Diving Deep: KPMB's Shirley Blumberg and Marianne McKenna on Designing With Generosity, Giving People Choice, and Intergenerational Dialogue
By Julia Gamolina
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.
JG: Tell me about your foundational years – where did you grow up and what did you like to do as a kid?
SB: I was born and raised on a mountainside overlooking the ocean in Cape Town, South Africa. While I loved outdoor life in southern Africa, I was obsessed with reading, and passionate about drawing. Always feeling like a square peg in a round hole in my community, reading became my escape.
I left South Africa at 21, but the impact of living under apartheid never left me. As a result, my approach to design has been shaped by issues of social justice and equity. Emigrating to Canada and seeing it evolve into a complex and pluralistic society, has been an enormous influence. Living in the vibrant urban centre of Toronto — the city of Jane Jacobs and Marshall McLuhan — inspired me to focus on public architecture and the quality of the urban environment.
MM: As a kid, I was good at art, fast at schoolwork, confident in sports, and nimble at getting around obstacles. I liked mixing things up and questioning authority - not always without consequences. What struck me later was that while I was growing up rather innocently and unbridled in Montreal, the province of Quebec was transforming through its revolution tranquil, disrupting a society that had been shaped for centuries by the Catholic Church. With it came a period of social and economic development, modernizing education, healthcare, and upgrading the status of women. This was happening as the global world of the late 1960s was experiencing its own dramatic countercultural revolution with shifting social and political mores that included second-wave feminism.
By high school, I was fully assimilating what was all around me in a city that was itself in rapid transformation. Expo ‘67, the most extravagant of cultural parties, and the almost overnight transformation of Montreal to host it, made a deep impression on me. Miles of potholes were repaved, shiny glass towers sprouted up in the downtown, a zippy new Metro reconfigured the city, and architecture was on display with Habitat’s stacked housing and flamboyant international pavilions set on floating islands in the St Lawrence River. Canada beckoned and the world came charging in. And when it was done and I had soaked up the incredible richness of this international exhibition, I catapulted out of Montreal to college in the U.S. where a more intense foment was unfolding.
Fort York - Bathurst Branch Library, courtesy of KPMB. Photography by Riley Snelling.
The Brearly School, photography by Nic Lehoux.
What did you learn about yourself in studying architecture?
SB: Growing up in a very conservative society without female role models, I knew nothing about architecture.
I didn’t know what to expect of my studies, but it seemed that they would be a promising fusion of art and science. When I began studying architecture, it felt like a new world was opening up to me. I loved how the discipline touched every aspect of people’s lives, how it ranged from the most prosaic considerations to the most poetic aspirations.
Most of all, I loved the challenge. Understanding and solving a problem with tangible results struck me as an extraordinarily optimistic pursuit. I loved the exploration, trying to get to the essence of the problem and imagining a design solution that might profoundly affect the experience the building.
MM: I arrived at the Yale School of Architecture from Swarthmore College just after women were starting to be admitted to undergraduate programs. My class, with 40 percent women out of a group of 45 students, was perhaps one of the first where women were acknowledged as contributors and collaborators. I had a Liberal Arts degree, a broad base of literature and the arts, economics and physics, history and languages, but at Yale I had to learn from the ground up how to develop a proposition and evolve an architectural idea. I learned to care about the built environment and to love the intensity and ambitions of architecture. I enjoyed working collaboratively. The virtue of being somewhat remote in New Haven was that my teachers were there a lot, and available. They were an inspiring and generous group - Jim Stirling and Michael Wilford, Charles Moore, Ray Gindros, Alec Purvis, Henry Cobb, King Lui Wu, Robert Stern, and Kent Bloomer. I learned from them that architecture was for people, that cities needed richness and intensity, that climate influenced building forms and materials, and that sunlight and shadow were equally important.
I also learned that getting to the concept could involve using layers of tracing paper and that I would never be satisfied with my effort. Later in my career, I came to see this restlessness as a blessing. Martha Graham captured it best when she described a “divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive...”
How did you get your start in working with the built environment?
SB: After graduating from the University of Toronto, I worked for Barton Myers, whom I thought was doing the most interesting work in the city. It was a terrific learning experience. Barton was an excellent mentor, and comfortable giving young architects a high level of responsibility.
It was there that I met my future partners, Bruce Kuwabara, Thomas Payne and Marianne McKenna. In 1985, the studio won the competition for Phoenix City Hall, and Barton used this opportunity to open a Los Angeles studio. When in 1987, he relocated there permanently, it was like the coach leaving the team.
