Home



NEWS





Lisa Rapoport

Lisa Rapoport has been named a 2013 RAIC Fellow by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. The Fellows Convocation will take place in Halifax during the Festival of Architecture in June.

Walmer Residence

PLANT Architect Inc. has been invited to participate in the Modern Home Tours in Toronto on 8 June. To visit our featured projects, please click here.>

NPS Podium tree planter

On select Saturdays between May and October, Lisa Dietrich will lead one of the TSA’s Toronto Architecture Tours. Focused on modern buildings, Lisa will introduce visitors to high-rises throughout the Financial District including First Canadian Place, Toronto Dominion Centre, and BCE Place – as well as the iconic Toronto City Hall. Please click here for more information..

NPS Theatre

On 8 May, joint-venture design partners Chris Pommer (PLANT Architect Inc.) and Andrew Frontini (Perkins+Will Canada) led the Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization Tour at Toronto City Hall. In addition to exploring the site, the duo also examined the vision, goals and evolution of the competition scheme, as well as discussing the challenges of renovating a much-scrutinized, modern heritage site.

ela-mag-cfm-cover-b

Included in this month’s issue of Korean magazine Environment & Landscape Architecture is the recently completed Canadian Firefighters Memorial in Ottawa.

tight space loose space

Lisa Rapoport spoke yesterday at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture’s Symposium Future Public Environments. The conference explored the possibilities of next-generation city making, and consisted of illustrated presentations from leading practitioners, visionaries, and theorists. Speakers discussed the form of future city fabrics, social relationships and environmental performance, and the technical craft of large buildings. Other speakers included Bruce Kuwabara (KPMB Architects), Drew Sinclair, Andre Sorensen (Urban Geography, University of Toronto), Thomas Pucher, (Atelier Thomas Pucher), and Chris Hardwicke, (&co).

NPS Podium at Night

On Tuesday 5 March 2013, Lisa Rapoport participated in the Chief Planner’s Roundtable The Resilient City at Toronto City Hall, hosted by Chief Planner Jennifer Keesmat. The event brought together a range of city building experts in order to discuss creative solutions for the challenges of present and future city crises – from traffic congestion and blackouts, to climate change and severe weather events. You can watch The Resilient City Roundtable here.

The Memorial Wall at Night

The Canadian Firefighters Memorial is one of five memorial projects shortlisted for the Architizer A+ Jury Award and the Architizer A+ Popular Choice Award. Winners will be announced on 19 March 2013. link>

Canadian Architect November 2012 cover

Ground editor Lorraine Johnson writes about Channelled Buried Moved Lost: Where Did Mill Creek Go? in the November issue of Canadian Architect. link>

Westminster Residence

PLANT’s Westminster Residence is featured in today's Globe and Mail article “How to Merge Contemporary Design with an Arts and Crafts Heritage” by Alex Bozikovic. link>

cplrmt-2012b

PLANT partners Chris Pommer, Lisa Rapoport, and Mary Tremain have been awarded the 2012 Alumni Achievement Medal by the University of Waterloo Faculty of Engineering. The awards ceremony took place on Thursday 22 November 2012 at the annual Dean of Engineering Dinner in Waterloo, Ontario.

Palazzo Bembo Catalogue

PLANT partner Chris Pommer is featured in Thursday’s Globe and Mail. Interviewed by Globe Life & Arts writer Matthew Hague, Pommer talks about one of his favourite “ordinary” objects and how this tiny token has come to embody and inspire some big ideas about architecture, landscape, and design. 2012.10.18

Palazzo Bembo Catalogue

PLANT's installation at Palazzo Bembo is included in the exhibition catalogue entitled Traces of Centuries and Future Steps: Biennale Architettura 2012. A second edition will be available in November 2012. Please click here to see photos of the exhibit.

view of the CFM opening cenremony

On 9 September 2012, the Canadian Firefighters Memorial officially opened in Ottawa. Located at the site of the capital’s devastating fire of 1900, this urban-planning memorial ensemble was collaboratively designed by PLANT and artist Douglas Coupland. The team won the national competition hosted by the Canadian Fallen Firefighters Foundation and the National Capital Commission in 2010.

view of First Avenue garden

PLANT’s First Avenue Garden project is featured in The Globe and Mail. To read Carolyn Ireland’s article “Dishing Up a Green Oasis at a Former Ice-Cream Factory”, please click here >.

Channelled/Buried/Moved/Lost Collage

Developed for 3ByLAND, our site-specific installation Channelled Buried Moved Lost: Where Did Mill Creek Go? maps the historic journey of Galt's phantom Mill Creek in celebration of its profound visual and cultural heritage. Complementing this outdoor walk is our in-gallery exhibit, on now at Design at Riverside, Cambridge Galleries from 6 July to 30 September 2012.

