The Runway at YZD

Ken Greenberg is an urban designer, teacher, writer, former Director of Urban Design and Architecture for the City of Toronto and Principal of Greenberg Consultants. 

He has played a pivotal role on public and private assignments in urban settings throughout North America and Europe, focusing on the rejuvenation of downtowns, waterfronts, neighborhoods and on campus master planning, regional growth management, and new community planning. 

His work sits at the intersection of urban design, architecture, landscape, mobility, social and economic development. Cities as diverse as Toronto, Hartford, Amsterdam, New York, Boston, Montréal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Calgary, St. Louis, Washington DC, Paris, Detroit, Saint Paul and San Juan Puerto Rico have benefited from his advocacy and passion for restoring the vitality, relevance and sustainability of the public realm in urban life. In each city, with each project, his strategic, consensus building approach has led to coordinated planning and a renewed focus on urban design.

He is the recipient of the 2010 American Institute of Architects Thomas Jefferson Award for Public Design Excellence and the 2014 Sustainable Buildings Canada Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Involved in many grass roots and community initiatives he has served as a Board Member of Park People, a non-profit dedicated to the improvement of Toronto's parks and President of the Wellington Place Neighbourhood Association, a member of ULI Toronto Chapter Advisory Board and the Museum of Toronto Board of Directors. He was a cofounder and Vice Chair of the City Building Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU).

He played a leading role as urban design lead and client representative and served on the Conservancy Board for The Bentway, the transformation of a major public space under the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto.

A frequent writer for periodicals, he is the author of Walking Home: the Life and Lessons of a City Builder published by Random House, Toronto Reborn; Design Successes and Challenges and Exploring Toronto: A Guide to 28 Unique Public Spaces published by Dundurn.

He was selected as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2020. He was also awarded a Doctor of Laws honoris causa by the University of Toronto in 2020 for his outstanding service for the public good as a tireless advocate for restoring the vitality, relevance and sustainability of the public realm in urban life.

Shirley Blumberg is a founding partner of KPMB Architects and a Member of the Order of Canada for her contributions to architecture and community. She has designed many of the firm’s noteworthy and award-winning projects that range in scale from interiors to architecture and planning. Shirley was a key member of KPMB’s team on the Downsview Framework Plan.

In addition to her academic and cultural projects, she has focused on social justice work in affordable housing. Current projects include the competition-winning Montreal Holocaust Museum, an affordable low density residential community in Toronto, and projects at Princeton University and the University of Toronto.

Several years ago, Shirley began a conversation with like-minded colleagues that became BEAT - Building Equality in Architecture Toronto - a grassroots initiative to promote equality for women in the profession that has since grown to include chapters across Canada.

Adil Dhalla-Kim is a Co-Founder and the Executive Director for Reset, which is a social enterprise with a mission to create experiences that foster community cohesion, resilience and well-being. Informing and inspiring Adil's path are countless teachers and professional experiences including being the former Board Chair for the StopGap Foundation, the Executive Director at the Centre for Social Innovation, the Managing Director at Artscape's Launchpad, the Executive Producer of Toronto for Everyone, a Community Organizer on the Obama campaign, the Maestro for Project Ukulele Gangsterism, a Facilitator of One Big Hug and a Co-Founder of My City Lives, one of the world’s first mobile video applications. Adil is a DiverseCity Fellow, a New Economy Fellow and most recently was identified as a Positive Deviant by the Wolf Willow Institute.

Derek is the Chief Executive Officer of Northcrest Developments, with more than 20 years of experience in large scale mixed-use real estate development. Prior to joining Northcrest, Derek was a Senior Vice President, Development at First Gulf. Derek also spent 10 years working in public sector real estate development, including senior leadership roles at Infrastructure Ontario and Waterfront Toronto. Derek has actively served as a member of the Toronto District Council of ULI for more than 20 years and is currently a member of the Governance Committee and Advisory Board. In addition, Derek is proud to serve as the Chair of the Business Council of Toronto’s (BCT) Climate & Energy Transition Council with the Toronto Region Board of Trade (TRBOT). 

Fadi Masoud is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Toronto and the Director of the Centre for Landscape Research. His research and teaching focus on the relationships between environmental systems, policy, and design. Masoud currently leads projects that position public landscapes as critical foundations for urban climate adaptation and resilience. Before joining the University of Toronto, Masoud held teaching and research appointments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Masoud is trained as a planner and landscape architect and is the recipient of several awards, including the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OALA) Research and Innovation Award, the Council of Landscape Architects (CELA) Teaching Excellence Award, the Heather M. Reisman Gold Medal in Design, the Jacob Weidenmann Prize, and was a Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) National Olmsted Scholar and a Fulbright Fellow. He is the editor of Terra-Sorta-Firma: Developing the Littoral Gradient (Actar 2020), an atlas of urbanism on reclaimed land. Masoud currently sits on Waterfront Toronto’s Design Review Panel and was a member of the City of Toronto’s Urban Flooding Working Group, which helped launch the city’s first Resilience Strategy.

Pina Mallozzi is the Senior Vice President, Design at Waterfront Toronto. For over 15 years, Pina has worked closely with consultant teams and community stakeholders to ensure that Waterfront Toronto’s vision for vibrant, accessible and well-designed communities and public spaces is realized.

She is responsible for the design of a large portfolio of projects, including the revitalization of Queens Quay West, the Port Lands Flood Protection Park System, the Waterfront East LRT and other parks and public spaces emerging on the waterfront. She led the development of Waterfront Toronto’s first Waterfront Accessibility Design Guidelines. She is a Landscape Architect with a Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard University.

Kristy Shortall is the Senior Vice-President of Development at Northcrest, a subsidiary of PSP Investments, with 18 years of experience in securing approvals for a variety of urban and rural development projects. Her experience includes managing and coordinating the professional and technical teams involved in the land development projects, reporting project progress; coordination, negotiation and communication with municipal/regional departments and representations; organizing public consultation sessions; assisting with development agreements and aligning development objectives with provincial and municipal regulations and guidelines. Currently working on the redevelopment of Downsview Airport, a 370-acre transformational mixed use project in the heart of Toronto. Prior to joining Northcrest, Kristy was Vice-President at Metropia, a master-planned developer specializing in mixed use communities.

She is a full member of the Canadian Institute of Planners and the Ontario Professional Planner’s Institute, as well as Vice-Chair of Mission Advancement for the Toronto chapter of Urban Land Institute.

Rob, President of the Spanier Group, is an international real estate development advisor dedicated to creating innovative, next-generation destinations and places, with expertise in creating thriving communities with uniquely curated specialty retail experiences. By playing an integral role on multi-disciplinary project teams, Rob commits his extensive knowledge in large-scale mixed-use development, master planning, specialty leasing, large-scale project management and real estate deal making in order to create vibrant and prosperous communities. At the Spanier Group, Rob has been a key advisor on significant projects in North America from the retail and placemaking lens including, Lakeview Village in Mississauga, Quayside on Toronto’s waterfront, the NewCold Sustainability Campus in Guelph, the 2015 PanAm Games Athletes Village and Generation Park in Houston, Texas.

Passionate about place-making and developing great places, Rob has been actively involved with the Urban Land Institute (“ULI”) since 2007. He currently sits as a member of both the Advisory Board and Governance Committee for ULI’s Toronto District Council and continues to passionately grow ULI in Canada and globally. Rob holds an Interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts Degree in Industrial Relations with a minor in Economics from McGill University and grew up in Montreal, Quebec.