Bruce Kuwabara, OAA, FRAIC, AIA, RIBA
Partner, Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects

Bruce Kuwabara is a founding partner of Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects, a Toronto architectural practice recognized internationally for designing civic buildings and cultural institutions that reflect a deep commitment to public life.

Mr. Kuwabara’s contributions to the architecture of Toronto and the city’s current cultural renaissance include the Celia Franca Training Centre for the National Ballet School of Canada (a joint venture with Goldsmith Borgal & Company) and the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art. He is currently directing the design of the renewal of the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, the new Vaughn Civic Centre, and the Festival Centre and Tower for the Toronto International Film Festival Group.

He has taught at the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design (AL&D) at the University of Toronto and at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. As the Honorary Co-Chair for Fundraising at AL&D, Mr. Kuwabara spearheaded the campaign to establish the Frank Gehry International Design Chair. He was also a member of the National Capital Commission Advisory Committee on Design (1986-1992) and the Olympic Village Planning Committee for Toronto’s 2008 Olympic bid.

George Baird, OAA, FRAIC, AIA
Partner, Baird Sampson Neuert Architects Inc.

As both an academic and practising architect, George Baird has extensive, varied design knowledge. As an author, he has addressed issues in architectural history and theory in books as well as in articles in academic and architectural journals.

Mr. Baird’s contributions to architecture have been recognized through honours and distinctions that include the da Vinci Medal of the Ontario Association of Architects and a fellowship in the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. Most recently, he was the awarded the 2010 RAIC Gold Medal. He has lectured throughout North America and in Europe and Australia, and presented at exhibitions and conferences in Canada and abroad.

As a partner in the Toronto-based firm Baird Sampson Neuert Architects Inc., Mr. Baird has recently been involved in designing the new award-winning student residence at University of Toronto Mississauga; and the Cloud Gardens Park in Toronto, which received the Governor General’s Award for Architecture. Mr. Baird is the former Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto (2004-2009), before which, Mr. Baird was the G. Ware Travelstead Professor of Architecture at the Harvard Design School.

Donald Schmitt, FRAIC, MAIA, TSA
Architect and Principal, Diamond and Schmitt Architects Inc.
Donald Schmitt is a graduate of the University of Toronto School of Architecture where he received the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Medal in the thesis year.

Donald Schmitt’s experience includes academic, healthcare and research facilities with an emphasis on sustainable design. Significant projects include the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Symphony Hall, Detroit and the Bahen Centre for Information Technology at the University of Toronto. Current projects include the Sick Children’s Hospital Research Tower in Toronto, the Global Innovation Exchange Building at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario and the Regent Park Arts and Culture Centre in Toronto.

A Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and a member of the American Institute of Architects, Mr. Schmitt and his firm have won over 160 design awards including six Governor General’s Awards.

He is the Founding Chair of the Public Art Commission for the City of Toronto for which he was awarded the Civic Medal. He is also currently a member of the Advisory Committee on Planning Design and Real Estate for the National Capital Commission, Ottawa.

He is a member of the Canadian Art Foundation Advisory Committee and is an academician with the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

Paul J. Bedford, RPP, MCIP, OALA (Honourary)
Urban Mentor and Retired Chief Planner, City of Toronto

As Chief Planner for the City of Toronto for eight years, Paul Bedford focused his energy on the development of new planning values, policies and processes to guide the next generation of city building in Canada’s largest city. As the driving force behind “the Kings’ renaissance,” Toronto’s groundbreaking new Official Plan and unanimous City Council approval of the Central Waterfront Principles Plan, he challenged everyone to embrace new ways to think, act and plan.

Following his retirement from the City of Toronto after 31 years of public service, Mr. Bedford remains passionate about the city and is totally dedicated to city life. He is a frequent public speaker at numerous forums on planning issues affecting Toronto and is active in shaping the new urban policy agenda at all levels of government. His activities also comprise mentoring young planners, writing a regular column for Ontario Planning Journal and participating in international conferences.

He was appointed an adjunct professor at both the University of Toronto and Ryerson planning schools, where he strives to make a significant, ongoing contribution. He has also been appointed to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Property Committee to help guide the redevelopment of the Queen Street campus. Since retiring, he has assumed the title of Urban Mentor.

Claude Cormier, M.Des., MAAPQ, FCSLA, MASLA, C.Q.
Principal, Claude Cormier + Associés

Claude Cormier studied history and the design theory at Harvard University, landscape architecture at the University of Toronto and agronomy at the University of Guelph. After establishing an office in Montreal in 1995, Mr. Cormier developed an internationally recognized practice that extends far beyond the conventional realm of traditional landscape design to forge bridges between urban design, public art and architecture. Likewise, his landscapes are anything but conventional; they celebrate the artificial and surreptitiously altering reality with the surreal. Mr. Cormier’s work is distinguished not only for its inventiveness, but its tenacious optimism in the power of design.

The firm has been privileged to work on major public works in Toronto, including HtO Park and Canada’s Sugar Beach on the waterfront; the transformation and adaptation of Don Valley Brickworks into an ecological and cultural centre for Evergreen; and the public landscape for the new Four Seasons Hotel and Residences in Yorkville.

