Architect Bruce Kuwabara receives U of T honorary doctorate

Architect Bruce Kuwabara, co-founder of KPMB Architects, has received a University of Toronto honorary doctorate.

While Kuwabara has designed fine structures in Canada, he is also an accomplished city-builder, a valued campus-builder and a University of Toronto alum who has helped shape the university’s development and contributed to the success of the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.

For his architectural and design sensibility, and for his outstanding contributions to the university, Kuwabara received a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from U of T on June 20, 2024.

Born in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1949, Kuwabara earned a degree in architecture from U of T in 1972. After graduation, he joined the teaching studio of architect George Baird where he completed an apprenticeship. He then joined Barton Myers Associates, where he worked for 12 years.

After Myers left in 1987, he handed over his practice in Toronto to Kuwabara, Marianne McKenna, Shirley Blumberg, and Thomas Payne. Together, they created the new firm KPMB.

Kuwabara’s work in Toronto includes cultural and academic institutions such as the Gardiner Museum, the Rotman School of Management, Canada’s National Ballet School and TIFF Bell Lightbox, in which he blends contemporary details with historical elements. His designs for Kitchener City Hall, Richmond City Hall and Vaughan City Hall have all won Governor General’s Medals in Architecture.

“Kuwabara’s agenda is not just about making objects and places of great beauty but something more active, more profound. Something that is simultaneously both culturally stabilizing and transforming,” has said Larry Richards.

Kuwabara is an officer of the Order of Canada. His firm, KPMB, has won 18 Governor General Awards, with Kuwabara being the lead partner on 14 of the winning projects.

“We have a collective responsibility as architects, landscape architects, urban designers, visual artists and foresters to engage with the issues of our time. We can only be contemporary. Your area of study will be meaningful if it serves the needs of society and the world,” said Kuwabara in his convocation address to this year’s architecture graduates.

“Develop your natural intelligence while asking what you can do to enhance the lives of others. Keep working towards making the world we want. Keep reminding yourself to move beyond ‘what’s good for me is all that counts.’ Keep thinking and acting in citizenship.”

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