My partners and I took over the office and formed KPMB as a collaborative hybrid practice. Our timing was impeccable. At the start we won two major competitions, and then in quick succession, won several important cultural commissions in the city. It was a heady beginning.
MM: I built dollhouses in my bedroom closet but never played with dolls. I built small tent villages with 4’ x 8’ sheets of heavy card stock on the island we summered on in the St. Lawrence. My childhood comrades and I designed, built, and ruled a socialist community we called the United Nations of Straw Huts one summer in the French countryside, where I had been sent to ensure I was truly bilingual.
My first real building experience, as an associate for Barton Myers, was a small community building on the outskirts of Toronto. It was the contractor’s first experience as well, and when he claimed he had laid the vapour barrier sheathing on the pitched roof — which I had previously pointed out to him was missing — I asked him on my next visit to remove a section of roofing to confirm. There was no vapour barrier. This was an act of courage on my part and a lesson to me to take full responsibility for the work we do as architects. During my MArch summers, I had internships with both Moshe Safdie and Papineau Gerin Lajoie which allowed me to understand the design languages of these practices.
“Architecture needs to prioritize the long-term over short-term gains, designing for 100 years and more.”
Tell me how your work evolved, and you with it.
SB: When I think about how my career evolved, I think about the fable of the tortoise and the hare. I’m the tortoise. To mature as an architect, one must find one’s voice. To do that, I had to move beyond the narrow world view of my South African childhood. My life experience, and working in a collaborative partnership has over time, clarified what I truly value and the contribution I want to make.
Several years ago, I began a conversation with like-minded female architects that led to us co-founding BEAT (Building Equality in Architecture in Toronto) a grassroots initiative to promote equity for women in our profession. BEAT has since grown to include chapters across Canada.
Architecture is the constantly evolving framework for our lives. As my career has matured, I’ve returned to my activist roots as a student in South Africa and view my work through the lens of social equity, environmental and economic sustainability. I think what is extraordinary about our architectural practice is that we can improve the quality of people’s daily lives. That’s a high aspiration.
MM: Graduating from Yale in 1976, there were very few jobs available so I returned to Montreal and while working at Bobrow Fieldman I completed my license registration. I then worked for Denys Lasdun in London, UK for a period before returning to Montreal where I freelanced and taught at McGill’s Architecture School. One evening in September 1980 I attended a lecture by Barton Myers and was invited to the dinner afterwards. I critiqued a big LA project Barton was working on. Without hesitation, he invited me to Toronto to work in his studio. Later that month, on my 30th birthday, I jumped in my Renault 5 and drove to Toronto with a commitment from Barton to be made an associate within a year.
I met my future partners in Barton’s studio: Bruce Kuwabara, Thomas Payne, and Shirley Blumberg. When Barton decided to decamp to Los Angeles in 1987, we took a leap of faith and formed a new practice. Barton generously handed us his entire studio: the people, furniture, lease and payroll, equipment, and several projects to wind up. We were very fortunate – all we had to do was keep working, and we have ever since.
Toronto - the city of Jane Jacobs, who advocated for ‘more eyes on the street’ became our home base to experiment with appropriate responses to context, the use of infill to increase density, and new/old juxtapositions to enrich memory and experience. These are the architectural roots from which we continue to evolve our work.
“In design, I like to think that there are no mistakes, only opportunities. I’ve found that projects are stronger when our clients challenge us. Adversity makes you dive deeper to find the solution.”
Tell me about your practice. Where are you in your career today? What is on your mind most at the moment?
SB: We’ve been in practice 35 years. I think we’ve sustained our relationship this long because we’ve always believed that our best work is ahead of us. To accomplish that, we’ve had to be nimble and responsive to change.
We’ve expanded our leadership to include new partners and are building the platform for the future of KPMB. The pandemic and unprecedented global crises have precipitated a major rethink of how we practice, and a reconsideration of our core values going forward. We’re actively making changes in our studio and the profession to focus on equity, diversity, and inclusivity.
