“Canadian architecture firm Williamson Williamson has added administrative offices on top of a coffee roastery in Toronto, where structural elements are highlighted in bright yellow. Pilot Coffee Roasters is an independent company with a handful of cafes in the greater Toronto area. Its roasting facility was designed in 2014 inside a former warehouse by local firm Williamson Williamson. The studio…
2019 is starting with a great opportunity to share our work with the world. Betsy will be delivering a keynote lecture as part of in:situ, the 2019 New Zealand Institute of Architects Conference. At in:situ 2019, 11 accomplished architects, from almost all the world’s continents, will visit Auckland to share insights about their work and the contemporary practice…
Marc Simmons (Front Inc.), New York, and Shane Williamson (WWInc.), Toronto will present their work and join in conversation at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design’s lecture series: Home and Away on November 22, 2018. Tune in to see what the leader of a global design and facade engineering consultancy and…
Architects and industry professionals at the forefront of wood design in Ontario came together to celebrate excellence in wood design at the 18th annual Wood WORKS! Awards night in Toronto on November 20, 2018. The awards program honours people and organizations that, through design excellence, advocacy, and innovation, are advancing the use of wood in all types of…
“In true summer-house fashion, Pilot Coffee Roasters’ seasonal pop-up in Ontario’s Prince Edward County distills the burgeoning espresso empire’s primary outlets into a smaller version that opens up to the great outdoors. Credit Williamson Williamson for the skillful downsizing. Back in 2013, Pilot co-founders Jessie and Andy Wilkin enlisted the architecture studio – then Williamson…
“Canadian Interiors’ Best of Canada Design Competition is the country’s only design competition to focus on interior design projects and products without regard to size, budget or location. We welcome submissions from interior designers, architects, interior architects, decorators, and crafts persons. Having reached the ripe age of 21 means Best of Canada is old enough to…
We were surprised last Friday evening at the OAA Awards Ceremony to receive the 2018 Michael V. and Wanda Plachta Award. The prize honors architectural excellence for projects in Ontario that cost no more than 8 million dollars. This annual award was established in 1991 by Mrs. Wanda Plachta in honour of her late husband, Michael…
The Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize (MCHAP) recognizes outstanding built works of architecture that acknowledge the altered circumstances of the human condition in our contemporary age. Honoring projects that consider how we might elevate the quality of our built environments by extending our interests beyond the proverbial four walls, the MCHAP process examines the many…
The House on Ancaster Creek has been named a winner of an Award of Excellence from the Ontario Association of Architects. The Awards of Excellence recognize the innovative skills of Ontario architects in creating spaces, buildings, and communities that respect and enhance the environment and enrich human activity. “Every year it is a privilege to honour the…
” This Ontario home rethinks suburban norms, sticking all the standard pieces on a highly unusual floor plan. And it won’t be the last of its kind. Every family is different. Why are so many family homes the same? The North American ideal of the nuclear family has shaped the way we live for a century…
“For a certain doctor in Ontario, there was never any doubt. He always knew that he would take care of his mom and dad in their old age. When the time came, they moved into the basement of a bungalow that he shared with a social worker, the man he planned to marry. After an…
The Canadian Wood Council has a robust Wood Design Awards Program that features architects from North America and abroad who are working with wood in excellent and innovative ways. This year, Betsy served on the jury alongside Alan Organschi, Principal at Gray Organschi Architecture, and Rich Bonnin, Design Principal, HGA Architects and Engineers. This year, the jury was excited…
Archinect has a great series on practices called Small Studio Snapshots and WWInc. was featured in December. There are a hundred different ways to practice architecture and we are grateful for the opportunities that come our way to allow us to practice on our own terms. We try to shape our practice by asking ourselves and our colleagues at…
We are excited to announce that the House on Ancaster Creek has been shortlisted for the annual Interior Design Best of Year Awards, sponsored by Interior Design magazine. Congratulations to all those shortlisted, and we look forward to the announcement and party on December 1st in New York City – and the Michelangelo show is on…
Architects, engineers, developers and other construction industry professionals at the forefront of wood design in Ontario came together to celebrate excellence in wood design at the 17th annual Wood WORKS! Awards night in Toronto on November 2, 2017. The awards program honours people and organizations that, through design excellence, advocacy, and innovation, are advancing the use of wood…
Betsy will be in Montreal on October 17th, at the World Design Summit speaking about WWInc’s work on Inter-generational homes. An international multi-disciplinary, multi-modal, solution-oriented congress, the World Design Summit is an international incubator for re-thinking the mission of the designer and the design process. This is about more than just the latest trends – it…
Since Betsy is heading down for the AIA Houston jury tomorrow, she initiated a meeting with Women in Architecture Houston and look what they planned in two days time! We love it when everything comes together.
The 2017-18 academic year has begun with Shane as the new Director of the MArch Program at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. The official announcement from the faculty follows: Associate Professor Shane Williamson has been appointed Director of the Master of Architecture Program for a three-year term effective July 1, 2017. Williamson’s research…
Last night was a beautiful evening spent at the Palais Royal enjoying the late summer warmth and the lake view while celebrating the winners of this year’s Toronto Urban Design Awards. Betsy spent two days on the jury in June with Elsa Lam, David Anselmi, and Gary McCluskie visiting nearly three dozen projects before narrowing the…
Betsy, along with her colleagues from the RAIC Age Friendly Housing Options Task Force, Rudy Friesen, MAA, PP/FRAIC Hon. FAIA and owner of ELDERing.ca, and John L. Brown, AAA, FRAIC, principal of Housebrand, will be presenting Innovative Design for Healthy Aging at the RAIC Festival of Architecture this week. While this year’s session is full, our group…
We are always honored to be featured by Architectural Record. It is a publication that we have admired since we were students and to be included in its pages, digitally or in print, is something that we never take for granted. Thank you to the amazing editorial staff for always looking out for out best…
Words have the power to change lives. Get Lit is a one-of-a-kind fundraiser where a lineup of notable Canadians read from their favourite book and tell the story of how it impacted their lives. Since 2005, Get Lit’s roster of notable speakers have shared passages from one of their favourite literary works. Although authors are…
The Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake’s annual Celebration of Heritage commemorates Niagara-on-the-Lake’s heritage and pays tribute to those members of the community who have made a significant contribution to the preservation of historical property. The Exchange Brewery is proud to be a recipient of a 2017 Commendation for Heritage Restoration. It is always rewarding to see our…
On International Women’s Day, Wednesday March 8th at 6:15 – 9:15 PM, Design Exchange and Building Equality in Architecture Toronto welcome architects: Shirley Blumberg from KPMB Architects Betsy Williamson from Williamson Williamson Inc. Peggy Theodore from Diamond and Schmitt Architects Inc Vanessa Fong from VFA for an insightful discussion moderated by Chatelaine‘s Sarah Boesveld about why we talk about gender…
Shane will be presenting our work as part of the 2016 Fall Lecture Series at Prairie View A&M University on Wednesday October 26, 2016. Special thanks to Ross Wienert for the invitation.
