Shirley Blumberg - KPMB Architects

“Our strength: We’re highly collaborative; we’re constantly evolving; we’re accustomed to complex challenges – and we resolve them beautifully.”

Shirley Blumberg

Founding Partner, C.M., OAA, FRAIC, AIA

“Our strength: We’re highly collaborative; we’re constantly evolving; we’re accustomed to complex challenges – and we resolve them beautifully.”

Shirley Blumberg is a founding partner of KPMB Architects and a Member of the Order of Canada for contributions to architecture and community. She has designed many of the firm’s noteworthy and award-winning projects which range in scale from interiors to architecture and 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 Hub, both at the University of British Columbia (UBC), and CIGI, the Centre for International Governance Innovation Campus in Waterloo Ontario, which received an American Institute of Architects (AIA) Honor Award, a Royal Institute of British Architects International (RIBA) International Award, and Canada’s Governor General’s Medal.

Her projects in the cultural sector 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 currently, the competition-winning Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

Social justice projects have also been a focus of her practice. She has designed affordable housing projects 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 neighbourhoods with affordable midrise housing.

Shirley has served on numerous juries and design panels, including the City of Toronto and Toronto Community Housing. She has served as a juror for the annual World Architecture Festival since 2018 and has taught and lectured at several universities, most recently at the University of Navarra, Spain.

She has also delivered sessions (2021-2022) on “Designing for Tertiary Education,” at the Old School / New School forum, hosted by Design Speaks, an architecture media program in Australia; given a keynote speech (2022) on “The Contribution of Women in Contemporary Architecture: The Canadian Example,” a program organized by the Patronage of the Order of Architects P.P.C. of the Province of Milan, the Italian Council of Architects, the Embassy of Canada in Italy and the RAIC; and a keynote presentation (2023) on reimagining the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia at Toronto’s Interior Design Show.

Inspired by the Order of Canada’s recognition – they desire a better country – Shirley began a conversation with like-minded colleagues that became BEAT – Building Equality in Architecture Toronto – a grassroots initiative to promote equality for women and minorities in the profession; today there are chapters across Canada. She has also led the firm’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) initiative, now a framework for policy and practice at KPMB.

Featured Projects

Montreal Holocaust Museum
Montreal, Quebec, 2025
Downsview Framework Plan
Toronto, Ontario, 2020 (ongoing)
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Ongoing
Landscape of Landmark Quality, University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, 2023
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Phase 3 Expansion (Harrison McCain Pavilion)
Fredericton, New Brunswick, 2022
Dominion Foundry Demonstration Project
Toronto, Ontario, Exploratory Concept 2021
A Resilient Duplex for Fort Severn First Nation
Fort Severn, Ontario, 2020
NYC Office Headquarters
New York, New York, 2020
Robertson Hall, Princeton University
Princeton. New Jersey, 2020
11 Wellesley
Toronto, Ontario, 2020
The Wyatt (Block 26)
Toronto, Ontario, 2019
Ronald O. Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics, University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2018
Lawrence Heights
Toronto, Ontario, 2018 (Phase 1a); 2020 (Phase 1b rental); 2021 (Phase 1b market)
Remai Modern
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, 2017
Global Centre for Pluralism
Ottawa, Ontario, 2017
Julis Romo Rabinowitz Building & Louis A. Simpson International Building, Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey, 2017
Ponderosa Commons, University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 2016 (Phase 2); 2013 (Phase 1)
Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre, University of British Columbia
Vancouver, British Columbia, 2015
Jack Layton Ferry Terminal and Harbour Square Park
Toronto, Ontario, 2015 winning design competition submission
Library District Condominiums
Toronto, Ontario, 2014
Fort York Branch Library
Toronto, Ontario, 2014
Sugino Studio
Toronto, Ontario, 2013
Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario
Toronto, Ontario, 2013
150 Dan Leckie Way, Toronto Community Housing Corporation
Toronto, Ontario, 2012
Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) Campus
Waterloo, Ontario, 2011
Vaughan City Hall
Vaughan, Ontario, 2011
Maple Leaf Square (Bremner Blvd)
Toronto, Ontario, 2011
TIFF Bell Lightbox
Toronto, Ontario, 2010
Block 24 E, Railway Lands West – Neo & Montage Condominiums
Toronto, Ontario, 2009
One Bedford Residential Development
Toronto, Ontario, 2009
SugarCube
Denver, Colorado, 2008
Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre
Toronto, Ontario, 2008
Gardiner Museum
Toronto, Ontario, 2006
Canada’s National Ballet School, Project Grand Jeté
Toronto, Ontario, 2005
Centennial College Applied Research and Innovation Centre
Scarborough, Ontario, 2004
James Stewart Centre for Mathematics, McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, 2003
Ammirati Puris Lintas
New York, New York, 1997
Design Exchange
Toronto, Ontario, 1994