Meet the Canadian Architect Awards Jury

We are pleased to announce the jury for the 2023 Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence. Our jury includes architects Claire Weisz (WXY, New York), Michael Heeney (Surrey City Development Corporation, British Columbia), and Omar Gandhi (Omar Gandhi Architects, Halifax and Toronto). For the adjudication of the Photo Awards of Excellence, they will be joined by photographer Jacqueline Young (Stationpoint Photographic, Winnipeg).

Claire Weisz (FAIA) is a founding partner of WXY, whose work as an architect and urbanist focuses on innovative approaches to public space, structures, and cities. Claire was awarded the Medal of Honor from AIANY in 2018 and was honored with the Women in Architecture Award by Architectural Record in 2019. Her firm, WXY, is globally recognized for its place-based approach to architecture, urban design, and planning, and has played a vital role in design thinking around resiliency. WXY’s award-winning projects range from the SeaGlass Carousel, Spring Street Garage / Salt Shed, Former Spofford Youth Detention Center into a mixed-use community development to the D15 Diversity Plan, Vision for Governors Island Climate Solution Center, and Rebuild by Design’s Blue Dunes. WXY is listed as one of Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2019 and Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in Urban Development and Real Estate for 2023.

Michael Heeney (Architect AIBC, FRAIC, RI(BC), FRI) is the President and CEO of the Surrey City Development Corporation (SCDC), an independently governed, for-profit real estate company owned by the City of Surrey that initiates progressive real-estate activities to support the City’s positive growth. In addition to his role at SCDC, Michael undertakes select consulting services to various communities and organizations through C+O Advisory Inc.

Prior to his joining SCDC, Michael was the Managing Principal of Bing Thom Architects (BTA) for over twenty-eight years, where he oversaw the company’s growth into a leading international practice with offices in Vancouver, Washington DC and Hong Kong.  Michael has successfully led substantial local and international projects, organizations, and initiatives, often ones without precedent and in highly complex situations and jurisdictions.  He has been responsible for delivering a wide range of transformative projects including the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC, Surrey Central City, the Mead Center for American Theater at Arena Stage in Washington DC, the Trinity East Campus for Tarrant County College in Fort Worth, Texas and the Surrey City Centre Library amongst many others.

Omar Gandhi is a Canadian architect, born in Toronto and raised in Brampton and currently practicing and residing in both Halifax, Nova Scotia and Toronto, Ontario. After studying in the Regional Arts program at Mayfield Secondary School (Caledon) and then the inaugural Architectural Studies Program at the University of Toronto Omar moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia where he received his Master’s degree in 2005 at Dalhousie University. After graduation, Omar worked for some of Canada’s most respected architectural practices. Gandhi started his own design studio in 2010 and became a registered architectural practice in 2012.

In 2014 Gandhi was hailed as “Canada’s Next Top Architect” by the Globe & Mail and in the year following year was listed in Monocle Magazine’s “20 most influential Canadians” roundup. Omar was appointed as the Louis I. Kahn visiting Assistant Professor in Architectural Design at the Yale School of Architecture for the Fall semester of the 2018-19 academic year. When not in the studio, Omar spends his time wandering the streets of the North End of Halifax, playing with his son, and traveling internationally to both teach and lecture.

Jacqueline Young is an award–winning Treaty 1-based Architectural Photographer at Stationpoint Photographic and a Sessional Instructor in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba. Her enthusiasm for documentation comes from her fondness for the technical nature of the photographic process, in pursuit of expressing the novel experience of light and people moving through the built environment. The focus of her practice is to capture what is present, rather than chasing ‘the ideal.’

Young’s passion and respect for the built environment, combined with her attention to detail and collaborative approach to working with clients has landed herwork in publications such as Canadian Architect, Canadian Interiors, THE PLAN, Architectural Review, Archinect, Architizer, and Archdaily. In both 2021 and 2022, her work was recognized with Canadian Architect Photo Awards of Merit, and she was recently listed in the international APALMANAC Early Career and Emerging Talent Award competition.

For 56 years, Canadian Architect has sponsored an annual national awards program, the only national awards that recognize projects in the design stage. This year’s competition also includes the sixth annual Canadian Architect Photo Awards of Excellence. The deadline to submit your entry is Monday, September 11, 2023. For more information and to enter, visit https://www.canadianarchitect.com/awards