We are honored to have KPMB Architects host a BEAT Talk session on Wednesday, June 14, 2023.
Please note that this session will be held in a hybrid format. The in-person event is at the office of KPMB Architects and it will be simulcast online via Zoom. Event schedule and location details below.
BEAT is a volunteer-run organization made up of architects, designers, leaders, and entrepreneurs creating opportunities for community-building, advocacy, networking, and mentorship.
BEAT Talks are a series of discussions held at the offices of Architects across the city. Hosts will share their learned experience.
BEAT Talks qualify for OAA Structured Learning hours
Join us as we hear from architects and designers at KPMB Architects: Andrea Macaroun, Roxane Bejjany, Samantha Hart, and Sahana Dharmaraj, as they share their stories, interests, and careers navigating the architecture and design world. Speakers have diverse experience levels and will be sharing their career trajectories, lessons learned, and recent work. The talk will highlight the importance of mentorship and professional support in each of their respective careers, and specifically within KPMB Architects.
About KPMB Architects
Established in 1987, KPMB is an internationally recognized architectural practice based in Canada. Their wide-ranging work has earned over 400 respected awards, including 18 Governor General’s Medals, Canada’s highest honour. The founding partners, Bruce Kuwabara, Marianne McKenna and Shirley Blumberg, have all received the Order of Canada for their personal achievements and for KPMB’s collective contributions to improving people’s lives through the built environment.
About The Speakers:
Andrea Macaroun, Senior Associate, OAA
Andrea Macaroun joined KPMB Architects in 2002, following her graduation from the University of Toronto where Bruce Kuwabara was her thesis advisor. Andrea brings an enthusiastic commitment to architectural practice and design excellence to the studio. Over the years, she worked on civic, academic, and cultural projects in Canada and the United States at the forefront of creating positive change – projects with purpose drive Andrea. She has developed expertise in detail and contract documents. Andrea has contributed to a wide variety of significant projects including Vaughan City Hall, TIFF Bell Lightbox, the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, and the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, and has worked on office interiors for high profile financial services companies. She was the Project Architect for the Sugino Studio and currently is working on Agnes Reimagined, the art centre at Queen’s University.
Roxane Bejjany, Associate, OAA
Inspired by the profound impact that the built environment has on people, community, and society, Roxane Bejjany was drawn to pursue architecture and received her master’s degree from the University of Toronto. She joined KPMB in 2019, bringing valuable experience in civic, academic, and residential project typologies in a range of scales that also include custom projects. Previously, she worked at Shim-Sutcliffe Architects and Izen Architecture. After joining KPMB, Roxane worked on a competition for a courthouse, where her discernment for details and material choices demonstrates her ability to create a tailored environment, for this project, one that represents truth and honesty. Her exceptional ability to centre a project’s ambitions and vision, manage the day-to-day details, and motivate her team members is evident in her current leadership role in Project Horizon for The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). For SickKids, she is driven by the firm’s dedication to pushing the boundaries of healthcare design to elevate the experience of care. At KPMB, Roxane sits on the student hiring committee and she also oversees and spearheads many of the firm’s community service programs.
Samantha Hart, OAA
An architect, Samantha began at KPMB as a student and has been involved in and assisting with schematic design, design development, construction documents and the contract administration on several award-winning projects. She has contributed to such major projects as the Julis Romo Rabinowitz Building and Louis A. Simpson International Building at Princeton University and Boston University’s Center for Computing & Data Sciences. For the latter, Samantha was involved in schematic design all the way through to construction documentation. She also supports the development and integration of BIM software best practises throughout the office. She recently worked on the new workplace strategy and design of the interiors for Scotiabank’s newest building, Scotiabank North, in Toronto’s Financial District. She is currently working on the pre-design for the Yale Dramatic Arts Building.
Sahana Dharmaraj, Intern Architect
Sahana joined KPMB in 2018 as a student and played an integral role in leading the communication and coordination of the winning design competition for the Centre for Mental Health and Addiction’s Research & Discovery Centre. Since joining full-time shortly thereafter, she has worked on a series of successful competitions and submissions. She was a key member of the proponent team for winning Hamilton’s Pier 8 competition and the successful Downsview Framework Plan. For this project she played a coordinating role in the robust engagement component, designed to reach as many communities as possible. In addition, Sahana is committed to advancing equity in the profession of architecture. She was an inaugural member of KPMB’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. During the pandemic in what spare time she had, she participated in the Sudbury 2050 Urban Design Ideas Competition and her team’s scheme was a finalist. Sahana is also a film and video producer, and a volunteer with the Toronto Society of Architects’ K-12 Taskforce.
Location
KPMB Architects,
351 King St E Suite 1200, Toronto, ON M5A 0L6
Please check in at the door.
Event schedule
6:30pm Doors open
7:00-8:00pm BEAT Talk*
8:00-8:30 pm Networking reception
*Please note for Zoom participants, the session will run from 7:00-8:00 pm onlyJoin us as Heather Dubbeldam shares lessons learned from her varied career and the challenges of managing a practice while balancing parenthood, research and advocacy work. Heather will discuss her multi-disciplinary practice, the opportunities this has provided, how her practice has evolved, and the impact her Prix de Rome research had on the trajectory of her firm’s work, interests, and values. She will highlight some of the practice’s recent work, including research on sustainable and livable missing middle and multi-unit housing.