SHIRLEY BLUMBERG
CM, FRAIC, OAA, AIA
Founding Partner, KPMB Architects
Architects and a Member of the Order of Canada, recognized for her contributions to architecture and community. She has designed many of the firm’s notable and award-winning projects, ranging from architecture and interiors to planning.
Her academic projects include the Julis Romo Rabinowitz and Louis A. Simpson International Building at Princeton University, the Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre and Ponderosa Commons at the University of British Columbia (UBC), and the Centre for International Governance Innovation Campus in Waterloo, Ontario, which has received numerous awards, including an American Institute of Architects Honor Award and Canada’s Governor General’s Medal in Architecture.
In the cultural sector, her projects include Ottawa’s Global Centre for Pluralism for the Aga Khan Foundation of Canada, the Remai Modern Art Gallery of Saskatchewan, Toronto’s Fort York Public Library, and the recently completed Harrison McCain Pavilion for the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Social justice projects have been central to her work. She has designed affordable housing for Toronto Community Housing, affordable student housing at UBC, and prototypical housing for the northern Indigenous community of Fort Severn. She continues to work on the intensification of suburban neighborhoods with affordable mid-rise housing in Toronto and Columbia, Maryland.
Shirley has served on numerous juries and design panels, including those of the City of Toronto and Toronto Community Housing, and as a juror for the World Architecture Festival. She has taught and lectured at several universities and organizations, including the University of Navarra in Spain and Design Speaks in Australia.
Inspired by the Order of Canada’s recognition of those desiring a better country, Shirley initiated BEAT - Building Equality in Architecture Toronto - a grassroots initiative to promote equality for women and minorities in the profession. There are now chapters across Canada. She also led the firm’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) initiative, which is now a framework for policy and practice at KPMB.
CM, FRAIC, OAA, AIA
Founding Partner, KPMB Architects
Architects and a Member of the Order of Canada, recognized for her contributions to architecture and community. She has designed many of the firm’s notable and award-winning projects, ranging from architecture and interiors to planning.
Her academic projects include the Julis Romo Rabinowitz and Louis A. Simpson International Building at Princeton University, the Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre and Ponderosa Commons at the University of British Columbia (UBC), and the Centre for International Governance Innovation Campus in Waterloo, Ontario, which has received numerous awards, including an American Institute of Architects Honor Award and Canada’s Governor General’s Medal in Architecture.
In the cultural sector, her projects include Ottawa’s Global Centre for Pluralism for the Aga Khan Foundation of Canada, the Remai Modern Art Gallery of Saskatchewan, Toronto’s Fort York Public Library, and the recently completed Harrison McCain Pavilion for the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Social justice projects have been central to her work. She has designed affordable housing for Toronto Community Housing, affordable student housing at UBC, and prototypical housing for the northern Indigenous community of Fort Severn. She continues to work on the intensification of suburban neighborhoods with affordable mid-rise housing in Toronto and Columbia, Maryland.
Shirley has served on numerous juries and design panels, including those of the City of Toronto and Toronto Community Housing, and as a juror for the World Architecture Festival. She has taught and lectured at several universities and organizations, including the University of Navarra in Spain and Design Speaks in Australia.
Inspired by the Order of Canada’s recognition of those desiring a better country, Shirley initiated BEAT - Building Equality in Architecture Toronto - a grassroots initiative to promote equality for women and minorities in the profession. There are now chapters across Canada. She also led the firm’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) initiative, which is now a framework for policy and practice at KPMB.
Project Spotlight
HARRISON MCCAIN PAVILION
In an increasingly polarized world, architecture must be inclusive, accessible, and welcoming to all. The Harrison McCain Pavilion, though small and built with a constrained budget from humble materials, has captured the imagination of Fredericton’s citizens and embraced its diverse communities, from Indigenous peoples to newcomers.
The new entry pavilion completes the renowned Beaverbrook Art Gallery’s expansion. Domus magazine described it as “an art pavilion blurring the boundaries between museum and city,” naming it one of the best architectural projects of 2023. It serves as both the institution’s new face and a social hub for the community.
Founded in 1959 with Lord Beaverbrook’s donation of 300 paintings, the gallery now houses nearly 7,000 global, multidisciplinary works, including pieces by the Group of Seven, Lucian Freud, and Salvador Dalí.
The pavilion is a multi-functional space open to all for free, hosting art exhibitions, events, a café, a reception area, and a shop. It has quickly become a popular community gathering place and winter haven.
Fredericton’s exceptional heritage buildings inspired the design. The pavilion, located opposite the historic Legislature, acts as a gateway to the city and echoes the historic civic and residential heritage. Positioned between the Saint John/Wolastoq River and Queen Street, the façade mirrors the river and street’s parallel curves. The colonnaded façade’s concavity gestures an embrace, inviting all to enter.
Unlike the original building’s monumental stairs, the pavilion offers an architectural promenade leading to the existing galleries. Steps across the façade’s width and an accessible ramp guide visitors to the entrance, with another ramp inside connecting to the gallery level.
Full-height windows connect inside and outside, with the colonnade as a brise soleil. The main façade’s columns are spaced wider at the entrance and radiate outward, giving the façade a kinetic quality. Approaching the building reveals a dynamic play of light and shadow, making the pavilion a stage for civic life inside and out.
HARRISON MCCAIN PAVILION
In an increasingly polarized world, architecture must be inclusive, accessible, and welcoming to all. The Harrison McCain Pavilion, though small and built with a constrained budget from humble materials, has captured the imagination of Fredericton’s citizens and embraced its diverse communities, from Indigenous peoples to newcomers.
The new entry pavilion completes the renowned Beaverbrook Art Gallery’s expansion. Domus magazine described it as “an art pavilion blurring the boundaries between museum and city,” naming it one of the best architectural projects of 2023. It serves as both the institution’s new face and a social hub for the community.
Founded in 1959 with Lord Beaverbrook’s donation of 300 paintings, the gallery now houses nearly 7,000 global, multidisciplinary works, including pieces by the Group of Seven, Lucian Freud, and Salvador Dalí.
The pavilion is a multi-functional space open to all for free, hosting art exhibitions, events, a café, a reception area, and a shop. It has quickly become a popular community gathering place and winter haven.
Fredericton’s exceptional heritage buildings inspired the design. The pavilion, located opposite the historic Legislature, acts as a gateway to the city and echoes the historic civic and residential heritage. Positioned between the Saint John/Wolastoq River and Queen Street, the façade mirrors the river and street’s parallel curves. The colonnaded façade’s concavity gestures an embrace, inviting all to enter.
Unlike the original building’s monumental stairs, the pavilion offers an architectural promenade leading to the existing galleries. Steps across the façade’s width and an accessible ramp guide visitors to the entrance, with another ramp inside connecting to the gallery level.
Full-height windows connect inside and outside, with the colonnade as a brise soleil. The main façade’s columns are spaced wider at the entrance and radiate outward, giving the façade a kinetic quality. Approaching the building reveals a dynamic play of light and shadow, making the pavilion a stage for civic life inside and out.
