry when we were first-year architecture students at the University of Toronto, to the last conversation I had with him while he was fighting cancer, he was the same person: a lifelong friend who was extremely thoughtful, gently humorous, and courageous. His family has lost a loving partner and a father, while the world of design and education has lost an amazing architect and teacher. Barry had mastered a comprehensive critical approach to integrated sustainability, architecture, and teaching. Look at his family and friends, colleagues and students, and his buildings and drawings.  "

– Bruce Kuwabara, founding partner at KPMB Architects

"My first experience with U of T was teaching architecture students in Europe. Following that encounter I accepted an offer to do the same in Toronto. When I got to the mothership, there was a palpable chilliness that could have been weather-related or the atmosphere generated by the taciturn Canadian character. Soon it became apparent to me that there were many passionately held positions and ideologies that stalked the halls of the School of Architecture. It was in that context that I met Barry.

After we had both critiqued a student’s work, Barry turned to me and said, 'Oh, so you’re one of those formalists.' The jab was followed by a warm smile as he said, 'It’s ok, I’m a formalist too.' Of course, Barry was much more than that, but his initial offer of friendship and moral approbation, with the dollop of humour, was much appreciated.

From that encounter we developed a warm relationship that included many years of teaching together and many conversations. If you made a sketch of an idea and showed it to Barry, he always reliably had a thoughtful opinion and a knowing reference to discourse. As an educator Barry, did not proselytize for his own religion; instead, he thought about what would be good for students to know and experience. In these times of amplified self-promotion, Barry’s reflexive generosity and instinct to do the right thing are exemplary. Barry was a wonderful colleague whose presence I already missed after his retirement, but will now feel even more strongly."

– Steven Fong, Daniels Faculty

Being a magazine cover model is great, but Ja Architecture Studio, a practice co-founded by assistant professor Behnaz Assadi and Nima Javidi, has achieved something that is arguably even better: a model they created is on the cover of a magazine.

Anyone who picks up the December issue of Canadian Architect will see, on the front, a scale model of "Wardell," a home addition designed by Ja Architecture Studio. The reason for the prominent placement? The design was a winner of a Canadian Architect Award of Excellence.

The Canadian Architect Award of Excellence is given annually to Canadian projects that exemplify architectural design excellence. Ja Architecture was one of four 2020 winners.

Wardell is a front-facing addition to a semi-detached home in Toronto's Riverdale neighbourhood. In creating the design, Assadi, Javidi and their staff of current and former Daniels Faculty students — MArch student Kaveh Taherizadeh and recent graduates Kyle O’ Brien (MArch 2017) and Rosa Newman (MArch 2020) all made direct contributions — transformed one of the most prosaic types of housing in Toronto into something exceptional.

The design adds a curved brick face to the front of a home on a wedge-shaped lot. The new facade rises to a gable-like peak that resembles, but does not emulate, the rooflines of adjacent houses. The front wall is cantilevered over the home's entrance, which gives the whole assembly an appearance of lightness. Inside are 51 square metres of new living space. The interior includes a sunken first floor with a courtyard, a second-level living area, and a luxurious open-plan master suite with its own winter garden, balcony, and skylight.

The Wardell design is currently still in development. The structure is scheduled for completion in 2022.

“This is a little jewel in the middle of the city," Stephan Cavalier, one of the award's jurors, wrote in Canadian Architect. "The designers could have just added to the existing house, but they created a separate object with a versatile space between. I like the tension from the street façade, which respects the smaller scale of the added component. The sculptural shape is complemented by a very interesting tectonic approach that does something different with brick."

To find out more about Wardell and the other winners of this year's Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence, visit the Canadian Architect website.

Alumni, future students, and members of the public are welcome to join us for final reviews. Daniels Faculty students in architecture, landscape, and urban design will present their final projects to their instructors, as well as guest critics from the professional community and local and international academic institutions. 

This semester the Daniels Building is closed to the public, because of COVID-19. As a result, all reviews will be held online, on Zoom. If you'd like to attend, all you have to do is pre-register on Eventbrite and you'll receive login instructions for Daniels On Air.

We welcome our alumni/members of the professional community tuning in to this year’s reviews. Although we won’t be able to greet you personally, please do let us know if you plan to attend the online reviews by confirming your name/affiliation with jacqueline.raaflaub@daniels.utoronto.ca. Your continued engagement with the Daniels Faculty and its talented students is appreciated by us all.

Register for Graduate Reviews on Eventbrite now

Register for Undergraduate Reviews on Eventbrite now

See our Daniels Reviews Online - Instructions

Follow UofTDaniels on Twitter and Instagram and join the conversation using the hashtag #DanielsReviews. All reviews take place from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (unless otherwise stated). Please note that the times and dates of the review schedule may change.

