PAT HANSON
M.Arch, OAA, FRAIC
Principal, Williamson Williamson
Betsy Williamson received a Master of Architecture from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Architecture from Barnard College. She is a registered architect with the Ontario Association of Architects and a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC). She is a Partner in the architectural design studio Williamson Williamson Inc., which she founded with her partner Shane Williamson in 2007.
Through her decades of experience, Betsy brings to the office her enthusiastic commitment to architectural practice and high-quality design. She has developed expertise in detail clarity and creative solutions balanced by focused project management skills.
Williamson Williamson’s work has been published widely and has received numerous awards over the years including a Governor General’s Medal in Architecture. Notable practice-based awards include the Ronald J. Thom Award for Early Design Achievement and the Professional Prix de Rome for Architecture from the Canada Council of the Arts, the Emerging Architectural Practice Award from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, the Young Architects Prize and the Emerging Voices Award from the Architecture League of New York. Betsy continues to foster her commitment to engaging the city in a greater capacity through volunteer work on several boards and committees. As vice-chair of the Waterfront Toronto Design Review Panel, she actively contributes to a culture of quality at an urban scale by signaling that high quality design is a critical consideration for the development of Toronto’s waterfront and the city. Betsy is also a tireless advocate for equality in the profession. With a group of like-minded architects, she founded and professionally advises BEAT, Building Equality in Architecture Toronto. BEAT is dedicated to the promotion of equality by creating events and web content for the advancement of women in the profession and by providing mentorship, networking, and leadership opportunities.
M.Arch, OAA, FRAIC
Principal, Williamson Williamson
Betsy Williamson received a Master of Architecture from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Architecture from Barnard College. She is a registered architect with the Ontario Association of Architects and a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC). She is a Partner in the architectural design studio Williamson Williamson Inc., which she founded with her partner Shane Williamson in 2007.
Through her decades of experience, Betsy brings to the office her enthusiastic commitment to architectural practice and high-quality design. She has developed expertise in detail clarity and creative solutions balanced by focused project management skills.
Williamson Williamson’s work has been published widely and has received numerous awards over the years including a Governor General’s Medal in Architecture. Notable practice-based awards include the Ronald J. Thom Award for Early Design Achievement and the Professional Prix de Rome for Architecture from the Canada Council of the Arts, the Emerging Architectural Practice Award from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, the Young Architects Prize and the Emerging Voices Award from the Architecture League of New York. Betsy continues to foster her commitment to engaging the city in a greater capacity through volunteer work on several boards and committees. As vice-chair of the Waterfront Toronto Design Review Panel, she actively contributes to a culture of quality at an urban scale by signaling that high quality design is a critical consideration for the development of Toronto’s waterfront and the city. Betsy is also a tireless advocate for equality in the profession. With a group of like-minded architects, she founded and professionally advises BEAT, Building Equality in Architecture Toronto. BEAT is dedicated to the promotion of equality by creating events and web content for the advancement of women in the profession and by providing mentorship, networking, and leadership opportunities.
Project Spotlight
GARDEN LANEWAY HOUSE
The Garden Laneway House is set between garages that face a service lane. It is a lyrical collection of modern lines, authentic materials, and intentional views. Clad in a rotated brick facade, it brings beauty to the laneway and reimagines the possibilities for small-scale urban densification.
This 4-bedroom home accommodates a family of five who wanted to connect to the neighbourhood, have ample living spaces and create light-filled rooms. They also turned the existing home into a duplex, transforming the property from a single-family into a three-family lot. This project provides inspiration for new solutions to the ever-present housing crisis by increasing access to well established neighborhood communities.
This home mitigates the downsides that are commonly associated with laneway homes such as limited space, lack of privacy and unappealing sightlines. It was constructed with a small footprint, modest floor-to-ceiling heights, and a tight envelope, creating a home that is efficient to heat, cool, and maintain.
The family uses the laneway as their front door. The entrance is recessed under a carport canopy clad in charred cedar, ensuring privacy from the cars that access the garages surrounding the home. The rotated brick facade is the most striking feature of the house’s exterior. Brick was selected to give the laneway house the robust presence that houses on Toronto’s main streets have. The house was designed to feel like a primary home, not like the wood and aluminum clad garages that are typical of the laneways. Animating the brick breaks up the primarily solid facades with pattern and shadow.
Rotating every other row of bricks to cantilever over the course below, the laneway and street-facing elevations are given three-dimensional presence. Given that the volume of the home is maximized to the outer limits of its zoning envelope, the rotated bricks provide a secondary scale of playful massing. The pattern breaks up the solid facade and as the sun moves around the house, the shadows change shape. The aesthetic goals were to bring beauty to the laneway and to create facades that would be animated with light. Through simple stacking and twisting, a pattern was developed that created shadows while providing excellent building envelope performance for the next century.
GARDEN LANEWAY HOUSE
The Garden Laneway House is set between garages that face a service lane. It is a lyrical collection of modern lines, authentic materials, and intentional views. Clad in a rotated brick facade, it brings beauty to the laneway and reimagines the possibilities for small-scale urban densification.
This 4-bedroom home accommodates a family of five who wanted to connect to the neighbourhood, have ample living spaces and create light-filled rooms. They also turned the existing home into a duplex, transforming the property from a single-family into a three-family lot. This project provides inspiration for new solutions to the ever-present housing crisis by increasing access to well established neighborhood communities.
This home mitigates the downsides that are commonly associated with laneway homes such as limited space, lack of privacy and unappealing sightlines. It was constructed with a small footprint, modest floor-to-ceiling heights, and a tight envelope, creating a home that is efficient to heat, cool, and maintain.
The family uses the laneway as their front door. The entrance is recessed under a carport canopy clad in charred cedar, ensuring privacy from the cars that access the garages surrounding the home. The rotated brick facade is the most striking feature of the house’s exterior. Brick was selected to give the laneway house the robust presence that houses on Toronto’s main streets have. The house was designed to feel like a primary home, not like the wood and aluminum clad garages that are typical of the laneways. Animating the brick breaks up the primarily solid facades with pattern and shadow.
Rotating every other row of bricks to cantilever over the course below, the laneway and street-facing elevations are given three-dimensional presence. Given that the volume of the home is maximized to the outer limits of its zoning envelope, the rotated bricks provide a secondary scale of playful massing. The pattern breaks up the solid facade and as the sun moves around the house, the shadows change shape. The aesthetic goals were to bring beauty to the laneway and to create facades that would be animated with light. Through simple stacking and twisting, a pattern was developed that created shadows while providing excellent building envelope performance for the next century.
