DTAH Partner Emeritus Robert N. Allsopp establishes the Robert N. Allsopp Urban Design Fellowship

DTAH is pleased to announce that Partner Emeritus Robert (Bob) Allsopp has established the Robert N. Allsopp Urban Design Fellowship with the Landscape Architecture Canada Foundation (LACF). The one million dollar donation will allow LACF to award a yearly Fellowship of $35,000 to $50,000.

The Robert N. Allsopp Urban Design Fellowship is intended to provide a practicing mid-career landscape architect, whose work and exploratory interests are in urban design, with funds for research or pursuing a specific area of inquiry over a five-to-six-month ‘sabbatical’. The Fellowship will provide support for urban design research which elevates the art, science, and practice of landscape architecture, contributes to the knowledge base of the profession and is beyond the scope of the projects in their office or practice.

Bob Allsopp explains:

In establishing this Fellowship, my larger motive is to promote excellence in the landscape architecture profession particularly in urban design. I am offering an opportunity to seasoned urban designers to take a break from practice and to pursue areas of enquiry and research that are useful and invigorating to them personally, and that benefit the larger profession and ultimately, urban environments.

Click here to learn more about the Fellowship.

First Deadline for the Fellowship is 1 June 2023.

According to Eha Naylor, LACF President:

This extraordinary gift will advance awareness of landscape architect's role as leaders in thinking critically and creatively about urban design issues in our built and natural environments.

About Robert (Bob) N. Allsopp

Bob grew up in Leicester, England where he studied Architecture at the Leicester College of Art and Technology and was winner of the Royal Institute of British Architects Soane Medallion design competition following graduation. He became a registered architect in 1961 and completed his first major architectural commission two years later. He then pursued graduate studies in Civic Design at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, followed by two years as Visiting Lecturer in Architecture at the University of Kansas, USA under the auspices of the Fulbright Scholarship Program. Returning to London, UK, he worked as an Architect/Planner on the planning of Redditch New Town and major urban regeneration projects in London and Cardiff. Bob moved to Canada in 1968 to take up the position of Director of Campus Planning at the University of Manitoba and subsequently became involved, with Alex Rattray, in establishing the graduate Landscape Architecture Program there. He taught the first design studio in that new program. In 1979, he joined Roger du Toit Architects/du Toit Associates in Toronto and began teaching in the Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Toronto. The partnership, du Toit Allsopp Hillier, was formed in 1985 and it continues as DTAH, a much-expanded, multi-dimensional design practice. Bob is principally known for his breadth of understanding of urban design issues and his doggedness in search of deceptively simple design solutions strongly rooted in their place. His best-known work is in campus planning, urban neighbourhoods and a wide range of projects in Canada’s National Capital recognized nationally and internationally. He is the recipient of CSLA Fellowship in 1995, the 2008 OALA Pinnacle Award and 2016 CSLA Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bob was recipient of the 1989 Canada Council’s Residency in Barcelona Award. It is the personal and professional value of this ‘sabbatical’ experience combined with his belief that Landscape Architecture is the best multi-dimensional ‘home’ for Urban Design, that has stimulated the establishment of this LACF Fellowship.