Opening your own practice is something that many think about doing, but it comes with so many unknowns! So who better to learn from than from those who have recently taken the plunge and have successfully ventured out on their own.
For this virtual session of TSA CONNECT — our signature networking event for young professionals, emerging practitioners and newcomers — we’ve invited a special group of featured guests from across the GTA to speak about their experiences opening their own architectural practices. During this session our guests will speak about the good, bad, and ugly of setting up their own studios, sharing their unique perspectives, stories and words of advice. Do their names look familiar? That’s because all our featured guests have been featured in the most recent edition of Twenty+Change:Emerging Talent, an initiative showcasing emerging young practices across the country.
So bring your burning questions and come join us as we hear about the many ups, downs and unexpected turns of starting a practice!
Featured Guests
Our featured guests bring a variety of backgrounds and experiences, but are all founders of emerging studios across the GTA. Click on their pictures below to learn more about them. Want to learn more about their work? Check out the August 2021 special issue of Canadian Architect featuring all 20 practices selected as part of Twenty + Change: Emerging Talent.
Featured Guests
James Chavel has practiced the art of building for over 18 years. James and Amy Lin started their collaboration at Shim-Sutcliffe Architects in 2008, working as co-project architects on an assisted living home for the Sisters of St. Joseph in Toronto. After completion of the project, they established Suulin Architects in 2014. Before working at Shim-Sutcliffe Architects, he was at Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects where he worked primarily on the Phoenix Art Museum Extension and Cheatham Residence.
Suulin Architects is a holistic design practice and believes in an integrative design approach which extends beyond the building and includes all of the elements of the site from architecture and landscape, down to the furniture. In their projects, they place great emphasis on enhancing the connections to nature, and awareness of the environment.
Stephanie Davidson grew up in rural Ontario. She earned a degree in fine arts from Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, then studied architecture at the Architectural Association in London and Dalhousie University in Halifax, where she earned her M.Arch. Davidson received the Power Corporation of Canada award from the Canadian Centre for Architecture upon completing her studies, and has worked for German offices sauerbruch hutton and Gonzalez Haase as well as Montreal’s Provencher Roy. For the past 10 years, Davidson has collaborated with Georg Rafailidis as Davidson Rafailidis. The duo was recognized with the Emerging Voices award from the Architectural League of New York in 2018. Davidson co-authored a book on beginning design called “Processes of Creating Space: An Architectural Design Workbook” (Routledge, 2017) with endorsements by Rachel Whiteread, Herman Herzberger and Jacques Rousseau. Davidson has taught at the RWTH Aachen University in Germany, the State University of New York at Buffalo, Daniels School of Architecture at the University of Toronto, and at the Peter Behrens School of Art in Duesseldorf Germany as a 2018-19 International Guest Professor. Davidson is currently an assistant professor of interior design at The Creative School, X-University, Toronto.
Anne-Marie Armstrong is Principal and co-founder of AAmp Studio, and is a licensed architect in California, Maine and Ontario. She received a Master of Architecture from Yale University, where she studied on a Fulbright Scholarship, and an Honours Bachelor of Architectural Studies from the University of Waterloo.
Anne-Marie has over 12 years of professional experience, bringing an expertise in residential and commercial design. Prior to founding AAmp, she was a designer at Gehry Partners, and a Project Architect at Marmol Radziner and Bestor Architecture in Los Angeles.
Anne-Marie is an Assistant Professor (Teaching Stream) at University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design. She is currently a Board Member for People for Education and Director of Mentorship and Education for BAIDA (Black Architects and Interior Designers Association).
Shane is an architect with nearly 15 years of architectural consulting experience. Since receiving his Master’s degree in architecture from McGill University, he has experience working on a wide variety of projects, from tenant fit outs to facilities with construction values over $100 million. These projects have ranged from residential to commercial — with particularly strong experience in municipal projects. In addition to his professional experience designing and managing projects, Shane has worked with non-profit organizations in the planning of community centres and affordable housing. He is very motivated in providing cost effective architectural solutions which create environmentally and socially sustainable communities. Shane also leads design studios at the RAIC Centre for Architecture at Athabasca University.
Joey brings more than 25 years of experience in the architectural, heritage and engineering professions, including an extensive portfolio in integrating design and conservation. He founded Giaimo in 2015 with an approach to architecture that sources the value and characteristics of existing buildings and spaces. This process recognizes and records the state of things as they are, and intervenes with them in respectful and sensitive ways. He thinks it is better to be less compulsive when designing. There are no hard and firm rules, the process is always open and collaborative.
Joey’s projects have received numerous awards, and during his tenure at ERA his work on the Allandale Train Station and at Casey House was acknowledged with a Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Excellence in Conservation. His involvement in architecture regularly extends beyond practice. He currently serves on the City of Hamilton's Design Review Panel (DRP), and is co-author of the award winning "Vancouver Matters", a book that takes a critical stance on the city’s acclaimed urbanism. He is also an instructor at the Department of Architectural Science at Ryerson University, and has been a visiting critic and thesis advisor for several academic institutions including the University of British Columbia, OCAD University and the University of Waterloo.
Architect and industrial designer David Grant-Rubash AIA, NCARB, OAA, M.IAPD is the founder of PHAEDRUS Studio, a Toronto and New York-based design and architecture studio designing objects, spaces, and architecture. A Kansas native, David comes with a unique background spanning product design, interior architecture, and architecture education in the U.S. and Denmark before he joined established New York and then Toronto-based architecture firms. There and as a freelance designer he designed and oversaw projects ranging from furniture and installation design-build to high-rise office and mixed-use buildings before he launched PHAEDRUS Studio in Toronto in 2015. In just a short time their residential, commercial, and hospitality projects have received a number of prestigious awards, including the Architecture Masterprize, AZ Award, Architizer A+, Canada Interiors Best of Canada, and Interior Design Best of Year. More recently David and PHAEDRUS Studio received the American Institute of Architects International Honor Award for Interior Architecture and were named one of Canada’s top emerging designers by Canadian Architect and Twenty+Change. Currently, an adjunct professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design, David has previously taught at Ryerson University's Department of Architectural Sciences and School of Interior Design.
This TSA CONNECT session is held in partnership with Twenty+Change.
About the TSA CONNECT Series
Once a month, join the Toronto Society of Architects for evenings of networking and relationship building as featured guests from Toronto’s architecture and design industry share their experiences, perspectives and advice on issues of practice, career and life. Each session will feature new guests, topics and small group discussions giving participants the opportunity to ask questions and form connections with our featured guests. Sessions, featured guests and dates will be announced as they are confirmed, with limited tickets for each session released with the TSA member bulletin so make sure to sign up so you don’t miss out!
This event is free for TSA members using the code found in the October 21 bulletin. Not a member yet? You can join here (and student memberships are free!).
