Jury

Philip Evans

Philip Evans OAA, AAA, AIBC, NSAA, MRAIC, CAHP, is a principal at ERA Architects and the founder of Culture of Outports. Over the course of 17 years, he has led a range of conservation, adaptive reuse, design, and feasibility planning projects.

Philip is known for transforming challenges into opportunities. He gives sound advice and guidance to better manage cultural, heritage, and property assets to leverage economic success while maintaining the highest level of integrity. He brings a collaborative spirit to a diverse range of working relationships, and his clients have included private and public developers, communities, municipalities, provinces, and private citizens. He works both in the office and in the field, and has practiced on either side of (as well as within) the Atlantic. He appreciates working in a range of built environments, including urban, suburban, and rural settings.

Robert J. Pertzborn

Rob is a registered Montana Architect, a practicing Planner and a senior Principal at Intrinsik Architecture. Intrinsik, celebrating 25 years, is a full-service design firm, with a roster of 18 team members, based in Bozeman, Montana.

Rob bridges the gap between buildings and neighborhoods. Rob has worked in design and planning for over 30 years and has a wide range of experience ranging from historic, civic and commercial renovations to land and municipal facilities planning to designing infill urban mixed-use projects and multihousehold residences. Rob is from Madison, Wisconsin and lived in the Twin Cities before settling in Bozeman in 1989. He holds a Master of Architecture degree from Montana State University.

Dr. Susan Fitzgerald

Dr. Susan Fitzgerald is the design director of FBM and an associate professor at Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Architecture and Planning in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Originally from the UK, she is both an architect and an interior designer involved in teaching, research, and practice. Susan’s design work has been the recipient of many accolades including the Canada Council for the Arts' Professional Prix de Rome, Governor General’s Medal in Architecture, the Wood Design Award, the EnRoute Air Canada Award, Maritime Design Awards, and multiple Lieutenant Governor’s Awards including the Medal of Excellence.

At Dalhousie University, she is the holder of multiple Social Science Humanities Research Council grants. Her work has been featured at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2023), the Lisbon Triennale, RAIC Academic Summit, World Congress of Architects and her writing published by UCL Press (2023), Routledge Press (2022), Refuge Press (2020), among others. Dalhousie Architectural Press is releasing a book on the work of the practice later this year. Susan was made a fellow of the RAIC in 2015. In 2022 she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee Medal for service to architecture.

Reza Nik

Reza Nik is a licensed architect, artist and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Architecture, Landscape & Design. He is the founder of SHEEEP, an experimental art and architecture studio primarily working within community, education, activism, culture, public art and architecture.

His research is focused on a deeper dialogue between the socio-political nuances of the urban context and playful experimentation. Disrupting the traditional architectural processes and institutions is at the forefront of his pedagogy and practice. Prior to founding SHEEEP, Reza worked with experimental practices like Coop Himmelb(l)au in Vienna & the Living Architecture Systems Group led by Philip Beesley in Toronto. He has also worked with various more traditional architectural studios in Barcelona, Buenos Aires & Toronto along with design-build projects led by Sergio Palleroni in India and Argentina. The social impact of Architecture is something he has been investigating for over a decade.

Reza is also one of the founding members and the co-steward of the Toronto chapter of the Architecture Lobby, an organization advocating for labor rights for architectural workers and encouraging more critical discourse within the profession.