The first edition of Twenty + Change debuted in 2007 as an exhibition of Toronto's emerging architecture practices, held in conjunction with the City of Toronto's Festival of Architecture and Design. Twenty + Change exhibited built, on-the-boards, and speculative projects by twenty-one designers and practices based in Toronto. The intention of the exhibition was to showcase work by emerging practices and designers who had yet to receive widespread public and media attention for their speculative or completed work. The exhibition received considerable local and national media coverage and traveled to numerous venues in Toronto, as well as to Cambridge and Vancouver.

Selected Practices

The Twenty + Change 01 curatorial committee selected 21 Toronto practices for the inaugural edition of Twenty + Change:

Curatorial Committee

George Baird is Dean of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, and a Professor of Architecture at the University of Toronto. Prof. Baird is also a partner in the award-winning, Toronto-based architecture and urban design firm Baird Sampson Neuert Architects founded in 1968. Prior to becoming Dean at the University of Toronto in 2004, Prof. Baird was the G. Ware Travelstead Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University. He has published and lectured widely throughout most parts of the world. Prof. Baird has written extensively on the development of Toronto’s urban realm, and is the author of Meaning in Architecture (with Charles Jencks), 1968, The Space of Appearance, 1995, and Queues, Rendez-vous, Riots (with Mark Lewis), 1995.

Shirley Blumberg is a founding partner of Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects. She was born and educated in Cape Town, South Africa, and studied architecture at the University of Toronto. In her practice, Shirley’s focus on projects that engage contemporary architecture within heritage contexts has earned the firm several Governor General’s Medal for Architecture. She has been a guest lecturer and critic at numerous universities across North America, including the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, where she also served as the first woman appointee to the Hyde Chair for Excellence in Architecture. Shirley is currently a member of Regent Park Design Review Panel for the City of Toronto and a member of the advisory panel for the City of Toronto’s Design Review Panel Pilot Project. Shirley is recognized for her long-standing commitment to city building.

Antonio Gomez-Palacio is a founding partner at Office for Urbanism, designers of a wide range of urban projects and master plans. Antonio was born in Mexico City and has a degree in architecture from the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, as well as a master’s of Environmental Studies, Urban Planning from York University. His professional experience and research has focused on the intersection of architecture, planning and urban design, and their facilitation through participatory processes. His international experience has taken him across Canada, to the United States, China, the Middle East, Mexico, Hong Kong, and Greece. Antonio is a past Chair of the Toronto Society of Architects

Elyse Parker is the Director of the City of Toronto’s Public Realm Section in the Transportation Services Division. In this role, she leads teams who coordinate and implement programs—including harmonized street furniture, pedestrian strategies, and street improvement plans—all directed to make Toronto’s streets beautiful and livable. She has worked previously as a city planner and manager of Toronto’s Clean and Beautiful City program. Elyse studied Landscape Architecture at the University of Toronto and Urban Design at the GSD, Harvard University. She has particular interest in ideas of “Everyday Urbanism,” the unplanned and often unintentional design moves that build cities incrementally.

Exhibition Venues

• The Gladstone Hotel, Toronto
  June – July 2007

• IIDEX/Neocon, Toronto
  September 2007

• University of Waterloo School of Architecture, Cambridge
  September – November 2007

• AIBC Architecture Centre Gallery, Vancouver
  January – February 2008

• Urbanscape Architectural Gallery, Toronto
  August 2008