The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2010 RAIC Gold Medal is George Baird, FRAIC, former Dean of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design and Professor of Architecture at the University of Toronto, and partner in the Toronto-based architecture and urban design firm Baird Sampson Neuert Architects.

In choosing Mr. Baird, the Gold Medal Selection Committee recognized his: “scholarship as the author of the critically acclaimed The Space of Appearance, in which he argued for a politically engaged architecture deeply aligned to the public sphere.  He has fostered countless cross-border intellectual alliances and, both as a Professor of Architecture at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design and as Dean of the University of Toronto's Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design privileged outstanding research and continued building endowment.  For decades he has provided significant mentorship for Canada's most acclaimed architects and thinkers.  As a theoretician, competition advisor and master planner, Baird's work has been critical to the deepening complexity of the Canadian city.”

Details are available at: 2010 RAIC Gold Medal

As part of this recognition, Mr. Baird will be speak at the President’s Dinner Friday June 25 during RAIC – SAA Festival of Architecture to be held from June 23-26, 2010 in Saskatoon.

The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada is a voluntary national association established in 1907 as the voice for architecture and its practice in Canada. Representing more than 4,000 architects, the RAIC is the leading voice of architecture in Canada whose mission is:

• To affirm that architecture matters;
• To celebrate the richness and diversity of architecture in Canada; and
• To support architects in achieving excellence.