The Design Review Panel is composed of a mix of multi-disciplinary design-focused professionals including architects, landscape architects, urban designers, and engineers.
Gordon Stratford, OAA, FRAIC, LEED®, is an architect with 35 years of experience in architecture, urban design, interior workplace and product design, and led the creative vision of HOK’s multi-disciplinary Canadian design team from 1997-2017 as Senior VP and Design Principal. He is currently the Principal of G C Stratford – Architect.
Gordon’s design leadership is evidenced by a range of projects both nationally and globally; including the University of Alberta’s Edmonton Clinic Health Academy, Dubai Marina, Honda Canada’s Campus, Doha City Centre, Memorial University’s Core Science Facility and LEED Platinum King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.
A graduate of Waterloo and McGill universities, Gordon is a Mentor in the OAA Internship in Architecture Programme. He has served on design excellence juries for the cities of Ottawa, Hamilton and Edmonton. He has also been a guest design critic and presenter at Ryerson and Toronto universities, and frequent panelist at design symposiums. As a guest speaker Gordon has presented a diversity of topics; including designing for discovery, cultural sustainability, integrated creativity and design innovation. He has presented at the University of California Berkeley, Greenbuild, Toronto Meeting of the Minds, Tradeline and Society of College and University Planning Conferences (across North America), Cisco Forums, Ottawa Urban Forum, George Brown Institute Without Boundaries and City of Toronto City-Building Round Tables. His past community service includes serving as board member and chair of one of Ontario’s regional healthcare systems.
Born and educated in Montreal, Michael Leckman studied architecture at the University of Toronto. Upon graduation he joined Diamond and Schmitt and was named principal in 2003. He is also a member of the RAIC.
Michael is recognized for providing design leadership on complex institutional projects and for contributing to design education as assistant professor, guest critic, lecturer and mentor at the University of Waterloo and Ryerson University schools of architecture.
At Diamond and Schmitt, Michael has been the project principal for award winning buildings in New Brunswick, Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and New Mexico. His design projects include several ‘centres’: the Bahen Centre at the University of Toronto; the Governor General Award winning York University Student Centre; the Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre in Medicine Hat; the Sheridan College Centre for Advanced Manufacturing; and the Los Alamos Civic Centre. Other notable work includes the New Brunswick Museum and the Evergreen’s Centre for Green Cities in Toronto’s Don Valley Brick Works.
Meg Graham, OAA, FRAIC, is a Principal at superkül, a Toronto-based architecture practice founded in 2002 and recognized as one of Canada’s leading design firms.
Superkül’s commitment to design excellence, pragmatism, and sustainability has resulted in numerous architecture and design awards and the publication of the practice’s work locally, nationally and internationally. The firm has a broad portfolio of project types and sizes, ranging from single-family housing to larger scale commercial and institutional work, multi-unit housing and master planning. While diverse, all superkül projects share an attention to detail and material at both the large and the small scale, a thorough engagement of the clients and stakeholders involved, and a profound connection to their built and natural contexts.
Meg is an articulate communicator and advocate for design, contributing expertise and collaborative design skills in volunteer and board positions that speak to her strong leadership role both in and beyond the design community. Since 2001, Meg has taught graduate level design at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design at the University of Toronto. A past Chair of the Toronto Society of Architects, she sits on the Harbourfront Centre’s Architecture Space Advisory Committee and the Fort York Precinct Advisory Committee.
Meg received her professional architecture degree from the University of Waterloo (B.Arch, 1997), and her postgraduate degree from Harvard University (MDesS, 2003).
Ralph Giannone, OAA, MRAIC, leads Giannone Petricone Associates Inc., a firm with a vision for a diverse approach to design. No matter the type or scale, each project is infused with both exceptional rigor in design details and an overarching attention to, and passion for, urbanism. The range of awards and international recognition for the work is testament to the strength in diversity of the practice, and how one type of project can significantly inform another. Some of Giannone Petricone Associates’ smallest projects have garnered prestigious international attention, and have also been the recipients of City of Toronto Urban Design Awards.
In addition to sitting on the City of Toronto Design Review Panel, Ralph is a frequent guest lecturer at the University of Toronto. Most recently he spoke at both the Alberta Association of Architect’s Banff Sessions and the Interior Design Show West in Vancouver.
Ralph graduated with honours from the University of Toronto in 1987 with a Bachelor of Architecture, receiving the Alpha Rho Chi Medal.
Anna Madeira, OAA, is an Architect and a Principal at BDP Quadrangle. She specialises in leading large-scale community transformation and intensification projects and she is motivated by creating architecture that resonates beyond its boundaries and gives greater meaning to people’s lives. She is committed to mentoring the next generation of studio leaders, both in developing projects and also fostering an equitable, inclusive and efficient work environment.
