Associate Professor Pina Petricone (BArch 1991) has been appointed to Waterfront Toronto’s Design Review Panel, the independent advisory body responsible for setting design standards across the city’s lakefront.

Formed in 2001 by the federal, provincial and municipal governments, Waterfront Toronto has a 25-year mandate to transform some 800 hectares of brownfield lands on the city’s lakefront into “beautiful, sustainable mixed-use communities and dynamic public spaces.” Comprised of experts in the fields of architecture, landscape design, engineering and planning, its Design Review Panel is responsible for establishing design standards across the waterfront and with helping Toronto achieve recognition as a centre of creativity and design.

“The Panel strives to add value to every project by providing expert advice that is professional, fair and constructive,” Waterfront Toronto says. “Its role is to promote design excellence, improve environmental performance, and ensure a cohesive approach to waterfront revitalization.” 

Petricone replaces the late George Baird on the advisory body. The professor emeritus and former dean of the Faculty passed away in October.

She also joins two other members of the Daniels Faculty—Professor Brigitte Shim and Associate Professor Fadi Masoud—already on the panel.

A founding principal with Ralph Giannone of Giannone Petricone Architects (GPA) in Toronto, Petricone teaches design and theory at all levels of the Faculty’s architecture programs and was recently awarded a LEAF Impact Grant by the Vice Provost for Innovation in Undergraduate Teaching.

The LEAF grant was awarded to assist in the development of a unique design research internship program (known as DRIP) for graduating Architectural Studies students. Centred around tectonics, craft and detail, Petricone’s work and research seek diversity and durability from the specificity of projects to define an approach to city-building at every scale. 

Among the award-winning projects that Petricone has executed with GPA are the Daniels Waterfront City of the Arts in Toronto and the Trinity College Centre for Ethics, an interfaculty and interdisciplinary initiative at U of T. Other projects include the Block 22 affordable housing complex for the Regent Park Revitalization Project, the Herman Miller Canadian Design Centre and the Royal Hotel and Annex in Ontario’s Prince Edward County.