Stuart joined DIALOG after having acquired two decades in healthcare design with a major international architecture, design, and engineering practice. There, he held the role as Vice President, Health Sector Leader for Canada, and was Principal-in-Charge for both the $1.3B Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital and Phase 1C of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Stuart played a key role as project architect and principal for Bridgepoint Active Healthcare, which received a Governor General’s Medal for Architecture in 2016, and the Daphne Cockwell Centre for Health Sciences at George Brown College.
Stuart’s experience ranges across all stages of project execution and all forms of delivery types. Regardless of the project delivery methodology, he first seeks to understand the client’s vision and how they define success to achieve their goals. Stuart’s experience as a client-side design advocate and design-build team leader enables him to identify opportunities and mitigate short- and long-term risks. Ultimately, what drives him is the pursuit of great design and the iterative actions leading up to its realization. Stuart believes design begins by listening to the client before identifying the possibilities and working within a team to find the best answer. For him, this is the fun part of being an architect.
What’s your favourite DIALOG project?
I have a couple… One is the Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre. I love the simplicity of the idea of the garden “heart” providing a collective point of focus and spiritual ownership for patients, visitors, and caregivers while establishing a clear building design organization. The second is the Zero Carbon Hybrid Timber Supertall Prototype project. For me, this clearly demonstrates the design ingenuity that DIALOG proactively nurtures.
If you could live a ‘day in the life’ of someone else, who would it be?
A landscape architect. Landscape, whether in an urban or rural context, is incredibly important in framing and programming our exterior environments to create vital communities.
Whose work are you most impressed by?
Donna Clare – the shear diversity of the portfolio of work in which she has played a significant role is impressive. Thomas Wu – his design approach is the epitome of great structural engineering. Robert Claiborne – his approach to a design solution remains open and seeks to become richer because of its context.
Where’s your happy place?
At our Georgian Bay cottage. I grew up on a farm in Southern Ontario, so our cottage, like the farm, is my connection to a place that is a little rougher, more rustic, and shaped by its physical environment and the weather.
What’s your favourite pastime?
Cooking. I’ve always liked building architectural models. You start with an idea, and the process reveals design opportunities as you go. Cooking is a bit of an equivalent exercise, in that there’s a recipe to start things off but the food is revealed in the process of making. And I just really like eating great food.
“You can only be who you are.” One’s actions, however small or significant, are the way we interact with others, our environment and express ourselves to the world – every day we’re writing our stories.
Bachelor of Architecture
Carleton University School of Architecture