Anna recently led the refurbishment and adaptive reuse of North York’s Yonge Sheppard Centre, one of Toronto’s largest mixed-use developments. She has also recently worked on Downtown Markham, an entirely new mixed-use community under development adjacent to the Rouge River. She was also a member of the Planning, Design and Compliance team that prepared standards for the construction of the Athletes’ Village for the 2015 Pan/Parapan American Games.
Heather Rolleston has 20 years of experience designing, leading and managing award winning projects in the residential, mixed-use, master plan and commercial sectors. As a Principal at Quadrangle, Heather is responsible for design reviews and elevating the design practices of the studio across all the markets the firm services.
Heather studied architecture at the University of Toronto and, upon graduating, worked at a number of firms in Toronto. She has developed an appreciation for, and expertise in, Toronto’s unique design and development culture. Prior to joining Quadrangle, she worked at architectsAlliance for 16 years, achieving the title of Senior Associate and working on projects like: St. James Cathedral Centre, Regent Park’s Block 24 South, The Evergreen Brick Works Master Plan, and 158 Streling Avenue, the new home of the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art.
She continues to be active in the architecture and design community as a guest critic a both the University of Waterloo, School of Architecture and the University of Toronto Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design.
KaaSheGaaBaaWeak | Eladia Smoke, OAA, LEED®AP, MRAIC, M.Arch, B.Env.Des., is a Principal Architect and owner at Smoke Architecture as well as a Master Lecturer at Laurentian’s McEwen School of Architecture (MSoA). Eladia is Anishinaabekwe from Obishikokaang | Lac Seul First Nation, with family roots in Alderville First Nation, Winnipeg, and Toronto.
Eladia has worked in architecture since 2002, and founded Smoke Architecture as principal architect in 2014. She has worked at several scales of commercial building, guiding projects through all phases from conception through completion. She’s dedicated to bringing together practical requirements and core values into a design response that facilitates day-to-day functions and expresses a strong identity. Eladia has served on the RAIC’s Indigenous Task Force since its inception in 2015. Eladia was also on the Unceded international team of Indigenous designers and architects; led by Douglas Cardinal, this team represented Canada at the 2018 Venice Biennale.
Recent professional work includes community centre, office, and multi-family residential projects, working with First Nation clients. Past professional projects include the Aboriginal People’s Television Network studios, Migiizi Agamik Aboriginal Student Centre at University of Manitoba, and Makoonsag Intergenerational Learning Centre; completed in Winnipeg with Prairie Architects.
As a Master Lecturer at MSoA, Eladia undertakes architectural learning from an Indigenous standpoint and is passionate about bringing Indigenous principles, particularly teaching of the Anishinaabeg, into the realm of architectural curriculum and design thinking. Eladia’s students work directly with the land and with First Nation communities in a collaborative and respectful way. Her method of teaching calls on traditional values and principles within contemporary contexts.
George F. Dark, FCSLA, FASLA, OALA, is an urban designer and landscape architect. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects and a member of the College of Fellows of the American Society of Landscape Architects. George is the 2018 recipient of the Governor General’s Medal in Landscape Architecture (GGMLA), the highest honour given to a landscape architect by the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA). He has also received the OALA Pinnacle Award for Landscape Architecture.
George began his practice of landscape architecture and urban design in 1978. George’s work focuses on the quality of urban environments and he regularly coordinates large groups of diverse professionals. He excels at guiding projects through complex design, approval and public consultation processes. In the past 40 years, George has directed numerous urban master plan and open space system projects for communities in Toronto and Ontario. He has also completed projects in PEI, Alberta, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Florida and Barbados BWI. George is Chairman Emeritus of the Evergreen Foundation / Brickworks, Chair of the Social Innovation Institute at CSI Toronto and a Trustee of the McMichael Canadian Gallery.
An architect and urban designer, Paul Kulig, OAA, MRAIC, is a Principal at the Toronto office of Perkins+Will. He co-leads the global Urban Design practice, bringing a particular focus to the space between architecture, landscape and urban design. Paul’s work is shaped by a strong understanding of the roles social equity and economics play in city building. His practice includes an intentionally diverse portfolio of designs for streetscapes and public spaces, transit stations, neighbourhood master plans, affordable housing and campuses.
Over the last twenty years, Paul has led a wide variety of design projects for a broad range of municipal, institutional, not-for-profit and private sector clients. As Project Manager and Lead Urban Designer for the City of Toronto’s ambitious EGLINTONconnects project, Paul developed a comprehensive streetscape plan for the 19km Eglinton Crosstown LRT. Paul also prepared the initial schematic designs and feasibility study for the YWCA Elm Centre, and went on to lead the detailed design and construction administration for the LEED Silver building that provides homes for over 300 families.
