TRAIC Gold Medalhe RAIC is honoured to award the Gold Medal?the highest distinction the Institute can bestow in recognition of a significant and lasting contribution to Canadian architecture?to visionary architect Blanche Lemco van Ginkel.

Recent photo of Blanche Lemco van Ginkel taken at her home.
Blanche Lemco was born in London, England, in 1923. At age thirteen, she moved with her mother and siblings to Montreal, Canada. Her father had been in the garment industry in England, where he owned a small factory, and both her parents were actively interested in the arts. At first, she favoured stage design as a profession, but owing to limited opportunities for theatre education in Montreal in the early 1940s, she chose to pursue architecture instead?drawn to its potential to change the world.
“Blanche is a living connection to Canadian modernist roots, bringing her experience from working with Le Corbusier to Canada,” said the 2020 Gold Medal Jury.  “Throughout her career, she has woven modernist social ideals through the fabric of our society as a great educator, communicator and architect.  Blanche epitomizes a deep commitment to intellectual rigour and cross-disciplinary dialogue; and continues to be a role model for the Canadian architectural community.?
Blanche Lemco van Ginkel with Le Corbusier at the Unité d?Habitation, Marseille, France, 1959, CIAM 9 (Aix-enprovence)
excursion
In 1940, she enrolled on a scholarship at McGill University. She ...