MM: We formed Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects in 1987 when Barton departed from Toronto. Our partnership was unusual in our gender, ethnic make‐up, and backgrounds, as well as our strengths. We offered a different model of practice. Realizing that we were smarter together, we adopted an “all for one, and one for all” attitude. Our gender balance contributed to the extraordinary culture and practice we have today, at the heart of which is a core team of talented individuals who have been our collaborators for 20 to 35 years
The practice we created was a new kind of hybrid, but the dominance of the systemic biases of a historically white male establishment was not easy to shake off. It permeated the times we lived in as we engaged in the hard work of building a firm. For me, this issue has gained urgency as recent events have brought new realizations and a new commitment to women and diversity in architecture that is at the forefront of our practice today.
Through the years, it has proven a challenge to maintain the gender balance represented by the founding partners. We are focused on diversity and inclusion in our practice and advancing a richer multi-dimensional attitude to sustainability that considers social, environmental, and economic impacts. Architecture needs to prioritize the long-term over short-term gains, designing for 100 years and more. Every day I am learning from Indigenous partners about stewardship of the land and Indigenous design values and I am inspired to challenge architects to ask ourselves, as Jonas Salk did, “Are we being good ancestors?”
Robert H. Lee Alumni Center, University of British Columbia. Photography by Adrien Williams.
TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning, Royal Conservatory. Photography by Eduard Hueber.
Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you manage through a disappointment or a perceived setback?
SB: You learn more from disappointments and setbacks than when all goes swimmingly well. In design, I like to think that there are no mistakes, only opportunities. I’ve found that projects are stronger when our clients challenge us. Adversity makes you dive deeper to find the solution.
There are now so many people involved in the development of a project, and persuading bureaucrats, clients, and contractors to do something different can be hard. But if you put yourself in their shoes and try to understand their thinking, you can most often resolve difficult issues through design.
If you want to build, you must understand the economics and issues of constructability of a project. We’ve had great experience partnering with construction managers through the design phases. Today architecture is so complicated that it’s critical to have all the players at the table to solve problems together.
MM: Architecture is a profession of big wins and heartbreaking losses. As leaders, we support each other and always approach challenges as opportunities for evolution and expansion - of ideas, innovations, and mindsets.
After 35 years of practice, we have learned that change is essential and continuous so it is crucial to be agile and open-minded. In each crisis, we have been blessed with unexpected opportunities. When the commercial sector dried up during the recession of the 90s we were awarded our first federal government commission: a women’s prison with a social justice agenda to transform the model from punishment to creating choices for women to change their lives. This project set the foundation for doing complex, institutional work in healthcare as well as campus building.
When the Global Financial Crisis hit, we continued to cultivate our relationships with universities and cultural organizations. Within a few years, we were awarded projects at Princeton, Northwestern, MIT, and UPENN
We met the challenges of the pandemic by quickly shifting to a 100% work-from-home model and invested in our internal communication. The time together allowed us to reflect and strengthen our practice. And in the midst of this, a series of opportunities arose for major cultural projects across Canada and we won commissions for the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and the Arts Commons Transformation in Calgary. Rather than focusing on fear and uncertainty, these inspiring clients have given us the gift of visioning the future with them.
What are you excited about right now?
SB: Dickens said it best: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… The worst because of the climate emergency and overwhelming societal challenges. As most economic, political, and social systems are failing to some degree, the door has opened for us to question and rethink everything. That’s what excites me.
Architects are more relevant now than at any other time in my career. Our design thinking develops solutions for seemingly opposing problems. This, and our synthetic skills, are particularly relevant today.
MM: I love that we are in an unprecedented time of change when anything can get thrown on the table for discussion. When was there ever such intergenerational respect and dialogue? We are on the cusp of social transformation and global awareness with the screaming need to act locally, and it is both exciting and scary.
We are reshaping KPMB in this spirit, deepening our sense of social purpose, and evolving our leadership with new partners and principals who will carry the practice forward and inject it with a new dimension of innovation and thinking. The entire demographic of our office is coming forward with previously unimagined creative initiatives that are reanimating our practice for a post-pandemic reality.
I feel that the profession of architecture is ready to go deep and rethink the model of how we practice, promote, and market architecture. I believe as a practice we are in a unique position to model what that might look like, which is exciting. Already people are sensing something different is going on at KPMB. People who left our practice years ago are returning, and we are attracting new talent trained in the best offices in North America.
I am inspired to do my part to dissolve the myths around practice and show that architecture is the most collaborative art form and that it can changes lives.
“I love that we are in an unprecedented time of change when anything can get thrown on the table for discussion. When was there ever such intergenerational respect and dialogue? We are on the cusp of social transformation and global awareness with the screaming need to act locally, and it is both exciting and scary.”
Who are you admiring now and why?
