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CAWKER, Ruth

Born
Edmonton, Alberta, 1953
Biography synopsis
Well-known as an architect, curator, editor, and author, Ruth Cawker completed a B.Arch. degree in 1980 at the University of Toronto. Among her most significant achievements, she won the open competition to design the new Ontario Association of Architects headquarters in 1989. In 1991 she was the first woman to serve as juror for the Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence. Her professional experience began with Barton Myers Associates, Toronto (1980-86) where projects included: design team member on the Seagram Museum, Waterloo, Ontario; Hasbro Corporate Headquarters, Rhode Island; and Westchester Center Master Plan, Los Angeles. With a preference for smaller projects such as housing, she established her own practice - Ruth Cawker, Architect (1986- ) and worked on: residential renovations and additions including Sinclair/Coatsworth House, Toronto (1990); the design for Theatre Passe Muraille renovation; and the OAA headquarters (1992). In Cawker's curatorial and exhibition design projects, which included the production of catalogues, she worked on: Toronto Modern Architecture 1945-1965 (1987) as co-founder and core member of the Bureau of Architecture and Urbanism; Toronto Le Nouveau Monde for the Ontario Ministry of Government Services, which toured internationally (1987); and Viewpoints (1989) for the Ontario Association of Architects. Cawker was appointed Chief Architect of CIBC Development Corporation (1992-95), overseeing design guidelines for bank architecture and office space across Canada. In 1992 she began working with Atelier Baraness + Cawker, Nice, France (1996- ) allowing her to focus on smaller projects, especially residential. The partnership specializes in designing tailor-made villas and gardens for international clients in the south of France. (I. Puchalski)
Media used
Architecture
Education
University of Toronto, 1975 - 1980
Ecole d'Architecture de Paris-Belleville, 1995 - 1996
York University, 1970 - 1974
Memberships
Ontario Association of Architects (OAA), 1986
File & Archive locations
Canadian Centre for Architecture, QC - Library
Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Documentation Centre, QC
National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
Toronto Reference Library, ON
University of British Columbia - Fine Arts Library
University of Calgary Library, AB
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Writings about
"Cawker to Design OAA Headquarters." Toronto Star 5 Nov. 1989: C2
"Consensus and Other Concerns." Canadian Architect 32.9 (Sept. 1987): 18-33
"OAA Headquarters Design Competition." Perspectives 3.3 (Nov. 1989): 4
"Perspective: News." Canadian Architect 35.1 (Jan. 1990): 4
"President's Report." Perspectives 3.3 (Nov. 1989): 4
"The New Modernism." Canadian Architect 36.1 (Jan. 1991): 10-15
"University Honors Edmonton Architect." Edmonton Journal 7 June 1996: B5
"Women's Work." Perspectives: the Journal of the Ontario Association of Architects 2.2 (Spring 1994): 6-11
Black, Karen. "Winning Design a Mixture of Pragmatism and Idealism." Perspectives 3.3 (Nov. 1989): 1, 4
Cawker, Ruth, Macy DuBois and Marie-Paule Macdonald. "Wings Over Don Mills: Ontario Association of Architects Headquarters." Canadian Architect 37.11 (Nov. 1992): 12-20, 30, 37
Farr, Moira. "Street Wise: Ruth Cawker, Architect: Favorite Street: Avenue Road." Toronto Life Homes suppl. (Nov. 1989): 33
Freedman, Adele. "Building Blocks: Despite All the Obstacles, There's a Growing Number of Designing Women in Canada and We're Not Talking Joan Collins." Globe and Mail 25 Oct. 1986: E1, E4
Freedman, Adele. "Design for New OAA Building Dynamic, Polished: By Design." Globe and Mail 11 Nov. 1989: C11
Freedman, Adele. "Engineering the Bank Experience: Sightlines." Globe and Mail 16 July 1994: C10
Freedman, Adele. "Forceful and Fragile, Ready for Flight: Sightlines." Globe and Mail 30 May 1992: C8
Freedman, Adele. "Invitation to Notice Ontario Architecture: By Design." Globe and Mail 7 Oct. 1989: C3
Freedman, Adele. "The Blip was the Boom." Globe and Mail 28 May 1994: C1
Hume, Christopher. "A Celebration of Light and Form." Toronto Star 25 July 1992: K4
Hume, Christopher. "Designing the Future." Toronto Star 5 Aug. 1990: C1
Hume, Christopher. "Ontario's Architectural Past Celebrated in Touring Show." Toronto Star 29 Sept. 1989: E4
Kapusta, Beth, ed. "Reinventing Practice." Canadian Architect 40.1(Jan. 1995): 24-28
Ledger, Bronwen. "Eight Young Firms." Canadian Architect 35.9 (Sept. 1990): 19-35
Ledger, Bronwen, ed. "Symposium II: Disneyland and Debate, the New Frontier." Canadian Architect 36.4 (April 1991): 28-30
Punter, Jennie. "A Century of Ontario Architecture." Whig-Standard (Kingston) 3 June 1989: 1
Richards, Larry. "Competitions: the Elegant Revival of Drive-In Architecture." Canadian Architect 35.2 (Feb. 1990): 24-29
Van Ginkel, Blanche Lemco. "Slowly and Surely (and Somewhat Painfully): More or Less the History of Women in Architecture in Canada." Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada Bulletin 17.1 (Mar. 1991): 5-11
Van Ginkel, Blanche Lemco. "Slowly and Surely (But Somewhat Painfully): More or Less the History of Women in Architecture in Canada." Canadian Architect 38.11 (Nov. 1993): 15-17

