Special Presenters

Bruce Kuwabara
OAA RAIC Associate AIA
Founding Partner, KPMB
Toronto: a 21st century Ourtopia?

Is Toronto a model for a 21st century ‘Ourtopia’? The notion of a Utopia implies an unattainable ideal while “Ourtopia” implies an inclusive, pluralistic and attainable vision. The critical mass of Cultural Renaissance projects in Toronto is already realizing numerous dreams which together are shaping a culturally vital and diverse city.
Through the lens of selected projects by KPMB – the Gardiner Museum, the Young Centre, and the new home for the Toronto International Film Festival Group – Kuwabara will discuss strategies and emerging models of urbanization and sustainability that are transforming Toronto into a civil society: heterogeneous, open, and tolerant. He will argue that while it is Toronto’s supergrid of arterial streets and neighbourhoods that makes Toronto ‘work’, the city is the most healthy and vital when it embraces the local and the global. Toronto today is a broad cultural experiment that is demonstrating a positive direction not only for Canada, but for urban societies of the 21st century.

Bruce Kuwabara is a founding partner of Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects and the 2006 recipient of the RAIC Gold Medal for Architecture. He studied architecture at the University of Toronto. Upon graduation he joined the studio of George Baird, an architect and theorist who was influential to Kuwabara’s interest in urban revitalization and the history of the city. In 1975 he joined Barton Myers Associates where he worked for over 12 years and as an associate led high profile design competitions for Phoenix City Hall in Arizona. During this time he explored ideas of creating civic landscapes and building the public realm that he would later further evolved in projects with KPMB, including the winning scheme for Kitchener City Hall. These core principles continue to inform his work, and are most recently evidenced in his work on several of Toronto’s cultural renaissance projects, including the Celia Franca Centre for Canada’s National Ballet School (a joint venture with Goldsmith Borgal & Company), the Gardiner Museum renewal, and the new home for the Toronto International Film Festival Group.

Annmarie Adams
William C. Macdonald Professor
School of Architecture, McGill University
Man and Whose Worlds? Transnationalism and the Architecture of Expo 67

This illustrated lecture explores the architecture of Expo 67 in Montreal as a transnational moment in the history of design. In particular, “Man and Whose Worlds?” examines the representation of “Americaness” at the Universal and International Exhibition of 1967 through a comparison of the fair’s most popular pavilions: the U.S. Pavilion and the U.S.S.R. pavilion. The talk draws from a stunning collection of about four hundred 35 mm slides donated to McGill University in the 1990s. The photos were shot by Meredith F. Dixon (1905-1972), a mechanical engineer who worked for Imperial Oil Ltd in the 1960s.

Annmarie Adams is William C. Macdonald Professor at the School of Architecture, McGill University. She is the author of Architecture in the Family Way: Doctors, Houses, and Women, 1870-1900 (1996) and co-author of Designing Women: Gender and the Architectural Profession (2000). Her current book, Medicine by Design: The Architect and the Modern Hospital, 1893-1943, will be published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2007. She has received numerous awards, including the Hilda Neatby Prize (1994) from the Canadian Historical Association, the Jason Hannah Medal 1999) from the Royal Society of Canada, and a Woman of Distinction designation (2002) from the Montreal YWCA.

Glen Murray
Chair
National Round Table on The Environment and the Economy (NRTEE)

Glen Murray, from Toronto, Ontario, is a partner at Navigator Limited as well as a Visiting Scholar & Urban Policy Coordinator at the University of Toronto. He is former Mayor of Winnipeg, best known for his vision to build culturally dynamic urban centres. His vision for a New Deal for Cities started with the formation of the C5 – a coalition of five Canadian cities. It was during that time that he became the first Chair of the Big City Mayors Caucus 2002. Mr. Murray is a member of the Task Force on Creativity and the Public Service for the Government of Canada. Between 1989 and 1992, he was a partner in Envirofit Inc. an innovative environmental consulting firm. He is a business partner in the consulting firm The Glen Murray Group which works with clients in public and private sector with Canada’s art and culture community on urban strategies for Canadian cities. He is the recipient of the Queen’s Jubilee medal and is a honourary member of the Royal Architectural Society. Mr. Murray was appointed Chair of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy in March 2005.

Adam Giambrone
Toronto City Councillor

Adam Giambrone is a Toronto City Councillor representing Ward 18, Davenport. He is a politician, archaeologist, and the youngest member of Toronto City Council. Adam’s vision for the city extends beyond ward boundaries. He serves on a number of committees and boards, including the Toronto Transit Commission, Works and Emergency Services Committee, e-City Committee, and Toronto French Committee, and Chair of the city’s Meeting Management Initiative, whose task it was to design a more open and effective City Council. In addition to his work as a City Councillor, Adam served as Federal President of the New Democratic Party of Canada from 2001 - September 2006. He is a regular guest panelist on Canadian radio and television, speaking on issues that affect all levels of government, in both official languages.

David Hughes
President & CEO Habitat for Humanity Canada
Building Homes, Building Hope: Transforming our cities through affordable housing

Habitat for Humanity has built over 225,000 homes in over 90 countries and is now building at a rate of one new home every 21 minutes. With each new home comes an opportunity to demonstrate how good design and sustainable building practices can transform not only the lives of individuals,but the cities in which they live. This presentation will provide a vivid and motivational account of how Habitat for Humanity is building homes and hope for families in need of a brighter future, and will outline an agenda for action aimed at changing the way we think about affordable housing and city planning.

David Hughes has been President & CEO of Habitat for Humanity Canada since 2002, during which time the organization has more than doubled its annual production of homes in Canada and abroad and become an influential voice for affordable housing. David has served as a leader and change agent for organizations in Canada, USA, Europe, Africa, Asia and while posted at the United Nations. He is also the founder of The Impact Group, a management consulting firm dedicated to bringing a bottom-line results-oriented approach to addressing critical social issues. He is a frequent speaker on leadership, organizational change, and the transformative effect volunteers can have on their communities. David holds a degree from the University of Western Ontario in economics and a postgraduate degree from the London School of Economics (LSE) in social policy, public administration and non-profit management