Daniels Faculty members past and present are among the recipients of this year’s Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) Awards.  

Announced in April, the 2022 recipients were honoured during a May 12 ceremony for invited guests at the Toronto Event Centre. Called a “Celebration of Excellence” by the OAA, it was also streamed live on the organization’s YouTube channel. 

A double winner this year is Kohn Shnier Architects, the practice co-founded by Associate Architecture Professor John Shnier, which has been awarded two Design Excellence Awards for a pair of Toronto projects: a striking residential design known as Tile House in the city’s midtown area and the revitalization of University College, undertaken with E.R.A. Architects, at U of T. 

Located in midtown Toronto, Tile House by Kohn Shnier Architects has been recognized with a 2022 Design Excellence Award by the Ontario Association of Architects. “The exaggerated shadows and minimal material palette of the clay tile,” said the OAA in its citation, “ensure this house is distinct without being abstentious or trendy.” (Photo by Michael van Leur)

“Every effort was made to approach the existing fabric deftly,” said the OAA of the UC project, “to ensure the requirements for access and program modernization did not overwhelm or compromise the qualities of the building the community holds so dear.” 

“Every new element,” it added, “was carefully considered in its relationship to the historic fabric, but also in how it could service the requirements of contemporary education, both now and [in] the future.” 

Also representing the Daniels Faculty on this year’s awards roster is Adjunct Lecturer Diarmuid Nash, winner of a Service Award for Lifetime Design Achievement.  

A partner at Moriyama and Teshima Architects since 1998, Adjunct Lecturer Diarmuid Nash is the recipient of this year’s OAA Award for Lifetime Design Achievement.

A partner at Moriyama & Teshima Architects since 1998, Nash was described by the OAA “as an architect with a career-long commitment to the promotion and achievement of architectural design excellence.” 

Nash is a pillar of the architectural community in Ontario and Canada. In addition to instructing future architects on matters of professional practice for more than two decades at the Faculty, he has also served as president of both the OAA and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. 

Finally, the OAA has also posthumously added Eberhard Zeidler to its Honour Roll, which recognizes prominent deceased members of the architectural profession. The late architect, who passed away at the age of 95 in January, designed such iconic Canadian structures as the Eaton Centre and Ontario Place in Toronto and Canada Place for Expo 86 in Vancouver. 

The late Eberhard Zeidler, who had a long professional and philanthropic relationship with the Daniels Faculty, was added posthumously to the OAA’s Honour Roll. (Photo courtesy of Zeidler Architecture)

After serving as a visiting lecturer and critic, Zeidler was an adjunct professor at the Faculty from 1983 to 1995. Starting in 1999, when the Eberhard Zeidler Scholarship was established, he and his wife Jane also became long-standing benefactors of the school, their generosity culminating in the 37,000-volume Eberhard Zeidler Library in the revitalized Daniels Building at One Spadina Crescent. 

Banner image: Kohn Shnier Architects’ University College Revitalization, undertaken in association with E.R.A. Architects, is one of two projects by the firm of Associate Architecture Professor John Shnier to garner a 2022 Design Excellence Award from the OAA. (Photo by doublespace photography)