Writings by
Baraness, Marc, and Ruth Cawker. Le Littoral Nicois: Study Abroad a Nice, France. Toronto: Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, U of Toronto, 2000
Baraness,Marc,Marco Polo,Bureau of Architecture and Urbanism. Toronto Modern Architecture, 1945-1965: Catalogue of the Exhibition with Critical Essays. Toronto: Coach House Books, 2002
Bernstein, William, and Ruth Cawker. Building with Words: Canadian Architects on Architecture Toronto: Coach House Press, 1981
Bernstein, William, and Ruth Cawker. Contemporary Canadian Architecture: the Mainstream and Beyond. Toronto: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1982
Bureau of Architecture and Urbanism. Toronto Modern Architecture, 1945-1965: Catalogue of the Exhibition with Critical Essays. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1987
Cawker, Ruth. Viewpoints: One Hundred Years of Architecture in Ontario, 1889-1989: a Travelling Exhibition. Toronto: Ontario Association of Architects, 1989
Cawker, Ruth. "A Hotel for the Dead." Architecture and Design Insite 4.1 (Sept. 1994): 52-55
Cawker, Ruth. "A Second Look at the 1976/77 Competition for the National Gallery of Canada." Section a 1.3 (June/July 1983): 10-11
Cawker, Ruth. "Beatriz Colomina on the Nature of Architecture, the Rights of the Architect and the Role of the Media." Architecture and Design Insite 4.6 (July 1995): 38-39
Cawker, Ruth. "Between the Lines." Architecture + Urbanism 207 (Dec. 1987): 53-57
Cawker, Ruth. "The Architect's View." Canadian Architect 37.11 (Nov. 1992): 14-17
Cawker, Ruth. "The Balancing Art." Canadian Architect 39.10 (Oct. 1994): 22-27
Cawker, Ruth. "The Forgotten Gesture." Section a 3.1(March 1985): 5-9
Cawker, Ruth. "Winning the Palladio Prize." Architecture and Design Insite 3.3 (Jan. 1994): 39-43
Cawker, Ruth. Forward. "The Women's Cultural Building Competition." Section a 1.6 (Dec. 1983/Jan. 1984): 12
Cawker, Ruth, and Marc Baraness. "Layers in the City." Architecture and Design Insite 5.4 (May 1996): 50-51
Cawker, Ruth, and William Bernstein. Contemporary Canadian Architecture: the Mainstream and Beyond. Revised and expanded ed. Markham, Ontario: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1988
Cawker, Ruth, ed. Places, Entries in the Urban Landscape: Study Abroad Programme 1997. Toronto: Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, U of Toronto, 1998
Cawker, Ruth, ed. Toronto: Le Nouveau Monde: Contemporary Architecture of Toronto. Toronto: Government of Ontario, 1987
Cawker, Ruth, ed. Urban Intervention: 1998 Study Abroad in Nice, France. Toronto: Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, U of Toronto, 1999
Cawker, Ruth, ed., Baraness, Marc, transl. Le Port de Nice = The port of Nice. Toronto: Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design, U of Toronto, 2001
Fee, Margery, and Ruth Cawker. Canadian Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography Toronto: Peter Martin Associates, 1976
Murray, James, Peter Cardew and Ruth Cawker. "The 23rd Canadian Architect Awards of Excellence." Canadian Architect 36.12 (Dec.1991): 13-33

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