Toronto Star

There are architects who design buildings and architects who build cities; the Toronto firm of Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg ranks among the latter. KPMB's work, whether here, the U.S. or Europe, is informed, above all, by context. Though there are elements that recur, what binds their projects is more a common approach than a shared style. As the recently published Architecture of Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg (Birkhauser) makes clear, that approach grows out of a deep commitment to the idea of urbanity. That implies many things, mostly importantly, the acceptance of diversity, multiplicity and even contradiction. Navigating the terrain of the post-modern city, especially one like Toronto where extreme pluralism is the norm, requires enormous sensitivity and intelligence. But as academic Detlef Mertins, one of several contributors to the lavishly illustrated volume, points out, the ever-brilliant KPMB embraces the diversity of the city in its very structure. It is, he notes, one of a handful of practices in which the founding partners — Bruce Kuwabara, Tom Payne, Marianne McKenna and Shirley Blumberg — are divided equally between male and female, and not related. Even now, architecture remains a male-dominated profession, with all the shortcomings that entails. The culture tends to be one of competition over co-operation, ego over consensus.