Greg Smallenberg, a founding partner of PFS Studio, has been honoured with an appointment to the Order of Canada as a Member for his contribution “to the urban fabric of Canada as an influential landscape architect”.
The Order of Canada is one of our country’s highest civilian honours, recognizing “outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation.”
Greg is a Fellow of both the Canadian and American Societies of Landscape Architecture – a distinction held by only a handful of professionals in North America. He is one of the most well-known landscape architects in Canada and a recognized leader in the profession. He has extensive experience in large scale, open space planning, detailed design and project implementation. He has been responsible for numerous high profile projects throughout Canada, the United States, Europe and Asia.
Greg’s Canadian portfolio includes some of the most important built public realm projects in the country including the Coal Harbour Marina Neighbourhood Waterfront in Vancouver, Confederation Square in Ottawa and Sherbourne Common in Toronto. He has led or played a key role in many complex planning and urban design assignments including Toronto’s East Bayfront Precinct Plan, along the Lake Ontario waterfront and the Public Realm Plan for the West Don Lands which was the home to the 2015 Pan Am Games Athlete’s Village. He was also the lead consultant for the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan Campus Master Plan in Kelowna which has provided a framework for the campus’ development and expansion over the past decade.
Greg played a critical role in directing operations for PFS Studio in Ottawa from 1999-2003 where he co-led plans for the Parliamentary Precinct, Parliament Hill, the Central Experimental Farm and Rideau Hall. He shifted his focus to Toronto in 2003 and over the following decade led a number of signature projects that have contributed to the renaissance of the city’s waterfront.
In recent years Greg has lead PFS Studio’s foray into Asia bringing with him his Canadian design sensibilities of city building, positive community development and environmental integrity. He has helped establish three design and planning offices in China – Shanghai, Ningbo and Guangzhou – where the focus has been on large scale assignments that deliver better, more walkable, greener and sustainable design and planning solutions, responding to the enormous development challenges facing China and its continuing march towards urbanization.
Greg’s portfolio of public realm work is considerable. In particular he has a keen interest in designing and delivering urban parks, seeing them as key contributors to building better cities and communities. Working within a team environment with other PFS Studio principals and staff, his award winning parks include Sherbourne Common, Underpass Park (featured at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum NYC), AGO/ Grange Park and Front Street East Park in Toronto, Lansdowne Park in Ottawa, Railway Axis Park in Chongqing, Sanjiankou Riverfront Parks in Ningbo, the Fraser River Foreshore Park at Glenlyon and, earlier in his career, the western phase of Harbour Green Park and the Marina Neighbourhood seawall promenade in Vancouver.
Over the years, he has been centrally involved with various Canadian Government agencies on a variety of projects in Canada and abroad. Greg was the lead landscape architect for the Vimy Memorial Restoration project, the Villa Graziolli / Canadian Embassy in Rome, the Canadian Mission in Haiti and more recently helped resolve public realm /urban issues surrounding the new Canadian Embassy in Paris for Global Affairs Canada.
Greg’s work has received numerous awards in Canada, the United States and from international planning and design organizations. Many of his projects have been published in Canadian, American, European and Asian magazines and Journals. He continues to direct the majority of PFS Studio’s international assignments from the Vancouver and Shanghai studios.
Greg is honoured alongside colleagues Richard Henriquez of Henriquez Partners Architects and Cornelia Oberlander who was a recipient of the rank of Companion of the Order of Canada.
Congratulations to Richard, Cornelia and our own Greg Smallenberg.