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2010 Sessions and Speakers
Conference Chair
Leith R. Moore
Leith is the Chair of BILD (Building Industry and Development Association) and the Vice President of Development at the Sorbara Development Group, a real estate company with 50 years experience in land development and investment, project management, industrial and residential construction. The Sorbara Development Group is active throughout the GTA and under its umbrella undertakes industrial development and construction, condominium development and construction and - through Orchard Ridge Homes - low rise residential development and construction.
He is a graduate of the School of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Waterloo. Currently he is also a member of the Board of Evergreen (a national non-profit environmental charity) and an adjunct professor in the School of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Waterloo.
Keynotes
Sheldon Levy
Sheldon Levy has been president and vice-chancellor of Ryerson University since August 1, 2005 and was recently reappointed for a second five-year term serving until July 31, 2015.
Levy has been a leader in the Ontario post-secondary sector for more than 30 years. He has served as vice-president, government and institutional relations, University of Toronto; vice-president, finance and strategy, University of Ontario Institute of Technology; vice-president, institutional affairs, York University; and president of Sheridan College, now the Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning.
He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Innovation Institute of Ontario, and a member of the Board and the Advisory Council of the Toronto Region Research Alliance. His involvement in the community includes membership on the Board of Directors of Toronto East General Hospital, and the Honorary Board of Directors for the Greater Toronto Marketing Authority. He also serves on the Campaign Cabinet of the United Way of Greater Toronto as chair of the Universities and Colleges Sector.
At the national level, he is a member of the Board of Directors and the Board's Executive Committee and Finance Committee of the Association of Universities & Colleges of Canada (AUCC) as well as a member of the Standing Advisory Committee on International Relations of AUCC. In Ontario, he currently serves as chair of the Council of Ontario Universities (COU) as well as the following roles on COU committees: chair of the Executive Committee, chair of the Board of Directors of the COU Holding Association Inc., the Standing Committee on Nominations, and member of the Government and Community Relations Committee, the Working Group on University Capacity and the Working Group on Institutional Issues.
Levy is recognized for his continuing record of dynamic progress in advancing academic quality, research excellence, and student success, and his impassioned advocacy for the role of the university as city-builder. In May 2007, he was honoured with a Special Recognition Award by the Canadian New Media Awards (CNMA) for his longstanding support and promotion of interactive digital media. He is acknowledged for his vision, leadership and expertise on post-secondary issues, and known for his strong belief in the value of partners and engaged communities whose aspirations are high. He has consulted across Canada and internationally.
Levy earned his BSc (Honours, First Class) and MA degrees from York University. He lectured in computer science and mathematics, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by York University in June 1999.
Tim Jones
Tim Jones is President and CEO of Artscape, and ULI Toronto’s Urban Community Advisor. He is a champion for the role that the arts play in transforming cities and communities. Under his direction as President and CEO since 1998, Artscape has grown from a Toronto-based affordable studio provider to an internationally recognized leader in city-building through the arts.
In Toronto, Tim has played a catalytic role in the redevelopment of the Distillery District, Artscape Gibraltar Point, Artscape Triangle Lofts and the award-winning Artscape Wychwood Barns. He has pioneered new models of creative space development that helped build local economies, enriched social fabric, and advanced environmental best practice. In addition to their work in West Queen West, Liberty Village, Parkdale, Toronto Islands, Distillery and Wychwood communities, Tim and the Artscape team are working on more than a dozen new projects in neighbourhoods across Toronto.
In Canada and abroad, Tim acts as a consultant, mentor and advisor on projects, policies and initiatives. He and his colleagues at Artscape are passionately committed to building a community of practice around creative placemaking. Over the past 5 years, more than 100 Canadian communities have been engaged in Artscape’s knowledge exchange activities and Tim has presented Artscape’s work in more than 20 cities outside of Canada from Melbourne to Copenhagen.
In his determination to marry thinking and action in advancing the creativity agenda, Tim has hosted three major conferences under the banner Creative Places and Spaces. These forums have engaged leading Canadian and international thinkers, practitioners and policymakers in an exchange about the relationship between people, place and creativity while shining a spotlight on the people and initiatives that position Toronto as a global city. Creative Places + Spaces conferences are now acknowledged among the world's most important forums on creativity and innovation.
Storm Cunningham
Storm Cunningham is the author of 2002’s The Restoration Economy, which has been hailed by government and business leaders around the world as "Extraordinary", “Remarkable", "A modern classic", "A landmark work", "Required reading", and "The most important and valuable business book I have read in many years."
His second book, reWealth, was published by McGraw-Hill in 2008. George Ochs, Director of Real Asset Investment at JP Morgan calls Storm "the world’s thought leader on community revitalization and natural resource restoration" and calls reWealth: "The secret weapon...for economic recovery at both local and global scales."
He is CEO of Resolution Fund, LLC in Washington, DC. Resolution Fund helps communities, counties, tribes, regions, and nations ignite rapid, resilient renewal of their economy, their natural resources, and their quality of life. He is founder of Revitalization Institute, the non-profit academy for community renewal and natural resource restoration, based in Toronto.
Storm Cunningham was—from 1996 to 2002—Director, Strategic Initiatives at the Construction Specifications Institute, a 50+ year-old association of 18,000 architects, engineers, contractors, and manufacturers.
