New Chapter of Building Equality in Architecture Launches in Canada’sCapital Region
(OTTAWA, ON) Building Equality in Architecture Capital Region (BEACAP) proudly announces its official launch as the newest chapter in the national BEA network, a volunteer-led initiative advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion in architecture. BEACAP brings together architects, designers, and advocates to cultivate a design culture where inclusivity shapes the spaces we create and diversity is reflected in the communities we serve. United by a commitment to equity in the built environment, the group aims to amplify underrepresented voices, challenge systemic barriers, and build a more inclusive future, locally and nationally.
To celebrate its launch, BEACAP will kick off a logo design competition in conjunction with Ottawa Architecture Week (OAW). The Capital Region chapter is deeply grateful for the generous support of the Ottawa Regional Society of Architects (ORSA) for providing BEACAP with a platform to take root and grow. BEACAP will participate at Vernissage, OAW’s celebratory event on October 3, 2025. The competition invites participants to create a logo that captures the distinct identity, core values, and forward-thinking vision of the Capital Region chapter.
The winning designer will receive a signed copy of Canadian Modern Architecture, 1967 to the Present co-edited by Elsa Lam, editor of Canadian Architect, and Feminist City: Making Space in a Man-Made World signed by author Leslie Kern. They will also have the opportunity to collaborate with BEACAP to further develop the chapter’s visual identity.
For full competition details and updates, visit BEACAP at Ottawa Architecture Week or follow along on social media for the official Call for Submissions.
Website: www.orsa.ca/about-beacap
Instagram: bea.capital
Linkedin: BEACAP
If you are interested in becoming involved with BEACAP, please join the mailing list.
Canadian Interiors 2025 Winners
A project by IAh Architects, founded by former BEAT executive chair Sonia Ramundi, won an award in the 2025 Canadian Interiors Best of Canada awards. Check out her winning work, located in Commerce Court’s landmark 1931 Beaux-Arts-style North Tower here.
A project by Williamson Williamson (the firm of former advisory chair Betsy Williamson) has also won an award for her work House of Books, a residential renovation project for a family of bibliophiles. Check out her winning work here.
RAIC Gold Medal 2025 Recipients
This year, BEAT founding member Shirley Blumberg is one of the two winners of the RAIC Gold Medal this year, alongside Marianne McKenna. Read her news article on the RAIC website and check out her interview with Canadian Architect here.
Established as Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects in 1987, KPMB Architects introduced a studio model that stood out for its ethnic and gender diversity —unconventional among North American architectural practices at the time. This diversity continues to be one of the signature strengths of KPMB, reflecting its identity as a Canadian practice. However, it is also the thoughtful calibration of heterogeneous influences with rigorous design quality that distinguishes the practice.
With Bruce Kuwabara, Marianne McKenna, and Shirley Blumberg still practicing as founding partners, the firm has become one of Canada's most internationally recognized architectural practices. To date, the firm’s projects have earned hundreds of global awards, including 18 Governor General's Medals in Architecture, recognizing design excellence, sustainable practices, and commitment to building community.
Women Changing Architecture: From MAXXI to MET
On September 5, 2024, the Department of Architectural Science at Toronto Metropolitan University hosted a landmark event celebrating the achievements of women in architecture. The opening of Buone Nuove/Good News: Women in Architecture was not only a showcase of excellent design but also a powerful testament to the importance of recognizing women leaders who have shaped and are shaping the future of design. Over 500 professionals, students, and community members gathered in a spirit of progress and empowerment, marking a moment of inspiration and momentum for the field. The event closes with a panel discussion on the evening of Thursday October 10, 2024.
Viewpoint: Technical Women
Specialized technical skills—such as expertise in sustainability, computational design, heritage, energy modelling, and construction detailing—are often associated with male architects. As Vice Chair of the Advisory Committee of BEAT (Building Equality in Architecture Toronto), I had the pleasure of supporting a recent seminar that aimed to counter that bias. The day-long event featured five women who have developed in-depth technical knowledge as a key part of their career journeys.
