Brigitte Shim

Biography

Brigitte Shim is a principal at the Toronto based design firm Shim-Sutcliffe Architects and a Professor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto. Shim, along with her partner A. Howard Sutcliffe, formed the architectural design practice Shim-Sutcliffe Architects in 1994. The practice reflects their shared interest in and passion for the integration and interrelated scales of architecture, landscape, and interior and industrial design. To date, Shim and Sutcliffe have received thirteen Governor General’s Medals and Awards for architecture as well as an American Institute of Architects National Honor Award, among many other professional accolades. Their built work includes projects for non-profit groups as well as public and private clients. A Professor at the Daniels Faculty since 1988, Shim oversees core design studios, advanced design studios and courses in the History and Theory of Landscape Architecture. She is also currently the 2014 Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor at Yale University’s School of Architecture, and both Shim and Sutcliffe hold the 2014 University of Auckland Distinguished Visitors’ Award at the School of Architecture and Planning within the National Institute for Creative Arts and Industries. At the Yale School of Architecture, she has held the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professorship (2010 and 2005), the William B. and Charlotte Shepherd Davenport Visiting Professorship (2008), and the Henry Bishop Visiting Chair and the Visiting Bicentennial Professor in Canadian Studies (2001). She has also held the invited international visiting professorship at Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne (2002) and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (1996 and 1993). In addition, Shim held the Somerville Visiting Lectureship at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Environmental Design (2013) and received the Martell Distinguished Visiting Critic at the University of Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning (2006). Shim has lectured on Shim-Sutcliffe’s built work and participated in invited international symposia around the world. She is a current member of Waterfront Toronto’s Design Review Committee and the University of Toronto’s Design Review Committee, and has served on Canada’s National Capital Commission Architectural Advisory Board for over a decade. She has also served on numerous international, national, and local design juries as an advocate for design excellence, including the 2007 Aga Khan Architecture Award Master jury. She was a board member of Build Toronto, the real estate and development corporation created to generate value from the City’s real estate assets, and now serves as a board member of Mooreland’s Community Services — a local Toronto non-profit charity helping inner city children and youth affected by poverty since 1917. She is a Senior Fellow at Massey College at the University of Toronto and is their College Architect. Shim is a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (FRAIC), an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (Hon FAIA), and an elected member of the Royal Canadian Academy (RCA). She is a registered architect and a member of the Ontario Association of Architects. In January 2013, Brigitte Shim and her partner Howard Sutcliffe were both awarded the Order of Canada, “for their contributions as architects designing sophisticated structures that represent the best of Canadian design to the world,” along with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Research Interest

integration and interrelated scales of architecture, landscape, and interior and industrial design