TSA Forum: Procuring Design Excellence

Becky Yurek, AIA, is a licensed architect and Chief Strategy Officer at the NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC), New York City’s primary design and construction agency overseeing over $34 billion in public works. At DDC, Yurek leads major reform efforts to transform how the City plans, designs, and builds public projects in service of a sustainable, dynamic, and inclusive New York City.

Yurek is a 2025 recipient of the AIA New York State Excelsior Award for Public Awareness of Architecture in recognition of her commitment to transparent, accessible government that delivers quality design for everyone. She served previously as DDC’s liaison to the NYC Public Design Commission, following a decade in practice in architecture, landscape, and urban design. Yurek is an alumnus of the AIANY Civic Leadership Program and Coro Leadership New York. She holds a B.A. from Brown University and an M.Arch from the University of Virginia.

Carol graduated from the Technical University of Nova Scotia with a Masters Degree in Architecture in 1992. After 15 years in private practice he worked as a senior urban designer in the City’s planning and development group where he chaired the Edmonton Urban Design Awards in 2005 and 2007. In 2007 Carol moved over to the City’s building group as a project architect and in 2009 took over as City Architect. As City Architect he has worked to emphasize the importance of urban and architectural design excellence for the betterment of the city and communities that we live in. Leveraging the City’s current policies and bylaws, the City has revised its RFQ/RFP process to reflect the required higher design standard. In 2017 Carol was inducted into the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s College of Fellow for his continued advocacy of the architectural profession and in 2023 he received the RAIC Advocate for Architecture Gold medal.

The holder of both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in architecture from Université Laval, Patrick is interested in the implementation of mechanisms for promoting and framing quality in public and private development projects and in approaches to culturally driven land-use planning. After collaborating on numerous urban and landscape characterization studies, in 2011 he joined the UNESCO Chair in Landscape and Environmental Design at Université de Montréal, working on development of design-driven research projects, including the YUL/MTL Moving Landscapes international ideas competition, as well as co-ordination of WAT_UNESCO international urban design workshops held in Brazil, China and France. Prior to joining the Bureau du design in the fall of 2020, he helped oversee landscape architecture and urban design competitions including the competition to redevelop McGill College Avenue in Montréal, and moderated design panels.

Driven by the desire to share his enthusiasm for the city and its spatial planning, Patrick has been a lecturer at the Université de Montréal School of Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture, a member of the planning advisory committee of the Sud-Ouest borough, and Chair of the Ville de Montréal’s Comité Jacques-Viger. At the Bureau du design, he continues to work on development of design competitions, workshops and panels.

Stefan Novakovic is a Toronto-based writer and editor specializing in architecture and urbanism. Stefan is a Senior Editor at Azure Magazine, and previously served as Associate Editor at Canadian Architect, and Assistant Editor at UrbanToronto.ca. His writing has also appeared in a wide range of publications, including Canadian Interiors, Designlines, Building Magazine, the New York Review of Architecture, the McGill International Review and Torontoist. He is the winner of several journalism awards, including multiple National Magazine Awards (B2B) and a Canadian Online Publishing Award. 

Stefan has appeared as a speaker at the Architecture and Design Film Festival (ADFF), Toronto’s Interior Design Show, the Ontario Association of Architects Conference, the University of Toronto Munk School’s Walter Gordon Symposium on Public Policy, Architect@Work International, and ACO Toronto’s Heritage and Housing Symposium. He has presented original research at the 46th Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada Conference. In 2022, he was appointed a Next Generation Ambassador by the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, representing North America.