The day’s moderator—and the curator of the panel—was Jennifer Davis, strategic business development lead at WZMH Architects. Jennifer spoke about how she began stacking skills sets in a succession of personal and professional projects—taking on construction detailing in architecture offices, then applying those abilities to her own public art projects, which in turn led to the development of a proficiency in proposal-writing. At WZMH, she wrote her own job description for a role where she creates business development opportunities based on the firm’s technical expertise. A recent project involved leading a publication and presentation series that showcases the firm’s extensive experience in re-cladding towers.
2024 RAIC Advocate for Architecture Award
We are incredibly honored to have been awarded the 2024 RAIC Advocate for Architecture Award this year. This award is a reflection of the collective commitment and passion of our team, and we are profoundly grateful for the recognition.
The RAIC Advocate for Architecture Award celebrates an individual, or collective of individuals, who has acted as a public champion for the advancement of Canadian architecture through their advocacy, patronage, and/or other forms of support.
2024 Jury Comments:
BEAT has established itself as a significant voice supporting equity in the architecture profession. As a group, they highlight the structural inequalities that continue to disadvantage women, inspire us to reflect and to action for change. Their discussions and perspectives connect and center human dimensions for a better way forward and their enthusiastic encouragement and mentorship of young female architects as they navigate a demanding profession is vital.
Founded in Toronto in 2015, BEAT has emerged as a force in Canadian architectural discourse, making a significant contribution to national architecture.
Benchmark Report 2023: Women in Canadian Architecture—An Update featuring Jennifer Esposito and Heather Dubbeldam
Six years ago, I wrote an article for Canadian Architect entitled Because it’s 2017: Gender Diversity in Canada’s Architectural Profession (see CA, Jan 2017). It identified at least thirteen significant barriers to Canadian women architects achieving equity—from low or unequal pay and slower rates of promotion, to inflexible working hours and poor return-to-work training following parental leave. Despite women’s university enrolment and graduation rates for architecture exceeding 50 percent for many years, only 28.8 percent of employed architects at that time were women. Quebec was an outlier at 38 percent, a result my research attributed, at least in part, to the province’s earlier introduction of affordable daycare. This said, the tenor of the article was cautious optimism. Despite the consequential obstacles that remained, change was happening, and there was some evidence that major firms were taking action and that the rise of grassroots women in architecture groups across the country was having a noticeable impact.
Canadian Architect Features Fifth annual BEAT Forum
The upcoming forum will be geared toward those who work at or visit construction sites, including architects, clients, contractors, trades, and consultants. It will also explore different perspectives on how to create a collaborative and productive work environment for all stakeholders throughout the construction process.
The fifth annual BEAT Forum, which will take place on November 4, 2023, at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), will focus on construction site behaviours and dynamics.
How Design Can Transform Lives: A Beginners Guide by Michael Madjus
In Canada, organizations such as Black Architects and Interior Designers (BAIDA) and Building Equality in Architecture Toronto (BEAT) are working with the community to empower designers and architects. BAIDA is a non-profit organization made up of students, planners, interior designers, and architects. Through their work, BAIDA aims to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in the profession of architecture and interior design. “We want members of our community to be a part of the discussion in a way that will inspire the next pipeline of architects. The only way we can do that is through outreach and an element of understanding about which communities are, or were previously, Black-owned,” explains BAIDA co-founder and architect Farida Abu-Bakare in a previous discussion with DesignTO (Caring for Community: Farida Abu-Bakare on her Personal Philosophy, BAIDA, and Placemaking).
How This Black Female City Builder Is Changing The Face Of Architecture
Camille Mitchell is one of very few Black women architects in the field, and she’s on a mission to ensure more young people get a peek into the industry.
“Besides enjoying it, it’s a creative outlet,” says Mitchell when asked about why she chose this career path.
