Draft:Lisa Rochon

Lisa Rochon
Lisa Rochon, 2024
Born	Oakville, Ontario
Occupation	Author, Urban Designer
Nationality	Canadian
Education	B.A. Honours in Journalism & French M.A. in Urban Design Studies B.A. International Relations B.A. Modern Art
Alma mater	Carleton University, University of Toronto, Sciences Po, L’Ecole du Louvre
Notable works	Hundreds of national “City Space” columns published in The Globe and Mail newspaper. Up North, Where Canada’s Architecture Meets the Land. Tuscan Daughter (Harper Collins, 2021)
Notable awards	Two-time winner of the National Newspaper Awards (2005 & 2006), Nominated in 2007 (Canada’s equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize). Recipient of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's Award for Journalism.
Partner	John Terry
Children	Geneviève, Alexander, Hannah and Dylan
Website
https://lisarochon.ca/

Lisa Rochon is a bestselling Canadian author, an award-winning architecture critic, and a city builder. She generates ideas daily. Some of them work out.

Early Life and Education

Lisa was born and raised in Oakville, Ontario before her family moved to Cabbagetown, Toronto.

As a child, she attended Maple Grove Elementary School where her story writing began in Grade 2. One of her stories went like this:

A girl and a boy.

She asked, Why?

He answered her like this—because.

He said, Why?

She said, because.

Career

For more than a decade, as the award-winning architecture critic for The Globe and Mail newspaper, Lisa defended and championed the cause of inspired, innovative architecture from Toronto to Mumbai, Copenhagen and New York. She has contributed cultural commentary in English and French to CBC Radio and Radio Canada. She has organized conferences such as Revell Toronto Helsinki (2010) and contributed numerous essays and articles for books and journals such as Alphabet City (MIT Press), Canadian Architect, Architectural Record (NYC), and The Brick and has taught courses about the history of architecture at the University of Otago (Dunedin, New Zealand) and, following 9/11, launched a graduate seminar “Post-Crisis Scenarios” at University of Toronto’s Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design. She has delivered many public lectures about architecture, place vs placelessness and spoken about her own literary fiction for the Arts and Letters Club, the Italian Cultural Institute, the Heliconian Club and in NYC following the death of urban activist Jane Jacobs. One of her career highlights was working alongside Jane to lead the citizen lobby to try to stop the demolition of the Ontario Place revolving outdoor amphitheatre (1971) designed by Eberhard Zeidler. Another was travelling to Dhaka, Bangladesh during an unexpected state of emergency to experience the National Assembly by Louis Kahn wandering its monumental spaces during a power black-out. She has signed books across Canada and (for the Italian version of Tuscan Daughter) in Milan and Florence.

Harper Collins signed Lisa for her forthcoming novel about a monumental theft, cruelty and love set in 20th-century Paris. Publishing date: 2026.

Between 2016 and 2019, Lisa served as chair of the international architecture selection committee and design director for the Canadian Canoe Museum.

In 2018, she joined the McEwen International Advisory Board for Canada’s newest school of architecture.

In May, 2024, she announced the Lisa Rochon Bursary Scholarship for newly accepted female or Indigenous students beginning an undergraduate program at McEwen School of Architecture.

In June, 2024, she launched Tuscan Creative Lab, a multi-disciplinary artists’ residency set within an olive grove near Siena and Florence. Inaugural guests include the acclaimed violinist Isabella Perron (Toronto) and the innovative lighting artist Jason Krugman (Brooklyn).

She has served as a Nominator for the International Aga Khan Award in Architecture for the 14th cycle (2017 - 2019). As design jury chair for the international competition, Winter Stations, she helped to  organize the temporary pop-up reinventions of the lifeguard stands along the eastern beaches from 2015  – 2018. Lisa served as a board member on the Fort York Foundation, advocating for the 43-acre urban oasis and birthplace of Toronto. In 2012, she co-founded The Friends of the Beach Parks to enhance and animate the parks along the eastern beaches in Toronto. In response to Black Lives Matter and the cries among Indigenous people to be heard, she co-produced Red Embers, a series of 13 cedar gates featuring large banners by Indigenous women artists from across Turtle Island. As well, she co-produced major wall murals within the historic Leuty Boathouse in the eastern Beaches painted by the celebrated artists Chief Lady Bird and Jacquie Comrie.  

Lisa holds an M.A. in Urban Design Studies from the University of Toronto. Before that, she studied international relations at Sciences Po in Paris and modern art at L’Ecole du Louvre. Her honours degree in journalism and French was completed at Carleton University, Ottawa.  

Since 2010, her achievements have been chronicled in the Canadian WHO'S WHO.

Awards and Nominations

Award	Year	Result
National Newspaper Awards (Canada's equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize)	2015	Won
National Newspaper Awards	2016	Won
National Newspaper Awards	2017	Nominated (Lost)
Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's Award for Journalism		Won