Betsy has been selected as a jury member for the 2017 Winter Stations Competition. Fellow jurors include, Lisa Rochon (Senior Fellow, Global Cities Institute U of T; Founder, Friends of the Beach Parks), Dragana Maznic (Design Director, Great Gulf), Mark Ryan (Principal/Co-Founder, PUBLIC WORK), Michael Ondaatje (Novelist), and Renée Daoust (Founder, Daoust Lestage). Winter Stations is now…
Betsy Williamson, Sonia Ramundi and Dimitra Papantonis will be hosting a forthcoming session of BEAT‘s Mentorship Mondays on the evening of Monday November 14, 2016. The objective of the event is to provide a platform for dialogue, networking and mentorship while supporting and advancing equality within the Architecture profession. Invitations are open to those at different…
Each year the CaGBC Greater Toronto Chapter Chapter hosts its annual Innovation Awards Program which distinguishes individuals in the green building industry, as well as projects in Southern Ontario which go above and beyond the normal scope of sustainable best practices. Grange Triple Double was selected by the jury as the winner for the Innovation…
The Exchange Brewery has received a 2016 Canadian Interiors Best of Canada Award in the retail category. Canadian Interiors’ annual Best of Canada Design Competition is the country’s only design competition to focus on interior design projects and products without regard to size, budget or location. Categories for project submissions include: exhibit; hospitality; institutional; marketing; office;…
“On Tranby Avenue, history is for the birds. Stained-glass birds nest in almost every transom on this narrow east Annex street, the work of the artisan Robert McCausland when its houses were built around 1890. Most of these birds have been preserved and refurbished – including the one on No. 66, which was cleaned up…
Our renovation of an 1892 Victorian House in the Annex has caught the attention of Designlines’ editor Tory Healy. Along with Darcy and Alexis of 3Gen Developments, our job was to make this complicated renovation look effortless. As noted by writer Matthew Hague, “The strategy was simple: rooms that were in good condition were preserved,…
Betsy will be presenting our work as part of the The University of Waterloo’s annual Path to Practice series on Thursday, October 20th, 2016. Fellow speakers include Julian Ocampo (HelloEverything), Wei-Han Vivian Lee (LAMAS), and Tyler Sharp (RDH Architects).
Shane will be delivering a keynote lecture as part of the Chair Jorge Montes 2016 at the Universidad del Istmo Facultad de Arquitectura y Diseño. During the Chair, students of architecture of national universities throughout Central America attend lectures, workshops, and participate in competitions. This year’s Chair puts forward the theme ” Roots of Change: Designing the Future”…
Grange Triple Double is profiled in the recent issue of Monocle as part of a piece titled Generation Gaps [Housing]. Sophie Grove puts forward the preface that “Our grandparents deserve a better standard of care and that calls for a multigenerational approach – hence a new model that makes the presence of youth in old people’s…
The Grange Triple Double House was chosen for the WOOD 2016/TRÄ 2016 exhibition in Virserum Art Museum in Sweden. The projects of the exhibition were chosen via a triennial, international architecture competition, Architecture of Necessity. The competition and exhibition aim to gather and present ideas and solutions for sustainable architecture. The WOOD 2016/TRÄ 2016 exhibition…
Today officially marks the new beginning of Williamson Williamson Inc. as our partnership in Williamson Chong has come to an end. The momentum of our practice remains as we have a number of great clients on-board and projects underway. We couldn’t be more excited about the future. Betsy, Shane, Chris, Sonia, Eric, Paul, Dimitra, and Melissa…
Over the past 5 years, Williamson Chong produced a number of award winning projects and received notable practice-based honours, including the Professional Prix de Rome from the Canada Council of the Arts, the Emerging Architecture Practice from the Royal Architecture Institute of Canada, and the Emerging Voices Award from the Architecture League of New York.…
As the recipient of a 2016 Canadian Green Building Award, Grange Triple Double is featured in the Summer issue of SABMag (Sustainable Architecture & Building Magazine)
Grange Triple Double is the recipient of a 2016 Canadian Green Building Award from the Canada Green Building Council [CaGBC]. Winning projects will be published in the Summer issues of SABMag and ecoHouse Canada, and on websites www.sabmagazine.com, and www.ecohome.net.
Architecture defines cities, neighbourhoods and communities. It provides form for the human experience. Buildings, homes and institutions shape the environment and reflect each society’s cultural values. Although some buildings ultimately become icons, is architecture art? Come find out at this lively discussion between some of Canada’s top architects and public art practitioners. As part of…
Betsy Williamson has been elected to the College of Fellows of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. The RAIC bestows Fellowship in recognition of outstanding achievement. Criteria include design excellence, exceptional scholarly contribution or distinguished service to the profession or the community. Representing Canada coast-to-coast, the 41 new Fellows come from Charlottetown, Pokemouche, St. John’s,…
Betsy is honoured to serve on the 2016 Portman Prize Jury with this year’s Portman Visiting Critic, Brigitte Shim. The purpose of the Portman Prize and the Portman Visiting Critic Program is to foster design excellence and student creativity in the School of Architecture at Georgia Tech. Recognizing student accomplishment and excellence in the integration of…
Grange Triple Double has been named a finalist for an Award of Excellence from the Ontario Association of Architects. The Awards of Excellence recognize the innovative skills of Ontario architects in creating spaces, buildings, and communities that respect and enhance the environment and enrich human activity. Award recipients will be honoured at the Celebration of Excellence Awards…
Writer Martha Breen eloquently tells the story of the Grange Triple Double. The house is a contemporary contextualization of the site and neighborhood while at the same time, a forward thinking solution for the ‘sandwich generation,’ describing how a young family can accommodate the needs of both children and parents on an urban lot in…
Thank you to urbanNext for picking up our Living Wood Exhibition from last year and sharing Bob Gundu‘s beautiful images. You can find the article here.
