Information about past events such as seminars, interviews and panel discussions is posted here.

Guest Speaker, "Roads, the New Public"

  • City Institute, York University, Friday, January 7, 2011

Guest Speaker, Lisa Rochon reads from her essay 'AIR' and is interviewed by John Knetchel. AIR (Alphabet City, MIT Press.)

  • Toronto Free Gallery, December 11, 2010

Guest Speaker, Lisa Rochon presents "Toronto, Global Supermarket", Architecture for Humanity, The Blueprint Series:  Perspective.

  • Design Exchange, November 15, 2010

Guest Speaker, Lisa Rochon speaks on "Reconstructing Devastated Cities" to launch a 4-day design charrette on the rebuilding of Lota, Chile following the 2010 earthquake and closures of mines.  

  • Institute without Boundaries, School of Design, George Brown College, November 4, 2010

Keynote Speaker, "What Makes a Great City?"  

  • City of Mississauga, April 29, 2010

Guest Speaker, "The Impact of Finnish Architecture on Canadian Design", Symposium on Finland, Canadian Journalism Program at Massey College in U of T

  • Massey College, March 25, 2010
  • Canadian Journalism Program at Massey College in U of T

Guest Speaker, "Healing Violent Cities", Canadian Federation of University Women, Toronto,

  • March 9, 2010

Lisa is a Commissioning Editor for Alphabet City, MIT Press. She contributed a photo-essay to "Trash" (2007) (see below), and is creating a short, speculative photo-essay for the upcoming "Air" (2010).

  • You can read more about Alphabet City here.
  • Lisa's photo-essay "Streets of Trash" is available here as a PDF document

Lisa is a Jury Member for the 2010 Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Gold Medal and Archirectural Firm Award.

  • Nomination Deadlines 11 December 2009
  • Read about the RAIC Gold Medal Award here
  • Read about the RAIC Architectural Firm Award here

Participated in "Architecture in Public", a conference of critics and cultural producers sponsored by the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture, Columbia University.

  • Lisa was the only Canadian architecture critic invited to this conference
  • 4-5 December 2009
  • Read more about Studio-X here

Lisa is a Jury Member for the 2010 Festival International de jardins/ International Garden Festival, Jardins de Métis / Reford Garden international design competition (2010), a landscape design event,which has attracted 300 submissions from around the world.  

  • Nominations for this competition closed on 6 November 2009
  • Read about the Festival and the current competition here

Interviewed by the CBC's Helen Mann on the National

  • Sunday, May 24, 2009
  • Interview with Helen Mann about the state of architecture during tough economic times.

The Interview, TVO's Saturday Night at the Movies (The Fountainhead (1949) / Manhattan (1979))

  • Friday, May 22, 2009
  • Globe and Mail architect critic Lisa Rochon, author Mark Kingwell and architects Marianne McKenna and George Popper discuss tonights films and how architecture not only makes for a stunning cinematic landscape but can also illuminate the inner turmoil and visionary desires of those who strive to create beauty in a world that rewards conformity

Guest Speaker, the Forty Minute Forum, St. Clement’s Church

  • May 10, 2009
  • Stopping the Violence: How Beautiful Buildings Can Transform the Toughest Neighbourhoods

Guest Speaker, CREW Canada (Commercial Real Estate for Women)

  • Friday, May 8, 2009
  • "Human Conversation: the importance of Human-Scale in Architecture"

Jury Member, Bike Stand competition, Ontario College of Art and Design. 

  • March 30, 2009
  • Read more about this competition here

Jury Member, Design Excellence Jury, 2009 OAA Annual Design Awards. 

  • February 12, 2009
  • Raymond Moriyama will serve as Chair of the 2009 Jury
  • Awards will be presented on May 8, 2009 during the OAA Conference at the Harbour Castle Hotel, Toronto

Guest Speaker, Canadian Visual Culture, Ontario College of Art & Design

  • Thursday, November 20, 2008

Art Gallery of Ontario Transformation. In connection with the opening of the transformed AGO, Lisa Rochon has made a number of media appearences, and given interviews, including:

  • Guest panelist, “Architecture, New and Old, the AGO, the ROM and other transformative works.” The Agenda with Steve Paikin, TVOntario, Thursday, November 13, 2008
  • Bravo! television, AGO special, Nov. 8, 9, 2008
  • Radio Canada, Nov. 13, 2008
  • Radio Canada, television, Nov. 13, 2008
  • CBC World News, 6 p.m. Nov. 14, 2008

Jury Member, June Callwood Park design competition

  • October 21, 2008
  • limited design competition
  • June Callwood Park is a new park on the Central Waterfront at the foot of the historic Fort York area of Toronto; please click here for more information.

Society for College and University Planning (SCUP): SCUP–43 Discover! Global Perspectives, Local Strategies

Interviewed Perry Chapman, author “An Ethic of Place” and principal at Sasaki Associates, who will receive the 2008 SCUP Founder's (Casey) Award.