Paul is currently leading the preparation of a new Resilient Form-Based Code for the City of Miami Beach and Toronto’s Transit Design Guide. Past projects include the TOcore Building for Liveability Study, GO Transit Design Excellence Guidelines, the Meadoway and the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Urban Design Guidelines.
Applied research forms a key component of Paul’s practice and he has led the development of the Living Urban Districts Framework – a tool for integrating public realm design with quantifiable public health metrics. He is also a frequent speaker on topics of active transportation and public space design, for both academic and professional audiences. His work has been recognized by awards from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, the Ontario Association of Architects, Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, the Canadian Institute of Planners and the Institute of Transportation Engineers.
With over 30 years of experience as an architect and urban designer, Joe Lobko, OAA, FRAIC, LEED AP BD+C, has a broad range of experience on public and private developments with particular emphasis on urban design, adaptive reuse and the non-profit sector. In 2006, he joined DTAH as a partner with the merger of his practice Joe Lobko Architect, and in the same year he received an urban leadership award from the Canadian Urban Institute and became a fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. Volunteer efforts include serving on the Board of Directors for ArtsBuild Ontario and as past chair of the Toronto Society of Architects.
Notable award-winning projects include leading the design of renewal and restoration projects such as Artscape Wychwood Barns and Evergreen Brick Works; the planning and urban design of Waterfront Toronto’s West Don Lands community (with UDA); the L’Arche Dayspring Chapel; Artscape’s first legal live/work project in Toronto; the competition-winning Sims Square office building adjacent to Burlington’s City Hall; and the Fort York Transitional Residence.
Jessica Hutcheon is a Principal and Senior Landscape Architect at Janet Rosenberg & Studio, one of Canada’s most distinguished landscape architecture and urban design studios.
Jessica is committed to the environment and sustainable design. Instrumental in integrating environmentally-friendly and sustainable practices in the firm’s projects, Jessica is certified as a Green Roof Professional. She pursues projects that bring a diversity of people together in public spaces that work. An adept landscape architect and project manager, her desire to push landscape architecture beyond its traditional boundaries influences every completed project.
Sibylle von Knobloch, OALA, CSLA, ASLA, is a co-founder and principal of NAK Design Group. She has more than 30 years experience in landscape architecture, urban design, urban ecology and project management in Canada and abroad.
Sibylle specializes in the design of multi-use developments, streetscapes, open spaces, and parks. Her landscape practice is characterized by innovative design solutions that offer more humane, liveable environments and withstand the practical needs of urban life. Sustainable design strategies have become standard in her landscape design practice and she is currently involved in many LEED development projects. Ingenuity and a keen sense of design has lead the firm to receive numerous design awards in recognition of the creative environments it has designed based on their thematic strength, originality of design and implementation into built form.
Sibylle is a registered member of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects, the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, and the American Society of Landscape Architects.
A founding Principal of PMA Landscape Architects, Jim Melvin, MLA, OALA, FCSLA, has over 37 years of landscape architectural experience and has been responsible for projects of major open space development, urban infill parks, community and park planning and long-term care residences and schools.
Jim has retired from PMA and has opened his own consulting practice Realm Works. The company focus is design and planning of spaces to enrich and enhance the public realm.
Jim Melvin is a member of the CSLA College of Fellows, past Chair, 2008-2009, recipient of the CSLA Andre Schwabenbauer Award. He has participated as a juror for the CSLA National Awards; Nathan Phillips Square International Student Design Competition, Univ. of Guelph/Waterloo; Excellence In Planning Awards, OPPI; Mississauga Urban Design Awards and for Canada Blooms. Jim is a past President of the Canadian National Exhibition.
Dima Cook is a Heritage Conservation Architect, a Senior Associate at Fournier Gersovitz Moss Drolet (FGMDA), and the Director of their Toronto office. She has 20 years of experience working in a wide range of contexts: from urban to arctic settings; from large to small scale projects; and from heritage restoration to new construction. She has authored numerous heritage studies including the “Historic Structures Report of Old City Hall”, the “Cultural Heritage Assessment of University of Toronto St. George Campus”, and the “Heritage Conservation District Study of the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood”. Her recent projects include the revitalization of Union Station and the restoration of Fort Frederick, both National Historic Sites.
