Year in review: The highlights of 2024

December 20, 2024

In 2024, we expanded our leadership team, our people were recognized for their contributions to architecture in Canada, we celebrated project wins and milestones, we supported causes we’re passionate about, and we continued to evolve and adapt with a rapidly changing world.  

Join us in looking back! 

Cheering our people on 

This year, we announced the appointment of four new principals, one new senior associate, seven new associates, one senior building scientist, and one director of people and culture to our leadership team. 

Partners Kevin Bridgman and Andrew Dyke were inducted into the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada’s (RAIC) College of Fellows — one of the RAIC’s highest membership honours. 

At AZURE’s inaugural climate conference, Human/Nature, Bridgman spoke about the Downsview Framework Plan and KPMB’s approach to urban design. 

Associate Laurence Holland, partner Bruno Weber, and partner Mitchell Hall were panelists at the WoodWorks Summit, Bisnow Toronto, and the Archiwine film screening and conversation at the Italian Contemporary Film Festival, respectively. 

Founding partners Bruce Kuwabara, Marianne McKenna, and Shirley Blumberg received the prestigious King Charles III Coronation Medal, a one-time award given to individuals who have made a significant difference in Canadian communities. 

Partner Steven Casey, principal Myriam Tawadros, and Blumberg served on juries for the Archello Awards and the Fantini Design Awards, the DesignTO Awards, and AZURE’s AZ Awards, respectively. 

Casey also hosted a tour of and presented the Ronald O. Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics at the Greenbuild International Conference + Expo in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
For CBC Arts’ “Think Like an Artist” series in May, Kuwabara shared the importance of sketching to his creative process. He also received honorary degrees from the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo. 

In September, partner Paulo Rocha presented the Duan Family Center for Computing & Data Sciences at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) International Conference in London, United Kingdom. Blumberg and McKenna were featured in Buone Nuove: Good News – Women in Architecture, a travelling exhibition that showcases and celebrates women architects and designers who have changed the field of architecture. 

Blumberg also spoke on a panel at the University of Toronto about preserving modern architectural heritage, and McKenna delivered a keynote presentation on solving Canada’s housing crisis at The Globe and Mail’s “Building for Growth” event. 

Celebrating project milestones, award wins, and more  

The year began with The Leaf earning a cover story in Canadian Architect’s February issue and a feature in AZURE’s January/February issue. Then, the Duan Center for Computing & Data Sciences received the Harleston Parker People’s Choice Award. It also received honours and awards from AIA Maine, AIA Canada Society, the Ontario Association of Architects, CTBUH, The Architect’s Newspaper, and more! 

Throughout the year, our projects and our firm ranked high on global lists for architecture and design. We were named a top architecture firm by Archello and Architizer, and the Duan Center for Computing & Data Sciences was featured on Architectural Digest’s top 15 list of universities around the world with extraordinary architecture. 

The Temerty Discovery Centre broke ground in March and in May received a $75-million gift from the Temerty Foundation. The Arts Commons Transformation expansion, currently the largest arts-focused infrastructure project in Canada, broke ground this month. In June, it received a historic $75-million donation from Dave Werklund and family, the largest philanthropic gift to the performing arts in Canadian history. 

Massey Hall and Gardiner Museum were included in a “36 hours in Toronto” itinerary in The New York Times and Park Hyatt Toronto was one of 33 hotels in Canada — and one of seven in Toronto — to receive a MICHELIN Key.   

This year, we also celebrated the groundbreaking of Odenak, the ground blessing of Agnes Reimagined, and the unveilings of the Scotiabank North interior and the expansive Landscape of Landmark Quality project at the University of Toronto – which was recently named the most sustainable university for the second consecutive year. 

The interiors for Scotiabank North, the bank’s first global headquarters in decades, was featured in THE PLAN, AZURE, Work Design Magazine, and more. THE PLAN called it “an innovative vision for workspaces of the future.”  

AZURE also named the Landscape of Landmark Quality project one of the top 10 public space projects of 2024. 

In April, the Downsview Framework Plan won a National Urban Design Award and in July, was selected as the People’s Choice Award winner at AZURE’s AZ Awards. 

This fall, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University won a Design Evanston Award and Scotiabank North interior won a BLT Built Design Award and an SBID International Design Award. 

Building community 

This year, we were proud to support the next generation of architects and designers. We sponsored Twenty+Change: New Perspectives, which showcased 20 emerging firms in Canadian Architect and TimberFever, a design-build competition for architecture and civil engineering students. 

We also supported the Toronto Biennale of Art, The Cultural Landscape Foundation, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and Songs from The Journey which chronicles the evolution of Regent Park. 

In the spring and summer, we participated in Canada’s largest one-day cycling event to raise funds for brain health research at Baycrest, played volleyball to raise funds for SickKids in their fight against cancer, and cleaned up our local shorelines.  

In June, we hosted Elder Dr. Duke Redbird at our office for a talk catered by Dashmaawaan Bemaadzinjin, an Indigenous catering company that uses its profits to support seniors, unhoused individuals, and other Indigenous community members. 

We also joined 20 teams from different architecture and engineering firms across Toronto for CANstruction to assist the Daily Bread Food Bank in closing the city’s hunger gap. 

In October, we supported Toronto’s 2024 Architecture & Design Film Festival, the largest film festival of its kind in North America. In November, we partnered with Mooreland Kids to provide groceries and holiday gifts for families in need. And this month, our annual Gingerbread Build for the City competition raised over $5500 to help the Red Door Family Shelter provide essential services for some of the city’s most vulnerable populations. 

For the fifth year, we worked with Framework Leadership to welcome Nyasha Harper-Michon for a Pride Talk . Proceeds from all Pride Talks were donated to The ArQuives in Canada and Queer Britain to support the preservation of 2SLGBTQIA+ histories and artifacts. 

We also funded bursaries during the year for Indigenous students through Indspire and the KPMB Indigenous Design Excellence Award (IDEA) at Laurentian University. Since 2021, we’ve provided financial support to 30 students from 14 Indigenous bands across the country studying architecture, architectural technology, landscape architecture, and urban and regional planning around the world. These students attend the University of Toronto, the University of British Columbia, the University of Calgary, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Technical University of Munich, among others. 

KPMB Lab  

This year, the Lab expanded its research partnerships, joining the Toronto Circularity Network, the Toronto Atmospheric Monitoring of Emissions (TAME), and the Toronto BioBuild Collective. In the spring, the Lab completed a life cycle assessment of KPMB’s office interior, and in October, principal Kael Opie and sustainability analyst Shahrzad Soudian shared the Lab’s framework for whole building life cycle analysis (WBLCA) at AZURE’s climate conference. The Lab’s WBLCA Classification System also earned a 2024 In-House Design Award of Merit from the Registered Graphic Designers of Canada. 

Read more about the Lab’s work. 

Catalyzing positive change through the built environment is our mission. We’re thankful to our team, our clients, and collaborators, whose dedication and creativity help us achieve this. It is because of them that we’ve had a memorable year!