From: Cheryl Regehr, Vice-President & Provost
Date: September 5, 2019
Re: Call for Nominations – Advisory Committee for the Dean, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design (PDAD&C #9)

On June 30, 2020 Professor Richard Sommer will complete his term as Dean of the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. Professor Sommer is not eligible for reappointment.

Over the past decade, the Daniels Faculty has been profoundly transformed under Professor Sommer’s leadership. Mobilizing talented colleagues, he built an inventive undergraduate foundation in architectural and art/visual studies, renewed the school’s three graduate professional programs, created a unique Ph.D. in Architecture, Landscape, and Design, and helped found various research initiatives, including the Global Cities Institute. Daniels became the home for faculty and programs in art/visual and curatorial studies and most recently, forestry. Under Sommer’s leadership, the Faculty’s rising reputation rapidly increased student enrollment and more than doubled the faculty numbers, significantly increasing the number of women and other underrepresented groups among the faculty ranks. He expanded the Faculty’s public programming, drawing diverse constituencies into vital, interdisciplinary discussions about architecture, art, landscapes, and cities.

Dean Sommer’s boldest achievement – imagining the Daniels Building at One Spadina Crescent – reinvigorated a civic landmark that is catalyzing renewal at the western edge of the St. George campus. Opened in 2017, the building features Fabrication Facilities, Exhibition Galleries, a spectacular polychrome Main Hall, and light-filled Design Studios unparalleled in North America today. Celebrated as “one of the best buildings in Canada of the past decade” by the Globe and Mail, the Daniels Building at One Spadina has received sixteen design awards to-date; it is an embodiment of the Faculty’s newfound prominence and expanded prospects for the future.

In accordance with Section 60 of the Policy on Appointment of Academic Administrators, I am writing to call for the nominations of individuals to serve on the Committee that will advise on the appointment of a Dean.

The Policy mandates the composition of the Advisory Committee as follows:

• The Vice-President and Provost (Chair);
• Three to five members of the teaching staff of the Faculty;
• One to three students of the Faculty;
• The Dean of the School of Graduate Studies or representative;
• A librarian, where appropriate;
• Two or three other qualified scholars from within or outside this University, but outside of the Faculty;
• In addition, the Committee may include an alumnus/a, a member of the administrative staff, and a senior member of the appropriate professional community.

The Advisory Committee will begin meeting in the fall term. Nominations for the Committee should be submitted to the Office of the Vice-President & Provost by Wednesday, September 25, 2019, via the online form.

Questions about this search process may be directed to Assistant Provost Archana Sridhar at archana.sridhar@utoronto.ca.