“Among the many well preserved valleys surrounding Toronto, Canada, it is not unusual to see disused railway lines that coexist with suburban residential fabric. It is in this scenario where the Canadian office of Williamson Chong Architects installed the House on Bala Line , a house that runs 18 mt above the line of the old…
“Canadian architecture practice Williamson Chong has transformed a narrow Edwardian property in a suburban neighborhood of Toronto. The existing home was a poorly renovated residence, and required a complete overhaul in order to provide spacious and comfortable living accommodation. Beginning at the front elevation, every effort was made to produce open and airy family-oriented spaces out…
“Young adults are getting squeezed out of the housing market. Their parents, meanwhile, want to downsize without leaving familiar neighbourhoods. The solution couldn’t be simpler to a growing group of designers: Rethink (and rebuild) the family home to suit several generations for the long haul. …Such adaptability can be built into a house’s architecture. One…
Architectural Record reports on the latest work being developed in our office. We are excited to be featured in their February issue. “The architects are further investigating multigenerational living in their Ancaster Creek House (set for completion this April), an elegant modernist dwelling composed of two double- height volumes, linked by a central glazed dining…
Betsy will serve on the jury this year for the AIA Portland 2015 Architecture Awards. The Architecture Awards Competition is an annual event open to all AIA Firms, Members, and Associate Members throughout Oregon. A nationally recognized jury of individuals, review and select projects that reflect the best architecture Oregon architects have to offer. Jury Critique Night: October…
Shane Williamson presented recent work and research to Laval University’s Faculty of Planning, Architecture, Arts and Design as part of their 2015-16 Lecture series. Special thanks to Samuel Bernier-Lavigne for the invitation. Fellow speakers in the series included: Moment Factory (Montreal), Stephane Rasselet (Nature Humaine, Montreal), Jean Perre Crousse (Barclay & Croussse, Lima/Paris), Alexander Redford (Jardins de Metis), Dominiqu…
The City of Edmonton and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) believe it is important to promote public and private awareness of the role of urban design. Every two years, since 2005, the City and the RAIC have co-hosted the Edmonton Urban Design Awards to recognize individuals, organizations, firms and projects that have contributed…
Designlines Annual Homes issue has come out and features an article on the house we recently completed on Roxborough Street in Toronto. The thoroughly modern clients encouraged us to strip away the dark and deteriorated parts of an old Toronto home and re-engage light and space. Creating a four story curved volume through the home…
In an interview with the Architectural League of New York’s program director, Anne Rieselbach and executive director, Rosalie Genevro, Paul Makovsky writes about Emerging Voices’ enduring mission. We are so proud to have been a winner in the 2014 Emerging Voices Series. In this article, the work of Williamson Chong is prominently featured alongside Steven…
Each year, Wallpaper Magazine publishes a list of 20 firms that they see as the rising star and breakthrough practices from around the globe. We are pleased to announce that the 2015 Architects Directory has been announced and Williamson Chong is featured on the list. A full digital feature is featured on the Wallpaper website.
Between June 3rd and 6th, 2015, architects, interns, students and associates as well as the general public will gather in Calgary, Alberta to network, discuss issues related to the practice of architecture and design, celebrate achievements and socialize. Williamson Chong will be presenting their research at a session on Friday morning. It will be informative,…
Betsy Williamson is an invited speaker at this year’s Saskatchewan Association of Architects conference and annual general meeting. Held at the Elk Ridge Resort, located north of the prairie flatlands in the boreal forest, from May 8”10, 2015, the conference theme is Evolve, Make, Build and will focus on methods that architects use to broaden their influence during…
“The breeze flowing over your table as you’re sitting down to dinner on a summer evening,” the owner says, is one of the best experiences they’ve had in the house: “There are those magical moments when you feel you’re connected to the place.” When nature provides you with magic, sometimes the wisest course is to…
Shane Williamson presented recent work and research to the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design as part of their 2014-15 Lecture series. Fellow speakers in the series included: Ole Schroeder ( Tredje Nature, Copenhagen), Cornelia Hahn Oberlander (Cornelia Hahn Oberlander Landscape Architect, Vancouver), Peter Rose (Peter Rose + Partners, Boston), Sam Jacob (Sam Jacob Studio, London), Carla Juaçaba…
Betsy Williamson and Shirley Blumberg, partner at KPMB Architects, have recently established WIA Toronto, a leadership network focusing on the issues of women in architecture. The Missing 32% Project, published in Architecture Magazine in October 2014, notes that 42 percent of architecture graduates are female, but the number of licensed female practitioners and senior leaders in the…
“Now in its fourth year, the AJ’s Women in Architecture programme continues to promote equality in the profession and to host the annual WIA Awards.” England’s The Architects’ Journal has a wonderful issue out on women in the profession. Betsy is featured as a finalist in the Emerging Architect Prize Category and the magazine is…
On the heels of the finals of the Interior Design Best of Year Awards, Pilot has been published in Interior Design Magazine with the other winners.
Designboom just posted some great images and an article about Pilot Coffee Roasters. It was great to meet Birgit Lohmann and take her through the space. We hope you enjoyed the rest of your time in Toronto.
The House on Fox Lake, which won an award of excellence in the 2014 Canadian Architect Awards, is featured on the cover of the the awards issue of Canadian Architect. Inside, you can find the jury comments, project images, and great coverage of the other award winners.