“We create shapes, and we get to control the setting of spaces. Our work affects how you move and how you feel; it impacts the spirit. It’s rewarding to see something that was just a pencil sketch come together into something so large.”
She learned from some of the best, during her internship with a firm in New York City. Colleagues introduced her to the National Organization of Minority Architects, where she learned that only 0.2% of licensed architects in the United States were Black women.
“Roundup or round down, that's still zero,” she says.
Camille A. Mitchell Awarded 2022 Alumni Achievement Medal for Community Service
Camille Mitchell (BAS ’06, architectural studies; MArch ’10, architecture) is a highly accomplished architect with the Toronto based award-winning firm, Gensler. Her growing reputation in the field, though, goes beyond her professional expertise and achievements.
As a Black woman in the traditionally white, male dominated field of architecture, Mitchell has faced challenging perceptions regarding her capabilities as an architect. Her response has always been to prove them wrong through hard work, excellent results — and advocating for change.
Camille A. Mitchell awarded G. Randy Roberts Service Award for her work with BEAT and BAIDA
In the progressive struggle to build equality and opportunity into the architectural profession, Camille Mitchell is a standout leader. An architect with the Toronto office of the global design firm Gensler, Camille leverages her achievements in architecture to advocate for the involvement of under-represented groups in the design of their built environments. The Service Award Jury unanimously identified Camille as deserving of the 2022 G. Randy Roberts Service Award.
Camille is a founding member of Building Equality in Architecture Toronto (BEAT), and of Black Architects + Interior Designer Association (BAIDA). These independent organizations support the mentorship, networking, and leadership opportunities within the architecture profession for women and visible minorities, respectively.
Diving Deep: KPMB's Shirley Blumberg and Marianne McKenna on Designing With Generosity, Giving People Choice, and Intergenerational Dialogue
Shirley Blumberg is a founding partner of KPMB Architects and a Member of the Order of Canada for her contributions to architecture and community. She has designed many of the firm’s noteworthy and award-winning projects that range in scale, from interiors to architecture and planning.
In addition to her academic and cultural projects, she has also focused on social justice work in affordable housing. She is currently working on such projects as the competition-winning Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, an affordable residential community in Toronto, and prototypical housing for the northern Indigenous community of Fort Severn in Ontario, Canada.
Marianne McKenna is a founding partner of KPMB Architects and an Officer of the Order of Canada for her contributions to architecture that enrich the public experience. Marianne is a strong advocate for putting architecture into the service of fostering community and combining sustainability and innovation for the most positive impact on the urban and natural environment.
Notable projects within the cultural realm include The Royal Conservatory TELUS Centre for Performance and the renewal of Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. Marianne is currently leading the revitalization project for Massey Hall in Toronto spearheading the expansion of Arts Commons, Calgary’s largest arts centre.
Memories of Caribana and a love of The PATH: Where architect Camille Mitchell sees ‘a rhythm’ in Toronto
Camille Mitchell was raised in a household that fuelled her passion for math and visual arts. She landed on architecture as a career because it was a “happy marriage” between the two.
“Our activities were going to open houses and checking out different home layouts and things like that,” says Mitchell, an architect at Gensler. “As the youngest of four, I was my dad’s sidekick to build anything around the house. My father immigrated to Canada as a draftsperson so I grew up with a draft board in the house.”
Mitchell spent her childhood in Hamilton, but moved to Toronto after graduate school. Initially, she stayed in the city to work on a project, the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, for six years. But she ended up settling into Toronto, she says, and “finding a rhythm.”