Palazzo Bembo

PLANT has been invited to participate in a collateral exhibit at the 13th Annual International Venice Architecture Biennale entitled “Traces of Centuries and Future Steps.” Hosted at Palazzo Bembo in Venice, Italy, the exhibition will present our studio’s most noteworthy projects alongside the works of internationally renowned architects including Arata Isozaki, Steven Holl, Machado-Silvetti and Piero Lissoni. PLANT is the only Canadian firm selected to participate in this major exhibition. The exhibition will run from 29 August to 25 November 2012. For more details, click here >.

Channelled/Buried/Moved/Lost Collage

PLANT is participating in 3 by Land at Design at Riverside, Cambridge Galleries. The firm will present its award-winning projects in a unique, in-gallery collaborative exhibit, as well as in an outdoor, site-specific installation. The show opens 7 July 2012. For more details, click here >.

Good Design Award 2012

Our team has just won a 2012 Green GOOD DESIGN Award for the Nathan Phillips Square Podium Roof Garden! The project will be featured in a traveling exhibition opening this September at the University of Illinois. Learn more about the project here >.

CSLA Award 2012

The Canadian Firefighters Memorial Project has been awarded a CSLA Regional Honour Award. Learn more about the project here >.

Courage, April 2012

PLANT’s Canadian Fallen Firefighters Memorial is featured in the April issue of Courage, the official publication of the Canadian Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Learn more about the project, done in collaboration with Douglas Coupland, here >.

View inside the Kelpie's head

PLANT was recently one of five shortlisted teams in the international competition to design a Visitor’s Centre for the Kelpies monument near Edinburgh, Scotland. Learn more about the project (done in collaboration with Oliver Chapman Architects of Edinburgh) here >.

Toronto Life April 2012

Berkeley Live-Work Residence is featured as one of the "Great Spaces" in the April issue of Toronto Life magazine. Read Alex Bozikovic's article "Taking Care of Business" to find out how the Berrys are making the most of their creative Corktown landmark home.

Look Both Ways

Happy New Year, everyone!
(seen above: Pottery Road Trail Road Crossing)

2011/2012


Vanessa Eickhoff

PLANT is pleased to announce that Vanessa Eickhoff, OALA CSLA, has been named an Associate of the firm. Since joining PLANT in 2008, Vanessa has been instrumental in execution and design of such projects as the Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization – including the award-winning Podium Roof Garden – in Toronto, and the Canadian Firefighters’ Memorial in Ottawa, as well as bringing her expertise to numerous other projects – small and large – in the studio.

DX Award 2011

The Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization Podium Green Roof Garden is the recipient of this year’s Green Roofs For Healthy Cities 2011 Award of Excellence for Extensive Instutional green roofs. The Awards ceremony was held in Philadelphia this year, as part of this year’s Cities Alive Conference. More information – and the full list of winners – is available here.

DX Award 2011

The Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization Podium Green Roof Garden has received a DX Silver Award. The exhibition of all the Award winners is on at the DX until 26 Febrary 2012. More info is available here.

PLANT's studio (photo courtesy DX)

An interview with Lisa Rapoport of PLANT appears on the Design Exchange blog this month. The interview covers a wide range of topics, including studio life, crafting public space, and ritual in domestic architecture. Read the blog post here.

PLANT's studio (photo courtesy DX)

Lisa Rapoport was interviewed by the Globe recently, about the recent trend towards exhibitionism in residential architecture, among other things. Read the interview here.

LAM | September 2011 – cover

The Dublin Grounds of Remembrance is featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine’s September issue, which focuses on memorials. Pick one up at your local newsstand, or take a peek online.

Globe & Mail: Farmhouse addition adds a modern touch

The Nathan Phillips Square Podium Green Roof has been awarded an Honourable Mention in the 2011 Toronto Urban Design Awards. Congratulations and thanks to the whole team! link >

Globe & Mail: Farmhouse addition adds a modern touch

If you missed it in last week’s paper, check out the story Farmhouse addition adds a modern touch by Carolyn Ireland on the Globe website. In it, PLANT's Creemore Farm is featured along with an interview with our client. The link won't last long, so check it out while you can. link >

landscape|paysages summer 2011

The summer issue of Landscape|Paysages is on the newsstands now featuring his year’s CSLA Award winners, including the Nathan Phillips Square Podium Room Garden. This is what the Jury had to say about the project:

“A visually striking, brave solution that makes people look at adjacent lands differently...a contemporary art piece.” | « Une solution saisissante et audacieuse qui vous fait jeter un regard nouveau sur les terres adjacentes... une oeuvre d’art contemporain. »

Pick up a copy, or check it out online: link >

Toronto Life Best of the City

Extra! Extra! On the newsstands right now is Toronto Life's Best of the City issue. In it, PLANT's Creemore Farm is featured in the Great Spaces section. link >

Toronto Life Decor Guide 2011 TO Life Shopping 2010 TO Life Shopping 2009 TO Life Shopping 2008

Fourpeat! (?) For the fourth year running, PLANT is recommended in Toronto Life's Home Decor Guide. Pick up a copy for tips on all of your design needs. link >

TOAE Art Talks 2011

Chris Pommer will be speaking on a panel with Michael Awad and Samantha Sannella this weekend. The discussion will centre on building downtown culture, in the context of the Revitalization of Viljo Revell’s archetypal City Hall and Square. Join us – and check out the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition – this Sunday, 10 July 2011, at noon in the City Hall Rotunda. (The Podium Roof Garden is in full bloom, too, so bring your lunch and enjoy the sun up there.)