SB: I finally found a brilliant mentor and role model – Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, Canada’s ground-breaking landscape architect who died last year at 99. Cornelia was well ahead of her time. In her life-long practice, she understood the critical importance of environmental and social sustainability in design.
She was a big thinker. Her research and technical knowledge were impeccable, and her creativity never waned. I had the privilege and the pleasure of getting to know Cornelia well when I was working in her hometown of Vancouver over a period of ten years. I learned so much about how to be an architect and a mother, how to stick to your principles and not give up; how to be fully engaged in the work and remain optimistic — no matter the circumstances. She was a force of nature and I miss her.
MM: I admire feminist thinker architect and teacher Ila Berman for so articulately deconstructing systemic gender biases. Her research and fact-based arguments cogently look to a society transformed by activating feminist participation. For the first 30 years of our practice, I had all but ignored the web of constraints I worked within, and it was Berman who stripped away the veil.
The people in our office inspire me every day. Another blessing of the pandemic was that working remotely flattened the boardroom and provided a democratic and safe space for everyone to be heard. The women speak up more and all team members, including the students and interns, have taken the opportunities to contribute to the culture of our practice, organizing talks and interviewing project leaders.
“As architects, we can help mitigate inequity, contribute to a fossil-free future, and inspire. Designing with generosity and giving people choice is as fundamental as beauty.”
What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission? And, what does success in that look like to you?
SB: When the first affordable housing project we designed was newly occupied, our project architect overheard one of the tenants commenting to another that “this building has changed my life”. That is the impact I would like every project to have. We’re in a time of unprecedented cultural change. As architects, we can help mitigate inequity, contribute to a fossil-free future, and inspire. Designing with generosity and giving people choice is as fundamental as beauty.
While there has undoubtedly been change for the better in my lifetime, our profession still lacks equity and diversity. Success would be a more inclusive architectural practice, with more voices at the table to create our built environment. In Canada we’re actively engaged in a process of truth and reconciliation with indigenous peoples. I’ve been collaborating with a First Nations colleague, Brian Porter of Two Row Architect, to develop solutions for northern housing. We’ve had some success. I hope we can achieve much more over the next few years.
MM: We have learned much from the intersection of COVID-19 and the awakening of people around the world to racial and social injustice. We have taken the time for the expanded leadership of our practice to reconfirm and share our values and accelerate our commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusivity, with heightened awareness and training.
We see ourselves within an inclusive and collaborative framework that is increasingly more thoughtful and equally demanding of all individuals’ creative talent and dedication. We have taken the opportunity to valorize and be confident in the strengths of our unique model of practice, understanding that broad diversity and gender balance strengthen our contribution to architecture. We have also reevaluated the kinds of projects we will take on in alignment with our values.
Success for me is seeing the purposeful ideas in what we do. We are engaged in shaping projects co-creatively with our clients to help define their vision, elevating their purpose through architecture. Each project has its own distinctive narrative and an inspiring story to tell that brings it to life. Engagement and discourse is key to the process and if we get this right we elevate and strengthen our clients’ mission.
The projects I have led take time, some as long as 18 years, and I have been honoured to lead the work collaboratively. The projects we are entrusted with transform cultural and educational institutions, enhance their offering to their respective communities and address deep needs in our world.
Lawrence Heights. Photography by Michael Muraz.
Jackson-Triggs Niagara Estate Winery. Photography by Eduard Hueber.
What advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?
SB: It’s very important to work in a good design studio immediately after graduation, with people whose values you share. There’s so much to learn that cannot be taught in architecture school, that choosing where you apprentice is critical to your future career.
There’s a reason that architecture is characterized as an old person’s profession. It takes a long time to develop the skills and garner the experience you need to develop your voice and imagine who you want to be in the world. Stay curious and intellectually engaged. You need to listen and be empathetic to produce meaningful work. Everything you are and do informs your design.
MM: My advice is the same to women and men: listen and look first, ask questions, research, reflect, collaborate, and contribute your unique offering. Value your education as an architect because it is one of the only professions that still teaches integrated design thinking. We have been trained to look at a problem from every aspect of society. Be curious and cross-train your brain enabling both the left and right sides.
Broaden your personal development, self-awareness, and skill in design and tectonics. Imagine the impact on the spirit of a building or place. Choose to use our profession as architects to be compassionate and inclusive. Commit to creating thoughtful, meaningful, and regenerative architectural solutions that contribute to creating the world we want.