The Architects’ Journal, a leading architectural publication in Britain, has revealed the finalists for both the 2015 Woman Architect of the Year and the Emerging Woman Architect of the Year Awards. Ten up-and-coming stars have made it onto the shortlist for the AJ’s fourth Emerging Woman Architect of the Year Award. Betsy Williamson is the…
Canadian Architect has announced that the House on Fox Lake is the recipient of a 2014 Award of Excellence. One of only two national award programs devoted exclusively to architecture, the Awards of Excellence have recognized significant building projects in Canada on an annual basis since 1968. Awards are given each year to architects for buildings in…
“Williamson Chong’s installation of sculpted forms and prints is a tribute to wood’s beauty and malleability, and to the expressive lyricism that wood, trees and forests have inspired in poetry, art and architecture since antiquity,” John Bentley Mays eloquently writes on the Living Wood exhibition now installed at the Corkin Gallery in the Distillery District.…
Ellen Himelfarb profiles Williamson Chong as part of The New Radicals series in the Globe and Mail. The article speaks to our research travel in the last two years as well as the exhibition that opens on November 20, at the Corkin Gallery. “They’re at the forefront where theories of design and technological advancement come…
Interior design Magazine has just announced the 2014 Best of Year nominees and Pilot Coffee Roasters is a finalist in the Cafe category. We won an Award of Merit and had a wonderful evening cheering on the Toronto offices and their many wins throughout the night!
It is an honour to have Domus publish the House in Frogs Hollow in their online publication. The layout is beautiful and the format suits the project well. You can see the project here.
The Podcast from our spring lecture at the Architectural League of New York is now available on their website along with a transcript from our interview. Thanks again to Anne Riselbach and her entire team at the Architectural League for their support.
Of 700 entries and 26 victors, Williamson Chong took home three awards at this year’s Residential Architect Awards! “These winners represent some of the best residential architecture that North America has to offer… The assembled winners represent the hopefulness of a market that is recovering, if not recovered, and transitioning, if not transformed. Such are…
“One of the most striking features of the house is the sliding east window wall at the rear of the house, which blurs the distinction between interior and exterior space. This absence of boundary is further enhanced by the wraparound condition at the corner, where the north wall of glass also pulls away, creating a…
The House in Frogs Hollow is now live on the Phaidon Atlas! Here is a link. The Phaidon Atlas is now an on-line idea as opposed to a printed volume. This allows projects to be uploaded by the editors as they are completed which makes it current and timely. We have already starting exploring the website…
Ninan and his team have put together a fantastic issue of EDITION29 on the House in Frogs Hollow. It is designed for the iPad and is accompanied by an oral description of the house culled from a conversation between Ninan and Betsy last month. We are very excited to show our work this way and…
Alex Bozikovic from The Globe and Mail recommends a visit to Pilot Coffee Roasters in Doors Open Toronto: 10 things you need to see this weekend. This weekend’s Doors Open festival is an opportunity to explore some of the best of Toronto’s architecture. Running both Saturday and Sunday, the event features 155 of Toronto’s most interesting places, and each…
“Towards a New Pro Forma: Making the case for a new urban prototype where multi-generational living is the natural buy-in.” Metropolis Magazine invited us to envision a multi-generational home for this century. We responded by featuring the Grange Triple Double and showing how it can accommodate a flexible three- or four- generational living condition that…
Williamson Chong is honoured to have 3 projects selected for the 2014 Residential Architect Design Awards. The winning projects were selected from nearly 700 entries and “represent some of the best residential architecture that North America has to offer””from luxurious custom beachside estates, to net-zero prefab infill, to high-density affordable living units.” Jurors included Cary Bernstein, AIA,…
“From roasting to cupping, Pilot’s micro-roastery offers coffee aficionados and baristas a one stop shop for mastering their brewing…” Thank you to Azure for spreading the word on this great coffee shop and especially to Alison Garwood-Jones for the wonderful article.
Williamson Chong is honoured to be the recipient of the 2014 Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) Emerging Architectural Practice Award. This award is to recognize the principals of an emerging architectural practice that has consistently produced distinguished architecture. The award recognizes the achievements of the principals for the quality of their built work, service to their clients,…
The WAN AWARDS 21 for 21 category is a major international competition now in its fourth year. It is an initiative aiming to highlight 21 architects who could be the leading lights of architecture in the 21st century. WAN will be selecting outstanding, forward-thinking people and organizations who have the demonstrable potential to be the…
Shane Williamson will be speaking at the this year’s NXNE as part of the Interactive stream of artists and designers. North by Northeast (NXNE) is a ten day festival of Music, Film, Interactive, Comedy, and Art. Now celebrating its 20th year, NXNE takes over Toronto with showcases, screenings, panels, parties, installations, and a whole lot…
Betsy Williamson has been invited to present the work of Williamson Chong at LATITUDE6, a two-day symposium reflecting on architecture in the Americas hosted by the University of Texas at Austin. The symposium will take place on April 3 +4 in Goldsmith Hall, Mebane Gallery, on the UT Austin Campus. As with the first “Latitudes” conference, initiated…
The third evening of the 32nd annual Emerging Voices lecture series, featuring TALLER |MauricioRocha+GabrielaCarrillo| and Williamson Chong Architects is coming up fast. Don, Shane, and Betsy will be travelling to New York on Thursday to present the work of the office. Mauricio Rocha Iturbide and Gabriela Carrillo Valadez, founding principals of Mexico City based TALLER |MauricioRocha+GabrielaCarrillo|, focus on…
blogTo calls out one of our newest projects completed for Pilot Coffee Roasters. Pilot Coffee Roasters have outdone themselves. They moved the roaster at Te Aro into 50 Wagstaff Drive, making a combination roastery, lab, tasting bar and distribution centre that’s slick, gorgeous and technically impressive. It’s unlikely that you’ll find another place in the city (or the country…
Shane Williamson will be presenting our 20 slides at tonight’s Pechakucha Lecture. It starts at 6:30 so don’t be late! There is also a Napkin Sketch Auction to which Don has submitted a beautiful drawing so get your checkbooks out too. …and of course food and wine. Williamson Chong will be out in full force…
It was a pleasure working with the editors of Arch Daily to post this project. You can find the link here.