Spacing National Issue No. 1

Spacing magazine has named Nathan Phillips Square the top public space in Toronto, and one of the top in Canada. Pick up the current issue today.

City Hall Podium

The Toronto City Hall Podium Green Roof has been named one of “Toronto’s Green Gems” by the Toronto Star. Now that the weather’s nice, it's time to take your lunch up there for a visit. link>

Dublin Memory Wall

The Dublin Grounds of Remembrance has been shortlisted for a 2011 EDRA Great Places Award. The announcement will be made in Chicago on 26 May at the Environmental Design Research Association’s EDRA42 Conference. Watch this space for more news. link>

NPS Podium / Council Chamber

The Nathan Phillips Square Podium Green Roof Garden has been nominated for a 2011 Treehugger Best of Green Award.

Vote early, vote often (but before April 1st)! link>

NPS Podium / Council Chamber

The Nathan Phillips Square Podium Green Roof Garden is one of four projects to have been awarded a 2011 CSLA Regional Honour Award. link>

Further links to this item:
e-architect news

2010-2011

Paperstone Scissors

The Dublin Grounds of Remembrance, PLANT’s project for a veterans’ park in Dublin, OH, has been awarded a 2010 DX Silver Award. more info>

Paperstone Scissors

PLANT’s design of the “PaperStone Scissors” product booth has been awarded a 2010 Best of Canada Award by Canadian Interiors magazine. The booth was commissioned by the Interior Design Show in 2009 for its series Collaborations, in which they pair a material supplier and an architect, with the challenge to create an installation using only that material. more info>

79 Berkeley

PLANT has just completed a renovation of Ferguson Ferguson’s classic Berkeley Avenue live/work building. Watch this space for more images soon.

Revell/Toronto/Helsinki poster

Be sure to check out the exhibition Revell/Toronto/Helsinki, which runs from 13–26 September 2010 at Toronto City Hall. Frank Gehry wil be speaking on the 13th at 8pm in the Council Chamber about the influence of Finland and Revell on his work. On 23 September from 6:30–9pm, Chris Pommer of PLANT will be part of a panel discussion in the Council Chamber on the impact of City Hall on Canadian Architecture, and the design of the Revitalization. more info>

Early Morning Radio

Chris Pommer made a sunrise appearance on Metro Morning (live from Nathan Phillips Square) this week, as part of their program on civic engagement. listen here>

View of the CFFF Memorial

PLANT and Douglas Coupland have been awarded the commission for the Canadian Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Ottawa. The competition jury selected from among five collaborative teams. The project will begin design development this fall, with a projected completion date of Autumn 2012. more>

TO Life Best of the City cover

The Toronto City Hall Podium Roof Garden is one of the reasons to love Toronto, according to Toronto Life. Check out the August issue and find out what sedums have in common with drive-ins, fixie bikes, and chicken & waffles in making this city great. link>

Liza's Garden closeup

Garden Design magazine has just posted an article and an updated image gallery of Liza’s Garden at the ROM. link>

TO Life Shopping 2008TO Life Shopping 2009TO Life Shopping 2010

Threepeat! For the third year running, PLANT has been recommended by Toronto Life in their annual Shopping Guide (this year, a new Home Guide).

NPS buttons

The Podium Roof Garden on Toronto City Hall (phase one of the Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization) officially opens tomorrow as part of Doors Open Toronto. Come celebrate this weekend and get your first look at Toronto's newest public garden (and the first taste of what’s to come on the rest of the Square).

NPS Podium Detail

The Podium Roof of the Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization will be officially opened as part of Doors Open Toronto this Year. Come down on May 29th & 30th for the first look at Toronto's newest public garden.

Dublin Grounds of Remembrance

The Dublin Grounds of Remembrance has been awarded a CSLA National Honour Award.

Azure March 2010

An article on The Dublin Grounds of Remembrance appears in the 25th Anniversary issue of Azure. Head to your local newsstand and check it out.

Canadian Theatre Review 140

An article on Blue Note appears in this winter’s issue of Canadian Theatre Review. For those who missed the performance, the article’s included performance score allows the reader to immerse themselves in the tone of the performance.

Old news >