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.

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.

Peter Busby, C.M., AIA, FRAIC, MAIBC, MAAA, MOAA, BCID, LEED AP, DSc (Hon)
Managing Director, Busby Perkins+Will

As Managing Director of Busby Perkins+Will, Peter is involved in the design and sustainable direction of each project the firm engages. Overseeing design offices in Vancouver, British Columbia and Seattle, Washington, Peter directs more than 100 employees working on projects across Canada, the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. As a director of Perkins+Will since 2004, Peter has expanded his role to include sustainable design leadership to the firm’s 23 offices worldwide and Perkins+Will have been recognized internationally as the leader in sustainable building design. Busby
Perkins+Will has the largest portfolio of built green projects in North America.

With 25 years of successful projects completed under Peter’s guidance and across market sectors, the firm has received more than 100 design honours, including six Governor General Awards and 11 Lieutenant Governor Awards. Other awards
recognize innovative engineering systems integration, sustainable design strategies, project management, construction,
heritage integration, planning and industrial and interior design, all attesting to the comprehensive design service the firm provides.

Peter is a founder and recent Chair of the Canada Green Building Council, and he has devoted much of his time to his profession, to the community, and to the advancement of sustainable education and practices. In recognition of his professional and community contributions, Peter became a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 1997, and in 2005 Peter was invested as a member of the Governor General’s Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian award
that recognizes a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation. In 2008 Peter was conferred an Honorary Doctorate in Science by Ryerson University.

Peter Clewes, B.Arch., OAA
Partner, Architects Alliance

Peter Clewes wishes to contribute to the intelligent, thoughtful development of the waterfront, and help create a legacy of beautiful buildings and welcoming public spaces for future generations.

As an architect and practitioner in Toronto, he is committed to the idea that architecture is an exercise in place-making and that the unique qualities of the city should be expressed in its buildings and spaces. Mr. Clewes anticipates that the new waterfront development guidelines and practices can provide a demonstration model for new development across the city.

An architect since 1979, with experience in the United States as well as overseas, he continues to be active in creating developments in Toronto. His recent projects include the Harbourfront Centre Revitalization, residential conversion of the Tip Top Tailors building, City Place Condominiums, the Olympic Village master plan, the award-winning Atrium on Queen’s Quay, and the Downsview Mixed Use Residential and Commercial Development.

Mr. Clewes has received numerous design awards for the District Lofts and the Upper East Side, as well as a Canadian Architect Magazine Award of Excellence.

Claude Cormier, M.Des., MAAPQ, FCSLA, MASLA, C.Q.
Principal, Claude Cormier Architectes Paysagistes Inc.

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.

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.
 

Greg Smallenberg, BLA, FCSLA, BCSLA, OALA, ASLA
Partner, Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg

Greg Smallenberg is a founding partner of Phillips Farevaag Smallenberg and a professional landscape architect with a strong interest in urban and community design.

He has directed a diverse range of widely acclaimed, award-winning projects over the past 20 years. Noted for his demonstrated success in directing highly visible, often complex projects for both the public and private sectors, he often leads or plays a key role in the open space design of large-scale urban development. His firm was the prime consultant for the public realm build out of Vancouver’s award-winning Coal Harbour Marina neighbourhood, where he acted as lead designer and principal-in-charge. More recently, Mr. Smallenberg was principal-in-charge of the design for open space, streets and parks for the urban design plan of Waterfront Toronto’s East Bayfront.

He is a strong advocate for design panels, particularly in an urban context, and has gained a keen understanding of the workings of design panels through his experience presenting projects to the Vancouver Urban Design Panel and the National Capital Commission’s Advisory Committee on Planning Design and Real Property in Ottawa. Mr. Smallenberg is a frequent thesis adviser and critic in both architecture and landscape architecture studios at the University of British Columbia.

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.