A former Green Beret SCUBA medic, he is an avid SCUBA diver, motorcyclist, and amateur herpetologist. He lives in Arlington, Virginia, USA.
Closing Plenary Panel
Paul Bedford
Paul Bedford is an Adjunct Professor of City Planning at the University of Toronto and Ryerson University and an Urban Mentor with Paul Bedford & Associates in Toronto, which includes proactive involvement in a wide variety of public planning issues in numerous capacities primarily within the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.
He is a member of the Waterfront Toronto Urban Design Review Panel, a member of the National Capital Commission Planning Advisory Committee in Ottawa, and a futures columnist in the Ontario Planning Journal and a Senior Associate of the Canadian Urban Institute. He is also a member of the CAMH Property Committee guiding the long-term redevelopment of the Queen Street Mental Health and Addiction Facility.
Mr. Bedford was the former Chief City Planner for the City of Toronto and is a passionate advocate of transit and city building throughout the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.
Andy Fillmore MCIP AICP LPP
Andy is the Manager of Urban Design, Halifax Regional Municipality. He is a city planner and urban designer with degrees from Dalhousie University and the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. After practicing in Boston and Portland Maine for 14 years, he returned to his native Halifax in 2005 to fill the newly created Manager of Urban Design position at the Halifax Regional Municipality.
As lead Urban Designer Andy’s primary role has been managing the recently adopted HRMbyDESIGN Downtown Halifax Plan. This design-based plan established design guidelines for architecture and public space design, and a streamlined development review process in which a volunteer Design Review Committee has taken over approval authority from city council. In 2010 HRMbyDESIGN was honoured with two national awards: a CIP planning excellence award, and an RAIC Urban Design award.
Andy is now managing the creation of the Neighbourhood Greenprint for dense, walkable and complete urban neighbourhoods, and; is the senior urban design advisor for Halifax’s new Central Public Library and proposed new Convention Centre.
Andy is a lecturer at Dalhousie’s Faculty of Architecture and Planning, and a founding board member of the Council for Canadian Urbanism; a national organization dedicated to making design excellence, sustainability and good urbanism the commonplace traits of Canadian communities.
Jennifer Keesmaat, BA, MES, RPP, MCIP
Jennifer Keesmaat, M.E.S., MCIP, RPP, is a founding partner of Office for Urbanism, a planning and design firm located in the city of Toronto that specializes in the integration of planning, design and consensus building processes. She has a combined honours B.A. degree from The University of Western Ontario and an M.E.S. degree in urban planning from York University in Toronto, where she studied the political processes that shape our urban environments.
Jennifer is a registered professional planner, an award-winning member of the Canadian Institute of Planners and a member of the Congress for New Urbanism. She is qualified to provide expert testimony at the Ontario Municipal Board as a land use planner with a specific expertise in urban design. Jennifer is a regular guest lecturer at York University, the University of Toronto and Ryerson University, where she speaks on diverse subjects that include policy development, urban development processes, and implementation strategies.
Les Klein, m.arch., oaa, aibc, fraic, associate aia
“I believe that buildings change and grow and adapt over time.”
A founder and principal of Quadrangle, Les is committed to the notion that urban design, city building and architectural excellence all play important roles in maintaining and enhancing the quality of life for the entire community.
Les has two Bachelor of Science degrees (one in Arts & Design, the other in Mathematics) and a Master of Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). As a result of his MIT education, Les takes a problem-solving approach to architecture that pays great heed to each individual client’s needs and aspirations. He is able to envision a range of solutions to every architectural challenge.
Previously the founding partner of Klein Taylor Goldsmith Limited, Les merged his firm with Curtner Brown Architects to create Quadrangle in 1986. His work in innovative residential development for diverse populations, the adaptive reuse of existing structures and the creation of dynamic environments for ideas-based private sector entrepreneurs has greatly influenced the growth and success of the firm. Much of this work is focused on urban housing, broadcast and media facilities, corporate offices and hotels.
A firm believer in sharing knowledge, Les lectures extensively at professional conferences and seminars. He has also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design, as well as a visiting critic at the University of Waterloo and York University. In 1994, Les was honoured by his peers with induction into the College of Fellows of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (FRAIC). Among his numerous professional volunteer activities, he has served as Chair of the Ontario Fire Code Commission and the Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) Complaints Committee and currently sits on the OAA Discipline Committee.
Les has received national and international attention for The Green Ribbon, his audacious idea to build a 7km long green roof and park over the elevated portions of the Gardiner Expressway in downtown Toronto, keeping the existing roadway intact below.
Ashley Willard Bauman
For the last 11 years Ashley has been immersed in the Real Estate Development world working with developers in a leadership capacity on over 55 projects in 14 countries. Ashley’s expertise ranges from strategic envisioning, public realm/product design to detailed sales and marketing strategy and execution. Ashley served as Director of Business Innovation for Playground /Intrawest; the world’s largest developer of village centered resorts, and was the Vice President of Real Estate for Envisioning and Storytelling. Most recently Ashley served as Project Director for Starwood Capital Group and consulted for various Urban and Resort Developers Internationally. Ashley now serves as Vice President of Strategy and Results for Braun Allison. If you know Ashley, you know she is about delivering results and exceeding expectations in all mandates she encounters.
