Barry Sampson at work. From www.bsnarchitects.com
Barry Sampson, my former partner in the firm Baird Sampson Neuert, died on Saturday, December 5. He is survived by his partner Judi Coburn and their two sons, Benjamin and Martin.
Barry was born in 1948 in Oshawa, Ontario, and spent his childhood and youth there, arriving at the University of Toronto in 1967 to commence his education in architecture. He and his classmates started their architectural studies just as a dramatic new curriculum was launched by Peter Prangnell, under the aegis of a newly appointed  Chair of Architecture, John Andrews.
I first met Barry the following year, when I joined U of T as a new faculty member. He was never directly my student, but we knew each other at a distance. Then, upon their graduation in 1972, Barry, together with his classmates Joost Bakker, Bruce Kuwabara and John van Nostrand came to me, and proposed to me that they join my fledgling one-person architectural practice. I was taken aback at this proposal, but we found a way to make it work?at least for a period of time. After a few years, the other three left the practice for various reasons, but Barry stayed, and we worked together for the next 30 years. In the early years of our professional relationship, Barry served as an invaluable back-up to me, in my role as principal designer at the firm. Key projects of that early period, in which he played an essential role, include the reconstruction of the Dunbarton-Fairport United Chu...