Williamson Chong is honoured to have been selected by the Architecture League for it’s Emerging Voices Award. Each year the League selects eight emerging practitioners through a juried, invited portfolio competition. The Emerging Voices award spotlights individuals and firms based in the United States, Canada, or Mexico with distinct design voices and the potential to…
Shane Williamson will give a lecture on Friday November 22 at 4:30 pm at the University of Wisconsin School of Architecture and Urban Planning (SARUP). Shane will be presenting the recent work of Williamson Chong Architects as reflected in the notion of “Incremental Urbanism,” which recognizes the possibilities of intensification latent in the morphology of urban fabric. Other speakers…
Shane Williamson gave a lecture on October 24th at the TU Graz Faculty of Architecture as part of the Research/In Architecture Series. Shane’s lecture titled “Incremental” focused upon the relationship of self-initiated research projects and prototypes relative to the commissioned work of Williamson Chong. Other speakers in the lecture series include: Ardershir Mahdavi, Tu Vienna…
“Torontonians are finally rejecting fussy Victorian architecture and going bold. In almost every neighbourhood, there’s a house or two that stands out…Here, a look inside some of our favourites.” The November issue of Toronto Life features Blantyre House in a feature on new homes in Toronto.
“Betsy Williamson ’88 is an artist. Her medium is wood, her palette is very large, and her official job title is architect, but in Williamson’s mind, the two disciplines are inextricably linked.” Many architects will tell you that they have wanted to be architects since they were kids. Betsy locked in after taking a series…
Add-on ’13 is a two-phase competition for a freestanding, affordable, accessory dwelling unit on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Williamson Chong developed a first round proposal that adopted fresh thinking about housing, resource conservation, and the relationship between the natural and built environment. As stated in the design brief, “Add-on is a way to consider the role of affordable housing…
The artifacts produced for Stitches:Interstices have been selected to be part of Making It Real, a juried exhibition of digitally fabricated objects organized by OCAD University faculty members Jesse Jackson and Greg Sims, with the assistance of Gregory Phillips of Spandrel Media. The exhibition takes place May 14-28 as part of the Toronto International Jewellery Festival…
Shane Williamson recently presented Williamson Chong’s current work and research to the professors and students of the Center for Information Technology and Architecture (CITA) at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation School of Architecture. Special thanks to Prof. Martin Temke for the invitation.
Shane Williamson will give a lecture today, April 19, 2013 at 1:30 PM at the Aalto University School of Arts, Design, and Architecture. Shane’s lecture titled “Up to Small” will focus upon digital fabrication and wood technologies as deployed in the furniture, objects, installations, and buildings of Williamson Chong. Other speakers in the lecture series…
Betsy Williamson will give a lecture next week, April 2, 2013 at 12:00 PM in the Centre Space of the John A. Russell Building at the Faculty of Architecture on the University of Manitoba’s Fort Garry campus. This talk is part of the Food for Thought lecture series. Betsy’s lecture entitled “By Any Means” will…
“For a Toronto couple with a love of minimalist Japanese architecture, a sleek, storage-packed kitchen was the first priority in their home.” Dwell Magazine has done us right this month with a double page feature on the Blantyre House kitchen. Writer Alex Bozikovic talks about the design of the “kitchen studio” as the centre of this new…
The Canadian Wood Council just released a publication celebrating the 2011-12 North American Wood Design Award Winners. This is a follow-up feature for the House in Frogs Hollow which has now been recognized for a 2010-11 North American Wood Design Award and a 2011-12 Ontario Wood WORKS! Award. The jury for this past year included…
Shane is holding final reviews for his third year graduate studio at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design today. The students are presenting a diverse array of solutions to the following brief: “This studio will be guided by the supposition that technology is never neutrally deployed but always encompasses ideology, whether consciously declared or subconsciously…
Sometimes the details get noticed…On the Pleasures of the Window Seat in today’s Globe and Mail. The window bench in the House in Frogs Hollow was conceived of for a fairly practical reason. The Loewen window we used only came about 7-1/2′ tall. We didn’t want to have a transom above the window to fill the 9′ tall…
Digifest is Toronto’s international festival celebrating innovation and digital creativity. From October 18-20, 2012, it will be bringing together some of the world’s best and brightest to showcase next generation digital art, science & design at Corus Quay on Toronto’s waterfront. Established and emerging designers, technologists and artists will come together during Digifest for presentations,…
It was a packed agenda yesterday at the Old Mill Inn. Betsy Williamson, along with David Moses from Moses Structural Engineers, and Lloyd Hunt from Lloyd Hunt Architecture, with guidance from the Wood WORKS! team from North Bay, made some tough decisions among a very strong group of submissions. Williamson Chong will be in attendance at the 12th…
It was a pleasant surprise to get a call from the Globe and Mail this week when they decided to feature the residence we renovated in the Annex. The full article is featured on their website and there is a nice slideshow as well. We are happy that the convertibility of the student lodging on the upper floor…
This is the first time we have had a project in Architectural Record and we couldn’t be more excited about it. The Blantyre House, with its ‘kitchen studio’ that opens the ground floor up to become a contiguous space with the street and the back yard, has been chosen for the 2012 Record Kitchen &…
Shane will be presenting our current work and new research in a keynote address at the annual conference on Digital Design at the Harbin Institute of technology in Harbin, China. His lecture will be on Saturday August 25th at 2PM. The conference is hosted by the National Specialized Guidance Committee for the Subject of Architecture and…
“Advances in building technologies are expanding the architectural possibilities of wood. Toronto-based Williamson Chong Architects will be spending their Prix de Rome winnings on a road trip to scout out new uses for high-tech timber.” – John Bentley Mays We have already started planning our first trip for Spring 2013. We are getting great responses from the folks working in…
Our favorite freebie in Toronto has got to be Design Lines. Listing all the best places to shop, eat, and mine for inspiration, we always end up with a few on the coffee table. We are very happy to have a project featured in the fall issue. Our Howland Avenue Residence modernizes a former rooming…
“Too many newly-built homes in Toronto are muscle-bound hulks bullying their way into established neighbourhoods. Williamson Chong’s new Scarborough project shows a thoughtful, sensitive alternative.” – John Bentley Mays The Blantyre House is an example of one of our ground-up infill projects that contributes to our developing notion of ‘incremental urbanism’ in Toronto. Thanks to…
We just received the publication put out by the City of Edmonton that chronicles the entries for the Park Pavilion Design Competition held last year. Our Victoria Park entry, Aspen Overpass, is on pages 108 and 109. When we look at the competition boards, all we smell is pizza. So much work went into these…
The Professional Prix de Rome in Architecture is awarded annually to an architectural firm that has completed its first built works and has demonstrated exceptional artistic potential. The prize encourages the development of artistic excellence in contemporary architectural practice by supporting the winner to travel around the world to develop their skills, their creative practice…
We are so pleased to be included in this year’s City Home guide. Look for us on page 105. There is a nice photo of the office and descriptions of the 16 most incredible offices in the city!