And the BEAT goes on: Women in Architecture featuring Sonia Ramundi
One evening in early June, 72 women in architecture from across Canada hopped on a Zoom call to discuss their profession among colleagues, most of whom they had never met before. On this particular night, the theme was pretty much anything that came to mind. As the meeting progressed into more manageable breakout rooms, participants began to express various topics that resonated with others, including how to deal with derogatory remarks during construction site visits or what to expect when re-entering the workforce after an extended maternity leave. Others introduced themselves as new associates about to embark on obtaining their licences, a journey that typically takes three years or more to complete. The event’s host was BEAT, which stands for Building Equality in Architecture; the T indicating the Toronto chapter of a volunteer organization that first took shape in 2015 and now has four regional chapters from coast to coast.
BEAT Executive Director, Sonia Ramundi wins Construction Canada's 2020 Emerging Leader Award
“I am honoured to receive the Emerging Leader Award in the Initiative category! I am incredibly appreciative of the opportunities I have had to take on leadership and mentorship roles both at the office and through the equity group Building Equality in Architecture Toronto (BEAT). It has been a pleasure working alongside so many others in the profession who are committed to design excellence and equity! Thank you to Construction Canada for offering the Emerging Leader Award program, and to Betsy and Shane Williamson for the nomination and their continued support.”
- Sonia Ramundi
Congratulations to BEAT Executive Director, Sonia Ramundi, winner of Construction Canada’s 2020 Emerging Leader Awards in the “Demonstrates Initiative” category. The Emerging Leader awards recognizes young professionals and their commitment to excellence in design, leadership, initiative, and/or service to the community. In addition to leading the BEAToronto team as Director and managing the organization with steadfast commitment, Sonia is a registered architect and Associate at Williamson Williamson Inc. Congratulations to Sonia on this impressive and well deserved accolade!
Link to the full announcement here.
A Note from the Organizers of the 2020 BEAT Forum ...
BEAT (Building Equality in Architecture Toronto) would like to extend our appreciation to all the attendees of our Saturday, November 21st Zoom event for the 2020 Beat Forum on Empowering Architectural Practices to Address Emotional/Identity Tax.
Regrettably, this important conversation on equity within our profession was ‘Zoom-bombed’ with disturbing content shared with about 70 people who were participating in the event. The video was shut down as soon as possible and the incident is being referred to the proper authorities. We are angered and upset that this significant discussion was the target of hateful and disturbing content. We are very grateful to the panel and participants for continuing the dialogue on how to advance anti-racism within the profession, despite the disruption.
BEAT has started a full review of Saturday's event and will improve our security measures across our platforms in order to prevent any further incidents of this nature. We will continue to support and engage with our community during this time in isolation.
BEAT will continue to advocate for equity, inclusion and diversity and ensure our voices are not silenced.
Thank you for your continued support.
- BEAT
Congratulations to BEAT Executive Director Sonia Ramundi, a finalist in Construction Canada's Emerging Leader Awards
Congratulations to BEAT Executive Director, Sonia Ramundi who is a finalist in Construction Canada’s Emerging Leader Awards in the “Demonstrates Initiative” category. The Emerging Leader awards recognizes young professionals and their commitment to excellence in design, leadership, initiative, and/or service to the community. In addition to leading the BEAToronto team as Director and managing the organization with steadfast commitment, Sonia is a registered architect and Associate at Williamson Williamson Inc. Congratulations to Sonia on this impressive and well deserved accolade!
Link to the full announcement here.
AM640 The Morning Show: " How are public spaces changing during the pandemic?" - A Conversation with BEAT Executive, Maya Mahgoub-Desai
BEAT executive Maya Mahgoub-Desai joins Peter Shurman to discuss how public spaces, homes and interior design are changing because of physical distancing on AM 640’s Morning Show hosted by Peter Shurman, Global News Radio (August 10, 2020)
Link to the audio here.
Canadian Architect August Issue: "Pandemic effect: Equity in architecture firms" by BEAT Advisory Chair Betsy Williamson
In August 2020’s Canadian Architect issue, BEAT Advisory Committee Chair Betsy Williamson discusses the pandemic, architecture and equity in the workplace.
Link to the article here.
Link to the August 2020 issue of Canadian Architect here.