Mr. Cormier has taught at the University of Montreal and been invited to lecture across Canada, the United States and Europe. In 2009, Cormier was knighted with the Ordre National du Québec, the highest distinction bestowed by the Government of Quebec.

Pat Hanson, OAA AAA RAIC,
Partner gh3

Pat Hanson, OAA AAA RAIC is a founding partner of gh3, a practice based on a new paradigm that explores the overlap of architecture, landscape and sustainability. She is a registered architect who has deliberately staked out a broad practice in the belief that design encompasses the entire spectrum of the built environment, designing projects which bridge beyond architecture into urban design and landscape. During 30 years of practice, Pat has contributed design leadership to the firms at which she was a partner. Pat's background in the visual arts has distinguished her career. A versatile designer and a strong visual communicator, Pat has directed a number of award winning architecture, urbanism and planning projects which have involved complex programs and extensive public consultation processes, as well as the realization of competition-winning designs.

Throughout her career Pat has maintained a strong commitment to architectural education. She has taught graduate level design studios at both the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo and has lectured on the work of gh3 in Germany, Denmark, Texas, New York and at architectural schools across Canada.

Brigitte Shim
Partner, Shim-Sutcliffe Architects Inc.

Brigitte Shim was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1958. She was educated at the University of Waterloo where she earned degrees in environmental studies and architecture. She has worked on the west coast of Canada with Arthur Erickson and Associates, and in Toronto with Baird/Sampson Architects.

She is a tenured professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, where she has taught a broad range of architectural design studios and lecture courses since 1988. In the spring of 2002, Ms. Shim was a visiting professor at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, and in the fall of 2001 she was the Bishop Visiting Professor and the Visiting Bicentennial Professor of Canadian Studies at Yale University’s School of Architecture. She was also a visiting professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in 1993 and 1996, teaching advanced option studios in the master’s program in architecture.

Shim and Howard Sutcliffe are partners as well as collaborators in Shim-Sutcliffe Architects Inc. in Toronto. Their studio works in an intense and probing way, sharing ideas through drawings, models and discussion with the numerous remarkable clients who have put their faith in them over the last 15 years.
 

Betsy Williamson, M.Arch., OAA
Partner, WILLIAMSONWILLIAMSON INC.

Since 2007, Betsy Williamson has taught graduate-level design studios at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto. She has also been a visiting professor of design studios at the California College of Arts and Lawrence Tech College of Architecture and Design, leading their Master Class Practitioner Series.

In 2002, she founded WILLIAMSONWILLIAMSON INC., a Toronto-based architecture and design studio with her partner, Shane Williamson. The studio’s work ranges in scale from furniture and installations to buildings and urban proposals, and often incorporates flexible design methodologies associated with scripting, simulation and digital fabrication as a critical engagement of traditional modes of construction and tectonic expression. The studio actively pursues projects, both speculative and built, as opportunities to explore the intricate relationship between site, program, materiality and technology.

WILLIAMSONWILLIAMSON was the 2008 winner of the Ronald J. Thom Award for Early Design Achievement from the Canada Council for the Arts. Last October, the National Post named Ms. Williamson one of Canada’s best 40 designers under 40. In 2006, the Architectural League of New York honoured the firm with the Young Architects Award. The studio’s work has been published in numerous international magazines and books, and has been exhibited throughout the United States and Canada.

Ms. Williamson is a graduate of Barnard College (B.A., Hons., 1992) and Harvard University (M.Arch. 1997). She is a licensed member of the Ontario Association of Architects and a member of the Toronto Society of Architects. She is an active member of the Toronto Sculpture Garden’s Art Advisory Board.

Gerry A. Faubert, CET, LEED® AP,
Managing Principal, Integral Group

Gerry Faubert is a Managing Principal of Integral Group, a deep green engineering firm internationally recognized as a leader in healthy, affordable, and efficient building design. Integral Group has twelve offices located in Canada, US, and the UK.

Mr. Faubert is a graduate of the Building Engineering Science Program at Vanier College, Montreal, Quebec. Serving clients for over 32 years and having lived and worked in Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto, Mr. Faubert brings a culturally diverse understanding of sustainability to the building industry. Having worked in both large architectural and engineering consulting firms in capacities including global director of integrated design and various design and management roles, Mr. Faubert has advanced the integration of sustainability, performance, and cost efficiency as core values in planning and design projects.

A frequent spokesman and advocate for integrated performance-based design, he has lectured extensively across North America, namely at Carnegie Mellon University Center for Building Performance and Diagnostics, Roger Williams University School of Architecture, Art and Historic Preservation, US Department of Energy, Ryerson University Department of Architectural Science, and Pacific Gas and Electric.

Mr. Faubert has played key roles in many innovative and sustainably designed projects such as the Jean Canfield Government of Canada Building awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s Award of Excellence and the University Of Waterloo School Of Architecture awarded the Urban Institute Brownie Award for Best Urban Conversion of a Brownfield site. He also was a lead sustainability author for the Province of Ontario MOHLTC and Infrastructure Ontario Healthcare Guidelines Generic Output Specifications and a Net Zero carbon commercial office design in Louis, Missouri.