We are delighted to take part in Doors Open Toronto 2012. Please join us 10 am – 5 pm on Saturday, May 26 as part of the Toronto Society of Architects: Self Directed Architectural and Design Studio Tour “Meet some of Toronto’s leading architects as they open their studios for Doors Open Toronto on Saturday…
Dean Kaufman’s aerial photo of the Galley House garden in bloom is one of our favorite images of this space. Thanks again to Dwell for its continued support of this project.
Betsy Williamson will be joining the fourth year options studio headed by Dr. Shelagh McCartney for their final review. The option studio addresses the experiential substance of light and the power of light to articulate architecture, to make space literate and to activate the interplay between thought and form. As quoted from the studio brief, “The human …
The House in Frogs Hollow has been included in Architectural Record’s March 2012 “All in the Details” section of featured houses. Special thanks to Alex Bozikovic for the write-up.
Shane Williamson represented the office last night in a round-table discussion of the ongoing exhibition STITCHES: Souzou Fast Forward at the WORKshop Gallery. Andrew Payne moderated the discussion which focused upon how the exhibition raises the concern of how we establish meaningful connections between pre-modern and modern craft traditions. Fellow participants included Philip Beesley (Philip Beesley…
Natural Light brought to you by Tiltco Fenestration, Kilbarry Hill Construction, and Williamson Chong Architects, received a Gold Award at the 2012 Interior Design Show. Conceived as a hybrid mock-up of a forthcoming residence designed by Williamson Chong, the booth features an origami like ceiling, walls built from an array of uniquely designed windows, including…
Abbey Gardens is in distinguished company in this year’s Awards of Excellence. The December issue of Canadian Architect highlights all the winning projects.
Betsy Williamson learned a new word last week: Anthropocene… Professor Geoff Thun’s advanced studio was charged with designing a laboratory for the 21st century and presented provocative and complex projects at their final studio review. It was a pleasure to sit with Kiel Moe and Amy Kulper to engage and discuss the students’ work. An excerpt from…
Betsy Williamson spent a fantastic 24 hours in Boston, catching up with old colleagues and meeting new friends at MIT’s core studio reviews on Friday. Professor Meejin Yoon, along with Professors Sheila Kennedy and Andrew Scott led an ambitious studio to develop architectural design proposals for the new West Lab research and development facility for…
Canadian Architect has announced that Abbey Gardens is the receipient of a 2011 Award of Excellence. One of only two national award programs devoted exclusively to architecture, the Awards of Excellence have recognized significant building projects in Canada on an annual basis since 1968. Awards are given each year to architects for buildings in the design…
The Canadian Wood Council just released a publication celebrating the 2010-11 North American Wood Design Award Winners. The House in Frogs Hollow is featured along with the work from Studio Gang Architects, IwamotoScott Architecture, Cutler Anderson Architects, David J. Agro, Eskew+Dumez+Ripple, Mankouche/Bard/Schulte, Flansburgh Architects, Robert M. Cain, Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis Architects, HGA Architects and Engineers, The Miller Hull Partnership, StructureCraft…
The House in Frogs Hollow has received a 2011 Wood WORKS! Award. The Wood WORKS! Awards recognize the people and organizations pursuing excellence and innovation in wood design, advancing the use of wood in Ontario. The 11th Annual Wood WORKS! Awards evening took place on Thursday November 3, 2011 at the Ottawa Convention Centre.
WCa recently took part in a day-long charrette that focused upon design proposals for a new Coach House Institute (CHI) and a new Faculty of Information Building for the University of Toronto. Other design teams included Bruce Mau Design, Diamond-Schmitt Architects, and IBI Group. Special thanks to Dr. Seamus Ross, Dean Faculty of Information (iSchool) and Dr. Dominique Scheffel-Dunand, Director…
STITCHES: Suzhou Fast Forward, features seven pieces of hand-crafted embroidery from the Zhou XueQing Embroidery Art Center in Suzhou, China. Dexterously stitched in fine silk threads, these exquisite pictures represent an array of subject matter including flowers, birds, and landscapes, continuing Suzhou’s 2000-year history of embroidering illusionistic scenes. Believing that this ancient craft could be the…
Shane recently presented our current work and new research at The School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Arlington as part of their 2011 Fall lecture series. Special thanks to Albert Marichal for the invitation.
Smart. Studio. bills itself as “the world’s smallest, and possibly the craziest, mobile TV studio: agile, trendy and versatile.” Journalist Alex Bozikovic takes Pete on a tour of Toronto’s architectural highlights including the Galley House. Prior Smart.Studio. destinations have included Amsterdam, Berlin, Frankfurt, Lisbon, and London. See the YouTube clip here.
We spent a lovely afternoon with John Bentley Mays at the House in Frogs Hollow and enjoyed his reading of the house featured in last week’s Globe and Mail. The article can be found on The Globe and Mail’s website with a slideshow of images by Bob Gundu. John Bentley Mays, “Grey County Home Rides…
Will Jones introduces Toronto’s infill housing to Croatia. The Galley House is featured this month in Oris, a magazine for architecture and culture that is published bimonthly as a Croatian-English edition.
Our firm has be profiled in the April 2011 issue of Canadian Builders Quarterly, featuring the House in Frogs Hollow.
Williamson Chong’s design for a new skating pavilion in Edmonton’s Victoria Park has won a citation award in the open design competition sponsored by the city of Edmonton. More information about this award can be found here.
We were thrilled to hear that Williamson Chong’s design for a new park pavilion located in the Mill Woods Sports Park was shortlisted by the jury. We congratulate the winners and are looking forward to seeing the built projects.
Thank you to Lucie Lavigne from La Presse for including two of our projects in the French language publication Construire, Renover, Transformer.
