Forum Lecture: City Building in Context— A Conversation
December 5, 2022
6:00 pm EST
A live stream of this event is available here.
2022-2023 FORUM LECTURE SERIES
City Building in Context— A Conversation
Date: Monday, December 5, 6:00 p.m.
Location: Ottawa Art Gallery, 10 Daly Avenue
Speakers: David Wex, Joe Lobko, and Michael Sørensen
Free and open to the public
We are pleased to acknowledge NEUF Architect(e)s and the Urban Land Institute as sponsors of this lecture.
TOPIC
A prominent developer (David Wex, Partner, Urban Capital), urban designer (Michael Sørensen, Partner, Henning Larsen), and architect (Joe Lobko, Partner, DTAH) will discuss how Canadian cities are transforming. They will talk about their roles in monitoring growth and creating urban fabric, places, and spaces.
Cité Midtown, Montreal, Urban Capital
Image credit: Steven Velasco
SPEAKERS
Joe Lobko
Partner, DTAH
Joe Lobko is a 1980 graduate of Carleton University’s school of architecture. He is an architect and urban designer with over 40 years of experience, primarily focused on community revitalization. In 2006, he joined DTAH as a partner with the merger of his own practice. That same year, he received an urban leadership award from the Canadian Urban Institute and became a fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. In 2020, Lobko received the OAA Randy Roberts Service Award, recognizing his extraordinary service to the profession. He is also the recipient of the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award from Sustainable Buildings Canada.
An advocate for design excellence, Lobko has served as the chair of the Toronto Society of Architects and is a current member of the City of Toronto Design Review Panel. In addition, he has served as a jury member for many of Canada’s most prestigious design awards and acted as the professional adviser for several international design competitions, including the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Etobicoke Civic Centre, and The Arbour at George Brown College.
David Wex
Partner, Urban Capital
Born and raised in Ottawa, David Wex is a founding partner of Urban Capital. Since 1996, the Toronto-based firm has delivered over 5,500 urban condominiums, with another 3,900 now under construction and several thousand in the pipeline, totalling over $4.4 billion in development. In 2003, they added Montreal to the mix; in 2009, brought acclaimed Saucier + Perrotte Architectes to Toronto for the River City development; and since 2013 expanded to Winnipeg. Saskatoon, Edmonton, and Halifax. Projects in Ottawa include the Mondrian (Bank St. and Laurier Ave.), the East Market, and the Central development.
“Our work has pushed the envelope or pioneered, be it in terms of urban location, high-end yet functional design, or green living,” according to their website. “Today, we are continuing that DNA, with new markets, new architectural approaches, new interior features and layouts, and new environmental measures.”
Michael Sørensen
Partner, Henning Larsen
Michael Sørensen is Design Director and Partner at Henning Larsen, leading the firm’s New York office and numerous civic, cultural, mixed-use, and higher education projects across North America. These include the Raleigh Civic Tower in North Carolina, Amazon’s new Boston offices and Performing Arts Center in the Seaport District, the University of Toronto Mississauga´s ACT Building, the Etobicoke Civic Centre in Toronto, and the Downsview Framework Plan, the largest development underway in North America.
A truly global citizen, Sørensen was born in Australia, raised in South Africa, and returned to Denmark to complete his architectural studies at the Aarhus School of Architecture before joining Henning Larsen in 2006. He is committed to context-driven design, the importance of daylight, and a co-creative process defined by research and dialogue to drive innovative, inspiring spaces and places for the communities they serve. His ability to distill complex project parameters and transform them into conceptual drivers is ultimately centered in the belief that, at its core, architecture is about creating spaces that foster human relations.
Founded in Copenhagen with offices worldwide, Henning Larsen is an architecture, landscape architecture, urbanism, and interior, graphic, and lighting design studio.
About Forum Lecture Series: Perspectives
The annual Forum Lecture Series is presented by the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism at Carleton University.
The 2022-2023 lecture series encompasses a variety of perspectives on topics that relate to each of the school’s three specializations:
• Design — Ron Thom: Life, Art, and Architecture (Adele Weder) and Indigenuity (Alfred Waugh)
• Conservation and Sustainability — Art | Architecture | Craft: a museum for the future (Jennifer Luce) and Adapting —Design in a Fully Built Metropolis (Sol Camacho)
• Urbanism — City Building in Context: a Conversation (David Wex, Michael Sørensen, and Joe Lobko)
The series also engages the issue of Indigenous people and housing — Housing (for) Canada’s Indigenous Populations (Jake Chakasim, David Fortin, and Mark Maracle).
We are also pleased that the speakers include two Carleton University alumni (Jennifer Luce and Joe Lobko) and a 2022 Governor General’s Medal in Architecture winner (Alfred Waugh).
We acknowledge the generous support of our founding sponsors: