Margery Winkler Lecture: Pete and Alissa North

Lecture Description:

‘Two Norths’ will cover the works of Alissa and Pete North through a trajectory of their landscape architectural practice at North Design Office, from small scale installations, landscape architectural competitions, to current works on the drawing boards. They will also outline their individual and joint academic research and pedagogy, including select studios and courses, site and landscape research, and publications, to profile how their practice and academic endeavours mutually influence their framing and interpretation of landscape architecture.

About the Firm:

North Design Office Inc. is a fully registered landscape architecture practice in the Province of Ontario, which was founded in 2005. From city parks to master plans and residences to public installations, NDO Inc. has garnered acclaim for its environmental mandate and artistic sensibilities. The office has been awarded through several international design competitions, built projects, and public art installations, which have been widely published. Co-Directors, Pete and Alissa North, are graduates of the University of Toronto’s Bachelor of Landscape Architecture Program, and both received their Master in Landscape Architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. In addition to their practice at North Design Office, Alissa and Pete are both Professors in the Landscape Architecture Program at the University of Toronto.

About Margery Winkler

Margery Winkler was a landscape architect and professor of Landscape Architecture in the Department of Architectural Science at Toronto Metropolitan University from the 1982 till 2009, when she passed away at the age of 57 after a brief battle with breast cancer. A member of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OALA), she was admired for her community-oriented design and advocacy, dedication to teaching, and passion for fostering student creativity. With over 25 years of service at TMU, Margery deeply understood how students learn and constantly sought innovative ways to inspire them. She created and led the first Collaborative Exercise, where students designed bird habitats from recycled materials, incorporating community outreach by involving local youth in this hands-on activity. She was known for bringing people together to create sustainable landscapes designs, helping high schools transform their grounds, and collaborating with Canada Blooms. In 2006, as part of the (then) Ryerson campus plan, she developed and directed the RU GREEN Student/Alumni Sustainable Open Space Design Competition. Margery is survived by her husband, Vladimir Winkler, and their three children, Alexandra, Michael, and Jaclyn.