Dima was a founding member of Habitat for Humanity’s Montreal chapter working with the organization for many years before pursuing a Master’s degree in Project Management. She is developing a specialty in the restoration, operation and maintenance of existing buildings using sustainable practices that reduce environmental impact, and has recently peer reviewed the “Illustrated Guidelines for Sustainable Rehabilitation”. She is a member of the Association for Preservation Technology (APT) and a co-chair of the Climate Change Group on their Technical Committee on Sustainable Preservation. Dima was a member of the 2012 Lee Nelson Book Award jury, recognizing outstanding and influential publications in the field of preservation technology.
Dima is a member of the Ontario Association of Architects, the Quebec Association of Architects and a LEED BD+C Accredited Professional.
Margaret Briegmann, P.Eng, has over 20 years of experience in transportation planning and engineering with a project base consisting of a number of successful institutional, commercial and residential developments in the urban context. She is an Associate at BA Group as well as an active member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers and the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals.
Her work in long range planning and operations has included traffic impact studies, parking studies, transportation demand management plans, avenue studies and master plans. Based on her work on feasibility studies and peer reviews, Margaret has developed strong working relationships with a dedicated client base in both the public and private sectors.
Margaret has managed the development of the transportation system for many residential and mixed-use projects in downtown Toronto, including in-depth studies of vehicular, bus, truck, cyclist and pedestrian operations as well as integration with the existing and future road and transit network, and the underground PATH pedestrian walkway.
For several years, Margaret has volunteered her time and professional expertise working with architects, artists and urban planners on projects in parks and public spaces, including Massey Harris Park, June Callwood Park, Historic Fort York and the Toronto Sculpture Garden.
Jim Gough is the Department Manager, Transportation Planning at WSP. He has over 30 years of experience. He has significant experience relating to urban development, addressing complete streets and relevant disciplines such as traffic engineering, active transportation and transit modes, as well as parking. His experience includes a wide range of assignments related to place-making and urban intensification. Recent urban design projects to which Jim has contributed include the Bloor Street West Visioning Study and the two St. Clair Avenues Studies for the City of Toronto, the Cooksville and Port Credit Mobility Hub Master Plans in the City of Mississauga, and an urban design study for the Town of Tecumseh, Ontario. Jim managed the Hurontario/Main Street Transit, Urban Design and Land Use Master Plan, which received the Canadian Institute of Planners Award of Excellence in Transportation and Infrastructure. Jim has a focus on sustainability in transportation, and he is the Chair of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Sustainability Task Force.
Olivia Keung, B.E.S., M.Arch, OAA, MRAIC, CPHD, is an architect at Moriyama & Teshima. Her work demonstrates an aspiration towards a low carbon, sustainable future, integrated with a focus on projects that create positive social impact. Recently she has played key roles on the University of Guelph’s Honey Bee Research Centre, a destination for critical research on pollinator health, and the Arbour, a tall, mass timber, zero carbon building that will transform George Brown College’s Waterfront campus. Olivia led the consultant team that worked alongside Waterfront Toronto to author the ambitious update to their Green Building Requirements, released in 2021. Prior to joining MTA, she was the Project Architect on Evolv1, a net positive commercial building that was the first project in Canada to be certified under the CaGBC’s Zero Carbon Building program.
With a commitment to educating others about the role buildings play in today’s climate emergency, Olivia has spoken extensively about the design of zero carbon buildings and the business case for building more sustainably, including lectures at the CaGBC’s Innovation Series, University of Toronto and George Brown College. She is a Certified Passive House Designer and currently serves on the RAIC’s Advisory Committee for Promoting Equity and Justice. She is a graduate of the University of Waterloo with degrees in architecture and environmental studies.
Juhee Oh, M.Arch, EcoDistricts AP, is a director at WSP Sustainability & Energy team. With a background in architecture and urban planning, Juhee Oh has worked on Sustainability and Energy projects with various design teams and municipalities for the past 15 years. Prior to joining the team in 2009, her previous work experience includes working throughout Toronto, Vancouver, and New York City at various firms such as Libeskind Studio, Urban Strategies Inc., and Unit A Architecture.
Since joining WSP, Juhee has been involved with over 70 sustainability projects of various types. She has project experience across the full spectrum of building life cycle – from urban planning to building design and operation. She is currently working on carbon neutral developments, policies and frameworks at various scales bridging the conversation between the government, designers, operators and other key stakeholders. Juhee holds a Bachelor of Environment Studies and a Master of Architecture from University of Waterloo. Juhee’s recent work includes East Harbour Sustainability Framework in Toronto, the Arthur Meighen Building Deep Energy Retrofit Study (2017 RPIC Real Property Award for Service Excellence), and City of Toronto Emissions Reduction Policy Strategy for Existing Buildings.