Lecture: George Baird, University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design/ Baird Sampson Neuert Architects

George Baird is Professor Emeritus and the former Dean of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto. He is a founding principal of the Toronto-based architecture and urban design firm Baird Sampson Neuert Architects. Prior to becoming Dean at the University of Toronto in 2004, Baird was the G. Ware Travelstead Professor of Architecture at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University. He is co-editor (with Charles Jencks) of Meaning in Architecture (1969), and (with Mark Lewis) of Queues Rendezvous, Riots (1995). He is author of Alvar Aalto (1969) and The Space of Appearance (1995). His researches in architectural theory have focused on the question of the political and social status of urban public space, and on debates revolving around subject of “critical architecture.” His much discussed essay: “Criticality and Its Discontents” was published in the Harvard Design Magazine in fall 2004, and his subsequent text: “The Criticality Debate: Some Further Thoughts” appeared in September 2006 in T/A Magazine, Shanghai. His Public Space; Political/Cultural Theory; Street Photography will be published by SUN Publishers, Amsterdam (2011). Baird’s consulting firm, Baird Sampson Neuert is the winner of numerous design awards, including Canadian Architect Magazine awards over many years, and Governor General’s Awards for Cloud Gardens Park (1994), Erindale Hall on the campus of the University of Toronto at Mississauga (2006), and the French River Visitor Centre (2010). Baird is a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. He has been the recipient of the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Architecture and Design Award (1992), the da Vinci Medal of the Ontario Association of Architects (2000), and the Gold Medal of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (2010).