The Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) has announced the five Honorary Fellows being inducted into the RAIC College this year.
An Honorary Fellow of the RAIC College is an Honorary Member of the RAIC who has achieved international professional eminence or has rendered service to the profession or to the community, whether nationally or internationally.
Nomination and advancement to Honorary Fellowship is administered by the RAIC College. Honorary Fellowship is bestowed for life and is one of the highest honours the RAIC can confer upon a non-Member.
This year’s Honorary Fellows are the late Claude Cormier, from Montreal, QC, Adele Weder, from Vancouver, BC, Lesley Naa Norle Lokko OBE, from Edinburgh, UK and Accra, Ghana, Yvonne Hancock, from Tunbridge Wells, UK and Claire Weisz, from New York, NY.
Cormier was a landscape architect and the creative force behind Love Park, Place d’Youville and Dorchester Square, the Pink Balls and many others.
Weder is an architectural writer, curator, and cultural journalist who is a contributing editor to Canadian Architect and the author of the book Ron Thom, Architect: The Life of a. Creative Modernist.
Professor Lokko, OBE is celebrated globally for her contributions to education and her integration of culture and design.
Hancock was the sole female graduate from the University of Manitoba School of Architecture in 1962, which marked the start of a career in which she was frequently the lone female lead among colleagues, clients, and builders.
Weisz boasts accolades including AIANY’s Medal of Honor and the Architectural League of New York’s Young Architects Award.
The following is a list of the 41 Fellows inducted into the RAIC College.
New Fellows from Alberta and the Northwest Territories include Keesa Hutchinson, Farhad Mortezaee, Gordon Murray, Joanne Perdue and Jonathan Rockliff.
Craig Duffield, Heidi Nesbitt, Ouri Scott and Nick Sully are New Fellows from British Columbia and the Yukon.
New fellows from Ontario Northeast and Nunavut are Wendy Brawley, Richard Chmiel and Christopher Simmonds.
James (Jim) Anderson, Jodi Batay-Csorba, Luc Bouliane, Kevin Bridgman, Lorne Cappe, Andrew Dyke, Philip Fenech, Vanessa Fong, Matthew Hickey, Steve Hilditch, Stephanie Hosein, Vincent Hui, Brock James, Martin Kohn, Yvonne Lam, Joël León Danis Gary McCluskie, Camille Mitchell, Christopher Pommer, John Romanov, Robin Snell, Paul Szaszkiewicz, the late Adrienne Tam, Settimo Vilardi and Timothy Wickens are New Fellows from Ontario (Southwest).
New Fellows from Quebec include Marie-Louise Gidaro, Caroline Lajoie and Gilles Prud’homme, and from Victoria, Stacy McGhee.
This year’s Honorary Fellows and Fellows will be officially inducted to the RAIC College on Thursday, May 16, 2024, at a convocation ceremony during the 2024 RAIC Conference in Vancouver.
Toronto-based architect, and Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC), Yew-Thong Leong, has been acclaimed as Dean of the RAIC College of Fellows for a three-year term beginning June 2024. Leong will succeed Thomas Emodi, FRAIC of Halifax, who served two terms beginning in 2018. Yew-Thong is one of six Professional Practice Advisors at the RAIC, a professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, and frequently travels across Canada to meet members and practitioners. He developed the national curriculum on architectural business and practice management for the RAIC Syllabus, served on the Editorial Committee of the 3rd Edition of CHOP, and presented at three RAIC Conferences from 2021-2023. Yew-Thong’s personal and professional contributions have been recognized with a Global Learning Award by the Ryerson International Office and two Asian Heritage Awards. This May, Yew-Thong will also be invested as a Chevalier of the Order of St. George.