  • Tuesday, July 22, 10:30 am

Presenter during the SCUP/AIA-CAE Excellence in Planning, Excellence in Landscape Architecture, and Excellence in Architecture Awards

  • The Awards acknowledge the best of new campus architecture, landscape architecture, renovations and master planning
  • Monday, July 21 from 2:30 - 4:00 pm

Lecturer, Arts and Letters Club

  • Monday, June 16, 2008
  • "Toronto, a Woman I know", a lecture on the complexities of the Toronto metropolis

Panelist, “Framing Art within Architecture”

  • Toronto, Friday, June 13, 2008
  • The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
  • Moderated by John Macfarlane with panellists Landon Mackenzie, Matthew Teitelbaum and Stephen Teeple

Jury Member, on the AMD Open Architecture Challenge, an open, international competition organized by Architects for Humanity.  Spring, 2008. 

  • Spring 2008
  • For more details of the jury's decision, click here

Presenter, “NORTH” Salon du Livre

  • Sudbury, May 8 – 10, 2008

Moderator, “New Models for Better Living,” a roundtable discussion

  • Sunday, April 27, 2008
  • Roundtable discussion presented by Oakville Galleries

Jury Member, Society of College and University Planning/ American Institute of Architects' Committee on Architecture for Education Excellence in 2008 Planning and Design Awards Program

  • Chicago, April 10 – 12, 2008

Panel Member on TVO's The Agenda.

  • Monday, April 7, 2008 at 8 p.m.
  • An investigation of culture and tourism with host Steven Paikin.  Lisa will participate on a panel with AGO Director Matthew Teitelbaum, William Thorsell, director, the ROM; and Greg Sorbara, MPP Vaughan (currently leading a committee to revitalize Ontario's cultural and tourism industry). 
  • The program is now downloadable as a podcast here.

Panelist, "Imagining a Toronto Museum for the Waterfront"

  • Sunday, March 30, 2008
  • The three-person panel discusses the results of a public community workshop and design charette, organized by urban designer Joe Berridge, Tom Bessai of the University of Toronto, and the City of Toronto.

Architext Design Charette

  • De Leon White Gallery, March 6, 2008

Lisa Rochon interviews Phyllis Lambert, Reel Artists Film Festival, Canadian Art Foundation, Toronto

  • February 24, 2008, 1 pm
  • Lisa Rochon interviews Phyllis Lambert, following the screening of Citizen Lambert: Joan of Architecture
  • Hear the interview here (the actual interview starts at 5:00 minutes into the audiocast)

Juror, Canadian Society of Landscape Architecture, National Annual Awards

  • Winnipeg, February 21, 2008

Keynote Speech, Ontario Library Association Super Conference,

  • January 31, 2008 at 9:05 am
  • Lisa Rochon believes that Canada's public libraries tend to be patrons of excellent architecture. In this extraordinary session, she describes the best across Canada with particular emphasis on the extraordinary buildings that have emerged in Ontario.

Here and New, CBC Radio

  • Lisa Rochon is interviewed as one of Toronto's "interesting people" and discusses with Matt Galloway her vision for 2008, what has to go (the Ontario Municipal Board) and what is worth getting excited about (the opening of the Art Gallery of Ontario, groundbreaking in Don Mills of new civic centres by Charles Correa and Fumihiko Maki as part of the Aga Khan-sponsored redevelopment of the Bata building)
  • January 10, 2008

Q, CBC Radio

  • Lisa Rochon speaks with Q host Jian Ghomeshi about why so few women practice architecture in Canada.
  • November 8, 2007

Is there a Toronto Aesthetic? City of Toronto's Festival of Architecture and Design

  • An engaging panel discussion (and reception) with local artists, writers, developers, architects, planners and urban designers on the topic "Is there a Toronto Aesthetic?" with special guest Mels Crouwel, Chief National Architect of the Netherlands.
  • May 30, 8:00 - 10:00 pm; free; Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West, 416.476.3727

Lisa Rochon, panel discussion member, The Ordinary Amazing Symposium: The Cultural Value of Modernist Architecture

  • Panel Discussion: The Cultural Value of Modernist Architecture
  • Saturday, May 26, 2007, 2.00 - 3.30 pm, RPL Film Theatre

Department of Landscape Architecture, Cornell University

  • Visiting Critic, graduate studio of Lawrence Halprin Professor Nadia Amoroso, May 4, 2007.
  • Lecture on "Up North, Where Canada's Architecture Meets the Land".

