Learn more about the impressive legacy of Canadian architect Blanche Lemco van Ginkel with a public online event and exhibition screening.

As an architect, educator, planner, preservation advocate, and trailblazing visionary working in a field largely dominated by men, Blanche Lemco van Ginkel has been, and continues to be, an inspiration to generations of architects worldwide. She was recently awarded the 2020 Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s Gold Medal, its highest honour.

To acknowledge and celebrate her distinguished legacy, the University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Design together with McGill University’s Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture and Building Equality in Architecture Canada will hold a public online event and exhibition screening, For her Record: Notes on the Work of Blanche Lemco van Ginkel.

The event will feature three “live” speakers, as well as a series of excerpted videos intended to present a composite, multi-faceted portrait of Blanche Lemco van Ginkel. The conversation moderated by Laura Miller and Brigitte Shim will feature Phyllis Lambert, Founding Director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and architect and activist; Mary McLeod, architectural historian and educator, Columbia University; and Ipek Mehmetoglu, doctoral student, McGill University.

When

5.30–7pm Thursday, 12 November 2020 (Eastern Time US and Canada)

For Australian audiences, it’s on Friday morning.

9.30–11am, 13 November 2020 AEDT (NSW, VIC, ACT, TAS)
9–10.30am ACDT (SA)
8.30–10am AEST (QLD)
8–9.30am ACST (NT)
6.30–8am AWST (WA)

Registration

For more information on the speakers and to register for this event, head to the booking link.

In the world of Canadian architecture, van Ginkel is a national treasure. As an architect, planner, educator and author, she resonates as a leading figure in modern architecture since graduating from McGill’s school in 1945. Van Ginkel was one of the first women admitted to the program in the early 1940s, and this was the first of many firsts for her as a woman and an architect, including the honour of first woman elected officer (1972) and then fellow (1973) of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC).— Tanya Southcott, The invisibility of women