Shane will be presenting our current work and new research at The School of Architecture, Art and Historic Preservation at at Roger Williams University on Wednesday February 16th at 6PM in the D.F. Pray Lecture Theater. Special thanks to Andrew Thurlow for the invitation.
The House in Frogs Hollow has won a 2011 Wood Design Award. “The Wood Design Awards is the only North American Program to recognize, award and publicize excellence in wood architecture, and to publicly acknowledge the importance of architecture to our society…The selection of the 13 winning projects was challenging for the jury, as all of…
The House in Frogs Hollow has won a 2010 Design Exchange Award for residential architecture. The project received a bronze award at last night’s ceremony. It was wonderful to spend the evening with friends and colleagues and support Canadian design. The DX Awards celebrate excellence in Canadian design, successful partnerships between designers and clients, and…
Betsy was honored to be a member of the jury for this year’s AIA/IIDA Cleveland Design Awards. These awards celebrate exemplary designs of Northeast Ohio firms for work built locally and abroad. It was a pleasure to serve with jury chair Don Schmitt and fellow jurors Diego Burdi, Ian MacDonald, Paul Raff, and Barry Sampson. …
Betsy wants to thank Nigel and Helen for the invitation to present the work of WW INC. at a lunchtime talk at Kerr and Company & Hahn Smith Design on Friday afternoon.
Shane will be representing WILLIAMSONWILLIAMSON at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture this Saturday, October 16th, to take part in a day long symposium about current architectural practice. Paths to Practice is a day long event hosted by the School of Architecture and Co-operative Education & Career Services to bring together students, professionals, faculty,…
Azure magazine has a fabulous cover this month; a sunset view of the house in Frogs Hollow!
Plan Magazine, out of Dublin, Ireland, has chosen The House in Frogs Hollow as one of its featured “one-off houses.” Bob Gundu’s photographs look amazing.
The House in Frogs Hollow has won a 2010 Award of Excellence from the Ontario Association of Architects. The Awards of Excellence recognize the innovative skills of Ontario architects in creating spaces, buildings, and communities that respect and enhance the environment and enrich human activity. Award recipients will be honoured at the Celebration of Excellence…
Jin-Young Yoo, “Unique Homes: House in Frogs Hollow,” Casa Living, April 2010; p. 211.
Congratulations to Negar Jazbi, PJ Latoszek, and Farzam Mohajer, students from our recent Daniel’s Options Studio, for winning a 2010 OAA Award for their studio project “Re-Crate.” It was an innovative and comprehensive study for the reuse of discarded wood boards into a highly figural three season structure via a light steel frame and tension…
Betsy was honored to be a member of the jury for this year’s Governor General’s Medals in Architecture. These awards recognize outstanding achievement in recently built projects by Canadian architects and contribute to the development of the discipline and practice of architecture by increasing public awareness of architecture as a vital cultural force in Canadian…
We just wrapped up our design studio at the University of Toronto Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. Many thanks to our students for their hard work. An excerpt from the studio brief follows. This studio will seek to extend the concept of material systems by embedding their material characteristics, geometric behavior, manufacturing constraints,…
Night shots by Colin Field are featured in this article.
Betsy has begun her service on the Waterfront Toronto Design Review Panel. Comprised of Canada’s leaders in architecture, landscape design, engineering and planning, the Waterfront Design Review Panel is an independent advisory body that guides and informs the revitalization of Toronto’s waterfront. The Panel’s mission is to set new design standards across the waterfront and…
Galley House, Small Fridges Make Good Cities, and our competition entry for the New National Library for the Czech Republic have been published in Twenty + Change.
Door with Peephole is featured in Lisa Iwamoto’s new book on digital fabrication.
Tunnel Gallery, Barnard College, New York, NY. The House in Frogs Hollow along with the work of 11 other alumni of the Barnard and Columbia College Architecture Program was selected for the inaugural alumni exhibition 12 ALUMNI: ARCHITECTURE CHANGE GLOBALITY. Participants were asked to reflect on the following questions: In what ways do the various aspects of…
We are honoured to be included in the National Post’s “40 Under 40″ listing of fresh ideas from young Canadian designers. Along with distinguished designers in the fields of fashion, furniture, industrial design and crafts, we are happy to share this honor with our friends and colleagues, superkul inc architect.
We are honored to receive the Ronald J. Thom Award for Early Design Achievement from the Canada Council for the Arts. The award is given to a candidate who is in the early stages of their career and who demonstrates both outstanding creative talent and exceptional potential in architectural design. The successful candidate must also demonstrate…
Betsy is one of Toronto’s Mille Femmes! The exhibit opens this evening at BCE Place in Toronto as part of the Luminato Festival. Toronto’s Mille Femmes is a tribute to 1,000 artistic, creative and inspiring women from Toronto and their protégés, who embody the passion and heritage of the city. Architects, actors, dancers, designers, journalists,…
Look for Stock Space alongside the work of Andrew Kudless and Kevin Klinger in the May/June issue of AD.
Shane is moderating a session on Building Information Modeling at the 2007 Construct Canada building and construction trade show. The session, BIM: Practical Tools and Strategies for Architects, Engineers and Contractors, examines the impact of Building Information Modeling (BIM) on fundamental aspects of project design and organization. The benefits of BIM scalability, CAD standardization, and…
We are exhibiting Galley House, Small Fridges Make Good Cities, and our competition entry for the Czech National Library as part of the Twenty + Change exhibition. The show opens at the Gladstone Hotel Upper Galleries on Friday June 8 from 7-9pm and runs through July 8. Twenty + Change is an exhibition of contemporary architecture,…
One of our CNC milled pieces from the Topologies series lands on the cover of Canadian Architect this month. Also be sure to check out the back page which features Smoke Tray. Chodikoff, Ian. “Smoke and Mirrors.” Canadian Architect June 2007: 50.
Shane and Betsy begin teaching a ten week graduate level studio course this week at Lawrence Technological Institute in Southfield, MI. The Master Class Practitioner series has been previously led by William Massie, Nader Terani and Monica Ponce de Leon of Office dA, and Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis. It is an introduction to the graduate level masters program…
PAP did a wonderful job on the publication that accompanies the Young Architects Award from the Architectural league of New York. It has just been published.
