While we celebrate the 50th birthday of our Canadian Architect awards, we also would like to laud another major award just announced elsewhere in the design community. This one honours a person rather than a project: the 2017 Margolese National Design for Living Prize. Organized and distributed by the University of British Columbia School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, the $50,000 no-strings award is directed to an individual whose work actively contributes to improving the living environment for Canadians of all economic classes, with the prospect for still more to come in the future. Copiously endowed by the late Vancouver business magnate Leonard Herbert Margolese, the Prize itself is a scant five years old, but is one of the richest honours in the Canadian design community. In full disclosure, I had the honour and challenge of serving on this year?s jury, along with architect and Université de Montréal professor Daniel Pearl, as well as landscape architect and U.B.C. professor Moura Quayle. The list of nominated candidates formed a remarkable high-achievement club, but simple professional accomplishment is not in itself what the Margolese is about. And this year?s winner?Anne Cormier?could hardly be a more exemplary winner. Anne Cormier
Architect, teacher, researcher, advocate, activist, humanist, the co-founder and principal of the high-voltage Montreal firm Atelier Big City, Cormier embodies what many believe is the interdisciplinary and socially minded...