Jane Pendergast, FRAIC has more than 25 years of experience in various forms of practice including as University Architect for the University of Calgary. Her experience on public projects, particularly complex ones involving multiple user groups, is extensive. She tends to get involved early in such projects to manage diverse user group expectations, ensure thorough and thoughtful design strategies are employed and then stays involved through to construction completion. Projects have included the New Calgary Humane Society, continual renovations to the University of Calgary Student Centre, Studies for a Cultural Corridor for Calgary Arts Development and the Galt Museum Expansion in Lethbridge. Her real passion lies in working on cultural, not-for-profit, higher education and community projects. Jane has recently opened the firm Pendergast Nyhoff Collaborative Architecture Inc. (PNCA) in downtown Calgary with architect Kevin Nyhoff.
Nader Tehrani is a Principal of Office dA, a Boston-based architecture and design firm, and a Professor of Architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Tehrani received a B.F.A. and a B. Arch from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1985 and 1986 respectively, and continued on to the Harvard Graduate School of Design where he received his M.A.U.D in 1991. Tehrani has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, and Georgia Institute of Technology, where he served as the Thomas W. Ventulett III Distinguished Chair in Architectural Design. His area of research is focused on innovations in building systems, material application, and the transformation of the building industry, with an emphasis on digital fabrication. His practice at Office dA has received numerous awards, including the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Architecture Award, the Harleston Parker Award, and 12 Progressive Architecture Awards. The work of Office dA has been exhibited widely, including such venues as the Museum of Modern Art, the Venice Biennale and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.
Betsy Williamson is principal of WILLIAMSONWILLIAMSON INC., a Toronto based architecture and design studio. She received a Bachelor of Arts from Barnard College and a Masters of Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She is a licensed member of the Ontario Association of Architects and serves on the Waterfront Toronto Design Review Panel and the Art Advisory Board of the Toronto Sculpture Garden. In addition to her creative practice, Betsy maintains an active teaching career at the University of Toronto. In 2008, WILLIAMSONWILLIAMSON INC., was the recipient of the Ronald J. Thom Award for Early Design Achievement from the Canada Council for the Arts. In 2006, the studio was honored with the Young Architects Award from the Architectural League of New York.
Bernardo Gomez-Pimienta, Hon. FIRAC has been working as an architect since 1987, combining this activity with industrial design and teaching. He studied architecture at the Universidad Anahuac in Mexico City, where he obtained his first professional degree in 1986. He received a Master of Science degree from Columbia University, New York in 1987. Currently he is Dean of the Architecture School at the Universidad Anahuac, member of the National Academy of Architecture and of the CONACULTA National Creators Fellowship Program. This 2008 he was honored as Chevalier de l´Ordre National de la
Legion d´Honneur by the French Republic and recognized as Honorary Fellow, Hon. FAIA by The American Institute of Architects. In 2009, he received Honorary Fellowship by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. In 2002, as part of TEN arquitectos; he won the international competition for the new Visual & Performing Arts Library in Brooklyn, N.Y. That year he also won the Latin American Building of the Year, prize given at the World Architecture Awards. More than 80 prizes support the work of Bernardo Gomez-Pimienta, who is known for his contemporary vocabulary that unites the aspirations of the modern world, with the traditions of his native Mexican culture.
Georges Adamczyk is a full professor at the École d’architecture, Université de Montréal, and served as its director from June 1999 to June 2007. He is a researcher with the Laboratoire d’étude de l’architecture potentielle (LEAP). Before that, he was a professor in the Design Department at Université du Québec à Montréal (since 1977). A designer by training, he also holds a master’s degree in Development (History and Theories of Architecture) from Université de Montréal. He was the director of the Environmental Design program (1977–1982), the Art History program (1982–1983) and the Design Department (1984–1989) (now UQAM’s École de design). From 1992 to 1999, he headed UQAM’s Centre de design, a venue for exhibitions and discussion about the city, architecture, landscape, objects and graphic communication. He participates regularly in competitions, is a consultant for public interest projects, and sits on juries for competitions relating to both the city and manufactured objects. He is the author of a number of articles, papers, publications and exhibitions about architecture and design in Canada. He recently contributed to the work Installations architecturales, published by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (1999), and to the catalogue Substance Over Spectacle, edited by Andrew Gruft (2005). For La Biennale de Montréal, he designed and wrote Maisons-Lieux/Houses-Places (2000–2004). He was the guest curator of the exhibition Objets trouvés, designed and created by the firm Saucier + Perrotte for the Canada Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2004). At LEAP (at the École d’architecture), he is collaborating on the first major disciplinary study of architectural competitions in Canada since 1940.