Shane is one of this year’s featured speakers at the 2007 SmartGeometry Education Summit held at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York.
Shane contributes a paper to this year’s ACADIA Conference Proceedings. Williamson, Shane. “Stock Space.” Synthetic Landscapes | Digital Exchange. Ed. Cory Clarke, Gregory Luhan, Phillip Anzalone, and Mark Cabrinha. University of Kentucky: Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA), 2006. 546-47.
Betsy has been invited to join the Toronto Sculpture Garden’s Art Advisory Board. Located at 115 King Street East, the Toronto Sculpture Garden has been the site of innovative contemporary sculpture installations since 1981. This small, urban park in the downtown core serves as a testing ground for artists to experiment with public space and…
Shane is conducting a workshop dedicated to the future of computer aided design as part of the Subtle Technologies 2006 Festival in Toronto. Using practical software tools and advanced rapid-prototyping systems, the themes of digital simulation and fabrication were explored respective of the interplay between design and computation. Topics included simulation, optimization, form finding, evaluation…
Williamson, Shane. “Stock Space.” Responsive Architectures: Subtle Technologies 2006. Ed. Philip Beesley, Sachiko Hirosue, Jim Ruxton, Marion Trankle, and Camille Turner. [Cambridge, Ont.]: Riverside Architectural, 2006. 152-57.
Published twice a year, Designlines Toronto is brought to you by Azure, Canada’s leading magazine of architecture, design, and art. It serves as a city and neighborhood guide to the best design sources Toronto has to offer. Our digital design and fabrication work is featured in an interview with Elizabeth Pagliacolo. Pagliacolo, Elizabeth. “New Wave.”…
Mercer Union’s “Stellar Living” is an exhibition and auction that celebrates 50 international artists, architects and designers and their visions of contemporary urban life. Smoke Tray was designed and fabricated exclusively for the show. It was displayed at the preview exhibition held at Givens-Shaw Public School and sold quickly the night of the auction after…
Shane Williamson was a keynote speaker at eSim 2006, the Tenth Annual International Building Performance Simulation Association Conference. This bi-annual conference was organized to bring together professionals, academics and students interested in building performance simulation issues and applications. It was held in Toronto, Ontario on May 4 and 5, 2006, at the Faculty of Architecture,…
Betsy and Shane traveled to New York City this week to install Door with Peephole and a custom slide viewer in the gallery space of the Municipal Art Society, located in the Villard Houses at 457 Madison Avenue. We are delighted to share the exhibition space with installations from our fellow winners and look forward…
DogTrot was featured on Inhabitat in March of 2006. The link is no longer active.
Scalar is featured in the latest issue of Thresholds.
WILLIAMSONWILLIAMSON are winners in the Architectural League of New York’s 25th annual Young Architects Forum Competition. Their work, along with that of the five other winners, will be featured in a book to be published by Princeton Architectural Press. An exhibition of the work will be open to the public on April 27th at the…
The 2005 Interior Design Show was held at the National Trade Centre, Exhibition Centre, Toronto, from February 10 – 13 2005. StockSpace, an installation designed and fabricated by WILLIAMSONWILLIAMSON and a dedicated crew of master’s students at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Architecture, was commissioned for and exhibited at the Interior Design Show’s annual…
http://www.architectureweek.com/2004/1215/tools_1-1.html
Shane Williamson co-chairs “FABRICATION: A Conference Examining the Digital Practice of Architecture,” the 23rd Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA), the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and Technology and Practice (TAP). The FABRICATION conference was held November 11-14, 2004, at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Waterloo and the Faculty…
Our proposal for Urban Waterways is on display with the work of other finalists in the Burnham Prize Competition are currently on exhibition at the I-Space Gallery in Chicago, IL.
Mercer Union’s “Better Living” is an exhibition and auction that celebrates 50 international artists, architects and designers and their visions of contemporary urban life. Door with Peephole was commissioned for this event and exhibited at the Mercer Union auction preview.
Shane juries the 2004 Digital Media Awards sponsored by Canadian Architect. “Speculative Conception: Digital Media Awards 2004,” Canadian Architect, vol. 49, no. 6, June 2004; 19-25.
WILLIAMSONWILLIAMSON was a finalist in the 2004 Burnham Prize Competition, Urban Waterways: The Chicago River Project. The Burnham Prize is a two-stage biennial competition sponsored by the Chicago Architectural Club, the winner of which is awarded a three month scholarship for study at the American Center in Rome. The program for the 2004 competition was…
The six finalists’ projects in the Pentagon Memorial Competition are currently on exhibition at the Urban Center Gallery in New York. The show is sponsored by the Municipal Art Society of New York and is held in conjunction with a public lecture and symposium moderated by Terrence Riley and Reed Kroloff.
Shane Williamson is the principal investigator for a Digital Design and Research Production Facility grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) New Opportunities Fund and the Ontario Innovation Trust (OIT).
Shane Williamson lectures tonight at Auburn University School of Architecture (Auburn, AL) as part of their 2003 Spring Lecture Series: Digital Boundaries Symposium. Participants included Dennis Sheldon (Gehry Technologies), Hermann Zschiegner (Two-N), Jonas Coersmeier (Probehead), Dean DiSimone (KD Labs), Joseph Kosinski (KD Labs) and Marco Steimberg (Harvard).
“Pentagon Memorial Competition – Stage One Entry Display” opens on October 30 at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. More than 80 of the 1200 entries submitted to the competition are on display at the Museum and the proposals by the six finalists will be featured. The exhibition runs through November 9, 2002.
WILLIAMSONWILLIAMSON are finalists in The Pentagon Memorial Competition, a two-stage, open international design competition for a memorial to the victims of the September 11, 2001 attack on the Pentagon in Arlington, VA. More than 1,200 architects, artists, designers, school children, and members of the general public from around the world submitted concepts for consideration. Six finalists were…
Shane presented a paper titled “Of Digital Processes and Spatial Relations” at the recent 2000 ACSA: East Central Regional Conference at the University of Michigan. Abstract: Geometry primers are almost unanimous in presenting the fundamental ideas of space as resting upon Euclidean concepts such as straight lines, angles, squares, circles, measurements, and the like. This view…
