The Architecture of Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg
with contributions by Phyllis Lambert, Detlef Mertins, Bruce Mau & Rodolphe el-Khoury
4to. pp. 215. profusely illustrated in colour & b/w. bds. Basel: Birkhauser, [2004].
New in publisher's shrink wrap.
ISBN-10: 3764362243 / ISBN-13: 9783764362249
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Kuwabara Payne Mckenna Blumberg Architects (KPMB) was founded in Toronto in 1987 by Bruce Kuwabara, Thomas Payne, Marianne McKenna, and Shirley Blumberg. The ethnic and gender diversity of the partnership established a hybrid studio model that was unusual among North American architectural communities at the time. While this diversity is one of the signature strengths of the practice, it is the thoughtful calibration of heterogeneous influences in their rigorous design work that has establish KPMB as one of Canada's premier architectural studios.
KPMB's portfolio encompasses cultural, civic, educational, health care and performing arts projects located across Canada and increasingly in the United States as well as Europe. At the same time the studio has repeatedly devoted itself to creating architecture that supports the urban condition as well as to the tectonics of making interior space. This book focuses on projects from 1987-2004, as well as selected works in progress.
Completed projects include Kitchener City Hall, Jackson-Triggs Niagara Estate Winery, and the James Stewart Centre for Mathematics at McMaster University. Future works includes the Young Centre for Performing Arts, The Royal Conservatory of Music Performance and Learning Centre, and the Festival Centre and Tower for the Toronto International Film Festival Group. In Europe, KPMB's commissions include the Star Alliance Lounge at the Zurich International Airport in Switzerland and the new Canadian Embassy in Berlin, Germany.