ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Sean Lawrence is a founding partner of Kohn Partnership Architects (KPA), a Toronto-based practice he established in 2002 alongside, the now retired, Harry Kohn. Born and raised in Toronto, Sean traces his interest in architecture to childhood, when his family commissioned a country home from a Toronto architect and he watched an idea move from sketch to built reality. He began his architectural studies at Carleton University before transferring to the Architectural Association (AA) in London, one of the world's most influential schools of architecture, where he studied during a period that included figures such as Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, and Will Alsop.
Sean spent his early career in England, working with the firm then known as Farrell Grimshaw and later with Jestico and Wiles, where he contributed to award-winning industrial and commercial projects, including a Financial Times award for industrial architecture. He returned to Toronto in the mid-1980s and worked with Moffat Kinoshita Architects and Young and Wright Architects, where he played a central role in designing the hotel, restaurants, food service facilities, and private clubs for what is now the Rogers Centre, working alongside the broader SkyDome project team.
Following the early 1990s recession, Sean continued in private practice in Toronto before co-founding Kohn Partnership Architects with Harry Kohn in 2002. Under their leadership, the firm grew into a practice recognized for its expertise across low-rise, mid-rise, and high-rise residential development alongside commercial and mixed-use work, serving developer clients including Dream, Minto, and Madison. Andrew Muffitt later joined as a third partner. Today Kohn Partnership Architects employs between twenty-five and forty people and remains known for direct partner involvement on every project it takes on.
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