Monday, December 14 | Undergraduate

Drawing and Representation I ARC100H1F
Instructors: James Macgillivray, Genevieve Simms, Fiona Lim Tung, Daniel Briker, Chloe Town, Danielle Whitley, David Verbeek, Kearon Roy Taylor, Nicolas Barrette, Scott Norsworthy, Anne Ma, Tom Ngo, Nuria Montblanch, Andrea Rodriguez Fos, Kara Verbeek, Luke Duross, Jamie Lipson

Tuesday, December 15 | Undergraduate

Drawing and Representation II ARC200H1F
Instructors: Michael Piper, Francesco Martire, Leon Lai, Simon Rabyniuk, Sam Ghantous, Katy Chey, Samuel Dufaux, Mohammed Soroor, Monica Hutton

Design Studio II: How to design almost nothing
ARC201H1F Instructors: Miles Gertler, Jennifer Kudlats, Aleris Rodgers, Brian O'Brian

Wednesday, December 16 | Undergraduate

Architecture Studio III ARC361Y1F
Instructors: Petros Babasikas, Anne-Marie Armstrong, Adrian Phiffer

Landscape Architecture Studio III ARC363Y1F
Instructors: Behnaz Assadi

Technology Studio III ARC380Y1F
Instructors: Nicholas Hoban, Nathan Bishop

Thursday, December 17 | Undergraduate

Senior Seminar in History and Theory ARC456H1F
Instructors: Jeannie Kim

Senior Seminar in Design (Research) ARC461H1F
Instructors: Jeannie Kim

Senior Seminar in Technology (Research) ARC486H1F
Instructors: Nicholas Hoban

Friday, December 18 | Undergraduate

Senior Seminar in History and Theory (Research) ARC456H1F
Instructors: Jeannie Kim

Senior Seminar in Design (Research) ARC461H1F
Instructors: Jeannie Kim

Senior Seminar in Technology (Research) ARC486H1F
Instructors: Nicholas Hoban

Friday, December 11 | Graduate

Design Studio I ARC1011YF
Instructors: Vivian Lee, Tei Carpenter, Miles Gertler, Sam Ghanthous, Aleris Rodgers, Carol Moukheiber, Maria Denegri

Design Studio I (The Language of Landscape) LAN1011YF 
Instructors: Behnaz Assadi, Peter North, Elnaz Sanati

Monday, December 14 | Graduate

Design Studio III (Integrated Urbanism Studio) ARC2013YF / LAN2013YF / URD1011YF
Coordinators: Fadi Masoud, Mason White, Michael Piper
academic.daniels.utoronto.ca/urbanism

Tuesday, December 15 | Graduate

Architectural Design Studio: Research I ARC3020YF

(L9101) Redeployable Architecture for Health—Pop-up Hospitals for Covid-19
Instructor: Stephen Verderber

(L9103) STUFF 
Instructor: Laura Miller

(L9105) ARCHITECTURE ♥ MEDIA
Instructors: Lara Lesmes, Fredrik Hellberg

(L9106) Designing Buildings with Complex Programs on Constrained Urban Sites that include Heritage Structures
Instructor: George Baird

Design Studio Option LAN3016YF: Toronto Ravines—CREATURE
Instructor: Alissa North

Design Studio Option LAN3016YF: Our Plant Relations and Decolonizing Design
Instructor: Sheila Boudreau

Wednesday, December 16 | Graduate

Architectural Design Studio: Research I ARC3020YF

(L9107) What is Inclusive Architecture (Landscape Architecture, Urban Design)?
Instructor: Elisa Silva

(L9108) The Usual Suspects 
Instructors: Filipe Magalhaes, Ahmed Belkhodja, Ana Luisa Soares

(L9109) Towards Half: Climate Positive Design in the GTHA
Instructor: Kelly Doran

(L9110) Anthropocene and Herd
Instructor: Gilles Saucier, Christian Joakim, Gregory Neudorf

Design Studio Option LAN3016YF: Our Plant Relations and Decolonizing Design
Instructor: Sheila Boudreau

Design Studio Option LAN3016YF:  Mediated Reconstructions: Developing a historiographic design method in landscape
Instructor: Aisling O'Carroll

Design Studio III URD2013YF
Instructors: Angus Laurie, Mariana Leguia

Thursday, December 17 | Graduate

Architectural Design Studio VII: Thesis ARC4018YF
Instructors: Adrian Phiffer, Petros Babasikas, Laura Miller, Robert Levit, John Shnier, Michael Piper, Mauricio Quiros Pacheco, Carol Moukheiber

Friday, December 18 | Graduate

Architectural Design Studio VII: Thesis ARC4018YF
Instructors: Adrian Phiffer, Petros Babasikas, Laura Miller, Robert Levit, John Shnier, Michael Piper, Mauricio Quiros Pacheco, Carol Moukheiber

Post-Professional Thesis I ALA4021YF (12:00-4:00 pm)
Instructors: Mason White (Coordinator), Adrian Phiffer, Maria Yablonina, Carol Moukheiber, Jesse LeCavalier

Photo by Harry Choi.