Issued For Construction

Matt Davis, Allen Chan, and Anwar Mekhayech are the founding partners of DesignAgency, a multidisciplinary design studio based in Toronto with additional studios in Barcelona, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.

The firm's European expansion began through a chance meeting in New York between Mekhayech and private equity investor Josh Wyatt, who was launching a hospitality fund in the United Kingdom. That connection led to DesignAgency...

Philip Evans is a Principal at ERA Architects, a Toronto based heritage and adaptive reuse practice with studios across Canada. He was born in Newfoundland, descended from generations of shipbuilders from the Notre Dame Bay and Greenspond areas, and moved with his family to Ontario as a young child, eventually settling in Brampton, where he attended Mayfield Secondary School's visual arts program.

Evans studied architecture at the U...

Matt Davis, Allen Chan, and Anwar Mekhayech are the three co-founders of DesignAgency, a Toronto-based multidisciplinary studio they launched together in 1998 under the original name Precipice Studios.

Matt grew up in Mount Zion, Ontario, on a twelve-acre hobby farm where he developed an early affinity for building and working with tools. He studied landscape architecture at the University of Toronto, where he met Allen. Allen was b...

Kregg Fordyce is a Toronto-based architect, urban planner, and the founder of studioDEEP+, a multidisciplinary practice operating at the intersection of architecture and spatial planning. Born in Sudbury, Ontario, Kregg spent his earliest years in Capreol, a small community about an hour north of Sudbury, before his family relocated to the Niagara region, where he completed his schooling at E.L. Crossley Secondary School in Fonthil...

Gabrielle Kozhukh-Joo is the founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Mindwell Design, a Toronto based interior design studio recognized as the first neuroaesthetic design firm in Canada and the United States. She was born and raised in North York, Ontario, the daughter of Ukrainian immigrant parents who came to Canada in 1990. Her mother ran multiple small businesses, including a home daycare, while her father was working ...

Alex Josephson is a Toronto-born architect and the founder of PARTISANS, an award-winning architecture and design studio incorporated in Toronto in 2013. Growing up with an early affinity for tactile art and drawing, Josephson pursued architecture against the advice of those around him, treating it as a form of rebellion that ultimately gave him direction and purpose.

He studied architecture at the University of Waterloo, one of the...

Rebecca Axler is a Toronto-based interior designer and the founder of RTG Designs, a full-service residential design firm specializing in projects ranging from renovations and new builds to room-by-room transformations.

Born and raised in Toronto, Rebecca grew up in the North York area and attended York Mills Collegiate Institute. A lifelong curiosity about design and space, sparked during her parents' home build when she was in gra...

Steve Euser is a landscape architect and water feature designer based in Toronto, Ontario. Raised in the suburbs of Toronto, he was a creative and outdoors-oriented child, spending summers camping in Ontario's provincial parks, sketching, painting in watercolor, and building things by hand. His early aptitude for art led him to informally co-teach art classes at his school by grade seven, covering color theory, 3D rendering, and pe...

Vanessa Eckstein is the founder and creative director of Blok Design, a Toronto-based graphic design studio with a global reach. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Vanessa was immersed in the arts from an early age, studying painting as a child under a celebrated surrealist painter in the La Boca neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. She went on to earn her undergraduate degree in graphic design from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, among t...

Nilton Forest is a licensed architect, Passive House consultant (PHIUS), and the founder of osda (Office for Sustainable Design Architecture), based in Saint John, New Brunswick. Raised in Taipei, Taiwan, by his mother, Nilton spent much of his formative years in the company of English neighbours from Carlisle who were visiting academics conducting research at the National Palace Museum. That early immersion shaped both his accent ...

Jorge Eckstein is a Buenos Aires-born chemical engineer and entrepreneur whose unlikely second act has become one of Argentina's most celebrated acts of cultural preservation. Raised in Buenos Aires by Hungarian immigrant parents, he built a successful career spanning more than 30 years in the specialty oils and animal fats industry, supplying international companies including Shell, Exxon, Pfizer and Henkel.

In 1985, Eckstein purch...

Monica Adair and Stephen Kopp are the founding partners of Acre Architects, an architectural practice with offices in Saint John, New Brunswick, and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Raised in the prairie town of Morden, Manitoba, Stephen developed an early passion for art and mathematics, earning his undergraduate architecture degree from the University of Manitoba before practicing in Stuttgart, Germany. Monica, a native of Saint John, New B...

Gelanaz Hemati is a Toronto interior designer and founder of Gelanaz and Associates. Raised in Tehran, Iran, as the youngest of three siblings, her interest in construction was sparked by her businessman father, who built the family home and cottage. Though initially discouraged by a teacher, Gelanaz mastered painting step by step, eventually exhibiting her art and studying under the renowned Iranian master Katouzian, where she dev...

Established in 1961 as Webb Zerafa Menkès Housden, WZMH Architects is synonymous with the Canadian built environment and recognized as the architect of record for the iconic CN Tower. Originally defined by towering office developments, the firm diversified across retail, residential, master planning, and high security civic projects. Driven by an entrepreneurial spirit, WZMH recently expanded its geographical footprint to the Middl...

François Roupinian is a globally recognized lighting designer and the founder of Lightemotion. Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, François discovered his passion for illumination during his youth. His early creative experiments included building custom concrete and metal lamps in his bedroom. Listeners can head over to Instagram this week to view exclusive story photos of these teenage creations.

He refined his craft working in th...

Alex Bozikovic is the architecture critic for The Globe and Mail and a leading voice on urban design, city planning, and housing politics in Canada. Born and raised in the North York region of Toronto, he grew up exploring the varied built environments of the city. His early experiences visiting his immigrant grandparents in slab apartment towers across Toronto shaped his deep appreciation for urban life and density.

A lifelong read...

Jake Olivera is a talented product and industrial designer based in Toronto, Ontario. Born and raised in Cambridge, Ontario, Jake was deeply influenced by his Portuguese heritage and a family environment that encouraged spirited debate, independence, and hands on learning.

He holds a Bachelor of Design from the joint program between York University and Sheridan College. Early in his career, Jake interned in the marketing department ...

Zoë Coombes is an architectural designer and the Executive and Creative Director of the Neptis Foundation. Raised in her hometown of Toronto near Bathurst and Bloor, she was influenced by her father, Tony Coombes, who served as Chief Planner for Central Toronto. She completed a Foundation Year Program at the University of King's College in Halifax, an urban history degree, and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University.

In Ne...

Born in Tirana, Albania, Uarda Kellezi is an architectural and interior designer whose professional journey is defined by a blend of European cultural immersion and rigorous technical training. The daughter of a diplomat, Uarda spent her formative years navigating a life between Italy, Albania, and Canada, a transition that fostered her deep appreciation for history, art, and the identity of built environments.

Uarda’s creativ...