gh3 » Firm Profile

Firm Profile

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:53:28 +0000

gh3 works in the increasingly complex realm where architecture, urbanism and landscape overlap. Informed by the past and speaking to the future, we design with a modernist’s eye to order, beauty and social possibility, and an environmentalist’s awareness about sustainability and long–term planning.

We apply global learning to local problems through a staff that brings specialized expertise in architecture, landscape architecture and urban design. Our thinking is grounded in knowledge, and our design in creative excellence. We bring learning from two decades of collaboration to projects that blur the edge between buildings and the out–of–doors.

Our work is visually engaging, with the underlying philosophy that the best way of encouraging sustainable thinking is to bond people to their environments through deep understanding, and by making good design an indispensable part of everyday life. To create instructive, engaging, environments, we approach every design with a site and context-specific approach. The result is inspiring and useful spaces that are fundamentally modern in outlook.gh3 works closely with clients and multidisciplinary teams to ensure that the values and aspirations of every project are reflected in the design. We bring our cross–disciplinary insights into the cultural, social and physical context of each design. At heart, we are very practical designers, combining our professional training and life experiences to our work. We design with the intention that our projects will last for centuries, and the pragmatic awareness of the importance of ease of maintenance, durable details, and good value for investment.

Pat Hanson and Diana Gerrard, each with over 30 years of experience in their respective careers, own the Toronto-based practice. Individually, they have designed and run major projects throughout North America. Together, in 2005, they founded gh3 and have quickly established themselves as a major design practice. Working globally, in both the public and private sectors, and in all fields – educational, institutional, commercial and leisure – gh3 has completed award-winning projects at many different scales that have been extensively published internationally.

gh3’s work is realized by a studio that also includes architects, landscape architects, intern architects and support staff. The firm has steadily grown in capacity since its inception, winning multiple awards from their peers. The ability of the 2 senior partners to mentor and direct the work of a young, enthusiastic and deeply talented staff has been key to our accomplishments and success in international competitions, including the most recent winning for June Callwood Park and the Governor General’s Medal in Architecture 2010 for A Photographer’s Studio Over A Boathouse.

Pat Hanson

admin — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:45:56 +0000

Pat Hanson (BFA March RAIC OAA) has deliberately staked out a broad range of practice in the belief that design encompasses the entire spectrum of the built environment. Pat’s background in the visual arts has distinguished her architectural career. A versatile designer and a strong visual communicator, Pat has directed the design of many of academic and institutional projects which knit together the interior and exterior realm including the Humber Arboretum Centre for Urban Ecology and Pond Road Student Residence. Pat was design architect for the award winning Ashbridges BayTreatment Plant Site Design, the Bloor Street Revitalization and the Union Station Precinct Study and, with Diana, developed the landscape master plan for the Toronto Brickworks. Pat has also served as an adjunct professor in architecture at the University of Toronto and the University of Waterloo and is a frequent guest critic at universities across Canada and the United States.

Current projects include a tropical lab building in Panama for the Smithsonian Institute, the expansion of the Canadian Museum of Inuit Art and the master planning and design of photography studios outside of Peterborough Ontario.

Diana Gerrard

admin — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:43:23 +0000

Diana Gerrard (BLA OALA AAPQ CSLA) has 25 years of experience practicing and teaching landscape architecture and is one of Toronto’s most innovative and experienced landscape architects. She has been the landscape architect on a number of large interdisciplinary teams for the master planning and landscape design of public open space initiatives and institutional buildings, including the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the Western Beaches Civic Design Study, Appleby College Campus, the Ashbridges Bay Treatment Plant Site Design and Trinity College Quadrangle. Diana has also produced heritage landscape studies for the City of Montreal that developed tree selection processes from ecological, historical and cultural data.

Current projects include a major urban square in downtown Toronto, the landscape master planning of a large sector of the Distillery District, the Wellesley Central Park and the landscape master planning of the Western Beaches.