Lisa Rochon, Featured Speaker, The University Club of Toronto

  • Thursday, April 26, 2007
  • 6:00 pm Cocktails 7:00 pm Dinner $50.00 p/p
  • To reserve please call Amanda McHugh, University Club of Toronto, at 416-597-1336 Ext. 228

Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto

  • Visiting critic for Professor Pierre Belanger's Master of Landscape Architecture Program, Design Thesis Projects, University of Toronto , April 25, 2007

Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, University of Toronto

  • Visiting critic with Professor Brigitte Shim's advanced option architectural design studio, final review, University of Toronto. Students have created an urban sustainable building on an infill site for potential clients, Ed Burtynsky and Ron Dembo (zerofootprint), April 20, 2007

Lisa Rochon, Keynote, "Deliverance: How Sculpted Landscapes are transforming Urban Wastelands"

  • Saturday, April 14, 2007, 6: 30 pm
  • British Columbia Society of Landscape Architecture (BCSLA) Annual Conference, April 13 & 14, in Richmond, B.C.

"La Nouvelle Vague: L'architecture canadienne au 21e siecle"

  • March 15, 2007, 16 h 30
  • l'Amphithéâtre de l'École d'architecture, Vieux Séminaire de Québec, 1, côte de la Fabrique, bureau 3208, Université Laval, Québec, G1K 7P4
  • Presente par la Faculté d'aménagement, d'architecture et des arts visuels

International Architectural Roundtable 2006

  • Lisa Rochon moderated a discussion - "Tall Towers Are They a Necessary Evil for the Evolution and Growth of a City?" - at Construct Canada, Canada's largest building and construction show, November 29.

Toronto, Renaissance City: The Rebirth of the Library

  • A talk with architects Raymond and Ajon Moriyama with Lisa Rochon, November 24

Lisa Rochon and Mark Kingwell, in conversation

  • Discussion moderated by Professor Larry Richards
  • Hart House, University of Toronto, November

Canadian Journalists for Free Expression

  • Media Host, International Press Freedom Awards dinner, November 1, 2006

The Spectacular City

  • Keynote, 25th annual conference for the Western Humanities Alliance
  • University of Calgary, October 21

Exhilarating, Soulful, Hurtin' Design - Why Architecture Moves Me

  • Victoria Hall, Cobourg, October 18

The Legacy of Jane Jacobs

  • Paul Goldberger, The New Yorker, Architecture Critic, Lisa Rochon, The Globe and Mail, Architecture Critic, Raymond Gastil, Department of City Planning, Director, Manhattan Office, Paul Bedford, former Chief City Planner of Toronto, Eugénie Birch, Professor and Chair, Department of City and Regional Planning, University of Pennsylvania (former New York City Planning Commissioner)
  • Tuesday, October 17

Remarkable Collisions - how contemporary design can animate historic architecture

  • Luncheon keynote, National Heritage Foundation
  • Ottawa, National Arts Centre, October 13

Wrecking the Place: Ruin, Reclamation, and Trash in Toronto: A conversation between Pierre Bélanger and Lisa Rochon

  • Launch of the Alphabet City Festival 2006: TRASH at the Drake Hotel Lounge, October 5

“The Shifting Face of Toronto”

  • Keynote, Society of Design Administration, Eastern Regional Conference, Toronto, September 15

Achitecture as Spectacle: A Panel Discussion

  • Listen as Lisa Rochon, Michael Awad, Christian Giroux and Daniel Young debate and explore the phenomenon of architecture as spectacle in a discussion from the Art Gallery of Ontario, May 1, 2006 (Click here to go to the AGO website)

On Light, and the Art of Seeing (with an introduction by Tom Payne of KPMB Architects)

  • Massey College, RAIC College of Fellows Black-Tie Dinner (Toronto/Southwestern Ontario), February 16

Edmonton – and why architecture matters

  • Art Gallery of Alberta, February 2

Finnish Design Conference

  • Panel Discussion, Ryerson University, January 26 (moderator)

DX - Design Exchange, Architecture Jury, 2006

  • Click here to visit the DX - Design Exchange Awards 2006 website

There Goes the Neighbourhood (on gentrification)

  • Harbourfront Center, Toronto (moderator)

A Manifesto for Toronto

  • Voicing Toronto: The City and the Arts, University of Toronto Humanities Centre (guest speaker)

Animating the Laneways in Gastown

  • FrontierSPACE design/build competition, Vancouver (jury member)

Reinventing the City through Public Space: Toronto, Seattle and Cairo

  • Tribute Night, Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts, Arts and Letters Club (keynote speaker),

The Legacy of Ron Thom and Canada’s Civil Society

  • Docomomo conference, Trent University (lecture and panel discussion)

On Toronto, a lecture series

  • Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts

‘Up North, Where Canada’s Architecture Meets the Land’

  • University of Lethbridge, March 6, 2006
  • University of Saskatchewan, Convocation Hall, January 31, 2006
  • University of Waterloo/Cambridge Galleries, November.17, 2005
  • International Festival of Authors. Followed by an on-stage interview with Lupe Rodriguez. Saturday October 22, 2005, Studio Theatre, Harbourfront Centre

Jury Member, Toronto Community Foundation’s Arts on Track

  • An initiative to redesign Museum, Osgoode & St. Patrick subway stations in Toronto